On Brits Doing American Accents
There's an article at the Guardian on why David Tennant's American accent in the US remake of Broadchurch isn't perfect but also isn't that bad. It is just a light little article, and I haven't heard any of Tennant's new American accent so I have no opinion on that, but I must share my thoughts on random snippets from the article anyway.
On Hugh Laurie's American accent in House:
I only heard one, maybe two pronunciation mistakes, and I let them go immediately because life's too short to be annoyed at Hugh Laurie.
Yes, yes it is!
As Brits' imitations of American accents go, there have definitely been worse than Tennant's. During August: Osage County, Benedict Cumberbatch's Oklahoma accent made me stuff my knees into my mouth to keep from yelling "Why are you pronouncing 'funeral' with two syllables as if you've arrived directly from Harrow?! You JUST HEARD Chris Cooper pronounce it with three!"
I had issues, lots of issues, with Cumberbatch's American accent. This was not one of them. I think I pronounce funeral with two syllables more often than not and my accent in its broadest sense is pretty close to the correct American regional accent for his character's background. I say more often than not for me because my accent is pretty wonky and I pronounce some words multiple ways depending on context and I think I might pronounce funeral both ways.
Most of the comments in the article on Tennant's accent itself amount to wrong regionalisms: pronouncing a long A in more of a Southern drawl or a hard T in more of a New York way than correct for his California character. That kind of thing is the same thing that bugged me most about Cumberbatch's accent in August: Osage County.
The article author then adds that there are some ways Tennant's Scottish accent makes him closer to an American one than would be true for an English accent. One big example really messed with my head.For example, the standard English accent has two different "l" sounds: the "l" at the start of a syllable, as in "light", where the tongue touches the space just behind your top teeth (the alveolar ridge, if anyone's interested), and the "l" that appears at the end of a syllable as in "fall", where the back of the tongue lifts and the tip touches the upper teeth. The latter (for some reason called the "dark l") is the only "l" most Scots and Americans use.
I of course tried saying all these examples. My tongue is definitely in different places for the start or end Ls so I guess I have different ones that I'm not supposed to have as an American. I hit the right place with the tip of my tongue for the initial L sound, but the bit about the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth in an end L like fall really threw me. I feel like I'm choking if I try to do that. The tip of my tongue naturally hits my bottom teeth when I say fall. I decided this had to be a typo. Then I skimmed the comments and a comment by the author of the piece added this:If English is your first language (British), just say "light, fall, light, fall" and feel where your tongue goes naturally. It might touch the bottom teeth for the dark l if you're really relaxed or from Texas, but usually it will touch your top teeth.
Nailed it! :D
For those not sure, I'm not technically from Texas. I was born in Kansas and lived there most of my childhood. But both sets of my grandparents have lived in Texas all my life so I regularly visited there and picked up some bits and pieces of a Texas accent from them and my Texas aunts, uncles, and mostly cousins. Then when I was 15, my family moved to Texas and I lived there full-time for the last two years of high school and the six years of college for my BAs and MA. My accent is very much a blend of the flat plains accent and a Texas drawl with some randomness thrown in For example, when I was maybe 8 or 9 my grandpa asked my mom when they'd taken me to Boston because I sometimes but not always pronounce words like "park" and "car" with the weird swallowed R that is the stereotypical Bostonian idiosyncrasy. I guess I'm just weird.
There you go. Who knew I had so many thoughts on accents? Maybe I should do a voice post again just so new people can hear my own ridiculous little mixed up way of speaking.
On Hugh Laurie's American accent in House:
I only heard one, maybe two pronunciation mistakes, and I let them go immediately because life's too short to be annoyed at Hugh Laurie.
Yes, yes it is!
As Brits' imitations of American accents go, there have definitely been worse than Tennant's. During August: Osage County, Benedict Cumberbatch's Oklahoma accent made me stuff my knees into my mouth to keep from yelling "Why are you pronouncing 'funeral' with two syllables as if you've arrived directly from Harrow?! You JUST HEARD Chris Cooper pronounce it with three!"
I had issues, lots of issues, with Cumberbatch's American accent. This was not one of them. I think I pronounce funeral with two syllables more often than not and my accent in its broadest sense is pretty close to the correct American regional accent for his character's background. I say more often than not for me because my accent is pretty wonky and I pronounce some words multiple ways depending on context and I think I might pronounce funeral both ways.
Most of the comments in the article on Tennant's accent itself amount to wrong regionalisms: pronouncing a long A in more of a Southern drawl or a hard T in more of a New York way than correct for his California character. That kind of thing is the same thing that bugged me most about Cumberbatch's accent in August: Osage County.
The article author then adds that there are some ways Tennant's Scottish accent makes him closer to an American one than would be true for an English accent. One big example really messed with my head.For example, the standard English accent has two different "l" sounds: the "l" at the start of a syllable, as in "light", where the tongue touches the space just behind your top teeth (the alveolar ridge, if anyone's interested), and the "l" that appears at the end of a syllable as in "fall", where the back of the tongue lifts and the tip touches the upper teeth. The latter (for some reason called the "dark l") is the only "l" most Scots and Americans use.
I of course tried saying all these examples. My tongue is definitely in different places for the start or end Ls so I guess I have different ones that I'm not supposed to have as an American. I hit the right place with the tip of my tongue for the initial L sound, but the bit about the tip of the tongue touching the upper teeth in an end L like fall really threw me. I feel like I'm choking if I try to do that. The tip of my tongue naturally hits my bottom teeth when I say fall. I decided this had to be a typo. Then I skimmed the comments and a comment by the author of the piece added this:If English is your first language (British), just say "light, fall, light, fall" and feel where your tongue goes naturally. It might touch the bottom teeth for the dark l if you're really relaxed or from Texas, but usually it will touch your top teeth.
Nailed it! :D
For those not sure, I'm not technically from Texas. I was born in Kansas and lived there most of my childhood. But both sets of my grandparents have lived in Texas all my life so I regularly visited there and picked up some bits and pieces of a Texas accent from them and my Texas aunts, uncles, and mostly cousins. Then when I was 15, my family moved to Texas and I lived there full-time for the last two years of high school and the six years of college for my BAs and MA. My accent is very much a blend of the flat plains accent and a Texas drawl with some randomness thrown in For example, when I was maybe 8 or 9 my grandpa asked my mom when they'd taken me to Boston because I sometimes but not always pronounce words like "park" and "car" with the weird swallowed R that is the stereotypical Bostonian idiosyncrasy. I guess I'm just weird.
There you go. Who knew I had so many thoughts on accents? Maybe I should do a voice post again just so new people can hear my own ridiculous little mixed up way of speaking.