Which notable people had an accent of their own– meaning one not a recognizable regional accent or foreign accent – but perhaps a unique creation or rare mixture of accents. Or perhaps an accent that is out of place with origins.
The examples that come to my mind are:
Cary Grant . I know he supposedly blended his earlier English accent with American. However, I don’t hear how his accent came from any English accent or which American accent he adopted.
Sarah Palin – It seems to be an extreme upper Midwestern accent with a tendency to invent new forms of syntax. (Maybe she has an unfamiliar regional accent?)
Arlen Specter – He sounded strangely southern or Texan for a senator from Pennsylvania.
Eartha Kitt – Her accent was very unique, vaguely French.
Keith Richards. Is his accent some regional British accent? Or is it just Keefeese?
Ted Bundy – A rather “clipped” accent that led some witnesses to describe him as British or Canadian - though it was neither.
It seems like a blend of regional accents from the southeast corner of England, including essex/estuary. His inflection and spoken mannerisms are more unique, but aren’t part of his accent.
I just saw Devid Sedaris on his current speaking/reading tour. Did not detect any noticeable accent at all. I know he’s originally from North Carolina but he sounds as non-descript American as you can get. Like Northwest meets Northeast and cancels one another out.
Every city, town, and village in England has it’s own accent. The larger ones have multiple accents. Even if they sound odd any English accent may have a home in a 200 square metre area. I’m not sure how big 200 square metres is but the English do, and they’ll openly deride the accents of the people living in the next 200 square metres over.
I started a thread about one such person recently but didn’t get any replies. Here was part of my OP. Everything I can find suggests that he is a real person despite sounding like he is from Transylvania. He has the most bizarre accent and speaking style that I have ever heard. His stories linked below are worth a listen.
The Kennedy family may also count. They have (or had) their own very strong accent. Despite living in the Boston area for 20 years, I have only met one other person that talks even remotely like they do and she may be related to them as well for all I know.
I thought they had variants of an older, upper-class northeastern accent that is all but extinct…though I think Franklin Roosevelt or Jim Backus were better examples. I have read that William F. Buckley’s first language was Spanish, from his childhood in Latin America. He also attended the National University in Mexico City.
Yes, Buckley was educated in Mexico and the U.S. And I could be wrong but I believe he studied in Britain for a while. His accent seems to be of his own derivation though. I’ve read that none of his siblings had the same accent he did.
Loyd Grossman. Yes, he grew up in Boston and spent most of his adult life in England, which goes some way to creating an unusual accent. But the way he speaks is something quite special.
From The Moth storytelling, on NPR and YouTube, I ran across Edgar Oliver. I hadn’t recalled his name, but the minute I saw this thread, I thought of him and Googled “Moth stories strange accent” and his various times on The Moth were all at the top of the search results
I don’t know in regards to famous people but I once came across this cashier girl at a pretzel stand in Tennessee that to me sounded like she had a bad speech impediment. Her co worker mentioned she was surprised I didn’t ask about her accent because so many do. I guess…I then said, “oh, I just figured she was mentally handicapped” and walked away with my pretzel.
She likely had an accent along with a bad speech impediment, she slurred words together more than anything…that’s not an accent.
Sean Connery has an accent that is undeniably on the “Scottish Accent” spectrum, but he’s the only one who has that precise one. My mum reckons it’s because his false teeth don’t fit properly.
