Can British people pretend to speak like Americans?

Travis   Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:41 pm GMT
The above post was by me.
Pub Lunch   Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:40 pm GMT
Blimey - I am quite stunned that any-one would find the actors in the film 'Shaun of The Dead' even remotely unintelligible - it had to be the yanks!!!!!!!!! :) - just in case it's needed!!

I have seen the film a few times and from what I remember there are no examples of some of the more 'difficult' English/British accents such as strong cockney, Geordie, Brummie or Scouse accents. Plus the Dialogue does not contain much British slang. I am well surprised. Even the Irishman in the film has quite a soft accent (to these ears anyway).

If you lot found that hard then I'd love to sit down with an American and watch them 'watch' films such as Trainspotting or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - that would be a larf!! (two VERY good British films by the way - in my opinion). Actually, I think I mentioned the film 'Snatch' in an earlier post? Brad Pitt's character does an almost spot on impression of a 'Pikey' accent which I come across daily (even I can't understand much of what is said), it really is quite something!!!! I'd imagine that film would have thrown the American's. In-fact I think the film may have came with subtitles when it was released stateside (??)

Actually, when I think of the adventures I have got into when trying to be 'understood' in my time in the US, then maybe it I am not so surprised. I was told I had a 'strong' scouser accent which is funny seeing as I am from Basildon, Essex (think very East London).

Coincidentally I just watched one of our top boxers, Ricky Hatton being interviewed for an American subscription channel called HBO and their presenter warned the audience that "some may find him hard to understand as Ricky has a strong cockney accent". This was priceless because Ricky is from Manchester and has a very strong 'Mancunian accent'. You have got to love the yanks.

I'm trying to think of American accents that I have difficulty understanding ermmmmm - Gordon Benett I can't think of any!!!
Pub Lunch   Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:44 pm GMT
Blimey - I am quite stunned that any-one would find the actors in the film 'Shaun of The Dead' even remotely unintelligible - it had to be the yanks!!!!!!!!! :) - just in case it's needed!!

I have seen the film a few times and from what I remember there are no examples of some of the more 'difficult' English/British accents such as strong cockney, Geordie, Brummie or Scouse accents. Plus the Dialogue does not contain much British slang. I am well surprised. Even the Irishman in the film has quite a soft accent (to these ears anyway).

If you lot found that hard then I'd love to sit down with an American and watch them 'watch' films such as Trainspotting or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - that would be a larf!! (two VERY good British films by the way - in my opinion). Actually, I think I mentioned the film 'Snatch' in an earlier post? Brad Pitt's character does an almost spot on impression of a 'Pikey' accent which I come across daily (even I can't understand much of what is said), it really is quite something!!!! I'd imagine that film would have thrown the American's. In-fact I think the film may have came with subtitles when it was released stateside (??)

Actually, when I think of the adventures I have got into when trying to be 'understood' in my time in the US, then maybe it I am not so surprised. I was told I had a 'strong' scouser accent which is funny seeing as I am from Basildon, Essex (think very East London).

Coincidentally I just watched one of our top boxers, Ricky Hatton being interviewed for an American subscription channel called HBO and their presenter warned the audience that "some may find him hard to understand as Ricky has a strong cockney accent". This was priceless because Ricky is from Manchester and has a very strong 'Mancunian accent'. You have got to love the yanks.

I'm trying to think of American accents that I have difficulty understanding ermmmmm - Gordon Benett I can't think of any!!!
Jasper   Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:31 pm GMT
Pub Lunch--one of my other loves is film.

Here's a piece of trivia: Did you know that Trainspotting was specially dubbed for the American audiences? Preview audiences here couldn't understand the dialogue in the original cut.

True fact.
Liz   Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:41 pm GMT
No, Shaun of the Dead isn't that tough, so quite easy to understand...at least to me.

<<If you lot found that hard then I'd love to sit down with an American and watch them 'watch' films such as Trainspotting or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - that would be a larf!!>>

And Snatch, too. I think it goes, though, as some of the actors/characters like Jason Statham speak only Cockney Light.

Trainspotting is pure unadultered Endinburghspeak...not SSE (Standard Scottish English - for the uninitiated) by any stretch of the imagination.

<<(two VERY good British films by the way - in my opinion)>>

Yes, they are. Lock, Stock and I'm-lazy-to-spell is one of my all-time favourites - just like Snatch.

Funnily enough, when I saw Trainspotting for the first time, I found it pretty lacklustre, but after having seen it on numerous occassions (out of sheer mazochism) I started to like it. I still prefer the book, though.

<<Actually, I think I mentioned the film 'Snatch' in an earlier post? Brad Pitt's character does an almost spot on impression of a 'Pikey' accent which I come across daily (even I can't understand much of what is said), it really is quite something!!!!>>

*I* did. :-) The "pikey" was hilarious!!! You say you couldn't understand it either? Well, I'm assuaged. I thought my lack of understanding should be put down to functionally-deaf-non-native-speaker-itis. :-)
Liz   Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:31 pm GMT
Oh...I forgot to mention this and I was wondering if anyone had noticed it. I might be wrong but some of the characters in Trainspotting seem to speak with a Glaswegian accent (especially the one who played Begbie), even though they are supposed to speak Edinburgh vernacular (for aught I know). I checked out the bloke (the actor - Robert Carlyle) and he *really* was born in Glasgow, so I can't be that off-beam. Any observations?
K. T.   Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:18 pm GMT
"I have seen the film a few times and from what I remember there are no examples of some of the more 'difficult' English/British accents such as strong cockney, Geordie, Brummie or Scouse accents. Plus the Dialogue does not contain much British slang. I am well surprised. Even the Irishman in the film has quite a soft accent (to these ears anyway)."

I don't have trouble understanding RP and I don't have trouble understanding people I know who speak with a British accent. I used to work with a man from New Z. who had very strong opinions about British accents. He'd say that he hated the way so-and-so spoke. He knew just the corner of London where people spoke in that way...I don't have that kind of knowledge. When I watch a comedy I just want to relax and not have to listen to a movie twice to get the funny lines.
K. T.   Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:25 pm GMT
Perhaps I was too harsh describing my co-worker. He actually rarely complained, so it was a bit startling when he broke out with a bitter commentary on British accents one day. I had another co-worker (an American) who thought British accents sounded good on girls and sissy on boys. Both of those opinions were a bit disturbing to me because the people in question were children/teens.
Damian in London SW15   Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:31 pm GMT
"Trainspotting" - the storyline action took place in Edinburgh - in the book and in the film, of course - except the parts where the action moved to London.

It was all about the drugs scene in Edinburgh, as everyone knows who has read the book or seen the film. My home city is a very beautiful and cultural one but it has its seedy social side as every large city has. All the characters were Edinburgh lads, but only one of the main actors featured was actually from the city.

As for the location filming - although all the action was supposed to take place in and around Edinburgh, the only bit of filming that actually took place in the city itself was the chase along a city centre shopping street - Princes Street as it happens. All the rest of the filming took place in and around Glasgow (except, as I say, the "London bits").
Damian in London SW15   Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:37 pm GMT
***Did you know that Trainspotting was specially dubbed for the American audiences? Preview audiences here couldn't understand the dialogue in the original cut.

True fact***

We do not doubt it for one moment! Well, at least I don't No way would Americans understand ANY of the Scottish dialogue in TS without it either being dubbed into Americana or have subtitles inserted. Another true fact - many English people had difficulty following the sound track let alone Americans.
Uriel   Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:48 am GMT
No, Trainspotting wasn't dubbed in the US -- I had to watch the whole thing in its original audio form -- remote in hand, so I could say "WTF?" and rewind -- there are still some passages I never understood!

Snatch was very funny, and I think the gag about Brad Pitt's character was that NO one could understand a word he muttered -- even the other characters. I couldn't get into Lock, Stock, Etc. Circus Circus wasn't bad.

What cracks me up is how movies get renamed when they cross the Atlantic -- we've renamed some of yours and you've renamed ours. Even though we understand the original titles perfectly well.....


<<"That '70s Show" is the most recent sitcom set in Wisconsin, and the most recent one to lack even the slightest hint of any sort of Wisconsin accent, but this has been a problem with practically all TV shows set in Wisconsin, such as older ones like "Laverne and Shirley" and so on.>>

You mean Lenny and Squiggy didn't sound like Wisconsinites? I'm shocked! :P (On behalf of your home state, that may be a good thing....)
Jasper   Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:05 am GMT
<<No, Trainspotting wasn't dubbed in the US -- I had to watch the whole thing in its original audio form -- remote in hand, so I could say "WTF?" and rewind -- there are still some passages I never understood! >>

To be absolutely accurate, it was the first 20-minutes that were dubbed. Here's the proof--along with some other goodies...

http://imdb.com/title/tt0117951/trivia
Pub Lunch   Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:36 pm GMT
See Jasper, Uriel - why would you need the dubbing??? The accents/dialects spoken in Trainspotting are (almost) as alien to many of us English (apart from some slang) as they are to you lot. I NEVER come across any Scots in my day to day life and so hearing them on screen is (almost) literally the only time I will hear a Scottish accent. I suppose their vocabulary is closer to the one I use, but their pronunciation is actually closer to the American one (I think - according to a lass I know from Chicago).

Actually Uriel, despite its usage for comedic effect, that 'Pikey' accent that Brad Pitt speaks is a real accent, spoken by many, that I come across daily. It is something else I tell you!!!!!!!!!

Yeah Liz, I did not think that 'Shaun of The Dead' would be hard to understand - to anyone!!! But if it is then it is. The cockney spoken in Lock stock ... and Snatch is, as you say rather nicely - 'Cockney light' yet I know a few Americans that could not understand it (especially Lock Stock). Come to think of it, I can't think of a 'proper' cockney film as it goes.

Yeah Jasper, I love film too, especially European cinema (Boxing is my biggest love though).
Uriel   Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:06 pm GMT
Well, the only similarity between Scottish and American I can see is the preservation of those R's. Their vowels sound really twisted. Of course, the last Scottish accent I heard was Cho in the latest Harry Potter movie, and hers was fairly light and easy to understand.

Some Irish accents sound nearly identical to American, though -- sometimes it takes me a while to realize the speaker is foreign. Especially if the Irish actor is alongside a bunch of English or Scottish actors, whose accents are much more overpowering. Their accents will come off as very strong while the Irish one sounds almost "normal" (to me). The Irish guy in Shaun of the Dead, for example. (By the way, speaking of Harry Potter, have you listened to the S.of the D. commentary, where they mercilessly teased him as "Harry Potter -- the Cappuccino Years"? The commentary is almost as funny as the movie!)

And it isn't so much that most English accents are gibberish or anything, it's more that sometimes I really have to concentrate and strain my ears to catch everything they say. Most of the time I can get it. It's when there's an unfamiliar word with an unusual accent that it causes the most trouble. Nick Frost's delivery of "Cornetto" when he was asking for ice cream, for example. It wasn't until I listened to the explanation on the commentary that I had any idea what he was saying -- firstly, because he said something more like "corne'o", and secondly, because I've never heard the name "Cornetto" before in my life -- as the commentators pointed out, int he US it's known as a "Nutty Buddy". (And in the US, that rhymes. ;P)

Commentaries are often very illuminating for me when it comes to British movies, because often, even if I catch what they SAY, it turns out that I often don't know what they MEAN. There's a lot of cultural shorthand and subtext that's entirely lost on me. In 24 Hour Party People, for example, there was a scene where the main character says something like "Nice car" to another, and the other man shoots him a grin and says "She's thirsty". Meant absolutely nothing to me -- in fact, it was such a throwaway line that I never caught it at all (and the way he said "thirsty" was hard to understand anyway), but according to the commentary, that was his way of saying, "Yes, it's a nice car, and it guzzles a lot of gas, but I'm so successful that I can afford it and brag about it." Uh ... I would NEVER have gotten that!

And Gosford Park? Forget it. I learned from the commentary that I had understood absolutely none of the subtext between character's relationships, and had not picked up on any of the "telltale" comments and clues that had been worked into the dialogue!

<<Actually Uriel, despite its usage for comedic effect, that 'Pikey' accent that Brad Pitt speaks is a real accent, spoken by many, that I come across daily. It is something else I tell you!!!!!!!!! >>

I knew it was a real accent somewhere, I just didn't know it was a common one! What's a "pikey", anyway?
Travis   Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:25 am GMT
>>It wasn't until I listened to the explanation on the commentary that I had any idea what he was saying -- firstly, because he said something more like "corne'o", and secondly, because I've never heard the name "Cornetto" before in my life -- as the commentators pointed out, int he US it's known as a "Nutty Buddy". (And in the US, that rhymes. ;P)<<

Actually, something like "corne'o", exactly ["k_hO:RnEo_^], is how I'd pronounce "Cornetto" when not trying to speak carefully.

And as for "Nutty Buddy", that doesn't really rhyme in this part of the US, being ["nV4i:"bV:4i:] or ["nVi_^"bV:i_^] (or some other combination of the two different versions of the two words).