OT/ Do you ever wonder what your forum friends sound like

[Dr. Ellwood]

Hey Lee, I do that Elvis thing, but it keeps coming out as "Dank you, Dank you"! I was born and raised in Brooklyn!!!

 

LOL!!! Dank yozzz Dank youzzz LOL!!!

[Wolfgangsta]

LOL! G! I've visited the UK lots of times but I never heard London referred to as the Smoke! Ok here's another question, Can a American actor for instance do a believable version of a English accent? or can you tell it is not genuine!

 

I used to work with a South African, and when the movie 'Blood Diamond' came out, I commented to my wife that Leonardo DiCaprio's accent was horrid. She just thought I was being mean because I don't like DiCaprio, but my friend at work confirmed that it was terrible.

 

[MILLO]

Oh, I have a very heavy accent alright--I think I remember talking to Don on the phone in PA once, he can attest to that.

 

I've met plenty of Canadians and I've heard many different accents. One thing that was clear immediately was that stereotypical way of saying "aboot" actually sounded more like "aboat" than "aboot", which to me sounded kinda cool. A girl from Northern New York State once asked my if I wanted 8 "oances" of coffee, I thought she was Canadian. And yup, many of them had that typical US network TV standard accent. Some of them seemed to be very articulate with their t's and s's at the end of words.... obviously not like saying "ToronTo" instead of "Torono", but more like saying "thaT" instead of "thad", which is what many people in the US sound to me at times. Again, not all Canadians but some of them. And, I'm also familiar w/ the difference Quebecois accent vs. the French accent both in English and French, although I'm no expert at all.

 

If you ever see King of the Hill, they have a ridiculously exaggerated version of one of the most difficult Texas accents w/ that guy that kinda mumbles, but have kinda of explosive syllables. Seen those guys around, don't know where it is from, or if it's a "personal" thing more than a "regional" one.

 

Interesting stuff, accents...

[MILLO]

I used to work with a South African, and when the movie 'Blood Diamond' came out, I commented to my wife that Leonardo DiCaprio's accent was horrid. She just thought I was being mean because I don't like DiCaprio, but my friend at work confirmed that it was terrible.

Benicio del Toro, a fellow countryman, who is otherwise a fairly good actor, had a horrible accent in Traffic. Of course, it's an English-language Hollywood movie so the academy doesn't give a crap about his Mexican accent sounding more like a bad imitation of a Colombian accent when he spoke in Spanish, and they gave him an Oscar for that performance. I was so disgusted I laughed. There was a movie (can't remember) in which a Frida Kahlo character appeared in a scene in NYC for like 5 seconds, and when she spoke it was obvious the actress was from the Caribbean, most likely Puertorrican, and sounded not one bit Mexican... plus the slangish phrase she used was totally NOT Mexican, again most likely Puertorrican.

 

Remember Kevin Costner's Robin Hood?

[Junior 1]

Actually, it would be Dank youzz guys, Dank youzz guys!!!

[The Geoff]

Was it Tony Curtis who said, in a film 'Dere on de hill stands de castle of my fadder!!'????

 

You'll have heard the phrase 'chewing a brick'? Well, I had never really understood what that meant until I met our new neighbour when we moved into this house about a year ago (exactly).

 

He's an elderly Yorkshireman from Deepest, darkest Yorkshire and when he speaks, it really sounds as though he is chewing his words & spitting out the consonants.

 

I'm afraid you really need to hear it to understand. maybe some of the 'joke' sketches in Monty Python came close the the reality.

 

I've sent Lee the files, Neil. I'd make them public, but I don't know the best way to do it.

 

G.

[mdrs]

Actually, it would be Dank youzz guys, Dank youzz guys!!!

 

This is a great thread!! Maybe we could do that computer phone thingy that Lister has, and set up a conference call????

 

I was born in Far Rockaway, NY (next door to Brooklyn), and grew up in Huntington, on Long Island, NY. I never had a strong NY accent, for some reason. But, I LOVE hearing that accent....I suppose it reminds me of friends and family. With my college and medical training having taken me all over the place, I only have faint bits of the NY accent left.

 

If you're talkin NY accent, don't forget;

 

"a kup ah cough-eee"

 

"Whad ah u tawkin ah-bout?"

 

I lived in Louisville, Kentucky for almost 9 years during college and med school. I'd meet someone, and they'd say "I can tell you aren't from here by your accent." I'd always reply "No, YOU have the accent." That either brought a chuckle, or a quizzical look. It was a sort of an I.Q. test!!! LOL

[Junior 1]

Yeah Doc, you're right. In the Spring, we all get together for Easta!!!

[Junior 1]

By the way, when I was in first grade in 1957, my Brooklyn accent was so bad that I had to go to speech class for half the year. It musta been when day asked me to say three and oil and it came out as tree and earl!!!!! I don't sing with a Brooklyn accent though!!!

[Eric VB]

I've been reading Lee's posts in my head with a Hamtramck accent, with a little Arthur P (WRIF personality Arthur Penhallow). Hamtramck can give you Camden and "Lawn-GUY-lint" types a run for your money in the "youz guyz" category. And Arthur P is the guy with the gravelly voice who's catchline is, "the HOME of rock and roll! BABY!:

 

I work with people from around the world. A number of Windsorites commute here every day and we've always had a bunch here from the Far East. Of course we also have coworkers from the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East (Dearborn). Most recently we've added some Brits and Scots to our ranks. (Americans, don't naively call them both "English" or you'll be in for it. ) There have been severe cases in the past where I have had to resort to pen and paper to communicate clearly, but not any more.

 

Our neighbors south of the border (Detroit is north of Windsor) do have that oot and aboot thing going on. As was said earlier it's not quite that sound, but it's pretty close. We good naturedly joke with each other over our differences from time to time, but we're actually quite similar as you would expect given that geographically only a river divides us. (Don't we have the busiest US border crossing?)

 

Our UK coworkers used to imitate some of our American slang, complete with their take on our accent, much to their hilarity and our bewilderment. I'm sure they weren't impressed with our Monty Python impersonations, either.

 

I went to training in Boston some years ago and we had about 10 in the class. They were from all over: Atlanta, Cali, London (Ontario), maybe some other places and of course Boston. Everybody thought they sounded like me when they talked, because I have that more-or-less non-descript midwestern accent that is broadcast across the entire US on local news programs. Someone said the Canadian sounded Scottish. The Georgian accent wasn't as bad as some I've heard, but it was decidedly Southern. (As a side note on my last trip to Atlanta I noticed that the locals seem to have forsaken their use of "y'all". What has the world come to!? ) Boston has that edginess to it, like Philly/NJ/NY east coasters, but with extra impatience and the softest "r" sound: they drive around in cahs, not cars. Cali comes close to the network/midwestern accent, yet still has a slightly lighter "r" sound. (If all else fails, listen to how an American pronounces his or her "r"s and you should be able to figure out what region he or she is from.)

 

I've also had the pleasure of meeting Aussies -- always a fun bunch -- as well as Continentals and our neighbors from Central and South America. Slang can be as amusing as accents, sometimes. My Panamanian friend used to like going to the chain restaurant Chi Chi's because where she lived in the US that was about as close as it got to home cooking for her. Of course all of our Mexican friends would laugh at her whenever she would mention it because of its Mexican slang meaning, not unlike the American slang meaning of the restaurant Hooters.

 

One last observation. I found the Charleston, SC accent to be an interesting mix of the Cajon/Creole more often associated with New Orleans, a bit of Tennessee-style Southern, and the impatience of their northern coastal neighbor, Boston. So at times it came across as an oxymoron of a quick-talking drawl. (No offense intended.)

[The Bear Jew]

I love accents.

 

When my bands tour, I almost always find myself adapting a bit of whatever accent seems most prevalent in the surrounding area of the gig for the first week we're out. I don't do it out of malice--it's just that when I talk to folks I like, I pick up their vocal mannerisms. After the first week, though, I usually have been talking in an idiotic accent we invented in the van that I'm pretty sure I no longer sound like I'm even from earth, let alone any particular part of it.

 

It's always fantastic to start a tour in say, Boston, and have folks offering us "bee-yah or lickah" and being told we're "wicked hodcoah," roll into Brooklyn and be told we're "freakin' awesome" then wander into Western NY state and hear that odd mix of Canadian/New York City/Chicago accent... and Western PA, where 100 pennies will always make a "dole-arr." A day later, we're in Spartanburg, SC, and, suddenly, we're no longer "youse guys"--we're "y'allz."

 

The crazy part, of course, is when you make a big regional jump in one day... you can literally go from feeling like an extra in Goodfellas to wondering if you haven't somehow wandered into a casting call for Deliverance II.

 

Sadly, folks around here (Phily, PA) have what I think is quite possibly the ugliest accent in the US. The word "bike" sounds like "boyke," "no" sounds like "naow" and we're so lazy that we don't like to fully enunciate the whole name of our city, so, if asked, you'd probably thing we like in a town called "Fluffya" or, worse, "Fooey."

 

I'm not even kidding.

 

I don't think I have much of a Philly accent, but I'm sure it's in there a little.

[mdrs]

Yeah Doc, you're right. In the Spring, we all get together for Easta!!!

 

"Yeah dudah, Easta on Longah Eye-lindah"

 

LMAO!!

[Hardtail]

Yeah Doc, you're right. In the Spring, we all get together for Easta!!!

 

"Yeah dudah, Easta on Longah Eye-lindah"

 

LMAO!!

 

I'm doing my best to make sure my son doesn't talk like that.

 

It's hit or miss.

 

[fantasticsound]

I love accents.

 

When my bands tour, I almost always find myself adapting a bit of whatever accent seems most prevalent in the surrounding area of the gig for the first week we're out. I don't do it out of malice--it's just that when I talk to folks I like, I pick up their vocal mannerisms...

 

I think we're sharing a brain, Erik I've had that same habit my entire life. I tend to sound like the people I'm talking to unless I deliberately try not to do so.

[fantasticsound]

 

BTW - Guys, how many of you assume the other guys sound.. well, normal but expect every woman who posts here to have a sultry, sexy voice?

 

Guys...??

 

 

Neil, I hate to bust your bubble, but I don't think that I have a sexy voice. I have been told that I should have become a DJ, but that doesn't mean anything. I have noticed that some female DJs don't have sexy voices, but have still have fun personalities.

 

But I do write the way I speak. I don't pretend to be someone else on the internet. I am what I am and that's it.

 

Michelle

 

Say it ain't so, Michelle!

 

(K-i-d-d-i-n-g...)

[caprae]

This falls into the category of seeing Radio personalities for the first time. I remember when I first saw Paul Harvey. Woe!

[fantasticsound]

This falls into the category of seeing Radio personalities for the first time. I remember when I first saw Paul Harvey. Woe!

 

Funny, I knew what "Paul Harvey" looked like years before I heard him on the radio. We had a Rest Of The Story paperback written by Paul Aurandt (The current Paul Harvey. The original was his father.) with his picture on the cover. I wasn't really surprised to hear his voice having seen his face.

[Michael Patrick]

I didn't know I had an accent until I met my wife... She's from Kansas, and I'm from Chicago. People in Kansas really truly have no accent. Me, I sound like those guys that used to be on Saturday Night Live...

 

http://kropp.poetshome.com/wp-content/uploads/dabears.jpg

 

 

Here's me talking as I demo an amp...

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

My Panamanian friend used to like going to the chain restaurant Chi Chi's because where she lived in the US that was about as close as it got to home cooking for her. Of course all of our Mexican friends would laugh at her whenever she would mention it because of its Mexican slang meaning, not unlike the American slang meaning of the restaurant Hooters.

 

Yeah, when I was a kid I met this Argentinian guy that had been back-packing through Central and Nth. America. Anyway, he was staying with some family up North (I forget where, but it was some place like Guatemala), and one of the kids was playing with some toy cars. To be polite, the backpacker guy absent-mindedly commented that they were nice "chiches" (the Argentine colloquialism for "toys"). You know, just to make conversation.

 

Anyway, the host's wife got very embarassed and the host was about to beat the crap out of this guy when, fortuitously, somebody dropped round to visit and explained the misunderstanding. I guess they all had a good laugh about it afterward, but it was a pretty close thing.

 

 

About those American actors...

 

I didn't think Renee Zellweger did a bad job at being Bridget Jones. Then again, I'm not English so maybe I didn't pick the differences. Never heard anyone complain about her accent though.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Hah! The first thought that entered my head upon reading this thread's topic-title was what fellow-Forummite's guitar playing sounded like!

 

Uhmn, well, ehrmn, I'm always a bit underwhelmed and unim pressed with the recorded playback of my own speaking-voice. Oh, well; Craig "A String" Brophy has heard me on the phone before... Craig sounded confident and comfortable with a bit of humor ready beneath the surface, with a capable and decidedly masculine mid-low resonance. Being a resident of Upstate-New York/US more or less near enough to Canadia probably had something to do with my not finding him to have any discernible 'accent'...

 

I imagine I sounded funny and nasally, megaphone-like...

[A String]

You sounded fine Caevan, not a trace of nasally megaphone to be heard. Yeah, I think we are close enough, regionally, that there really is no difference in accent.

 

This certainly is an interesting thread. I suppose that, as I read the posts here, I know some of you have accents, but you all sound like me in my head. :grin:

[picker]

My accent is all screwed up because I was moved all over the place as a kid. My dad was an Air Force sergeant, and I lived in Missouri, Nebraska, Michigan, Guam and Arkansas before moving back to Missouri as a junior in high school. I picked up some kind of vocal twang everywhere I lived as a kid, and I think it's kind of made me a chameleon with accents. I seem to blend in wherever I go, and when I leave for another place, I end up taking vocal inflections with me.

 

When I left home, I wound up in the Air Force myself, and I spent a few years in Texas and Arizona, then Nevada, Minnesota, and back to Missouri. Then I joined the Navy and went to Chicago, Virginia Beach, and San Diego, from which I went to Hawaii, the Phillipines, Africa, Austrailia, Seattle, and after I got out, back to Missouri. FInally, I wound up in Kansas. About the only good thing that can be said for my accent is that if you speak English, you can understand most of what I say... English.

[Fumblyfingers]

.......that Leonardo DiCaprio's accent was horrid....... my friend at work confirmed that it was terrible.

 

I actually thought he did an excellent job..... he had the inflections and body language down.

 

Vince...no way I still have a eccent china! Not half bru'.... when I pulled in A-side by the pozzie here Stateside in '81 I was still tchooning like a bloke from bek home hey but I scheme I lost it china...I reckin I chaff like a 'merican oe now my boet. But I tchoon you if I vai pozzie and pull in for a smart jol with some SA waat okes or even blek okes, then I start to crack eccent bru'.....lekker lekker ob!

[mdrs]

.......that Leonardo DiCaprio's accent was horrid....... my friend at work confirmed that it was terrible.

 

I actually thought he did an excellent job..... he had the inflections and body language down.

 

Vince...no way I still have a eccent china! Not half bru'.... when I pulled in A-side by the pozzie here Stateside in '81 I was still tchooning like a bloke from bek home hey but I scheme I lost it china...I reckin I chaff like a 'merican oe now my boet. But I tchoon you if I vai pozzie and pull in for a smart jol with some SA waat okes or even blek okes, then I start to crack eccent bru'.....lekker lekker ob!

 

Lister....I have NO IDEA what the hell you just said, but you sounded fine to me!!! LOL

 

Craig.....I love that....you all sound just like me in my head!!! PERFECT!!

 

We might all have to converse in Guitar language....it's universal!!

[fantasticsound]

I should mention I grew up 24 miles north of Chicago, which is to say we still considered ourselves "Chicagoans" but belonged to an entirely different culture with little or no Chicawgo accent. I, in particular, watched way too much tv... broadcast speech. I don't know what others might call my accent but I'm often mistaken for a recorded message when I answer the phone at work.

 

Hey Lister, I have a few (white) South African friends in Nashville. Until recently our kids went to school together. His accent is pretty heavy, she was raised in England and moved to South Africa and has an English accent of some sort. They visit S.A. at least once a year and S.A's think their kids sound American but I don't hear it. They sound like a mix of their mom's English and dad's S.A. accents.

[mdrs]

Neil

 

You're on the forum late tonight!! Overtime???

[Fumblyfingers]

This Nashville sounds like a fine place to me. It is full of phenomenal musicians and I just get the impression it is clean and neat and the people are laid back and there is no crime and the trendy coffee shops all give free refills and the school system is good, the kids don't use drugs and get pregnant at 15 and nobody fights and everyone just gets along real well.

 

So..........in order to fit in there when I move......... I am working on my ultrafast chicken pickin' country chops....look out!!!

[fantasticsound]

It's embarrassing to say, doc...

 

I couldn't find my keys this morning. I did have an extra house key and my wife doesn't drive stick so she doesn't have my car's extra key on her chain. It was at home as well. I had keys to another door at work, too.

 

I was supposed to tell a co-worker to lock the front door behind her this evening and I forgot.

 

I went home, had dinner and high tailed it back to lock the door...

 

and decided to surf a few minutes. I'm outta here... Bye!

[fantasticsound]

This Nashville sounds like a fine place to me. It is full of phenomenal musicians and I just get the impression it is clean and neat and the people are laid back and there is no crime and the trendy coffee shops all give free refills and the school system is good, the kids don't use drugs and get pregnant at 15 and nobody fights and everyone just gets along real well.

 

So..........in order to fit in there when I move......... I am working on my ultrafast chicken pickin' country chops....look out!!!

 

Forget the pickin'... Stick to the comedy my friend!

 

 

(Oh, wait... you really think Nashville's like that, eh? I wish it were so, but lets be real, it ain't LA so I suppose from your perspective it does look and feel like that. )

[Dr. Ellwood]

Was it Tony Curtis who said, in a film 'Dere on de hill stands de castle of my fadder!!'????

 

You'll have heard the phrase 'chewing a brick'? Well, I had never really understood what that meant until I met our new neighbour when we moved into this house about a year ago (exactly).

 

He's an elderly Yorkshireman from Deepest, darkest Yorkshire and when he speaks, it really sounds as though he is chewing his words & spitting out the consonants.

 

I'm afraid you really need to hear it to understand. maybe some of the 'joke' sketches in Monty Python came close the the reality.

 

I've sent Lee the files, Neil. I'd make them public, but I don't know the best way to do it.

 

G.

 

I've just listened to your voice recordings Geoff and what a beautiful speaking voice and wonderful diction you have!! Thanks so much! I wish everybody here could hear that! Maybe there is some way to do it?