# What accent is this, and why do Euros think it sounds American? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927 "2011-04-19T03:24:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/21 "2011-04-19T08:50:25Z")
Apparently he is [Irish](http://www.youtube.com/user/zXNoRegretzzXz). But that’s not any Irish accent I’m familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/22 "2011-04-19T08:53:24Z")
The director’s [channel page](http://www.youtube.com/user/zXNoRegretzzXz) identifies his country as “Ireland”. His twitter account, listed on that same YouTube page, also says “Ireland”. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/23 "2011-04-19T09:01:51Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > I can’t tell the difference between an American and a Canadian accent. I wouldn’t blame you but there is often a difference. Certain Canadians don’t have a strong Canadian accent (enough that I could tell they are Canadian instead of American), but lots do. > [@](#): > > We’re sensitive to _our_ accents. Not to yours. > > Same reason a lot of Americans can’t distinguish different British accents. Seeing as how he’s Irish, one would think that the Brit gamers would be able to hear it, considering I’ve barely ever met anyone from Ireland and hearing his voice my guess was Irish even though he seems like he’s actively trying to mask his accent. So I guess I’m surprised that they couldn’t tell he’s not American (even though he claims to not be), and then that _I_ could hear that he sounds Irish but they couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/24 "2011-04-19T09:03:24Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > Sounds computer altered, actually. There’s Canadian elements, for sure, but mostly it has the kind of weird inflection and odd sound quality I associate with a voice synthesiser. Not as bad as most, but it fairly obvious, to my ear. This game is played over Xbox Live on Xbox 360, everyone sounds different than their natural voice due to the compression, and crap quality of the official headsets. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/25 "2011-04-19T09:14:46Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Seeing as how he’s Irish, one would think that the Brit gamers would be able to hear it, considering I’ve barely ever met anyone from Ireland and hearing his voice my guess was Irish even though he seems like he’s actively trying to mask his accent. > > So I guess I’m surprised that they couldn’t tell he’s not American (even though he claims to not be), and then that _I_ could hear that he sounds Irish but they couldn’t. Well, this is the thing. That’s not an Irish accent he’s talking in there. It may have Irish elements to it, but there are a lot of American elements too. To your ears, accustomed to American accents, the part that doesn’t sound American sticks out like a sore thumb – over here, it’s the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/26 "2011-04-19T09:16:43Z")
Yeah he’s clearly got an Irish accent but with a bit of Midatlantic mixed in, he’s either spent time in US/Canada or he’s putting on a bit of an accent for the crack. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/27 "2011-04-19T09:17:44Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > Apparently he is [Irish](http://www.youtube.com/user/zXNoRegretzzXz). But that’s not any Irish accent I’m familiar with. Maybe he is from Northern Ireland? I once heard an Ulster Loyalist song sung by someone from that part of the country and it sounded much “less Irish” to me than typical Irish singers. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/28 "2011-04-19T09:19:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Maybe he is from Northern Ireland? I once heard an Ulster Loyalist song sung by someone from that part of the country and it sounded much “less Irish” to me than typical Irish singers. He’s definitely not from NI, I’d guess he’s from Limerick but TBH I wouldn’t say 100%. I know a few people with accents like his and a couple are from Limerick, others are from the general region. ---
**Author:** ![Scathach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Scathach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scathach)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/29 "2011-04-19T09:35:33Z")
Doesn’t sound Limerick to me. Actually it doesn’t sound like any Irish accent I’ve ever heard, sounds completely American to my (admittedly untrained) ears. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/30 "2011-04-19T09:35:52Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Well, this is the thing. That’s not an Irish accent he’s talking in there. It may have Irish elements to it, but there are a lot of American elements too. To your ears, accustomed to American accents, the part that doesn’t sound American sticks out like a sore thumb – over here, it’s the other way around. Ah, that explanation makes sense, thanks. I’ve been watching some of his other videos and some people DO call him Irish, but I’ve seen a lot of them and they call him American maybe 10x as often as Irish. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2011, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/31 "2011-04-19T09:43:11Z")
rogerbox writes: \> Brits are supposedly hyper-sensitive to various English accents down to the \> neighborhoods, etc. So why can these players not hear that he’s definitely not \> American, especially considering how much exposure they have to American \> accents in media? It’s not just one person in one video, but many Europeans in \> many videos calling him American, and this is surprising to me. This is absolutely standard. People are able to easily distinguish a variety of accents that are close to theirs, while they have problems distinguishing accents that are very different from theirs. They will say, “I can’t hear any difference between the accents in region X,” where region X is far from them, but they will say, “There isn’t just one accent in region Y. There are a lot of them,” where region Y is close to them. Unless you’re trained in phonetics, you can’t really reliably make any such statements. The fact that you can’t hear the differences between two accents doesn’t necessarily mean that there aren’t any differences. The fact that you can hear the difference between two accents doesn’t mean that everyone else does. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_of_Lucan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/32 "2011-04-19T13:20:20Z")
I can’t place the accent as Irish - if he’s irish, he’s spent a lot of time in North America. The tune at the start is Irish, if that helps - the Kerry Dance. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/33 "2011-04-19T14:13:46Z")
The guy is Irish, pretending to be an American, to purposefully piss off the other players. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/34 "2011-04-19T14:28:01Z")
Definitely not American or Canadian. Sounds Irish to me, perhaps trying to put on some American characteristics. Or maybe he’s spent a lot of time with Americans and has picked up some features of American accents. But his basic accent is not American, not at all. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/35 "2011-04-19T14:42:30Z")
It took me a second to realize which one was the annoying troll, because I pegged the young kid shouting profanities in the beginning as it and wondered how anyone could think he wasn’t Irish. Then I read the video description. 😛 Yeah, the guy definitely sounds American, especially in contrast to the clear Irish accents of the people he’s talking to. There are a few slips and a few vowel twists that would make me wonder where he’s from, but otherwise it’s pretty darn close. Concur with **Evil Prince Zorte** , though. As soon as he says, “Oh my god,” the jig is up. That’s not any American accent I know. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/36 "2011-04-19T15:05:14Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Yeah he’s clearly got an Irish accent but with a bit of Midatlantic mixed in, he’s either spent time in US/Canada or he’s putting on a bit of an accent for the crack. My first guess was Irish, although the more I listened to it, the more I thought the Newfoundland/Atlantic provinces accents might be a possibility. There’s a clear difference in the “ow” sounds from the standard American pronunciation, as well as palatalization of the “t” (listen to how he says “You Tube,” sounds more like “You Tyoob.”) “We’re” is pronounced more like “wurr.” Etc. It sounds like a “watered down” accent, though, as if it’s been cut with Standard American English. Still sounds very distinct, at least to my ears, from an American accent. My third guess was a native speaker of a Scandinavian language speaking American English. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/37 "2011-04-19T15:14:00Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > 1. Brits are supposedly hyper-sensitive to various English accents down to the neighborhoods, etc. So why can these players not hear that he’s definitely not American, especially considering how much exposure they have to American accents in media? It’s not just one person in one video, but many Europeans in many videos calling him American, and this is surprising to me. I don’t know if Brits are “sensitive” about American actors doing bad accents. I think they’re more amused than offended by the likes of Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins.” So, how well do English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh/Australian actors do with American accents? It’s a VERY mixed bag. MANY top actors from the UK come to Hollywood and play American roles extremely convincingly. Indeed, British actors often do American regional accents better than American actors. That is, Brits often do better Brooklyn or Texas accents than actors from California or Michigan. There’s a lot more money to be made in Hollywood than in Britain, so a British actor has a lot of incentive to work hard and get the accent right. On the other hand, I’ve seen many BBC shows on which actors do embarrassingly bad American accents, and the all-British (or mostly British audence) eats it up. It comes down to this: who’s the audience that the actor is trying to fool? If the audience is all/mostly American, an actor can do a bad phony Irish brogue, Scottish burr or Cockney accent, and the American audience will buy it, not knowing any better. Similarly, if an English actor is playing a Texan on a BBC situation comedy, he can do a preposterously bad drawl and the British audience will figure it’s spot on. It’s only when a movie or TV series becomes popular overseas that anyone notices how well or badly an acotr is doing. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/38 "2011-04-19T15:22:30Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Yeah, the guy definitely sounds American, especially in contrast to the clear Irish accents of the people he’s talking to. There are a few slips and a few vowel twists that would make me wonder where he’s from, but otherwise it’s pretty darn close. There’s no other Irish people speaking in that video! The first guy is from Scotland, the next from southern Greater Manchester, etc. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/39 "2011-04-19T15:27:26Z")
It sounds kinda Irish to me, definitely not any variety of American. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927/40 "2011-04-19T15:57:52Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Nah, they were British with various regional accents. The lovely sweary guy, for instance, has an entirely normal Manchester accent. > > To the OP, he sounds American to my Brit ears, albeit with some voice synth effect. And the Brit voices are clearly kids, so they wouldn’t be finely tuned to different N. American accents. Wow, those other kids sounded like they were talking with a baseball shoved in their mouth. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-accent-is-this-and-why-do-euros-think-it-sounds-american/578927.md?page=3)