Accents
While watching House the other day, I was thinking again about the different accents in English-speaking countries. There seems to be a weird non-symmetrical effect in how easy people in one English-speaking country seem to find it to recognise the native accent of another English-speaking country.
For example, Hugh Laurie seems to me to be able to produce quite a convincing American accent (note that my point here is about how easy it is to recognise an accent, not reproduce it, which is much harder). However, as a British-English speaker, it’s perhaps not surprising if I can’t pick up the subtleties of an American-English accent. But many American viewers find his accent very authentic, and are often amazed to find out he’s British. There’s a running gag in Flight of the Conchords about Americans thinking Bret and Jemaine are British rather than New Zealanders. When I went to the States, many people I met thought I was Australian.
It doesn’t seem to by a symmetrical effect. Dick Van Dyke’s wincingly bad Cockney accent in Mary Poppins set a new benchmark for bad accents, but even American actors with reasonably good mimicry skills can be detected1. Adam Monroe did a pretty good British accent as Takezo Kensei in Heroes, but I could tell immediately that he was not a native British-English speaker before I knew what his nationality was. Other American-English speaking actors who have attempted British-English accents (like Gwyneth Paltrow), have often been quite convincing, but their accent is still detectable to British-English speakers as non-native. Meanwhile, many Australian actors use British-English or American-English accents, and I can’t tell that they are not native speakers.
Note that I’m honestly not getting at Americans here. British people have similar troubles telling a Canadian accent from an American one, or an Australian accent from a New Zealand one. I have particular trouble telling South Africans from New Zealanders, unless the accents are fairly extreme, or the person says particular words (“six” being a handy diagnostic feature). I’m just wondering why — even between pairs of accents — there’s a non-symmetrical effect in how easy either party finds it to recognise the accent of the other. Is it a matter of exposure to the accent? We certainly get a lot of American TV, films and music in Britain. Or is it because we have a wider range of native accents in Britain (I’m not even sure if this is true), so our ears are more highly tuned to detecting differences? It could even be something to do with the time of divergence of the accents from the ancestral stock.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m intrigued by the problem.
1 I’d be interested to know if his accent sounds reasonably authentic to an American-English speaker, though. ↑
1
The two I always found most impressive were Mike Myers (a Canadian) doing a Scottish accent (Shrek et al) which I always find very believable, and Brad Pitt's pikey/Irish in Snatch - with that role you'd never believe he wasn't Irish.
All very impressive.
But yeah, there've been some right stinkers over the years too. Too many to count, in fact.
by Lyle @ 30/04/2008 5:55 pm • Permalink •
2
Many North Americans didn't realise "House" was English until his Grammy acceptance speech, including my English brother who has lived in Canada since 1972, who my sister in law says sat bolt upright and said "Bloody hell, it's Bertie Wooster!"
The tell with a New Zealand accent is the way they pronounce the pronoun "His", it comes out as "Huz" in the NZ variation of what was originally the Cockney accent exported with those Transported to Van Diemen's Land.
The Melbourne Australians end their sentences on a rising inflection, as do many Canadians.
The (white) South African accent is tending towards the Australian/NZ accent, no longer being the GBH of the 'ear'oles that once it was as the countries seem to have been mutually attractive to emigrants.
The Zimbabwean/Botswanan (colonial Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland) accents are gentler versions of the SA accent.
I love accents, and practice them for fun - Strangely, I am married to a Scot who has lived in England so long can't do a Scottish accent, much to the amusement of my daughter and I.
by Jonathan Briggs @ 30/04/2008 6:47 pm • Permalink •
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"Six" is a useful vowel diagnostic for Aussie vs. NZ accents - "seeks" vs. "sux" respectively. For Southern African vs. Australasian try "car" - the Africans tend to turn the "a" into something approaching an "o".
I think that it's exposure to many many different accents though our media that gives (I generalise) non-North American English-speakers a bit of a head start in parsing accents.
by Alan @ 30/04/2008 8:35 pm • Permalink •
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Regarding Dick Van Dyke's fake Cockney accent as heard by an American-English speaker - nope, doesn't sound authentic at all, at least to me, but I tend to be more familiar with British-English accents than the norm. Still, it's SO gratingly bad that I can't imagine most American-English speakers find it terribly convincing.
Interestingly, I tend to pick up accents easily and when around my British-English speaking friends for a few days have been mistaken for a British-English or Irish-English speaker by both American-English and British-English speakers. A few years ago a recently arrived in the States UK native, overhearing a friend from Sheffield and I discuss some recent UK news, turned to me and asked "So how long have you been in the States?" When I told him my entire life he was gob-smacked, swearing he thought I was British from my accent and the topic of conversation.
Specifically, I'm told I tend to sound as if I'm from around Devon, so I suppose it is possible for an American-English speaker to at least sound like an expat Brit.
by Doug @ 30/04/2008 10:09 pm • Permalink •
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I think you're right about exposure to different accents. I spent a year in Canada and now have no problem distinguishing Canadians from Americans.
(The trick—listen for the "ou" sound. Canadians pronounce it "oa". So "about" becomes "aboat", "house" becomes "hoase", etc.)
by Martin Polley @ 01/05/2008 6:06 am • Permalink •
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I'm from Holland and I thought Takezo Kensei sounded British. Although one has to admit it's very much "BBC british". Lately the BBC has taken to using more regional accents in the shows they broadcast but overall I still have to say that people that are on are very easily understandable. This in contrast to real life englishmen and -women who can often be hard to understand until you get used to the accent. I always have particular problems the first day in London, although Scotland amazed me in how easy to understand people actually were. Maybe they took pity upon the poor Dutch people.
by Harold @ 01/05/2008 11:16 am • Permalink •
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Fun topic! I have a hybrid accent myself (Brit father, American mother, grew up in Spain in English schools) and Americans have no trouble detecting that I'm not really American (though are usually dogmatic in their assumption I'm Irish, South African, Australian, English, or Canadian), whereas Brits find my English accent almost undectectable but assume I'm Canadian (though I lack the Ontario "oat and aboat" vowel).
I think Dick Van Dyke wouldn't get that part nowadays: dialect coaches are fairly standard in Hollywood now.
Question: how did Renee Zellweger's Bridget Jones' Diary RP go down in the UK?
by Pica @ 01/05/2008 1:44 pm • Permalink •
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I don't know the answer either ... but I can always tell someone from Pennsylvania or New Jersey. I just can't tell them much, LOL!
Now, I'm a Southerner but I thought Johnny Depp was spot on with his British accent as Captain Jack Sparrow in Curse of the Black Pearl. Couldn't believe it when I found out he's from Kentucky.
But then, I think Johnny's spot on about most things, heh heh ...
by Jenny @ 01/05/2008 5:01 pm • Permalink •
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Very interesting topic, especially to a foreign learner as myself (I'm from Italy but I'm about to move to the UK). As such, I guess I could say that telling the difference between an American and an English accent is pretty straightforward to anyone with a decent knowledge of the language: it also helps greatly to visit either the UK or the US in person.
On the other hand, it took me a whole lot more to be able to tell the difference between an Australian and a British accent, let alone New Zealand. And I still don't have a clue about how to tell a Canadian from an American.
Also, it's very tough for me to say whether an American is doing a convincing British accent, except for the case of Mr Van Dyke that is! For example, I did find Renée Zellweger's British accent as Bridget Jones very good, but I may be completely wrong; same goes for Natalie Portman in "V for Vendetta".
Finally, I guess you've seen this already as it got quite popular around the net a couple of months ago, but if you haven't I strongly suggest you check out this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k
by Leonardo Cassarani @ 01/05/2008 5:18 pm • Permalink •
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Re Americans, what about James Marsters as Spike in Buffy/Angel? His accent was excellent--in fact, didn't realize he was American until much later.
Amusingly, I used to live in Spain for a few months and, at the time of the Falklands War, found myself on a train from Spain to Italy with what I thought was a Spaniard. We'd been chatting for a while, in Spanish, when he said "You're not Spanish, are you?" I said, "No, and nor are you--where are you from?" "Argentina." "Oh." We decided to remain friends for the purposes of the journey.
by Jolyon @ 01/05/2008 7:21 pm • Permalink •
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Re: Dick Van Dyke--nope-- didn't sound real to me even as a kid--worse so now.
I don't know if there are more British accents than American-- ours are distinct to American ears-- from New York City to Long Island, to New England (which has a bunch of variants), and on--crossing cultural, ethnic, regional and racial lines, there are probably a few dozen--most of which are discernible to we Americans.
Still, according to my wife, daughters, and sisters there apparently is no more appealing dialect than a British one.
And, yes, House sounds 'murican to me, and I was shocked to hear him speak in his native tongue.
by Tony Iovino @ 02/05/2008 5:28 pm • Permalink •
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Lyle: Yes, Mike Myers is fairly impressive, though I wonder if native Scottish-English speakers can tell he isn't genuine. I haven't heard Brad Pitt in Snatch.
Jonathan Briggs: Or "yis" for "yes", but only if it's a fairly extreme accent. Many British undergraduates end their sentences on a rising inflection too, something that is very annoying, particularly when you start doing it too?
Alan: I'll remember the "car" tip. I think that you might be right about exposure.
Doug: re: Dick Van Dyke - I'm quite relieved about that! It really was terrible! I also pick up accents, but only in my head, by which I mean that I start thinking in a Scottish accent (or whatever). I also pick up dialect words, so when I worked in Scotland, I started (without realising it) saying "aye" instead of "yes". The fact that it came out in my Home Counties accent made the people I was talking to think I was taking the mickey, but it was totally unconscious.
Martin Polley: I can get that distinction sometimes, but some Canadians have quite soft accents, and the "ou" sound is harder to detect.
Harold: I think he was going for an RSC 'Shakespeare' accent. It's pretty good, but he gets the vowels wrong occasionally, which is a dead giveaway. And he just sounds like someone trying to get an accent right. On the subject of Heroes, I wonder if Japanese people can tell that the actor who plays Ando is Korean, not Japanese from his accent? There were also some terrible Oirish accents in the last episode. Did you go to Glasgow? Very strong Glaswegian accents are difficult for English people to understand, though I do love being called "hen"
Pica: Interesting! She did a reasonable job I suppose, but again, she sounded like someone putting an accent on, and there was a lack of naturalness which was quite telling.
Jenny: Heh - Johnny Depp was just channelling Keith Richards for that part. Since Keith has kind of a weird accent, unlike anyone else in Britain, he got away with it. Plus he's a huge fan of British comedy, so I think he had a bit of a head start.
Leonardo Cassarani: Interesting that you also find it harder to tell Australian, British, New Zealand and Canadian accents apart.
Jolyon: I didn't actually see him in Buffy, but I could tell he wasn't British when he played Captain John in Torchwood. Again, it was a fairly good accent, but his vowels were showing. I once got mistaken for a native French speaker by a waiter in New Caledonia. Baffling, because my French accent is terrible.
Tony Iovino: I'm sure you're right about the number of accents. Perhaps what I meant was that we have a lot of accents in a small geographical area. For example, the Lancashire accent is quite distinct from the Yorkshire one, despite the areas being right next to one another. There were probably even more at one time, but increased mobility has meant that accents are getting more homogenised.
by bsag @ 04/05/2008 6:03 pm • Permalink •
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