Dialects/Accents in the Movies

[Cricket]

http://http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#LargeMap5Left

Above is a link to a dialect map of North America. If you check out New Orleans you will find that it has more distinct English dialects than any city in N.A. Scroll around the map and you will find links to Youtube videos of some New Orleans accents. Check out the New Orleans Yat accent. I'm from N.O. and when I travel I can't tell you how many people tell me "you can't be from New Orleans, you don't have a "southern accent."" [And I thank gawd fa dat.]

After reading your post, I instantly shook my head in agreement. People from New Orleans do not have "the southern accent." I can't really describe it, it's just....New Orleans.
My father's family is from Houma, and they have an accent all their own.

 

[hatophile]

The New Orleans accent is a mixture of Creole, Southern, Italian, Irish, African American, Cajun and just about anything else from that region. As 4 Spurs noted, the accents are distinctive even throughout the city depending on which district one is from. A very strong New Orleans accent sounds almost Brooklynese. On the youtube videos, it's worth listening to the native speakers just to get a feel for the different nuances in the accents. Cajun is an accent all its own.

 

[Trombone]

In reference to Flipped Lid

I understand, I hope you guys weren't too taken with my statements, and hopefully you noticed my subtle humor.

 

[Flipped Lid]

In reference to Flipped Lid

I understand, I hope you guys weren't too taken with my statements, and hopefully you noticed my subtle humor.

I probably missed it and no problem at all. By the way, there's a lot of good folks up that way. I've always enjoy my visits there.

 

[cookie]

Here's a link to a short clip from the 1934 Australian movie "Strike me lucky". It has a mix of migrant accents and working class and upper class Australian accents.

Thanks Lolly.

My great aunt Lilly Molloy was a famous actress and comedienne of the early 20thc. She died youngish tragically in 1954 but in the late 40s we owned the famous (now demolished) Newcastle Hotel in Sydney in George St. My aunt used to get in there with her friend Roy Rene (Harry van der Sluys) and they would start cracking gags and doing their schtick. Of course the humour was side splitting to the great amusement of the punters gathered in the bar.

Here she is in some National Archival stuff with Winnie O'Sullivan who was the girlfriend of the famous boxer Les Darcey who died in America in 1917. http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-pa-http%3A...2Fcollections-search%2Fdisplay%3Firn%3D124690

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/15785413?searchTerm=lily molloy&searchLimits=

 

[Rathdown]

You have Seany's actual boots? Wow. Always thought that would be a fantastic costume for a convention, but would never actually have the nerve myself.... Thoroughly entertaining film: wonderfully awful.

Yup... I bought them when the contents of Ardmore Studios (National Film Studios of Ireland) were auctioned off when it went bankrupt. They are a bit scuffed up, but still waaaaay cool. I'm open to offers if anyone is interested in buying them...

I agree about the film... even Charlotte Rampling didn't save it.

 

[Haversack]

One of the uses that Hollywood has made of the Mid-Atlantic/Received Pronunciation, (i.e. 'English'), accent is to provide distance and suspension of disbelief to American audiences when a film is set in the past in foreign countries. If the actors are speaking with a standard American accent, (or worse, a regional American accent), it becomes harder for the audience to buy into the movie. The 'English' accent helps allow the audience to accept that the characters in a movie are speaking a language 'of not here and now' while still being perfectly understandable. It also avoids the pitfalls of descending into dialect comedy.

 

[Decado]

Jeremy Irons "German" accent in Die Hard 3 still makes me laugh. At least Alan Rickman didn't bother in the first one.

 

[The Wolf]

Any thoughts on Bogart's accent from "Dark Victory"?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[C-dot]

Any thoughts on Bogart's accent from "Dark Victory"?

There may have been some attempt made, but it was inimitably Bogie's natural voice, I thought.

I watched Personal Property (1937) today, and it killed me that Robert Taylor was supposed to be a London native but spoke with an American accent lol

 

[Widebrim]

I watched Personal Property (1937) today, and it killed me that Robert Taylor was supposed to be a London native but spoke with an American accent lol

In Waterloo Bridge, he was supposed to be Scots, and still spoke like an Nebraskan...

 

[Chasseur]

Hey Chasseur, since you're from Hawaii, any movies that pick up a good local accent?

That is a good question. Really no one I can think of from what I can remember from old Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, Jake and the Fat Man, Raven (who remembers that from the early 1990s?), North Shore (yuck!), new Hawaii Five-O, etc. Basically one of three things happen:

(1) Most of the time they just cast people not from Hawaii and have them not try an accent. This is somewhat easy to justify because so many people who live here are recent arrivals or temporary short-term residents, especially in Honolulu/Oahu. Also, it makes the characters easy for a mainland or international audiance to identify with, etc. Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, etc. all followed this model.

(2) Hire a few locals, normally local celebrities, in very token parts to add "local color" to the show and have authentic accents. But these are really small recurring parts (bartender at club where main characters hang out etc.). Local comedian Andy Bumatai used to show up in that role on Raven and also some of the other 1990s shows.

(3) Very rarely get someone not from Hawaii to try a Pidgin accent, like what they make Grace Park which comes off pretty bad since she's Canadian... This can sometime be done intentionally bad (I think...) like Rob Schneider in 50 First Dates.

 

[hatophile]

I was curious, as the native Hawaiian speech is very distinct from the haoles. I would think it would be a hard dialect to recreate unless you've spent much time there talking with the natives.

 

[Nobert]

No movie, made by anyone, anywhere, at any time, has ever truly captured a proper Maine accent. What you usually end up with is a Kennedy Boston accent mixed with leavings from a "Bert and I" record album. That ain't the real thing, nosah.

Not a movie exactly, but the accents in the cable show Empire Falls (filmed about 10 miles from where I grew up) made me just about fall over laughing. "What are all these people from Brooklyn doing in rural Maine?" It is a toughie, I've lived in this state since I was eight years old, and still can't really do the accent.

 

[zombi]

I'm a big fan of the idea that Ancient Romans always spoke with posh British accents. What ho, Brutus?

Ahaha, I love this, too. It's excellent.

 

[W-D Forties]

The New Orleans accent is a mixture of Creole, Southern, Italian, Irish, African American, Cajun and just about anything else from that region. As 4 Spurs noted, the accents are distinctive even throughout the city depending on which district one is from. A very strong New Orleans accent sounds almost Brooklynese. On the youtube videos, it's worth listening to the native speakers just to get a feel for the different nuances in the accents. Cajun is an accent all its own.

How did they do in 'The Big Easy'? That tends to be how I imagine a New Orleans / Creole accent, was it even close?

 

[bil_maxx]

Sometimes I think the Brits do a better southern accent than we do.


But probably the 2 worst accents of any kind I've ever heard:

Kevin Costner in JFK

Kevin Costner in 13 Days

Is there one I missed?

Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.

 

[bil_maxx]

The guy that always amazes me is Hugh Jackman. When I first saw him in the original "X-Men", I couldn't believe he was Australian. He did a spot on Canadian accent. I know it is probably very hard for a non-Canadian to hear it, but there are small nuances and pronunciations that we have that Hugh hit perfectly. And no, I dont mean "eh" and "aboot", etc. We grind our "rs" a little harder than everyone else for example and he got it. He must have listened to a lot of Canadians or had a voice coach, it was filmed in Toronto so not hard to find.

In "Swordfish" he speaks with a non descript American accent to perfection. No hint of Australian at all. There is the slightest difference between the Canadian and American accent, but it's there and he does it convincingly. In "The Prestige" and "Van Helsing" his English accents are just superb. He's really quite a talent with accents.

 

[C-dot]

The guy that always amazes me is Hugh Jackman. When I first saw him in the original "X-Men", I couldn't believe he was Australian. He did a spot on Canadian accent.

Did you notice that too? He even got our upward inflections. Very talented indeed!

 

[Fletch]

There may have been some attempt made, but it was inimitably Bogie's natural voice, I thought.

He was so patently a New Yorker, I easily bought him as an acculturated Irish immigrant.