Audio Books
I listen to audio books whilst I knit, quite often. Many are set in the US somewhere and have an American narrator, so if the accents are wrong I probably wouldn't pick up on it. Some are set in the UK with British narrators. But recently I have listened to two, very different, ones which both happen to be about American witches and European vampires in Oxford.
I decided to listen to 'A Discovery of Witches' and, having finished it (it lasted me almost a whole blanket), for much lighter entertainment I am listening to a book I read previously, one of Nancy Warren's 'Vampire Knitting Club' books. This means that part of me wonders, in an amused way, about Matthew Clairmont and Rafe Crossier knowing each other!
But the main thing the two books have in common, apart from being set in Oxford, is that the witches in question are American (one from Boston, the other from, I think, upper New York state), and the stories are written from their points of view, so the narrators are, of course, American.
With all audio books narrated by someone speaking American English I sometimes get pulled out of the story for a minute when a word in pronounced in a very different way to the one I am used to; and this happens, mainly, in books with American narrators.
No matter how often I hear it, I am still thrown by the way that they drop the H in herbs. I presume all my American friends really do say Erbs. But I was somewhat thrown to hear a car described as a Jagwa, and it took me a bit of thought to work out what the vehicle was that was described as an old Poojay. I think that also, we often put the stresses into different places in a word - like 'Laughlin carried an ataSHAY case', whereas he would have described it as an atASHay case. And, of course, there are others I can't remember without going back to relisten.
In both these books, though I find myself slightly thrown out of the story (and amused) by both narrators using a rather Cockney accent for every person in the city of Oxford who is neither an American witch or a very upper class European vampire.🙃
Oh, and there is a vampire in 'A Discovery of Witches' who is described as speaking with 'an Oxbridge accent with only the occasional hint of his origins on the streets of Glasgow'. He speaks at all times with a rather Morningside, Edinburgh accent 😁😁 (ylla will know the accent I mean.)
Do others, on either side of the Atlantic, find that sometimes words in audio books sound strange, too?
I decided to listen to 'A Discovery of Witches' and, having finished it (it lasted me almost a whole blanket), for much lighter entertainment I am listening to a book I read previously, one of Nancy Warren's 'Vampire Knitting Club' books. This means that part of me wonders, in an amused way, about Matthew Clairmont and Rafe Crossier knowing each other!
But the main thing the two books have in common, apart from being set in Oxford, is that the witches in question are American (one from Boston, the other from, I think, upper New York state), and the stories are written from their points of view, so the narrators are, of course, American.
With all audio books narrated by someone speaking American English I sometimes get pulled out of the story for a minute when a word in pronounced in a very different way to the one I am used to; and this happens, mainly, in books with American narrators.
No matter how often I hear it, I am still thrown by the way that they drop the H in herbs. I presume all my American friends really do say Erbs. But I was somewhat thrown to hear a car described as a Jagwa, and it took me a bit of thought to work out what the vehicle was that was described as an old Poojay. I think that also, we often put the stresses into different places in a word - like 'Laughlin carried an ataSHAY case', whereas he would have described it as an atASHay case. And, of course, there are others I can't remember without going back to relisten.
In both these books, though I find myself slightly thrown out of the story (and amused) by both narrators using a rather Cockney accent for every person in the city of Oxford who is neither an American witch or a very upper class European vampire.🙃
Oh, and there is a vampire in 'A Discovery of Witches' who is described as speaking with 'an Oxbridge accent with only the occasional hint of his origins on the streets of Glasgow'. He speaks at all times with a rather Morningside, Edinburgh accent 😁😁 (ylla will know the accent I mean.)
Do others, on either side of the Atlantic, find that sometimes words in audio books sound strange, too?