Re: I can't tell the accent difference!kateormanAugust 10 2007, 08:16:42 UTC
The gentleman who protested Mr Smith's casting to me was not concerned with the accuracy of the characterisations, believe me. I walked away from him the moment the n-word popped out of his mouth, saving me from ever having to endure another tedious conversation with him.
I had very similar experiences at school - Australians always thought my accent was English, and I was often teased about it. (I actually can never take the words 'whingeing' and 'Pom' in any kind of good humour even now, because they were thrown at me so mercilessly and so OFTEN at school)
Of course, my Mum is English, and most of our TV diet was British. But the enounciation thing you mention probably had a lot to do with it too! My Mum carefully cultivated herself out of her Lancashire accent, and she worked in radio for a while, so she ended up with a kind of half-London, half-cultivated Australian accent. And I speak pretty precisely.
It is a cool explanation, thanks for that! (I blamed it on BBC TV shows too)
??? Are you me??? :) My mum is English from Lancashire, too. I gained what still is mistaken for an English accent due to that, and my parents living with my mother's parents (who pronounced book as "bewk") for my first four years.
I'm pretty sure I'm not you... for a start, I'm a Ms, not a Mr (tho this time tomorrow I will be a Dr, hooray!).
My mum deliberately lost her Lancashire accent, but my uncle (also living in Australia since the 70's) has I think re-cultivated his so that it is stronger every year!
ETA: I just looked up the genetics behind freckles. Turns out they're linked to mutations in the "red hair gene" that makes the receptor for the "tanning hormone" MSH (see my earlier posting). Hence the association between red hair, sunburn, and freckles.
Darn, I only got a mutation of the mutation: the sunburn part without red hair or freckles :( Which reminds me: I saw an MTV Holland advert in the newspaper yesterday, in the style of contact adverts from redheads for redheads to prevent the red hair from vanishing from the genetics pool. Looks like there's a redheads weekend coming.
You'd think that the oppressed would form alliances with each other, but no. Over the last few decades, the women's movement made basically the same screwup when it rejected lesbians and ignored women of colour.
Growing up over here, it took me the longest time to even tell the difference between English and Australian accents. Also, British northern and southern accents sounded a pretty similar. I'm not so sure accents are as much a source of grief for kids over here. Certainly, a very twangy southern accent is going to cause some in a northern city. I think I myself have as close to a neutral American accent as can be. I moved around a lot as a kid, living in the south, in Texas, and in Chicago, but never really was made fun of for my accent. On the Freckles front, I have very dark brown hair, but when I was a very small kid, I had major freckles. They sort of went away, but still come out a little when I've been in the sun. I didn't realize I had any red hair until I grew my beard, where I found patches of completely red hair showing through.
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*swoon*
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Ah-ha! Found it!
http://www.scifi.co.uk/blakes7/
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Of course, my Mum is English, and most of our TV diet was British. But the enounciation thing you mention probably had a lot to do with it too! My Mum carefully cultivated herself out of her Lancashire accent, and she worked in radio for a while, so she ended up with a kind of half-London, half-cultivated Australian accent. And I speak pretty precisely.
It is a cool explanation, thanks for that! (I blamed it on BBC TV shows too)
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:)
My mum is English from Lancashire, too. I gained what still is mistaken for an English accent due to that, and my parents living with my mother's parents (who pronounced book as "bewk") for my first four years.
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My mum deliberately lost her Lancashire accent, but my uncle (also living in Australia since the 70's) has I think re-cultivated his so that it is stronger every year!
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Darn, I only got a mutation of the mutation: the sunburn part without red hair or freckles :(
Which reminds me: I saw an MTV Holland advert in the newspaper yesterday, in the style of contact adverts from redheads for redheads to prevent the red hair from vanishing from the genetics pool. Looks like there's a redheads weekend coming.
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I'm not so sure accents are as much a source of grief for kids over here. Certainly, a very twangy southern accent is going to cause some in a northern city. I think I myself have as close to a neutral American accent as can be. I moved around a lot as a kid, living in the south, in Texas, and in Chicago, but never really was made fun of for my accent.
On the Freckles front, I have very dark brown hair, but when I was a very small kid, I had major freckles. They sort of went away, but still come out a little when I've been in the sun. I didn't realize I had any red hair until I grew my beard, where I found patches of completely red hair showing through.
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Happy birthday, you thing from another world, you. :-)
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