Worst accent or what?

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

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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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,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,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,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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Aug 07 - 06:05 AM

'De Sherrip ob Dottiggab!'


[RH with a cold!]

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: 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: Betsy
Date: 06 Aug 07 - 05:59 PM

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 07:24 AM

Bostin.

eric

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: 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,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: 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: 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.