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Brits Doing An American Accent!

Forums: Tv, Accents, British Accent, American Accent
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Frank Apisa
 
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 11:06 am
American television is alive with Brits and Aussies doing American roles. Several of the True Blood actors speak with non-American accents in real life… two of the leading characters of my favorite series, Homeland, are Brits.

Fact is, Brits are much, much better at doing American accents than Americans are at doing British accents.

Anyway, this all reminds me of a poem I wrote many years ago.

I offer it for your consideration.


He’s An Englishman Doing An American Accent

He’s an Englishman
Doing an American accent.
Which means he’s gonna use “gonna” a lot.

And he’s gonna use “wanna” every bit as much.
“Gotta” will be working overtime, too,
As will the double negatives.

If you are an Englishman
Who wants to do an American accent,
A great sentence to practice would be:

“I don’t wanna be no party pooper,
But I gotta be home by 10,
So I’m gonna leave now.”
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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 6,089 • Replies: 52

 
Ceili
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 11:35 am
Frank Apisa
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 12:13 pm
@Frank Apisa,
By the way, I discovered I had posted this little poem here in A2K long ago. Sorry for the repeat, but I think it is a neat little poem.

One of the other forums where I post may be closing down...and I am going to move some stuff from there to here. If I repeat anything...I apologize.
0 Replies
 
InfraBlue
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 01:40 pm
@Ceili,
Uncanny! The British sound exactly the same only with Brit accents!
Frank Apisa
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 01:50 pm
@InfraBlue,
The Brits claim there is no such thing as a British accent. There is, however, an American accent.

I guess they think they own the language.
Ceili
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 02:43 pm
@Frank Apisa,
Go on.. the Brits know they have accents, tons of them and they seem to change every five miles. It's us that can't pick out a Jordie from the Queen. Just like there is not only one American accent...
Frank Apisa
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 03:02 pm
@Ceili,
Quote:
Go on.. the Brits know they have accents, tons of them and they seem to change every five miles. It's us that can't pick out a Jordie from the Queen. Just like there is not only one American accent...


You are right as rain, Ceili. I lived in England for two years...and can spot many of them.

But an American speaking with a Brit about an English accent gets a warm smile of condescension. The accent is the American sounding one!
dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Fri 22 Jun, 2012 03:43 pm
@Frank Apisa,
The one with the accent is the one who sounds different from you.

I have found as many from the US are as iggerant about the relativity of accents as those from the UK.

I'd be surprised if most non-US English speakers were not fully aware of the variety of US accents, though I admit I can't really hear the difference between a Canadian accent and what sounds to me like a pretty generic US accent.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 05:22 am
@Frank Apisa,
The reason we're so good at American accents is because we hear them one hell of a lot. About 50% of what's shown on TV is American. How much American TV is British?

We don't accept the term 'British accent,' because there is no accent that sounds Welsh, Scottish and English at the same time.

Denzel Washington carried it off in this film because he didn't attempt a 'British' accent, he spent some time in the East End and spoke with an East London accent.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51M1R1EAB6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Dick Van Dyke spoke with an accent that you only hear in Disney films. Nobody over here uses the term 'guvnor,' nor pronounces lovely 'luvverly.'

The 'ugh' sound predominates over here, and Americans are often caught out using the words 'pentagon' and 'python.' We say 'Pen tugh gughn' and 'py thughn.'
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:00 am
You say that, and yet seem to think that there is any such thing as an "American" accent. A lumberjack from Maine and a fisherman from the coast of the Carolinas could barely understand one another.

Izzytheputz strikes again.
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:05 am
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:

You say that, and yet seem to think that there is any such thing as an "American" accent.


Where have I said that?

Setanta the unthinking anglophobe strikes again.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:06 am
When Galsworthy tried to do American speech, the character "reckoned" a good deal. What is hilarious is not so much the tripe the English produce when claiming to do "American speech," but the confidence with which they assert they can do it. I enjoy the novels of Bernard Cornwell, but then i read Rebel from his "Starbuck" series--it was pathetic. The man has no clue about speech patterns in the United States.
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:10 am
@Setanta,
You certainly know a lot about talking tripe.
Setanta
 
  2  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:15 am
@izzythepush,
Yeah, i've read way too many of your posts.
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:17 am
@Setanta,
Read, but not really understood.
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:22 am
The prejudices which arise from accents are interesting, too. The people of coastal Georgia and the Carolinas speak with a particularly thick and unique accent, even to this day--even other Southerners can have difficulties understanding them.

About twenty years ago, i was watching a television program with an acquaintance. There was a prominent scholar in the field offering his expert opinion. This man was obviously from coastal Georgia or the Carolinas, based on his accent. My friend (born and raised in Ohio) commented that although he knew this man has impecccable credentials, and that he spoke fluently to a subject which he knows well--he (my friend) never hears a Southern accent without thinking to himself "ignorant redneck." I wasn't surprised to hear that.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:22 am
@izzythepush,
You're a legend in your own mind.
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:23 am
@Setanta,
At least I have one, and I don't need to resort to cliches.
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:28 am
It's like listening to kindergarten children arguing tit for tat. Grow up Izzy.
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sat 23 Jun, 2012 06:34 am
@Setanta,
Running out of ripostes, you've already used that one on Spades.

You're the one who decided to pick a fight and now you're running scared.

Now you can take another fifteen minutes to come back with another worn-out hackneyed old phrase.

Or you could do smething about your Emma Freuds.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/4/21/1271858513983/emma-freud-001.jpg
 

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