How do you 'do' an American accent?

[Ryushikaze]

There are maybe five major accents in the US: Black, Redneck, Generic Murkan, New York and Upper Midwest.

Do we live in the same country?

What, no Boston accent? Are you kidding?

And while most of them would rather die than admit it, "Redneck" and "Black" are so close they're almost the same, and frequently the only difference is the skin color of the speaker.

I can detect noticable differences between Chicago, Detroit, and St. Louis, to say nothing of Appalacian, one of my brothers-in-law is from Brooklyn and my nephew on that side definitely sounds like he's from New York.

There are a LOT more than just five accents/dialects in the US! Even if many of them aren't well known.

Let's see, there's New York, Jersey, Boston, Northeastern Wasp, Southeastern Wasp, standard appalachian and its derivatives, Creole, East Texan and West Texan, Dakotan, Wisconsin, and upper michigan.

That's just off the top of my head.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Why do Brits throw such a fit when some American has never seen Black Adder? Sorry, but they never show that on television here, nor is it available on DVD.

And god damn it, there is no such thing as an "American accent" because Americans speak English. An accent is when someone speaks a language other than their native one. A dialect would be the proper term to describe the difference between American and British English, as well as the varients of each.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Incorrect. Accent refers mainly to just the verbal delivery of a particular dialect, varying with intonation, pitch, pronunciation and so on. The dialect will have colloquial terms that are unique to a group that would otherwise be within the same accent group. It is possible for a Cockney to sound like an Aussie (apparently, many do make this mistake) to those unfamiliar, but both will have unique vocab and oral properties i.e. the Cockney glottal stop. Regardless of American dialect, they all have American accents, likewise for Britons.

For convenience, the two groups belonging to different nations are simply termed American or British accents, since that narrows down what could be talked about from New Jersey to Brummie.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Marters' accent is OK, but there's something about it that doesn't quite ring true, mainly because it's lacking any regional identity, he doesn't sound like he's from anywhere in England, which when you actually listen as an Englishman means the accent does fall flat.

It's better than some, but not perfect.

I agree. I just think that there are worse than Reeves. Anyone have examples?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Oh really? Then what's the term used to describe how, say, a native German-speaker speaking English sounds, or how a navtive English speaker sounds speaking French, etc?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Oh really? Then what's the term used to describe how, say, a native German-speaker speaking English sounds, or how a navtive English speaker sounds speaking French, etc?

An accent. Did you even read my post?

[Fire Fly]

Oh really? Then what's the term used to describe how, say, a native German-speaker speaking English sounds, or how a navtive English speaker sounds speaking French, etc?

Those would be accents. What would be analagous to what you want to say is the difference between someone from Sardinia and someone from Venice. That would be a dialect; Sardinians speak very different from those of Venice, so much so to the point that they won't be able to understand each other without using standard Italian.

[Elfdart]

There are maybe five major accents in the US: Black, Redneck, Generic Murkan, New York and Upper Midwest.

Do we live in the same country?

What, no Boston accent? Are you kidding?

MAJOR Accents. Yes, there are smaller ones like Boston and New Orleans and sundivisions among Southern, but those five are the main ones.

And while most of them would rather die than admit it, "Redneck" and "Black" are so close they're almost the same, and frequently the only difference is the skin color of the speaker.

Black is a subdivision of Southern, but a subdivision with around 30 million speakers.

[Tsyroc]

Marters' accent is OK, but there's something about it that doesn't quite ring true, mainly because it's lacking any regional identity, he doesn't sound like he's from anywhere in England, which when you actually listen as an Englishman means the accent does fall flat.

It's better than some, but not perfect.

The defects can be fanwanked off based on Spike having toured so much of the world in his life. Unless you mean his accent was a little off in the flashback scenes.

Any comments on Juliette Landau's accent? After Angel's crappy Irish accent I was also always kind of grateful that Julie Benz' character Darla was written as an American so we didn't have to listen to another bad accent. Although, considering where she was living in America and the time frame her normal accent was probably screwed up but I don't think we're supposed to think that much about shows like Angel and Buffy.

David Boreanaz Irish accent was really horrible. I couldn't believe that they kept on doing flashback scenes with him having such a horrible accent.


As for subtitles being included in interviews even though the people involved are speaking English. I've seen some where it was definately necessary, some where it was a nice thing to have, and others where it was there so semi-deaf Americans (like my dad) and the really lazy listeners could follow what was being said.

Some of it might also have to do with being used to hearing English a certain way. When I first started watching the mini-series Ultraviolet I had some trouble following all of what was being said. After I got used to how people on the show spoke it was no problem.

In person I knew one Australian I had trouble understanding but that was mostly because he spoke softly and mumbled like a motherfucker. Of course, most of the time I was around him he had a cigarette sticking out of oneside of his mouth.


Speaking of bad acting accents. How about Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves? Also, was Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's accent any good? It sounded good to me but that might be in comparison to how bad Costner's accent was. I think even Christian Slater had a better English accent than Costner in that movie.

[THEHOOLIGANJEDI]

Any comments on Juliette Landau's accent?

I thought hers was decent. Not too good but still quite convincing.

Speaking of bad acting accents. How about Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves? Also, was Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's accent any good? It sounded good to me but that might be in comparison to how bad Costner's accent was. I think even Christian Slater had a better English accent than Costner in that movie.

I was thinking of Costner, but since I have seen the movie in years, I can't really gauge it.
Mastrantonio's was good as well as Slater's. Again I don't recal too well so I'm not too sure.

Althought another actor/comedian who pull off solid accent would have to be Mike Myers. Not so much for Austin Powers but mostly b/c of some of his work on SNL.

[Infidel7]

Columbus, OH is supposed to speak among the most neutral english dialect there is. It is a brand of the midwestern accent which can be spoken very quickly and very concisely. It is the accent most utilized by newscasters and the like.

...though if you snek just south of the city (or even route 70) you get into redneck very quickly.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Did Kevin Costner even DO an accent in Prince of Thieves?