# Faking foreign accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2004, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529 "2004-09-01T03:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/61 "2004-11-24T21:12:07Z")
> [@jastu](#): > > Was the show “Without a Trace”? His brother Jonathon was also in a series “7 Days”. > > [Here](http://www.afc.gov.au/faqs/osaustralians/actors/default.aspx) is a list of Aussies currently working overseas. Most Americans I’ve come across have no idea many of these well known actors are actually Aussies, so their American accents must be passable. > > I have yet to hear an American do a decent Aussie accent. Some of those ‘Aussies’ could be described as Kiwis eg Sam Neil and Russell Crowe - typical! I agree, I have yet to hear an authentic Aussie accent that wasn’t coming from an Aussie. The ones often on the Simpsons are a nice try though. I’m very impressed with Renee Zellweger 's British accent in Bridget Jone’s Diary. ---
**Author:** ![jastu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jastu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jastu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/62 "2004-11-25T02:42:27Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Some of those ‘Aussies’ could be described as Kiwis eg Sam Neil and Russell Crowe - typical! Very true **Mel** , in fact I should have commented on that myself. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/63 "2004-11-25T03:07:10Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > I have yet to hear an authentic Aussie accent that wasn’t coming from an Aussie. The ones often on the Simpsons are a nice try though. Yes and no. American TV has traditonally had this idea that Australian = Cockney, and you have these “Australians” saying “it’s a larf, innit guv?” (or at least sounding like they _should_ be saying that, given the accent). To take the classic “Boot” episode of _The Simpsons_, the little Australian boy that answered the phone was woeful, but I do suspect the creators of that show are smart enough to know that, and it was a deliberate play on Americans doing accents. Whatever it was, all the vowels were wrong and he sounded 50% London East End and 50% Kiwi (“Thit’s tirribul!!”). The little boy’s father, on the other hand, was most excellent. His voice was done either by an American who was damn good at it, or an Australian who was charicaturing himself just ever so slightly. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/64 "2004-11-25T04:54:05Z")
violet9 writes: \> . . . there still exists a local accent among some longtime residents of the county. Yes, I’ve already acknowledged that. So what? As I have said, that’s now only a small proportion of the residents of the county. Heck, it’s only a small proportion of the white residents of the county. For that matter, it’s not even the majority of the white residents of the county who were born here. Your observations might apply to residents of the county 50 years ago, but they’re completely out of date now. ---
**Author:** ![DharmicChaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed655f/32.png) [@DharmicChaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DharmicChaos)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/65 "2004-11-25T05:07:08Z")
What’s all this crazy talk about Canadians having an accent? Canadian Prairies accent? Canadians sound like Minnesotans and vice versa? I live on the Canadian prairies, and I don’t have no accent–though, like most native Albertans, I do tend to clip the pronounciation of my hometown and provincial captial’s names: “Edmonton” becomes “Em-min-ton”, and “Calgary” (supposed to be three syllables) becomes “Cal-gry” (two syllables) Excuse my stupidty (or not), but does slang/phraseology count as accent? I know a lot of Americans would probably be puzzled if I walked into one their bars on a cold night and said, “I just crossed the muskeg on my Skidoo, running from Officer McGrady in his ghost car. He’s such a shit disturber. I lost my touque and need a mickey of Ceasar to warm me up, eh.” Oh, and finally, is accent synonymous with dialect? And as for Austrailians? I gave up trying to understand them long ago. “Mumble mumble mumble beer, mumble mumble mumble sheila.” (I jest of course) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/66 "2004-11-25T07:19:57Z")
> [@DharmicChaos](#): > > Oh, and finally, is accent synonymous with dialect? No. Accent is an aspect of dialect, but dialect also includes vocabulary and, in some cases, syntax. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529/67 "2004-11-25T17:42:59Z")
And Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Without a Trace is English…so there are at least 3 fake American accents on that show that fly under the radar every week. And Brad Pitt did a HORRIBLE norn irn (that’s Northern Irish) accent in the Devil’s Own. Just dreadful. Interestingly, it’s word choices rather than the actual accents that tend to make the fakeness of an accent jar with me. For example, “boyo” is usually associated with Welsh, not Irish, people, and “laddie” would come out of the mouth of a Scotsman more commonly than an Irishman. So when I hear the “irish” terrorist addressing his hostage as “boyo” or “laddie”, it ruins it for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/faking-foreign-accents/262529.md?page=3)