To me, Hopkins sounds mostly R.P. to me with only the occasional hint of Welsh. It’s more apparent in the “music” of his voice than in the intonation.
I don’t believe Terry Jones’s Welshness is detectable in his accent. It’s mostly R.P. I remember his saying in an interview that he would often get into fights with John Cleese, because Jones’s Welsh emotions would rise, but it would be expressed in a completely R.P. voice, which made him sound angry instead of just passionate.
I’ve got a question. Back in Ontario, I got to know a fellow named Campbell, from Cape Breton. He had a sort-of standard Down East accent, which was totally understandable except when he lapsed into regional dialect. One day, he started reciting something in the most impenetrable Scottish accent, and as it turns out, it was Roger Waters’ spoken bit in “Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict.” I recognized it by the cadence and inflections. But I have no idea what he (or Roger) was saying. For this Campbell fellow, it was no trouble.
In what part of Scotland do they speak in such an accent?
Anthony’s accent is anglicised, in the same way that Catherine Zeta Jones’ has Americanized, for another example of this - where the cadences rather than the sounds of individual letters give away Welsh heritage you can do no better than listen to the gravelly gold of Richard Burton.
I suspect the variety of accents is more due to population size than geographic coverage - Britain has the same population as California and New England combined. And there’s a fair few accents covered there!
What a fantastic discussion – I wish we could include sound bites to provide examples.
Okay, knowing next to nothing about this – just having a slight ear for language, I have a question about Liverpool Working class accents (which I guess is the primary speech pattern the Beatles exhibited).
They always sound slightly Irish to me, but only slightly, there seems to be more of a mumble in the Liverpool dialect. One, do I imagine this? If not, is there a reason?
How much of this is taken into account by actors from Great Britain? Does someone say, “Oh, he’s from Manchester, we need that kind of an accent” and they’ve studied it and provide or how is it done. I saw an American production of “Noises Off!” recently and there was an incredible variety of accents among the young actors, some providing different accents for the character and the actor – is this common?
As was mentioned above , you can hear many sound clips here . Just choose the UK country, then the region or city for a selection of voices.
There is one film I know of, Billy Elliott, that we Americans can rent to get an idea of the northeastern English accent. The film is about a boy in a northeastern mining town who discovers he wants to be a dancer. It’s set during the 1984 mining strike, so it’s interesting not only from a linguistic, but cultural, political and historical points as well.
I had to concentrate quite hard during the beginning of film to be able to understand what was being said. It took some getting used to.
Such versatility is pretty much essential - my little sister is at a top drama school, an mastering accents has been a major part of their training. If you only have one accent, you probably only get one job a year!
Robbie Coltrane, though undoubtedly Scots, actually uses a generic West Country English accent in his portrayal of Hagrid (which I believe reflects how Rowling writes Hagrid’s dialogue in the books).
The majority of the kids in the films have pretty generic middle class British accents, with slight regional variations - the same accents you’d find in any British boarding school. Dumbledore has a (rather slight to my ears) Irish lilt, due no doubt to both actors who have played him being Irish.
OB
Sorry, I should elaborate there, I didn’t answer the question very thoroughly…
There’s some TV actors who only ever use one voice. However, they’re also suitable for being typecast into a particular stereotype from a particular place, and so they get work. There’s some who probably never get another job because they can’t do the accents. Then there’s actors such as Robert Carlyle, who can do anything.
What Gorillaman says. Plus, it’s not unusual for jobbing British actors to list the various accents they’ve mastered on their CVs. Even so, one is more likely to be cast in a role calling for a particular accent if one speaks with that accent natively.
OB
In England I take it.
Two other things to add – I have the problem of picking up accents and slang too. I don’t mean to do it, but somehow I begin to sound like the person I’m talking to, if I’m not careful about it.
Finally, to the one who reposted the link I missed: Thank you it is bookmarked.
Oh, and it even works that way in amateur dramatics…one friend of my sister was recently involved in a staging of The Hostage. He was playing the IRA officer, partly on the expectation his Derry-born mother could coach him with the right accent. After two months, they’d only managed a Belfast one, and they felt this was a compromise they could just about live with. Never mind that 95% of the audience wouldn’t have any idea that there was such a difference, but they still felt it was important.
I can hear the lilt–but it’s pretty subtle. As for Hagrid–I feel I should apologize, because I thought that was a working class accent! Must remember that accents are regional and only sometimes class-driven.
Or is it a mix or region and class? (not counting Sloan Rangers here or Eton/Oxbridge accents).
Yes. Hagrid has a rural working-class West Country accent.
romansperson mentions the film “Billy Elliot” as a source of Northern English accents.
Trouble is, the accents in that are all over the place, as indeed are the locations (but I have never seen it myself so cannot be too specific). As far as I am aware, it’s meant to be somewhere in Durham. But the star, Jamie Bell, is from Billingham on Tees-side. The Tees-side accent is very different from that of Durham which, in turn, is different again from the Geordie of Tyneside or indeed the accent of the famous Yorkshire Ripper-hoaxer, Wearside Jack.
The most glaringly misplaced location is the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, which is a good 30 miles south of Durham.
The dad in Billy Elliott is Scots.
That’s so odd. I can’t even hear that in my head. But then, when I try I keep thinking of Terrence Stamp’s character in The Limey who speaks in a very thick Cockney (? I assume) accent, and uses an f instead of the th on a word like with, so it comes out sounding like wif. He also says things like wot for what.
I’ve heard how people can change their accents according to the company they’re keeping. Kate Bush was raised in an upper middle-class family in Kent and has kind of a poshish accent (to American ears, anyway…various examples), but we have an early interview where she puts on a cockneyish accent and says things like “yeah, 'ere it is.” ((http://rhodeshows.com/kate/MondoSinistro/KateBush/radio/other/Kate_present/Kate_Bush_Personal_Call_02-27-79.mp3), if anyone’s interested)
Nigel Kennedy (the violinist) has also changed his accent. I have seen a clip of him when he was about 10 year’s old and he spoke very posh. Now he uses a terrible mock Cockney accent.
By area alone the UK would make a small US state perhaps, but what about population? I think it would be quite a bit bigger that way.
As for Northern Ireland, I guess people just don’t get around as much 