Worst accent or what?

Subject: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 05:39 AM

Dik Van Dykes appalling Cockney accent in Mary Poppins will never be surpassed but in Frasier, Daphne's yobbo brothers Manchester accent must be in the running. His accent seems more East of London,say Essex,which is some 300 miles (not far in the colonies,like Canada,Oz,or US) away from Manchester,but a hell of a way in this small island. And another thing,Daphne's accent is somewhat questionable.It falls down when she say words like to or few which clearly show she bases her accent on the West Yorkshire version of English not Lancashire.However as Ms Leeves originates from down south say Sussex, she can be forgiven.

On the other hand I applaud Rene Zellwegers accent in Bridget Jones,or Meryl Streeps English accent in French Lieutenants Woman,both were "spot-on".

Well I'm glad I got that off my chest

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Sacbby Doug at work
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:02 AM

Aye well, we'll see what kind of fist Brian Cox(from Dundee) makes of being Daphne's dad...

Interestingly the chap who plays Frasier's dad Martin(whose name I have completely forgotten for the moment-no I haven't - John Mahoney)is originally from Manchester.

Well I thought it was interesting...

Need to get out more

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:32 AM

I think Kevin Costner may have surpassed Dick Van Dyke for worst (non)accent in the movie, Robin Hood, in which he co-stared with the most deliciously accented Alan Rickman.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:40 AM

Isn't Brian Cox the bloke who played Hannibal Lecter in the film of Red Dragon. Let us hope he brings the same sense of menace to the Frazier household.........
GtD!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:12 AM

There are some pretty bad ones on Coronation Street (now who needs to get out more!?!?!) That is supposed to be in Manchester (well, Salford) yet some of the players seem to think any generic northern voice will do!

Ha!

DtG

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:18 AM

Can any of these outstrip Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth "Yonder is the castle of my fodder!, the king" >

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:22 AM

I read somewhere that the people making Frasier wouldn't allow Ms Leeves to use the Manchester accent she's perfectly good at producing, because they didn't think Americans wouldn't understand it or something. So they insisted she made up another one which bears no resemblance to anything anybody in Manchester ever spoke.

But the most grotesque ones are probably some of the Oirish accents they've throw at us from Hollywood over the years. Which is puzzling, because I'd have thought there'd have been plenty of people to put them right right on that.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:44 AM

Johnny depp in From Hell has a dodgy Cockney accent but I believe Tony Curtis and the other stars of "The Vikings" did some good ones. Ernest Borgnine to James Donald "We've bin waiting haff the night" !! Great film though.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:45 AM

How was Daniel Day Lewis' Irish accent in the movie My Left Foot? Was it acceptible? I've always wondered about that.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:09 AM

Don't feel singled out......Hollywood can really mess up accents from everywhere including the U.S. The classics are southern I suppose which in reality vary a lot across the region and even within geographic divisions of states. I've heard plenty of bad New England sounds as well. In some cases I think they are just trying to be sure we can understand what's being said in an accent the resembles the true one, but many times too, I feel they just do a bad job!

Kevin Costner doesn't do New England woth a damn either BTW....saw him in a movie where he played an assistant to JFK and it was awful! Then his performance in "JFK" with a New Orleans accent was the absolute pits as well. I think he deserves an award of some sort for bad accents.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: BanjoRay
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:01 AM

Emmerdale is wonderful - there isn't a true Yorkshire Dales accent anywhere in it.

cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:04 AM

I always thought that Kevin Costner's human accent was pretty poor, not even close to the real thing.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:16 AM

How about Julia Roberts in "Michael Collins"?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,maryrrf
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:28 AM

Have to concurr that Kevin Costner is an awful actor - accents aside. I watched "Dances with Wolves" again on cable TV a while back and it was almost painful to listen to the sections where he read aloud from his diary. It sounded like some kid being forced to read aloud in elementary school. Also agree with Spaw about southern accents - they rarely sound authentic to a southerner. Usually they're too overdone.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:39 AM

Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara trying to be Welsh in How Green Was My Valley...and I agree about Kevin Costner!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: pict
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:50 AM

Chrisopher Lambert's Scottish accent in the film Highlander was atrocious.Denzel Washington played an English soldier in some film that was one of the worst English accents I've ever heard.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: rea
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:51 AM

Kevin Costner is surpassed only by Keanu Reeves. The only thing he says convincingly is "woah." I second the southern accents thing, though I have to say I'm not surprised. As a southernern in college in NY state, and as a high school student in PA, I asked my friends if NY and Boston had the same accent? No? Well, neither do Richmond and Atlanta. Or Atlanta and Birmingham... it goes on. Unless you really have an ear for accents, it's hard to get an actor to do them. Hey, I coached a bunch of yankees in dialect in "To Kill a Mockingbird." That was interesting....

in the wordso f Keanu: "woah."

rea

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: kendall
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:24 AM

Tom Bosely in Murder she wrote is the main reason I couldn't watch that tripe. Fred Gwynn in Pet Semitary was almost as bad.

Did anyone see Estaban on the shopping network last night? He plays rather well, but, that bit of fluff who appeared with him was awful! She said Segovia played classical and FLEMINGO guitar! AAAAAGGGGG! Why are Americans so G.D. ignorant?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:34 AM

Bad accents - the list goes on for ever.The much shorter list is maybe that of actors who've managed good accents from far away places. Renee Zelweger in Bridget Jones is one, so was Gwynneth Paltrow in Emma.

To drift the thread a bit - any number of films seem to suggest that all young women in California quack. (The same way that men from England always seem to bark.) Is that really true?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Trevor
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:38 AM

I have never, never, ever heard anybody who isn't naturally a West Midlander, do a Brummie or a Black Country accent. We just don't say Dudlay! The worst was about a hundred years ago when Sue Nicholls, now in Corrie, played the part of a chambermaid in Crossroads. Timothy Spall was close in Auf Wiedersehen Pet, but still toe curling.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:43 AM

Carol, Daniel Day Lewis' Irish accent in the movie My Left Foot? Was 85% acceptable, but all credit to him for his Belfast accent in "In the name of the Father" he was right on the button. The accent of the english actor who played the part of his father in the same movie was excellent (I think it was Peter Thistlewaite)- . His accent in the movie was so good that it was more Belfast than mine, and that is saying something.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,jimlad
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:03 AM

WRT accents

Two Wigan firefighters were visiting Ground Zero with Mayor Giulliani

Firefighter: It's turrible myrrh (sic) Giulliani.

Mayor:Say that accent of yours is really different,where are you guys from?

Firefighter: Wiggin.

Mayor: Oh! what state is that in?.

Firefighter:Well its a bloody sight worse than this.

NB Wigan is an old Lancashire town (Roman name Coccium) noted in the UK for it's almost impenetrable accent,Wigan kids do English as a second language.But the town has the best Rugby League team in the Universe.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:19 AM

And you can't beat a Wigan kebab when you are hungry - Three meat pies on a skewer;-)

The most stunning examples I heard of a west country accent, Trevor, were by a bloke I used to work with. When I first met him on his home ground (Dudley) he asked me if I had just come 'strite down the om sex'. Then as he was showing me round his site he commented on some red mastic round a window 'that's prittie puttie isn't it?'

Back to bad accents - particularly Costner - anyone remember 'Robin Hood. men in tights'? Who was it said 'At least I can do a British accent? Very funny at the time anyway.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Amergin
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:27 AM

Dave, that would be Cary Elwes.....I love that movie....

kind of surprised no one has mentioned tom cruis and nicole kidman in that godawful far and away......

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:29 AM

Thanks Jimmy C!

Was the Men in Tights guy Carey Elwes?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,jonesey
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 11:54 AM

Forest Gump/Tom Hanks is my least favorite of all time. He could'nt have spent any time with a dialect coach or recordings. It's 'so' general and inaccurate. Sean Connery in 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' is pretty regrettable, too, but at least the movie is fun. 'As Time Goes By' is aired locally and some of the characters are American. As a Yank it's interesting to me to see what details of manner and speech the actors choose to amplify. There's one actor playing a smooth talking TV producer who makes me cringe everytime he shows up onscreen as I think, "is 'that' what we sound like to them?" Very humbling...but funny, too.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:08 PM

Well, how about great actors. Curiously enough, Alec Guinness, who is the god of accents as far as I am concerned, did a terrible one in A Passage to India (he should never have been allowed to play the part for a start). I think Sir Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi was pretty funny (he must have found a London street arab to train with). I think Peter Sellers' president in Dr. Strangelove is not very good -- but he was totally brilliant. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mickey191
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:24 PM

Watched Ozzie Osbourne (sp?) show for the first time last night. Where are these people from? The only word I understood was the F word, which they (Mom,Dad & two teenagers) used constantly. The closed captions couldn't translate properly. Can his fellow countrymen understand Ozzie?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: CarolC
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:29 PM

Oops, Amergin. Looks like I crossed your post ;-)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 12:45 PM

Worst try at an American accent that I've ever heard was poor old Richard Burton, as a Southern redneck (now what WAS that awful film?)

The worst GROUP of accents is when Americans (and Brits) try to do "Canadian". Truly hilarious. What was that film with Raymond Massey, and a bunch of Nazis running amok in Canada? (around 1942 I think)

Cheers

Rick

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:09 PM

Liam Neeson does a credible job on several American accents.   I also was amazed when I found that Bob Hoskins was from England.

Some actors just seem to have a lot better ability and voice to cover a wide range with some good coaching. Others are simply trapped with a certain voice which will always be there no matter what they do...and some of them don't try too hard! Costner is an obvious example. I don't know how hard he tries at the accent, but it always has his somewhat strange (as PT pointed out) voice beneath it which just makes it all the worse!

And doncha' just really enjoy those movies where the "big star" is completely crap so he ends up with no accent surrounded by actors who do? Ever see "The Blue Max?" Every German in the film is speaking English with some kind (often quite good, some bad) German accent. George Peppard, the "big star" is also portraying a German, but seems to have lost any and all vestiges of German in his voice.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:09 PM

Rick, I think you mean"The Klansman" speaking of Redneck accents, check out Michael Caine in "Hurry Sundown" all the best from the fB.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: JenEllen
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:22 PM

Yeah, Spaw. I was suprised when folks I knew in down south could almost pinpoint the street someone was born on...

Worst accent? Me, 1989, Waffle House waitress in MawGUMry AllahBAMmah. I was informed (by a cook that was certain the South would rise again-- at any moment now) that the remnants of my Texas drawl had no place in that bastion of the good ol'boy. After much tutelage, and threats of being locked in the walk-in freezer, I managed a pretty fair "Scallywaggin' carpetbaggin' integraytah" but that was about it.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:33 PM

Tracy Ullman is a dream to listen to as she switches accents at the drop of a hat. She's also incredibly funny, and I was sorry to see her disappear in favor of the filler she used (the Simpsons). Jane Seymour is very good at American and other accents. I agree with a remark above, it is interesting to watch British television programs in which American accents are attempted. There used to be a program on about a vet in a zoo (then he moved into a wildlife park) in which later shows a woman played a fellow vet/dolphin trainer. Whoever wrote the dialog kept dropping these very non-American clunkers into was was an otherwise pretty credible accent. "Bottle tops" was the one that got me the first time.

Some American accents from the deep south and Appalachia I can't understand very well, particularly over the phone. I find in living in Texas now that there tends to be a merging of the accented southern with the slower speech patterns of the Midwest that creates some highly entertaining dialect. I wouldn't try to repeat it, however, and am annoyed when I return home to the Seattle area to have people try to listen for "southernisms" or any accent creeping into my speech. I've worked to avoid it, and to keep my children from acquiring southern accents, because there is a bias in this country that southern accents somehow represent a lack of intellect. Perhaps you have to grow up somewhere other than the south to harbor this unfair attitude, but since it exists I've worked to keep all of us speaking a clear and relatively unaccented English.

SRS

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 01:58 PM

So in a film like Blue Max (or many others) where everyone is in fact speaking English, and we just suspend our disbelief and imagine that it is German - why should they have any kind of "German" accent?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:04 PM

Well Mac, I don't disagree, but when everyone does except the lead character, it seems a bit worse to me.

Stilly River....The Tracy Ullman series is on HBO regularly and she is much funnier uncensored.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:19 PM

John Wayne played "himself" in every film he ever made except (in my humble opinion) one.

That film was Long Voyage Home where he played a Scandinavian merchant marine sailor speaking English. I've no idea if his accent was accurate or not---but I, for once, thought the character he portrayed was extremely believable.

Also, Gwineth Paltrow was right on accent-wise in Shakespeare In Love. I'll love her forever.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:23 PM

No, no, "The 49th Parallel." I especially liked the part where the Nazis walk across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, are spotted at the Calgary Stampede, and then run into the Rockies, ending up at Niagara Falls. They certainly were the master race!!! (Speaking of Sir Laurence O., in this film he begins the great tradition so stellarly hup'eld by Black Jack Shellac and our beloved prime minister (Sir Larry plays a French Canadian lumberjack). The whole film is a treat: Glynis Johns as a Hutterite; and my favourite, Leslie Howard as the Bohemian artist in the Rockies in his snug little hut. Truly a great Canadian movie.

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: lady penelope
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 02:52 PM

My favourite pairing......Keanu Reeves and Wynona Ryder in Bram Stocker!

Wynona was actually quite good 90% of the time but, oh boy, that other 10%. As for Mr Reeves, I just kept expecting him to say "dude" ! It would have been less distracting if they had just spoken in their normal accents, or just a polite version of it.

As for good accents, I agree with those mentioned already but has anyone noticed that Nigel Tuffnell from Spinal Tap was actually born and raised in America ! Mind you being an hereditary peer in the House of Lords might help.

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Foe
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 03:09 PM

In the book Albion's Seed by Fischer (book describes the British folkways of early settlers in the New World)he says that the English spoken in Shakespeare's time was more akin to the English found in the Southern Appalacians. In other words to be accurate Hamlet at the Globe in Shakespeare's time would have sounded like Gomer Pyle and his friends.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 03:30 PM

I don't really have anything to add except that this is the best/most interesting thread I have ever read.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 06:21 PM

Arh, Gowd bless yah, Murey Poppppins....!

Much as I love him, I could never get over Sean Connery playing an Oirish cop with a very Scottish accent in 'The Untouchables'.... Kevin Costner again, but at least he wasn't trying to do the accent....

And Seans' Irish accent in 'Darby O'Gill' isn't that bad, after all, isn't the man half Irish himself, he being named after the doubting saint himself (his real first name is Thomas)? In fact, one critic mentioned his 'dark brown Irish voice' as far back as Dr No (1962) just 3 years after Darby.... (I really do need to get out more....)

LTS

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Gareth
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 07:08 PM

God Almighty - Walter Pidgeon in how Green was my Valley - (To use Swelsh Dialect - NEVER !)

But I just love Kevin C' in Robin Hood - It was supposed to be a commedy was't it ????

Gareth

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,celtic cousin
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:02 PM

FOREST GUMP...FOREST GUMP...FOREST GUMP!!! HANDS DOWN!!

Sorry, didn't mean to yell, friends. Tom Hanks' southern accent has got to be the worst ever! I lived in the South, all my people are from Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi and I never heard that accent spoken anywhere. Maybe I'm overreacting a bit to the movie itself and how I was the only one in my circle of friends who thought it was total bullcrap. And Sally Fields' accent was almost as bad. ...No we don't Sally, we really, really don't. The 'truest' southern accent I've heard was Blythe Danner in 'The Great Santini'. Very understated and elegant. Rent it as the opening sequence at the Officers' Club is one of the funniest in my memory. Robert Duval in 'Tender Mercies' does a pretty accurate drawl, too. Don't even get me started on 'Bridges of Madison County'...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:14 PM

There are so many different accents in England that it is a wonder they can understand each other (or do they?). A cable network here (BBC Canada) is running several British TV serials. I gave up- too many of the accents were impenetrable! Were series like Upstairs-Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited made for a North American audience only?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:51 PM

Since we don't have accents in Canada we are all experts at identifying other peoples'.

The worst accent performed by an American playing an American character, ever, was the lovely Kirsten Dunst in a recent TV feature movie called "Deeply". She was supposed to be a fisherman's daughter on an east coast island--her having a go at the New England twang, when she managed to even try, was simply dreadful. So was the rest of the movie, by the way, a stunningly derivative ripoff of the "Celtic/Maritime motif" which borrowed liberally from both "Titanic" and the wonderful "Secret of Roan Inish", but had none of the latter's deftness and all of the former's ponderous improbability.

On the other hand, I simply adore the young English actress Emily Lloyd, who did what I thought was a great job of a southern accent as a teenage Southern girl in "In Country", from the Bobbie Ann Mason novel about coming-of-age in the South. Any of you Southerners got a perspective on this?

Another absolute worst, which falls squarely in the "what the hell was the casting agent thinking?" category, was Jodie Foster's unlikely performance as a French Resistance agent in some highly forgettable mini-series. The only 1943 French girl who spoke English with a complete midwestern drawl. Way past odd.

I could probably go on, but I would think of some more of these oddities, and that would be wrong.

W-O

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: artbrooks
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 08:58 PM

Ya'll on the right side of the pond have accents for places I never even knew were places! Most Americans (aka Yanks, which isn't the same as Yankees, please!) are lucky if they can distinguish English (and only BBC English will do) from Scots from Irish. Most of us can tell Australian, thank to Mr. Hogan and his Suburu commercials, but don't have a clue about South African...and Indian/South Asian English is unreal! Canadian is a little subtle, because of the ubiquitousness (is that a word?) of American TV, eh. And then there are a lot of local dialects in the US. Even Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) has its own...and right ugly it is, too.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:02 PM

Pict mentioned Christopher Lambert in "Highlander." He used what I usually think of as a "deaf person accent" in that movie. Maybe the French can't do accents. Didn't they carry that same dopey accent over into the lame tv series with a different actor, too?

But for me, Sean Connery playing a guy named "Ramirez" in the same movie made up for Lambert. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:03 PM

Hey Art. We already didn't have accents before we got American TV. Ubiquitous and all.

Except for Cape Bretoners (hear Natalie McMaster speak for a good sample of this) and of course Newfoundlanders.

W-O

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:10 PM

I once insulted a Newfoundlander . I was in a bar in Toronto and got to talking to the bartender, who was a woman with an accent I thought was just off the boat from across the pond. I asked her how long she had been in Canada.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Liquor Lovin' Larry
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 09:19 PM

Without question, the worst accent I've ever read is Little John Cameron at Mudact.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:01 PM

Any film/TV show where they are depicting people from New England...no one seems to be able to get that one unless they come from that area. Even then, from state to state the accent changes, and so a person from one area may not be able to effectively pull off the accent from another.

The TV movie "Storm of the Century" has about a dozen or so people failing miserably at a Maine accent.

Ayuh...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:02 PM

"I asked her how long she had been in Canada."

I wouldn't think most Newfoundlanders would see that as an insult. Technically the answer would be "since 1948", I suppose.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Alice
Date: 10 Apr 02 - 10:27 PM

Sister Act, a pretty weird movie overall, but the priest in the beginning sounds like he is aiming for a British accent, then lo and behold, at the end he is aiming for Irish ..... aaaaarrrgh. It is so obvious a change I can't believe they left it in the movie.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 01:25 AM

John Wayne as Ghengis Khan. Ward Bond as an Irish priest in The Quiet Man. Jimmy C, what did you think of Brad Pitt's Belfast accent in that film with Harrison Ford? I thought he was very good; the hard thing for me to accept was Harrison Ford as a kindly New York cop! Russell Crowe as John Nash - in and out of accent. Benny Hill doing American - inaccurate, but a hoot nonetheless. A few years ago, there was a television remake of Captains Courageous, the old Spencer Tracy/Freddie Bartholomew movie, with Karl Malden in the Lionel Barrymore role of the old Captain.Malden's New England accent was atrocious - as was most of the cast of A Perfect Storm by the way - at one point he referred to Gloucester, Mass, as Glow-sester. We all know it's pronounced Glosta, just as Worcester is pronounced Wista. Right, Kendall?

Seamus

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 04:57 AM

There could be a yearly awards ceremony for this one... a statuette of Dick Van Dyke to the winner(s)..
Dunno if we'd call it the 'Dicks' or the 'Van Dykes'
I'll just throw in a few Worst Oirish nominations - Orson Welles in 'The Lady From Shanghai' - all that Abbey training shining through...
Kevin Spacey in 'Ordinary Decent Criminal' - where the Jasus is his accent coming from ? - 60% Cross Border 40% Mid Atlantic.
The supporting cast in it all sound badly overdubbed too - even the Irish actors.
As for the French - there's no shortage of accents over here, either, and dialects too. Haven't got a sharp enough
ear to hear violence being done to them in films - although I think it's a particularly Hollywood talent
Mind you, like English-speaking films, there is a predominance of people with bland unlocatable accents in most of
the productions. Christopher Lambert appears to be held in almost universal contempt, also, and is a
regular in the most-watched TV Satire show (Les Guignols). Somehwat similar attitude to him as you lot have to Brad/Keanu..

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 04:59 AM

Seamus, Benny Hill doing English was bad enough...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Fossil
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 05:43 AM

For the UK contingent, here's one from a little known part of the country, Birmingham.

Noted for its distinctive speech patterns and vile (sorry, vowel) sounds (putting it moildly).

Real Brummies - Black Country types - always had issues with places like Solihull (pronounced "Sow-li-'ull"), a rich dormitory-suburban area south of Birmingham, which was regarded as either "aspirational" or over-refined and "posh" (sorta like Nob Hill in San Francisco, I suppose). People who lived there were all supposed to be effete upper-class twits, not real working class.

As a displaced Londoner, I used to work in Solihull and mentioned this fact to a Brummie of my acquaintance one day.

"Oh, Solihull", he said... "Where sex is what they bring the coal in...". I cracked up.

Say it out loud - it might make sense!

Here's another one.

Enoch and Eli are typical working-class Brummies. One day, Enoch is walking along the canal towpath and spots Eli giving artificial respiration to someone he had half-dragged out of the canal. The victim is choking up gallons of the dirty canal water and Eli is working frantically.

"Oi" says Enoch "Watcher doin'?"

"Oi'm savin' 'is loife, in't oi?"

"Well, tek' 'is arse outta t'coot, yaw'll poomp it droi!"

("Cut" = a Midlands synonym for a canal. Pronounced as written)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:14 AM

Art Brooks: "Ubiquitesness?" surely this belongs in the George Dubya thread.
I know you spotted that it might not be correct, but the better version is the much shorter "Ubiquity"

As for accents in "How Green Was My Valley", we have a soap opera in Wales "Pobl Y Cwm", originally shown on only the Welsh chanel S4C (the Welsh transmitter eqivalent of Chanel 4). As the Welsh transmitters have an overlap with other regions, this was eventually 'exported' for use across the country. Pobl Y Cwm can now be seen throughout Britain. The fact that it is transmitted in Welsh is accompanied by subtitles on teletext. But... depending on the text page used, you can get the subtitles either in English or in Welsh. This helps both the Welsh hard of hearing, and those learning the language.
"Pobl Y Cwm" = The People Of The Valley
There should be a circumplex accent over the 'w' of 'Cwm' but I'm not sure how to render it in this thread.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:26 AM

Fossil, you seem to think Birmingham is in the Black Country - heresy!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:40 AM

Just thought, Brad Pitt's Irish (?) traveller accent in "Snatch". Sub-titles please.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Joe in the'pool
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:41 AM

Jimlad,

The worst accent I have heard, since the famous Dick Van Dyke one, is the Black guy (I don't know his name) in the new film 'Oceans 11'. He also 'plays' a Cockney and his accent keeps changing into an american accent every other sentence. He's obviously had lessons from the same school as Dick.

Joe.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: allie kiwi
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:56 AM

I'd be interested to know how good/bad the accents are in Hercules and Xena. It always sounds so strange to me to hear the actors speak so 'american', yet I'm sure it cannot be that good an impression.

The worst movie for accents etc that's I've seen was 'Dont tell her it's me' starring Steve Guttenberg. *sudder* At one stage in the movie he pretended to be a sheep farmer from Auckland, NZ (our largest city) and sounded like a cross between an Aussie and someone from some unspecified region of the UK. It was not at all pleasant.

Allie
who virtually requires subtitles when speaking with Jamaicans

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 07:11 AM

Possibly a slight creep of the thread, but why do so many British performers affect an American accent.
I suppose we've come to expect it in popular music, but folkies do it as well... Why?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Letty
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 07:20 AM

Ewan McGregor trying to sound English in Star Wars episode 1: eeek. (p) David Boreanaz doing Irish on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: cringe. (p) Letty

(yes, I watch Buffy...)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha.
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 07:57 AM

McGrath if it ever comes on TV look out for the accents in Captain Boycott, not one west of Ireland accent, and this was supposed to be County Mayo. Undoubtely Hollywood movies up to the 1980`s never got it right and they had no excuse considering the number of Irish in the US. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 08:05 AM

Did anyone see that film with Tom Cruise (& I think Nicole was in it as well) some years back called "Far and Away" (I think)?

I thought Toms accent was fairly non-existant, but I'd like to hear what anyone *from* Ireland thought.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 08:32 AM

Enjoyable thread isn't it? Celtic Soul, that was mentioned back up the thread a ways.

The first time I was in Maine, I asked some info of a policeman and we spent 15 minutes with him speaking Greek and myself speaking Swahili.......or we may as well have been for all either of us could understand from the other. We ended up writing notes!

In defense of Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump"..........The character was from Alabama, but also had developmental problems. The voice was quite typical of those with some speech problems and learning disabilities. There was a bit of southern sound to it although in most cases of this kind of thing, any accent is overshadowed by the voice pattern and texture. Working with kids and adults much like his character, I thought he did a fine job.

Artbrooks mentioned Pittsburgh........The average 'Burgher sound is something akin to "Brooklyn meets the Midwest."   Michael Keaton always tickled me in Gung Ho playing a guy from western PA which he is. He had the right sound in his natural voice and he threw in some phrases that I'm sure were not in the script originally. At one point he calls someone a "Jagov" which is 'Burgher for jack-off.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: artbrooks
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 08:35 AM

Hey,'Spaw...yuns fum Pitsbug?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 09:13 AM

Celtic Soul, I think the full title under which it was released in Ireland was 'Far and Away The
Worst Oirish Accents Ever Committed to Celluloid'
Or was it 'Far and Away The Worst Filum Ever Made'??..

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Dagenham Doc
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 10:23 AM

John Wayne when he played a Centurian and spoke in his normal cowboy drawl, "Surely this is the son of God?"

Doc.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 10:40 AM

No Art, but I am from eastern Ohio not too far away, and my Dad was a Pennsylvania Railroad engineer and ran between Columbus and Pittsburgh. As a kid we were in Pitssburgh as often as Columbus. Those were the days of free passes for railroad families AND passenger trains, so we'd hop a train for one or the other a few times each month for shopping or other events. Columbus was (and is) pretty much plain, white bread, midwestern, but the Burgh was a different place entirely! Even as a kid I noticed the differences which were hard to miss.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 10:56 AM

I've never heard a real cowboy speak like John Wayne.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 11:03 AM

Curious where John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison) may have acquired his speech pattern, I checked on his birthplace - Iowa, but growing up in southern California. Definitely not the way Montana cowboys speak (Gary Cooper was from Montana) but maybe Wayne speaks like a southern California cowboy.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 11:20 AM

Forrest Gump couldn't speak well anyway - that was all part of the story. I didn't have a problem with it.

I have been watching the latest Masterpiece Theater - Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. All the British actors are really British, of course, but one character is a woman from Texas, and this has GOT to be the WORST attempt at a Texas drawl I have EVER heard in ALL my days. I would have expected better from BBC. Otherwise, the production is great. :-)

Jeff Daniels didn't do so great of a Maine accent in Gettysburg, neither. Sometimes it was there, and sometimes it wasn't.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 11:26 AM

Fossil.... aware din urea..(a word in your ear) Black Country people are not Brummies!Yes, I can understand every word Ozzie Osbourne says.My wife and I need subtitles for any American film set in the deep South.And there are really two English accents, Received pronunciation...ie B.B.C. English, and your own accent, which can also contain your own dialect words which are unknown to people living only 30 miles away.Brummie includes "in 'is oil-tot" (very happy),"the lar pom" or "cludgie" (w.c.) "mithered" (worried)"miskin" (dustbin)"blart" (cry) "daint" (didn't)"necks wick" (in 7 days time) etc.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 12:00 PM

In the dialect of my beloved county

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 12:16 PM

In the dialect of my beloved county of Lancashire,you hear the following sounds:-

Ast binmanbin mam Has the refuse collector called.

Shiz as feawr as a gas cinder She is no beauty.

wers mi shoon? Where are my shoes?.

ahve nowt moor ter say I have finished speaking.

I hope some Aussies join this thread,I like the Oz for how much does this item cost? emmachizzit?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 12:20 PM

Kim C., I agree, the character in THE WAY WE LIVE NOW who is supposed to have a drawl is SO bad - makes me cringe, it is like fingernails on the chalkboard. HIT the mute button aaaarrrgh!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 01:45 PM

Ah, I can't believe I someone didn't already mention (Coen Bros. masterpiece) "Fargo." Many people here in Minnesota thought the accents were a little much, but they're only slightly exagerated. People do still talk like that up north, with many variations (the Finnish-Minnesotan accent is my favourite). But having the Lundegaards and other people from "the cities" speak with it, while funny, wasn't really accurate. Unless they just fell off the truck or something, very few people under 80 would be caught dead with that accent down here. Minneapolis and St.Paul have their own unique accents (which have always sort of reminded me of a weak, Nordicised Chicago accent, but maybe it's just me), though most people here, as in many places around the country, speak with a generic "news anchor" accent. (I speak with a slurred, lisping news anchor accent, myself)

Just my opions, of course. :)

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Den at work
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 01:50 PM

Was that Tom Cruise's voice or did they dub-in the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. It puts me in mind of the great Irish accents in the Irish Spring commercials. Keannu Reeves in Dracula, where the hell was his character from??? I also heard, don't know if its true, that the Duke in (The Greatest Story ever Told) was told by the director to speak his line with "awe" and Wayne said, "Aww this truely was the son of God".

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 03:29 PM

I was traveling in the Yucatan and met some tourists from Germany who asked me (in English), "What does it mean when you are walking down the trail and you meet someone and they say, 'hawzitgun'?". (how is it going)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: SharonA
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 03:42 PM

In addition to others mentioned:

Spencer Tracy in "Captains Courageous" (and everyone else who called him "Man-yool"!).

Leslie Howard in "Gone With the Wind".

And everyone in the current TV series "Boston Public"!!! Not even an attempt at a Massachusetts accent by anyone in the cast. Arrgh!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 03:49 PM

Canadians don't have accents? When the whole thing with the Cod moratoriums were going on, CBC interviewed a Newfoundland fisherman. They ran English subtitles even though he was speaking English. I wouldn't have understood a word he said if they hadn't. I seen it wit me own oyes, by.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha.
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 04:13 PM

In Ireland we have no trouble with any US accent, but we struggle with most of the English,Scottish and Welsh accents.

And I spent many years working in England and most of the people found my north of Ireland accent impossible.

I have many relations in Pittsburgh and the accent sounded as easy to understand as any other part of the US I travelled through.

Wouldn`t it be bloody dull if we all spoke like Thatcher or Blair, two turn offs, here`s to all the incomprehensivels. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Kim C
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 05:25 PM

I thought Fargo was a hoot. A friend of mine, who is originally from Mississippi, said, "I'm glad somebody besides Southerners know what it's like now to be made fun of for the way they talk." ;-)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,celtic cousin
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 05:59 PM

That's Picks-berg, yinz!

Spaw, wen y'were a yute did ja go don tahn ta Tree-Rivers'n root ferdem Stillers?... Git ott! Me, too! We were laffin'n nat...den weed go ta Primannies'n git some beers'n nat.(Sorry, I can't keep this up!) Translation: That's Pittsburgh, you!

Spaw, when you were a youth did you go downtown to Three Rivers(Stadium) and root for the Steelers?(American Football team) Get out! Me, too! We were laughing and that...then we'd go to Primanti's(local sandwich shop which features fries and cole slaw on every sandwich) and get some beers and that('n nat is a catch-phrase meaning 'other things' usually undefined as to what 'things' they were)

I'm from Cleveland...this translating of 'Pittsburgeeze' is exhausting!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: artbrooks
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 06:28 PM

Cleveland...where the river catches on fire...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 08:25 PM

Still here. I was surprised in Ireland and England that there were so many different accents. I love the Cork accent the best (easiest to immitate).

The scariest was when we were in Spain, no one speaks the Spanish that they teach in school in the US. I couldn't understand anyone except the newscasters on TV sometimes.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 09:03 PM

Here's one from Oz Jimlad:
Many years ago now - gosh it must be around 30 years or more I suppose - a book was published called "Let Stalk Strine" under the nom de plume of Professor Afferbeck Lauder (alphabetical order for the rest of youse who don't live in Godzone country). I found it hard to read and just about needed it translated into English. The "emmachisit" story is supposed to have happened to the author Monica Dickens when she visited Sydney and was signing books, when she asked one woman what name to put the woman said "Emma Chisit" which Monica wrote...it turns out that the woman had asked "How much is it!"
And of course there are regional differences in both accent and idiom all over Oz too, which many actors trying to do an Aussie accent just don't get at all. We don't all talk like Paul Hogan - he is pretty much a caricature of the average Aussie bloke, thank goodness!
Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Melani
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 09:36 PM

Daniel Day Lewis did a pretty good "American" accent in "The Last of the Mohicans," but then I don't really think we have any idea how people sounded in those days. Probably pretty English--or wherever else they came from.

Sean Connery played an Arab with a Scottish accent in "The Wind and the Lion." I was in hysterics over that, until I looked it up and discovered the movie was based on a real incident, and the guy Connery was playing was the son of an Arab father and a Scottish mother, who taught him English.

In the original book, "The African Queen," Humphrey Bogart's part was a Cockney, but in the movie he was Canadian. I'm guessing Bogie wisely opted out of trying to do Cockney.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Jack
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 10:11 PM

Nicholas Cage did a pretty bad Italian accent in Capt. Corelli's Mandolin, but I was too busy watching Penelope Cruz to notice..

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Amergin
Date: 11 Apr 02 - 10:18 PM

Cage does a pretty bad job acting...period...

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 02:46 AM

I'm amazed at the response to this thread,I did'nt realise what I was letting loose!.

wrt accents I may have a tin ear for accents,I can distinguish between Canadian and American,North of Ireland vs South,and NYC(ie Joe Pesci,Al Pacino,And anyone from Soprano's)and the rwest of your great country but most others leave me in ignorance.

Can anyone outside the UK tell the difference between, Cockney(London),Scouse(Liverpool),Geordie(Newcastle),or Welsh.

Even harder for UK residents only,can anyone distinguish between,Manchester,Bolton,Blackburn and Yorkshire

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: DMcG
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:16 AM

In the 70's I moved to Newcastle on Tyne (UK) from Teesside (some 35 miles away). A born-and-bred Teessider came to visit and asked directions from a policeman, born-and-bred Geordie. They literally could not understand each other: I had to act as interpreter.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bruce from Bathurst
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:32 AM

About thirty years ago, some fool decided to make a film about the bushranger Ned Kelly, one of Australia's many anti-heroes. Ned was the first born son of Irish parents living in Australia in 1855.

The title role was played by Mick Jagger.

The acting was execrable and the accent was worse.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Terry K
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 06:40 AM

I've tried to resist but can't any longer, so here goes -

Loyd Grossman doing Loyd Grossman

- there, I've said it!

Cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: HuwG
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 09:10 AM

Many years ago, two presenters from the BBC's North-East studios, Mike Neville and George House, did a spoof teach-yourself-language LP. It was called, "Larn yersel' Geordie". It included some marvellous translations from Geordie into standard (southern, middle-class) English, such as:

"Haway doon Chinese, pet ?" "Would you care to dine with me, miss ?"

"Nip yeor tab doonsteors!" "Smoking is not permitted on the lower deck of this bus!"

"Gerraway!" "Really !"

It also told the true story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Apparently, Custer's scout was a Geordie. He raced back to camp and said, "Sor! Sor! The Indians is just ower that hill yonder, and they're aal hollerin' and whoopin' and beatin' drums".
"Well done!", says Custer. "Tell me, were they war drums ?"
"Why no, man!", says Geordie. "They were theors!"

Translation available on request (though it won't make the joke any better).

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 10:06 AM

How could anyone fault Sean Connery. American archaeologist in the Indiana Jones film, Russian submarine commander in Red October, Spaniard in Highlander and of course, English spy James Bond. His accent has never been bettered by anyone from England, Spain, Russia or the USA!
Quack!!!!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: jimlad
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 10:38 AM

Another dialect joke tha I bet nobody outside a 50 mile radius of Wigan will understand.

Officer inspecting a company of LF's (Lancashire Fusiliers):

You man! wheres your belt?.

LF: Ahve Getten noan

Officer: Getten noan,what does that mean?

Segeant: wor 'e means surr is he's baht

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: DMcG
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 10:43 AM

Wigan is 188 miles from me - I don't get it :-)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:08 AM

I don't get it from 85 miles away from Wigan - anyone any closer than that not getting it?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Scabby Doug - pretending to work
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:14 AM

I've told this before - but it's my very favourite...

Lady in tearoom/cafeteria/restaurant pointing at slice of baked confection asks waitress: "Is that a cake or a meringue?" Waitress (in broad Glasgow accent): "Naw, hen ye're right enough, it's a cake.."

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:28 AM

Back to the Black Country.
In a jeweller's shop (they have them there you know):
Black Country bloke:"I want a gode ring."
Assistant:"Eighteen carat?"
BCB:"Nah mate, om chewin gum."

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Trevor
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:29 AM

FOSSIL! HOW DARE YOU talk about 'real Brummies' being 'Black Country types'. Brummies cor spake raaght at all. 'Allo 'Allo used to be hilarious where the accent taken on by the character told you what language they were speaking, so the bloke playing the Englishman posing as a Gendarme would say things with an appalling accent - '... I was pissing by the durr when I 'eard three shats' and the girl from the resistance would change her accent depending on whether she was speaking to an Englishman or a Frenchman. (If you follow my drift!)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:36 AM

Seamus, Brad Pitt's accent was not too bad although he did have to slow it down a bit. He probably consulted the following, before he made the movie.

[ Here are some common sayings you might come across on your visit to Northern Ireland. ] See if you can slip them into your next conversation with a Northern Irish person.

"What about ye big mawn, what are ye at the day?" Translates as: How are you? Are you doing anything interesting this fine day?

"Taxi fer White" -usually heard at nightclubs and bars. Refers to someone who has consumed too much alchohol or drugs and is vomiting.

"Till Till Till" -this a rare. Be on the look out. Feel priviledged to hear it if you do. Translates as: Two minutes to Two

"Fancy a wee pint down the bar, or do ya wanna go till the Offies for a carry out?" Translates as: Would you like to join me in some merriment at our local hostelry or would you rather purchasing some alchohol from the local Off License?

"Getawaydafug ya wee gat. Who'd ya fink y'are? Wee Slabber......" Translates as: You'd better leave my vicinity in a hurry. I don't like you. Go away and don't come back. Who do you think you are? Go away.

Givuz ah way bitta pace! Not a cry for an end to violence but a plea for time alone.

Fer fuhsake catch yerself on ya fuggen goat ye... Translates as: Look, you better review the situation. You look rather silly

You're bound to hear some of these phrases in use around here!

Cha fawncie a wee pint do ye? Do ye?! Fawncie a wee wee pint?!

"An then mu teef fell out and she ran like the clappers "

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:40 AM

Trevor, Why do they call it the Black Country ?.

I heard once it came from the days of the romans, when the soldiers feet got all black from the coal deposits in the ground ?.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 12:19 PM

Jimmy, in Trevor's absence (I think he's off um fer is tay - or perhaps he is taking nourishment), let me say that the Black Country is the area of the West Midlands noted in the past for it's heavy industry, so the sky was constantly black from the smoke, and the buildings were covered with grime.
Now I can see out of the windows quite clearly, we get a much better class of pollution.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 12:31 PM

Many years ago I worked as an interpretive historian at Ellis Island, the old immigrant processing station in New York Harbor. (not interpreting languages, but interpreting history) The National Park Service ran guided tours then, and as it was the late 1970's there were still many elderly immigrants who had passed through the island in its heyday who would come out to the island with their families and could tell of their time on Ellis. I got to where I could tell accents from lots of regions of Europe as well as the US, because in addition to returning immigrants were large numbers of decendants of immigrants who returned to the island.

In my "Mom hat" I'll just remind the list that even as we enjoy comparing bad representations of accents by actors who should know better (or by casting directors who should have known better) that the key is to communicate, and even with accents, most people can make themselves understood. How we do it, and our grammar, is just the "manners" part of it, variable rules we learn locally to follow. That said, it is awfully hard to understand some regional accents in any English speaking nation because as a language with 1,000,000+ words (compared to French with 50,000) we all have a lot of material to draw from. The many sources of English are simple to understand: conquer someone, acquire parts of their language. Be conquered by someone, end up with even more of their language. English speakers have been doing this for a long time. And we're not always good at using all of the parts of the words we acquire. Dropped letters in regional shortcuts are what so many of the examples above illustrate (beautifully! I'm going to send a link to this to my Professor who taught History and Development of the English Language. He has a broad west Texas drawl, and is a hoot to listen to when he recites Shakespeare!).

With this in mind, I'll reflect here on the summer I spent at Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The non-local park rangers held a Tennessee Spelling Bee on our back porch one evening:

"Spell Far"

"F-I-R-E"

"Spell Tar"

"T-I-R-E"

Maggie (M.A. in English, 1999--and it is true--the more you learn, the less you know!)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: eloise
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 01:11 PM

Jimmy C I thought it was called the Black Country because it was an industrial area so it was full of smoke and dirt. I'd be interested to find out if this is right.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Watson
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 01:16 PM

Eloise - that's what I said.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 01:29 PM

Doug -- that meringue joke is one of my all time favourites too, and of course the black Country equivalent is the one about Noddy Holder shopping for clothes. He's bought a suit and a pair of platform boots and is looking for accessories when the shop assistant comes up and says "Kipper tie?". "Bostin'" says Noddy, "Milk and two sugars, please".

BJ

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Ballyholme
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 01:30 PM

Perhaps someone from Belfast can provide some more detailed information, but I believe Brendan Gunn (son of the late Tommy Gunn - a fine fiddler) has made something of a career out of coaching movie stars to speak with Irish accents. I've seen his name on movie credits but I can't remember which movies they were.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: eloise
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 01:51 PM

Watson Not being from those parts myself I wasn't sure if I was right, but I think I posted my answer before I looked to see if anyone else had responded.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 03:37 PM

Mick Jagger singing Girl with the Far Away Eyes..."and the mayan said he'd play mah fayvor-rite song on the rad-ieo."

Speaking of the Coen Brothers, did anyone else notice that all these Mississippi Delta boys (Clooney and pals) had Appalachian accents? Guess that went with the music. Why didn't they set the movie in KY, TN or WV?

I liked Martin Sheen's smooth, cultured Virginia Aristocrat accent as Robert E Lee in Gettysburg. Too bad about the beards though.

Who was the comedian with the bionic arm in Young Frankenstein? The most hilarious German accent ever.

Peter Sellers had the kind of American accent that I think British audiences perceived as authentic and funny. It was pretty far off, blowing pronunciation of the "a" and "o" words like most Brits do. They always over emphasize the "aaa" sound making it too flat and nasal.

Kenneth Branagh in Wild Wild West had an over-emphasized Southen Acce-yunt, but it worked well for the character. Seems I've seen him in a civil rights film where he played a Southern Lawyer quite convincingly.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jimmy C
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 03:49 PM

Eloise and Watson, that's what I would think, however I clearly remember hearing the Roman soldier theory. Not being from there, and never having been there, it would be interesting to find out the origin of the phrase.

Lonesome EJ, not being a big fan of Martin Sheen as an actor, I do think he did a great job as Robert.E.Lee all through the movie. I admire him as a person for many things not associated with acting. You are right about the beards, especially Tom Berenger as Longstreet. It looked like something one would were at Halloween.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: kendall
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 09:55 PM

I always have a problem with that phrase, "American accent" there are dozens at least. I defy anyone who is not a Mainiac to copy our dialect and get away with it. One thing you must learn is to say "Ayah" and INHALE when you say it. There are at least 4 different dialects here. Southern coastal, midcoast, downeast, Oxford county, and Aroostook county. Downeast is the heaviest, and Aroostook is no accent at all. By way of example, coastal Mainers have a habit of taking a one syllable word, such as school, and speaking it as if it had two syllables, schoo ull. Hard to do in print. There was a potato farmer in Aroostook who was in a coastal Maine town looking for potato farm workers. He went to the employment office, asked the woman behind the counter if he might hire 50 hoers. She gasped and said "You want to hire 50 prostitutes"? he says, "I dont care what religeon they are long as they can how potatoes." There again, it must be spoken for full impact.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Hippie Chick
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 10:39 PM

Brad Pitt in "Meet Joe Black" His Jamaican accent talking to the old lady.....good or bad?

and for bad, the psychopathic Russian woman in "Golden Eye" It's a good thing she didnt' hvave many lines, cuz she could hardly keep her 'Russian' accent going.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 05:49 AM

Lonesome -- from memory I think the German in Young Frankenstein was Carl Reiner -- great writer and film director (and co creator with Mel Brooks of The 2000 Year Old Man) and father of Rob Reiner who directed Spinal Tap -- and the Tap all had brilliant 'English' accents. And speaking of Young Frankenstein, Peter Boyle, who played the monster, did a fantastic impersonation of Marlon Brando in Steelyard Blues, one of my all time favourite 'rebel' movies.

BJ

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 07:38 AM

Just Amy, Accents almost anywhere change every five miles, I would notice the difference here in Ireland, in a country accent and the person would be living within three miles of our Town. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: SINSULL
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:00 PM

Am I dating myself? Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria in "West Side Story". Didn't even try.

And Charleton Heston as the Mexican detective in "Touch Of Evil". Talk about miscasting. Even Welles says "He doesn't look Mexican".

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 02:49 PM

Mick Hagger EJ ? Remember his "Ned Kelly" ?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,jonesey
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 09:01 AM

What a great thread! Wish I understood the jokes better as I'm sure they're very funny. Besides the Hanks/Gump I can't think of another accent that annoyed me half as much. Saw a movie w/Kristen Scott Thomas last night and she did a very credible if generic American accent. The main thing I was impressed with was the consistency she maintained in the pronunciation of 'ands', 'the', 'um'...things like that. Thought her imterpretation of an educated/cultured American woman of privilege was pretty accurate. As a result of this thread I listened much more carefully than I would have, otherwise. Used to cry thru 'How Green Was My Valley' until I went to the motherland and realized how wrong the accents were. Now it just makes me cringe.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 12:50 PM

I like ljc on the internet at least I can understand what he is saying or writing about.

I think the worst are these actors who try and do Scots accents on film, the worst was brigadoon it made your toes curl.

saying things like 'I dinna ken' I mean no one in Scotland speaks like that.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 03:01 PM

I think the German Police constable with the mechanical arm in Young Frankenstein was portrayed by an actor named Kenneth Mars, who also played the neo-nazi playwright in The Producers.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Den
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 04:50 PM

Your right Lej Kenneth Mars was the actor in question. I thought the guy was a star in both The Producers and Young Frankenstein. I loved the way he over emphasized his words as the German policeman. Den

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Peter T.
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 05:24 PM

What I want to know is why Meryl Streep has such a great reputation for accents. I think the reason is that you can always tell that she is trying to do an accent really, really hard. ("Doesn't she do that well?")
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 03:46 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Geordie
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 09:16 AM

Some one said earlier that Canadians don't have accents. Well, they have never been to Atlantic Canada. Who saw Helena Bonam-Carter in Margaret's Museum..just an awful Cape Breton accent. Glad to see someone bring up the Fim forty Ninth Parrlell (God I never know how to spell that}. Is that available on disc or video tape. It is one of my all time favourite movies. Great Thread.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: JulieF
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:15 AM

Never having been able to do accents myself - I can't really comment. When I get used to a particular accent it just merges into the background. So much so that when I was a University in Edinburgh when I met someone I could not have told you later if they were English, SCottish or Irish. Now as soon as I hear a Scottish accent - I pick it up immediately .

When I first moved here I could tell the difference between Sheffield, Barnsley and Stocksbridge ( think of a 5 or 6 mile triangle with a town at each node)

No chance now

Julie

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 15 Apr 02 - 11:33 AM

Carrol o'Connor in Julius Caesar Julia Roberts in Michael Collins Holly Hunter in O Brother Meryl Streep in Dancing at Lughanasa - very over rated in everything she does, a clown really

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Trevor
Date: 16 Apr 02 - 04:08 AM

Btw, Aa cort a whale in the cut last wik. Mahnd yo, Aa chucked it back cos it ai got no spoweks.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 28 May 02 - 07:50 AM

i get irritated by singers affecting an accent while performing.

examples that come to mind are people trying to spound like: christy moore ronnie drew

and a real turn-off is uk c&w singers doing phoney american voices

i feel its always best to be yourself when singing, no pretences

wot say u?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mooh
Date: 28 May 02 - 08:48 AM

Canadians don't have accents eh?

Just within southern Ontario there are noticable differences between the Bruce Peninsula and Windsor and the Ottawa River valley. I once worked as a labour rep with a territory which spanned from the Bruce to Windsor and it was quite easy to pinpoint where folks were from by their accents. I've heard plenty of easterners (as others have mentioned) with distinctive accents, but Newfoundlanders sound as different as Cape Bretoners to my ears as Scots to Afrikaan. A friend from Saskatchewan and a vocal instructor from Manitoba both sound to my ears like they've got all the time in the world to get every word out. Maybe time passes more slowly out west. But even further west, where my older siblings were born in an Indian community, there is a mix of watered down Blackfoot and English which sounds older than both languages...ancient.

I wonder throughout all this, how much the written word and mass communication has changed our languages. Or more to the point, what would we sound like without the written word and mass communication?

Missed this thread the first time...best in a long time, I'd say.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Jim Krause
Date: 28 May 02 - 08:52 AM

Hap, I agree with you. There is a very talented singer in the area with many recordings to her credit. She will remain nameless, because I personally like her and wouldn't want to offend her if she should read this. She is known for her interpretations of Irish song. But she sings through her nose in a way that just irritates me no end. Yet, in a session when asked to sing a Hank Williams song, the Irish pretentions disappear and she sings with her native Mid-western American accent.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 May 02 - 05:35 PM

I had a friend went on a trip round Newfoundland. He said one of the great things was the accents - every time he stopped anywhere they had a conpletely different one. None of them sounded remotely like they came from the American continent. Sort of random combinations of Irish and West Country and a few other ingredients.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bert
Date: 29 May 02 - 03:26 AM

Ah yes Trevor 'Allo, 'Allo was a scream.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Christ_Monkey
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 08:57 PM

Worst accents, hmmm let me see...

How about:

Michael Caine in On deadly ground, a Segal film true, so he wasn't the worst thing in it.

Don Cheadle in Oceans eleven, my god what was he thinking!!!

Goo daccents on the other hand, try Kevin Bacon in JFK, and Brad Pitt in Snatch, best gypo accent ever!!!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Strupag
Date: 23 Dec 03 - 10:15 PM

God I knew that this thread was goin got be long!
My penny worth!
Best - Mel Gibson . He realy got to grips with the Lowland Scots accent in Braveheart - Good on ya Mel

Worst - Scottie in Startrek - ye realyy dinny soond like a Scootsman!

Andy Mitchell

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,shelley c at work
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:18 AM

Nobody has mentioned Audrey Hepburn, and I'm not surprised because she now seems to be treated like some sort of goddess. But her accent in My Fair Lady was crap.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 07:30 AM

How about John Wayne as a Roman soldier in King of Kings? when at the cross he looked up and said "surely he is the Son of Gaad!"

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: ard mhacha
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:19 AM

John Wayne, once again, in The Searchers," you speak good American for a Commanche,". Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: NH Dave
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:39 AM

Trevor's comment about fishin'i' cut reminds me of a British humorist from some time back who based his act on being able to imitate accests from around the British Isles. He'd have the band play a brief passage from or about an area and then do a quick story in the accent of that area. One of his jokes was vary similar to Trevor's.

As to an earlier poster's question if an American could differentiate between various obvious accents, I think he could if he had spent some time there, and watched much television, although I suppose television has done a lot to smooth out regional accents in the UK. It certainly has over here.

One of my favorite accent stories concerns a young man from Boston stationed in NE Georgia, attempting to place a long distance call from Georgia to Massachusetts. As luck would have it, he initially talked with an operator in nearby South Carolina, who sopke ever so slow and thickly, who then connected him with an operator with typical harsh and nasal Boston accent. This so stunned the southern operator that she asked muy friend, "Honey chile, can you hear what she's saying? I can't make out a word she's saying." He wound up translating between the two.

A few years later my family moved to Suffolk and spent almost a year there, during which time my then eighteen month old child played with a boy doen the street. When we moved up to Thetford, about 35 - 40 miles away in Norfolk, our new neighbor asked us in all seriousness if we were really American because our son spoke with a Suffolk accent.

Dave

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: C-flat
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:51 AM

I'd be interested to know what those of you on the US side thought of Michael Caines' accent in "Cider House Rules".
I couldn't tell what accent he was attempting and so couldn't tell wether he was anywhere near or not. My instinct says NOT simply because, although I like Caine, he doesn't even do English accents except his own.
C-flat.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 11:08 AM

Nobody on film ever gets New Orleans accents right, or even close. There are so many different authentic accents in the city and surrounding countryside, you'd think some actor would get *one* of them right, if only by accident. But it seems that they don't even try; even those who come here to film on location don't bother to listen to the voices in the streets all around them

People around here are still complaining and joking about the terrible accents in "The Big Easy" (especially Dennis Quaid's); how long ago was that, 10-15 years?

But for the very very worst accent ever in any movie set in New Orleans, you have to go much further back into the past for Lawrence Harvey's downright silly performance in a 1950s black-and-white film of one of the Tennessee Williams plays.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,theballadeer
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 10:40 AM

In the category of giving Dick Van Dyke a run for worst of all time…I can't believe no one has mentioned Donald Sutherland doing any kind of accent. Some type of English accent in Murder by Decree and the Great Train Robbery and an attempt at Irish accent in the Eagle has Landed…for instance. I think he has to be the winner (of worst) since he's tried so many. At least with Dick Van Dyke it was really just that one time.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 06:12 AM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KH_kOjsXakM&feature=dir

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Midlands Lad
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 06:47 AM

ain't this a topic for BS! and everyone in the UK knows the worst accent is from Dudley!!!

Yows Allright?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 07:24 AM

Bostin.

eric

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: John Hardly
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 07:35 AM

And then there's the humor in the twice-removed logic that has anything of a Biblical theme -- Ben Hur, The Robe, etc -- done, not in an accent meant to imply Palestine in 1 A.D., but rather, British colonial.

That is, of course, because Jesus spoke like King James, don'cha know?

Most Americans who cannot affect even a reasonable British accent merely don't pronounce "R" at the end of words. Thus, the typical American British accent usually, within a few words, deteriorates into an American southern accent.

T'be er not t'bee. That there's th'damn question.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 09:58 AM

Why has no-one yet mentioned Robin Williams' 'English' accent in Mrs Doubtfire - appaling.

On the tele, Hugh Laurey in 'House' sounds quite convincing to me. How does he sound to Americans?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 12:09 PM

I've just read that an actor named Peter Tuddenham (of whom, I must admit, I hadn't previously heard) passed away last week. It seems that he was much in demand as a dialect coach, and although he helped Anglia TV to get Suffolk accents right, he also tutored actors in a Wiltshire accent. To do both of those really needed talent.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Ref
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 05:51 PM

Connery's accent, as someone mentioned above, never changes, but I'd still pay to watch him read from a phonebook!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Dave Swan
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 07:05 PM

Hugh Laurie is 98% on to the American ear. Every now and again and English vowel escapes, but it's only often enough to make it interesting.

D

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 12:41 AM

...Personally I just do not understand why Americans have such a problem understanding the many different accents in Britain, I've listened to some pretty impenetrable American accents over the years and never had any problem understanding them, what's the problem?

I always remember back in the early 1970's a programme called 'The Flaxton Boys' which starred the young actor David Bradley who was plucked from obscurity to play the lead role in Ken Loaches film 'Kes' about a young kid from Sheffield in West Yorkshire who tames a Kestrel. His Yorkshire accent in the film Kes was spot on (as you would expect because it was his normal voice) so what did they do? sent him to drama school where they have this idea that to be capable of doing any accent as an actor one must first lose ones natural accent. The result? in the Flaxton Boys, also about boys in West Yorkshire his accent was absolutely fucking awful! I never knew someone who came from Yorkshire could sound so unlike anyone who ever came from Yorkshire? he sounded like he'd never heard a Yorkshire accent in his life!
So much for drama school eh?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Betsy
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 05:59 PM

The "Scotsman " in "Paint your wagon" , or "Star trek".

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: dulcimer42
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 09:29 PM

At a music festival, gal from Kentucky was commenting on a super hammered dulcimer player. "He's so good, and what's amazing is that he's blonde"   (Someone translated for us northerners, when we were wondering what being blonde had to do with it" She was actually saying, he's "blind.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,edthefolkie
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 05:54 AM

All the Robin Hoods I can think of. Costner is just dire and Errol Flynn is obviously from Oz (sorry, Tasmania). Sean Connery - Edinburgh as usual. Richard Todd - thinks he's still playing Guy Gibson.

Mind you it would have been a good laugh if the various Robins had had a proper dialect coach from Nottingham. Can you imagine them trying these?

"Ay up duck!" - Hello my old friend Will Scarlett.

"Ay up then!" - as above, but Will has not been around for some time.

"AY UP THEN!" - Look at that attractive Maid Marian over there.

"Ayergoterweeyer?" - Is Maid Marian with you today?

"Oowereewee?" - Who was that with the Sheriff?

"Eewerweeissen!" - The Sheriff was on his own.

And if you think that's impenetrable, try Ilkeston up the road!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:05 AM

'De Sherrip ob Dottiggab!'


[RH with a cold!]

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: goatfell
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:24 AM

the worst accent I think is those that are from Biringham England, I mean it just gets on your nerves.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Trevor
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:32 AM

Yow ay still all gooin on abaht this am ya? By the way, mah mate fell in the cut the other day. I ad t'ate me piece wi'aht it.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:34 AM

...Ed the Folkie, sorry to disagree with you old chum but Robin Hood was from Yorkshire not Nottingham, all the oldest ballads say so!
The Nottingham thing was a later invention!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 07:07 AM

Robin Hood from Yorkshire?? Just pseudo history duck, put about by people marketing former RAF airfields. And Barnsdale is a mediaeval scribe's error for Jacksdale.

I'll believe it when I see Sean Bean in green tights.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: IanC
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 07:35 AM

GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie

The earliest script of a Robin Hood play (circa 1380) has The Sheriff of Nottingham in, though. Barnsdale and Sherwood overlap.

;-)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 06:55 AM

When I was a kid, growing up in Peterborough, one of our teachers shouted at our class: "you kids have got the worst accent I've ever heard!"

A Peterborough accent sounds something like this:

"Ah y'all roight, mate? Did'ja come on y' boike?"

Although I deplore the fact that a person, charged with responsibility for our education, should seek to undermine our self-confidence in this way ... he may have had a point ... possibly?

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Bruce Michael Baillie
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 07:01 AM

...Robin Hood, Yorkshireman, FACT believe it or believe it not, and yes, Sean Bean would make a bloody good Robin Hood!
I'm not saying he didn't have anything at all to do with Nottingham or that area, as you say they are reasonably near, but, he was from Yorkshire, end of!
(...And he's certainly buried just down the road from me in Kirklees! so there!)

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 09:50 AM

" ... he may have had a point ... possibly?"

Nope. No such thing as a "good", "bad", "better" or "worse" accent. There are just accents.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 08 Aug 07 - 09:51 AM

Except in the sense of the OP - whether an affected accent is "convincing" or not, which is a different matter.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Patsy Warren
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 05:57 AM

Any English actor / comedian turned actor trying to do an American accent pretending to be American in an American production it really makes me squirm.

Old black and white movies where the working class people or villains speak as posh as the Queen, makes me laugh.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,essex girl
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 08:18 AM

Being an essex girl I am amazed at the number of times when abroad that I get asked if I am Austrailian. No not even by desent. What Column Sands says is right "you have no accent until you leave home".

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 09:11 AM

Why are folksingers getting off without a comment?

The worst I can recall was Janet Russell's idea of an Australian accent in a rendition of "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". It was equal parts Nashville and South London - not one word would have sounded local to anywhere in Australia. I don't think I've heard anything that bad in a movie.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 11:24 PM

If you ever have the chance to hear Leah Schultz channel the spirit Samuel I'd reccomend it. Not that you should take anything she says seriously. She doesn't really make sense. But her accent, unless she's hired a dialect coach, roams all over the British Isles, stopping in Ireland, before going to Wales, Scotland, Lancaster. It is entertaining to say the least.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Jayto
Date: 19 Jul 10 - 11:53 PM

Hollywood butchers southern accents all the time. Even actors from the south end up sounding stupid and fake most of the times. I think it is bc they think a true accent may be hard for some people to understand. I read up on the post where someone mentioned that about Frasier. Southern US accents do vary drastically depending on where you are but still Hollywood butchers them all the same. Larry the Cable Guy is a PRIME example. Yuck don't get me started on that whole "Country Music and Country Comedy" thing. My head will explode.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 20 Jul 10 - 02:15 AM

Gwineth Paltrow gets praise for her English accents but the first time I saw her was in Sliding Doors where she played a English woman. At that point, I didn't know that she was American, and I remember thinking, "What sort of accent is that!"

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Jul 10 - 02:40 AM

white middle class boys affecting gangsta speak. go actually hang in da hood fer a spell, ya poser.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Jul 10 - 07:00 PM

"Any English actor / comedian turned actor trying to do an American accent pretending to be American in an American production it really makes me squirm."

Does that include Hugh Laurie in "House". I've no idea if his accent actually sounds "authentic" to native Americans, but I'd the impression it was quite widely seen as reasonably so.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 21 Jul 10 - 08:05 AM

Apparently when he auditioned for the part the producers were unaware of his previous work and thought he *was* American.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Patsy Warren
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 04:38 AM

My own Bristolian accent, I have tried to hide it but after a drink or two out it comes. Well ah!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 05:39 AM

McG of H: "Any English actor / comedian turned actor trying to do an American accent pretending to be American in an American production it really makes me squirm."

Does that include Hugh Laurie in "House". I've no idea if his accent actually sounds "authentic" to native Americans, but I'd the impression it was quite widely seen as reasonably so.

Laurie sounds to do a reasonably good stab at it to me, too. Be interesting to have a US native confirm it, or otherwise.

How about Damian Lewis in "Band of Brothers" and "Life"? Again, he seems to do OK there, to this Englishman. And in "Dreamcatcher" he has to toggle between a US and English accent according to whether he's possessed or not at the time he's speaking.

I don't seem to have a problem understanding accents.

Although born well over the border into Yorkshire, I have no problem at all understanding the Lancashire "Ahve getten noan" joke posted in 2002 above. I don't believe any Yorkshire person would.

Brummie and Geordie are easy. I can tell the difference between a Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Kerry accent without much difficulty, though I was once caught out by a Glaswegian Scot when I asked what part of Ireland she came from. Good excuse though...her parents were from (London)Derry.

When working in Norway I was able to tell the difference between a fair number of local accents and dialects fairly quickly. I was stumped once, though, when our company was audited by a team from Statoil. I asked the Lead Auditor in a coffee break what part of Edinburgh he was from. His reply: "I'm from Oslo, but my wife's from Morningside"! He had it down perfectly. I suspect an Edinburgh native could have pinned it down to the district, but he was astonished that I could even name the city, as he'd always thought he had a neutral British accent.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 06:21 AM

You can certainly tell the difference here between Selsdon and New Addington which are less than one mile apart. The difference being that you cannot understand a word of hideous New Addington Estuary English gone very very wrong!!!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Jul 10 - 06:20 PM

I believe that Newfoundland is said to be the place with the greatest vaierty of local accents around the coast.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: LadyJean
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 12:48 AM

Hugh Laurie sounds like a "propah Bahstonian" when he plays House. Not unlikely for a doctor who lives in Princeton, an Ivy League town.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 04:28 AM

June Tabor singing King of Rome in an eckythumpoopnorth sort of way.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Allan C
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 05:19 AM

"he'd always thought he had a neutral British accent."

My wife was moaning one night about Star Trek. "All the aliens have American accents" I asked her what kind of accent she thought aliens would have! She claimed it would more believable if they were neutral and spoke like her because she doesn't have an accent. She is English, from Norwich, and doesn't speak with any English regional accent right enough, especially not a Norfolk one. However anyone could tell right away that she is English because of her English accent. Yet she still insists she has no accent. She just speaks properly :-)

---

Allan C., I'm going to have to ask you to choose another user name and use it consistently, and I would suggest that you should register as a member. The name Allan C. is already taken, by somebody in the United States. "Allan C - UK" or something like that would be fine. I have been deleting your messages because your posts appear to be impersonation.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 05:22 AM

I just got back from taking Bonzo to the local park. There were some young boys being organised into a sports session by several adults - great stuff, although I would have though that football is wrong for July, why not cricket??

That said, the adults were shouting instructions and kept on shouting baw???    Blah blah blah............"baw"??    Then I realised they meant "BALL" !! Can these people no longer pronounce the letter L??

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Betsy
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 10:04 AM

I speak with I suppose a strongish Norhern accent but infuriates me when kids and young grown ups around my area can't pronounce a double "tt" .
Hence "letter" is pronounced LEHH-A.I shan't bore you with all the other numerous examples.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: mayomick
Date: 31 Jul 10 - 11:40 AM

Caw luvvaduck, the worse accent had to have been Tommy Steele playing the 18th century highway man Jack Shepherd in the nineteen-seventies (?) film.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 09:03 AM

PS to Old Hippie:

You tossed "Transmigrations" into the trash, you say . . .

Besides the bad karma of choking Mother Earth with plastic, it was
foolish of you; a first edition on Kame'a Media went for close to eighty bucks on eBay, genius.

And - You really shouldn't use the wife's Midol tablets to get high. It obviously impairs your judgement.

"Those who can, do; those who can't, snipe at those who can."

Read my reviews @ www.kamea.com, Old Hippie. You may learn something.


Peace,

Wolf

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: allanc
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 12:39 PM

"Allan C., I'm going to have to ask you to choose another user name and use it consistently, and I would suggest that you should register as a member. The name Allan C. is already taken, by somebody in the United States."

Joe sorry for confusing folks. I am already a member and didn't know what the problem was. But I've been posting away from the original PC I registered on so posted under guest as I couldn't log on. I honestly thought my mudcat title was Allan C. Howvever now back at the original PC I find it is allanc. Over the past couple of days I've been posting under Allan Con so will change the membership details to that as obviously it's confusing to have an allanc and Allan C.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Aug 10 - 08:11 PM

You don't have to post as a GUEST just because you are away from your normal PC - just click on "membership" up the top and sign in.

I've done that on friend's computers, in libraries, and on a weird internet connection they had in a hospital ward attached to the bedsie TV. I think there are some office systems which won't allow that, but apart from that, you never need to be a GUEST.

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Allan Con
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 04:39 AM

"You don't have to post as a GUEST just because you are away from your normal PC - just click on "membership" up the top and sign in."

Yeagh thanks I knew that but the problem was I couldn't remember my log-in details. Or at least I thought it wasn't working because it wasn't letting me sign in - obviously because I was trying to sign in as Allan C rather than allanc. I do use Allan C on other forums which confused me. You're dealing with the most disorganised person in Christendom here so I should write things down and not go from memory.

Just tried to sign up again this morning with new username and it keeps knocking me back so after three attempts it is easier just to post as guest at least for this tea break!

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 10 - 05:04 AM

Allan-
Please don't submit a new membership. E-mail me for help.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Worst accent or what?
From: GUEST,Wolf
Date: 08 Aug 10 - 10:17 AM

I would like to apologize to Old Hippie, for the tone and content of my post directed to him/her.

Wolf