Worst accent or what?

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.