Where'd the accent go?

Originally posted by Ren Frew
When she sings she sounds like a Dying Sea lion. As opposed to talking when she sounds like a Celine Dion.

That’s a good one Ren 🙂

Hmm. If only you could hear the difference between a posh Hugh Grant accent, that (“oo-ar”) West Country accent, a broad (think of Ozzie Osbourne) brummy, a cockney accent, a geordie accent, a scouse accent, etc – without even going into the varieties of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish accents.
Not that it makes a whole lot of difference since they are well watered down now – and in a few years there will just be the merest of hints.

Flood.

Re: Where’d the accent go?

Originally posted by Corsair166b
Someone explain to me why, if most ‘Americans’ came over from the UK, Ireland, Wales and such, where the heck did our accents go? Would’nt colonies of folks from the UK still have their accents upon reaching these shores and still talk like they were ‘back home’ in the UK? I want to know why they faded out and now Americans of English descent have no accent…and Americans have even gone on to have their own distinct accents depending on what part of the country they’re ‘from’.

I curious thing, I think…we should all still be speaking with a UK accent, unless you’re from somewhere else.

Mark

Hey, not all American settlers were British, many of them were Dutch, German, French … It’s only after the 7-years war (1763) the British began to dominate the continent. And AFAIK the US does not have any official languages at all (not even English). Even a non-native English speaker as myself can hear the difference between someone from Maryland or Texas so there’s definitelly an accent. I don’t know what you mean with a “UK-accent”, but it’s easier for me to understand an American than a Scot. There’s no such thing as a UK-accent, unless you mean the Hugh Grant kinda accent. :p

Originally posted by Hand87_5
I noticed that too with Canadian Singers. Celine Dion for instance doesn’t sound Canadian at all when she sings , but Jeezz when she talks …… 🙂

When she sings she sounds like a Dying Sea lion. As opposed to talking when she sounds like a Celine Dion.

Originally posted by Sauron

It seems to me that, some quite strong U.K.accents almost disappear when people sing. There are exceptions to be sure.

Sauron:)

I noticed that too with Canadian Singers. Celine Dion for instance doesn’t sound Canadian at all when she sings , but Jeezz when she talks …… 🙂

Originally posted by Flood
I bow to your knowledge…I watched the show on and off many years ago and just recall the apparent irony of a man with an Irish surname (Doolan or something?) playing a man with a Scottish accent and being imitated incessently by stupid English imitators (“Its the ingins, cap’in, they can no tek it…”), badly. That and something I saw, maybe in the eighties, which was about Irish Whiskey (Bushmills?) and showed him, amongst others, doing stuff (drinking it, looking at the history of it, comparisons with Scotch, that sort of thing – I think).
Anyway, his isn’t a Canadian accent!

I shall stop digging now.

Flood.

If you think that was bad, cast your mind back to the film Highlander. Christopher Lambert, a Frenchman played a Scottish highlander, along side Sean Connery, a Scot who played a Portuguese fellow using precisley the same accent he tried to pass off as New York/Irish in The Untouchables !

Originally posted by Sauron
I believe the actor who played Scotty was from Canada but your observations are well noted. I live very close to an Mennonite community where they sound ‘european’ as you say.

I bow to your knowledge…I watched the show on and off many years ago and just recall the apparent irony of a man with an Irish surname (Doolan or something?) playing a man with a Scottish accent and being imitated incessently by stupid English imitators (“Its the ingins, cap’in, they can no tek it…”), badly. That and something I saw, maybe in the eighties, which was about Irish Whiskey (Bushmills?) and showed him, amongst others, doing stuff (drinking it, looking at the history of it, comparisons with Scotch, that sort of thing – I think).
Anyway, his isn’t a Canadian accent!

I shall stop digging now.

Flood.

Originally posted by Sauron
It seems to me that, some quite strong U.K.accents almost disappear when people sing. There are exceptions to be sure.

That’s a very valid and interesting point. People over here in Scotland are often accused of mimicking an American style of accent when they sing. I don’t know if it’s actually mimickery or by default. If you look at the influence that Scottish/Irish folk music had on the formative years of US folk music, and by that I mean the rootsy bluegrass, appallachian, country style stuff, then it’s easy to see a connection.

I often wonder if our vocal similarities are more connected musically than verbally ? It’s bound to be the case and I think it’s probably been proven. Go back to the days of the Highland clearances in Scotland, go back to the days of mass famine in Ireland. You are looking at era’s in the respective histories of these cultures when song was not just a form of entertaiment, but a form of vital social and emotional expression.

When the Scots were forced onto boats to the “new world” as were the Irish, they took those vocal tendencies with them and intoduced them to Canada and America. So when I find myself in the situation of being at the same time amongst Irish, Scots, Canadians and Americans (which does happen) I often find myself wondering who exactly comes from where ?

My personal family experience is of one that’s part Irish and part Scottish. As a child, I used to be packed off to Donegal with my brother during the school holidays to spend the summer with the grandparents. After a week or so running round with my cousins, we’d adopt Irish accents and on the alternative summers where my cousins would come to Scotland a similar thing happened.

It’s a funny old game.

:rolleyes:

I have often wondered about how english accents have evolved myself. Some small english speaking communities in Quebec still retain quite a bit of the original Irish while a few miles away others whose have the same background, sound very different. All this occurs within a francaphone majority. Similar residual flavours (Scotish/Irish) exist throughout the Atlantic provinces. There are many regional accents in Canada among english speakers but none that I have come across, sound particularly “english’ which is a bit odd.

It seems to me that, some quite strong U.K.accents almost disappear when people sing. There are exceptions to be sure.

Flood

I believe the actor who played Scotty was from Canada but your observations are well noted. I live very close to an Mennonite community where they sound ‘european’ as you say.

Regards

Sauron:)

There are regional variations in the US, and there are still old-country accents to be found. Look at the guy who played ‘Scotty’ in Star Trek with his Irish accent (believe he was born in America), or the Chicago police (uh-oh, running on to thin ice here…). Don’t the Amish retain more than a hint of their European accents still?
TV is to blame – if Channel 4 has its way we will all be talking like geordies!:rolleyes:

Flood.

Probably because of other people that also tried to take America as their own.

Funnily enough when I was in the states lot’s of people couldn’t tell if I was Scottish or Irish, some people from the south west of Ireland thought I was from Antrim and some people from Antrim thought I was American !!!:confused:

It certainly happens with German and Dutch speaking nations i.e Austria (German) and Afrikaan (Dutch)

We have the same thing with the French speaking countries.
Belgian , Canadian, Swiss , African accents are very deifferent from ours.
My favorite is definitely the Canadian one.

I’m sure the same thing happens with spanish speakers.