# People with an accent entirely their own... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2015, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297 "2015-08-08T07:12:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/21 "2015-08-08T22:47:04Z")
James Earl Jones has what can only be called his own accent - or at least, I’ve never heard anyone else speak like him. In his case, there’s an understandable reason for it: he had a very severe stutter as a child, to the point where he didn’t speak for eight years: > [@](#): > > Jones found the transition to moving to his grandparents’ farm in Jackson, Michigan, at the age of five, to be traumatic, and he developed a stutter so severe he refused to speak. When he moved to Brethren, Michigan, in later years, a teacher at the Brethren schools helped him overcome his stutter. He remained functionally mute for eight years, until he entered high school. He credits his English teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence.[6] Crouch urged him to challenge his disinclination to speak (From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Jones).) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/22 "2015-08-08T22:50:14Z")
Tina Turner. Nina Simone. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/23 "2015-08-08T23:03:00Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > 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 😉 > > His accent is simply amazing and truly all his own - no real way to describe: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJWHwTUvwU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJWHwTUvwU) You don’t read previous posts do you? There is no problem with that that. He is my #1 too (posted above) and his stories about his life are beyond bizarre. I have tried to figure out if he is a real person rather than playing a character and everything I can come up with suggests that he is real. If anyone wants to listen to his stories, he is amazing but start at the bottom with “The Apron Strings of Savannah” and work your way up. The stories aren’t that long but they are unique. I think I just got a lot more screwed up just by exposure. [http://themoth.org/posts/storytellers/edgar-oliver](http://themoth.org/posts/storytellers/edgar-oliver) ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/24 "2015-08-08T23:21:00Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > 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. Not defending the verifiability of his accent, but my family were expats and each of us kids learned to talk in a different country, and our accents are are all noticably different now as adults. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/25 "2015-08-08T23:21:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > 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. Edgar Oliver certainly has his own accent, if that is his usual voice. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/26 "2015-08-09T00:38:23Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > You don’t read previous posts do you? There is no problem with that that. He is my #1 too (posted above) and his stories about his life are beyond bizarre. I have tried to figure out if he is a real person rather than playing a character and everything I can come up with suggests that he is real. If anyone wants to listen to his stories, he is amazing but start at the bottom with “The Apron Strings of Savannah” and work your way up. The stories aren’t that long but they are unique. I think I just got a lot more screwed up just by exposure. > > [http://themoth.org/posts/storytellers/edgar-oliver](http://themoth.org/posts/storytellers/edgar-oliver) :smack: :smack: Sorry **Shagnasty** - thought I had but so very clearly missed it. So much for my smartphone usage. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/27 "2015-08-09T01:20:01Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > :smack: :smack: > > Sorry **Shagnasty** - thought I had but so very clearly missed it. So much for my smartphone usage. No problem. I think Edgar Oliver is real rather than a character because I met someone much like him before. There used to be a ‘store’ on Newbury Street in Boston (the toniest area in Boston) called Gargoyles, Grotesques & Chimeras except it wasn’t really a store in the conventional sense. It had no signs to distinguish it from the other almost identical buildings around and, although I found it many times, it simply disappeared most of the time and I had to find it again. Once you got inside, it was nothing but a scattered array of religious artifacts laid out like a warehouse style pillage of very large artifacts ranging from Catholic to Celtic to Protestant with this odd single key piano music playing in the background. There was no organization, no price tags or anything else (I posted about the music years ago and someone who was also an enthusiast of this incredibly eccentric store sent me a copy of the music - it is called Melancholy with No End and I love it). The relevance to this thread is that I know the owner of that store is a very real person. He freaked my then high-school aged brother right out when he described the history of the ‘Green Man’ that I bought for him. He sounded a whole lot like Edgar Oliver does today but he was nice, knowledgeable and sincere. It is like you stumbled upon the Addams Family gift store. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/28 "2015-08-09T01:24:36Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > 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?) It’s a total affectation. She was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska very young, where she grew up. I’ve never heard anybody else speak quite like Katherine Hepburn. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/29 "2015-08-09T01:58:53Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It’s a total affectation. She was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska very young, where she grew up. Unlikely. It’s extremely hard to stay “in character” like that 24/7. Same with GWB. People don’t like them, but that’s no reason to believe they have fake accents. > [@](#): > > I’ve never heard anybody else speak quite like Katherine Hepburn. Yeah, sort of. But I think her accent, much like FDR is as much of their times as anything. No one talks that way now because accents have changed. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/30 "2015-08-09T02:46:55Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I am no expert on Australian accents but I’ve seen it mentioned in several articles that Australian comic Josh Thomas has “his own accent.” > > Here’s a vid. NSFW because he says “FUCKOFF FAGGOT!” not too long in. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiJQEPhuHU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kiJQEPhuHU) That is so not a standard Australian accent. I don’t know WHAT that is - a little Aussie, some south of England mixed in with a bit of Irish, perhaps? Anyway, his voice is extremely … um … unique. Probably helps, when you’re a comedian. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/31 "2015-08-09T02:58:00Z")
Stephen Hawking. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/32 "2015-08-09T03:06:23Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > That is so not a standard Australian accent. I don’t know WHAT that is - a little Aussie, some south of England mixed in with a bit of Irish, perhaps? Anyway, his voice is extremely … um … unique. Probably helps, when you’re a comedian. Apparently his parents are Irish. He doesn’t sound like any other Aussie I’ve ever met, not even the ones with Irish parents. ---
**Author:** ![Cara\_mel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Cara\_mel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cara_mel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/33 "2015-08-09T03:08:16Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > That is so not a standard Australian accent. I don’t know WHAT that is - a little Aussie, some south of England mixed in with a bit of Irish, perhaps? Anyway, his voice is extremely … um … unique. Probably helps, when you’re a comedian. I always thought he was a transplant from England, but no, he was born in Blackwater,Queensland. I found this amusing little rant about him: “HE’s totally unbearable! His accent is Y-gen medication. Or Woolloomooloo Yank. Or ADHD teenager. Or Antonioni-ennuied young monotonal adult. Like one of those obnoxious brats on the bus going to private schools. Like, like and um like they can’t stop talking, like OMG I shouldn’t have said that. I just find the show and the persona the most irritating things I’ve ever seen on a television set.” More here [http://opiniondominion.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-case-of-comedian-accent.html](http://opiniondominion.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-case-of-comedian-accent.html) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/34 "2015-08-09T03:10:58Z")
[Tommy Wiseau](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if5eP3crl_4). He is totally, 100% American (according to him) because he likes the footballs and drinks so many litres of beer while watching them throw the old skin of pig. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/35 "2015-08-09T03:11:29Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It’s a total affectation. She was born in Idaho and moved to Alaska very young, where she grew up. > > I’ve never heard anybody else speak quite like Katherine Hepburn. As I have no clear idea if there is an Idaho or Alaska accent, I have to assume it is her invention. It just sounds exaggeratedly upper Midwestern, and her syntax is all her own. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/36 "2015-08-09T10:51:11Z")
Julia Child. Born and raised in Pasadena, CA. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/37 "2015-08-09T11:09:13Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > That is so not a standard Australian accent. I don’t know WHAT that is - a little Aussie, some south of England mixed in with a bit of Irish, perhaps? Anyway, his voice is extremely … um … unique. Probably helps, when you’re a comedian. Without knowing he’s Australian, I would have placed his accent as southwest England with slight Welsh influences, plus bits of Californian and only very occasionally, Australian ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/38 "2015-08-09T14:42:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Unlikely. It’s extremely hard to stay “in character” like that 24/7. Same with GWB. People don’t like them, but that’s no reason to believe they have fake accents. It would seem so, but as an Alaskan myself, I can tell you that nobody up there talks remotely like that unless they’re a transplant from somewhere up on the Mesabi Range. I’ve known a lot of people from the Midwest (and was married to one), and while some of them had a readily identifiable way of speaking, none of them sounded like Palin. Her speech is like a caricature of what people think a Midwest accent sounds like. I would suspect that she started doing it gradually while young because people thought it sounded ‘cute’. Perhaps she was influenced by a friend from the Midwest, but I don’t buy it as real. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/39 "2015-08-09T15:13:54Z")
As for Katherine Hepburn, [Imdb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000031/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm) says she had a “distinctive way of speaking, with what many say is a ‘Bryn Mawr’ accent.” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297/40 "2015-08-10T11:16:05Z")
Vincent Price…born and raised in Missoura. St. Louis, for what it matters. Four counties over from where Mark Twain was born. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-with-an-accent-entirely-their-own/727297.md?page=3)