Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
The Simpsons is especially bad for this: it's invariably either chirpy cockneys or royalty, or occasionally a sort of butler character that's kind of halfway in between.
The accents thread
- Thread starter STN
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The Simpsons is especially bad for this: it's invariably either chirpy cockneys or royalty, or occasionally a sort of butler character that's kind of halfway in between.
owengriffiths
Owen
When I record my voice it sounds a lot more polite than it does to my ears, it's demoralising to think thats how everyone else hears it. It's the same with how I look- the me in the mirror (back to front) is better than the reality, which could explain why most people say theyre not photogenic.
The rough Belfast accent often pronounces fags fegs, not nat, and now sounding a bit like ny. It is almost impossible to say shower in a Northern Irish accent, it comes out as shar, mirror also comes out as mare, a bit like how Inspector Taggart has a funny way of saying murder.
Are there any words that cant be pronounced in your accents?
The rough Belfast accent often pronounces fags fegs, not nat, and now sounding a bit like ny. It is almost impossible to say shower in a Northern Irish accent, it comes out as shar, mirror also comes out as mare, a bit like how Inspector Taggart has a funny way of saying murder.
Are there any words that cant be pronounced in your accents?
swears
preppy-kei
I think that accent is kinda sexy, for some reason.
crackerjack
Well-known member
Watching HBO's John Adams, which obviously dates back to a time when the American accent was much closer to the, er, motherland, most of the great revolutionaries (Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, all except Adams himself) have been given Norfolk accents.
So has King George.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
This must have something to do with it.
The snobby accent we think of is kind of like if you took Anthony Hopkins, who isn't even British, and made him sound more like a douchebag.
You know who is the only real person I've ever heard with the accent Americans imagine?
That Dyson vacuums guy.
I mean, he sounds sort of sexy in a way. If you like assholes.
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
Not so much, but we do say 'Thank you! God save the Queen' as we walk out of shops, restaurants, friend's houses or after a particuarly bloody hunt.
If you actually do say it, it really freaks people out.
My accent changes depending on where I am. In my later years I find myself becoming really, really South London if I go abroad, which makes me laugh but makes me think I should leave the country too.
crackerjack
Well-known member
He's Welsh, I believe, which definitely makes him British, except perhaps in the dreams of the most optimistic Plaid Cymruite.
That is brilliant
- can we have video proof please?
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
He's Welsh, I believe, which definitely makes him British, except perhaps in the dreams of the most optimistic Plaid Cymruite.
That is brilliant
Oops, I meant English not British. Although I suspect most Americans would have no idea what the difference between English and British is, either.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Where is Mr. Dyson Vacuums from?
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
he's the gray-haired one
IdleRich
IdleRich
Sorry, I meant that I'd never heard him before watching that clip - but on watching it I see him as pretty posh. As to where he's from I've no idea, somewhere south I guess but really that's all I could say; I think if you went to public school it's generally hard to place where in the country you're from as any local accent is kind of wiped out by the way you learn to speak there.
Not sure if you know what people mean when they say RP but maybe it's relevant here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronounciation
Not sure if you know what people mean when they say RP but maybe it's relevant here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronounciation
swears
preppy-kei
I like Bryan Ferry's accent, sort of the posher end of estuary with a little bit of his geordie roots:
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Ahh ok.
RP makes a whole lot of sense. I always wondered why there was that posh British accent that had no real "home" in the regional sense that most other British dialects do. It's actually interesting to me...I'm no linguist, but the vowel sounds strike me as sounding very different from the most commonly heard English vowel pronounciations, but then the consonants or something about it seems teutonic too. Maybe it's a little more fricative (nowhere near as full of fricatives as Dutch or German but it's closer to them than say Irish dialects would be...).
That Dyson guy is basically the vacuum pimp.
(There seems to be a difference between Dyson's accent and Sewell's. I really do think Dyson has a sexy voice, but then, I'm not sure if that's because I am magnetically attracted to snobs and conceited assholes, or because it has the more dulcet tones, or because that Sewell clip seems kind of like a Monty Python sketch.)
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Took me a long time to think of someone with the same accent as me, since I don't have a stereotypical hard NYC accent, then I thought of the perfect person. Stacy London, the host of What Not to Wear in the US, born in NY to Jewish dad and Italian mom (and who was also a philosophy major at Vassar) works.
Compared to Dyson it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Compared to Dyson it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.
crackerjack
Well-known member
You're right, Sewell is basically a comedy character. I don't think his accent is RP so much as an extreme caricature of one, mixed with a large dose of camp. When he went on Have I Got News For You (v. popular UK comedy news quiz), one of his fellow guests said "I bet even the Queen laughs at your accent".
btw, I think Dyson is from the south-west, tho basically, wot Rich says on this.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Heh, good old Paul Merton.
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
I've disliked Jeremy Dyson a good deal since I heard him as a guest on some documentary (think it was on Radio 4) where he repeatedly came out with a conceited riff about how 'apart from me, there are just no true inventors or innovators left in British business anymore'. As far as I can tell, his 'innovation' consisted of designing a kind of vacuum cleaner that was somewhat more efficient than the prevailing Hoover models. Obviously it's useful, but it hardly seems to justify going through life with a supersized bag of chips on your shoulder.