Can you distinguish UK accent from US when singing?

George   Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:53 am GMT
Uriel, both rhotic and non-rhotic accents exists in Britain, so it's not a good test. You would probably laugh if I said the quality their final R's made these bands, without a doubt, Cornish.
Trawicks   Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:32 pm GMT
<<Uriel, both rhotic and non-rhotic accents exists in Britain, so it's not a good test. You would probably laugh if I said the quality their final R's made these bands, without a doubt, Cornish.>>

Yeah, but only to about the same degree that both exist in the states. There's only one "rhotic" city in England (Bristol)--the rest of the rhotic areas are in rural pockets of the country. Of course, most of Scotland, all of Northern Ireland and some patches of Wales are rhotic as well, but I'm pretty sure somebody singing in their home dialect from one of those areas would be distinguished by a number of other factors before rhoticism.
George   Wed Jul 23, 2008 4:36 pm GMT
Uriel,

Looking at a map on Wikipedia it seems to work out as about 20% of the British population. That's either a lot of little pockets or one big one.

The corresponding map for the US seems show most of the New England non-rhotic speakers as living in the Atlantic Ocean, so this is clearly not rocket science. :)

I actually think the Cornish and American accents have a lot in common. Although they would be hard to confuse when spoken, I could see that happening when sung.

It was more your comment on the 'quality' of the final R that made me laugh. Keep that up and I'm sure my mum will be happy to have 'round for tea and bake you a nice Cornish pasty.
Trawicks   Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:27 pm GMT
<<I actually think the Cornish and American accents have a lot in common. Although they would be hard to confuse when spoken, I could see that happening when sung.>>

That's because the dialects of Southwest England are quite closely related to American. If you look at the lives of the founding fathers, many of them (including Washington and Adams) descended from immigrants from that area. I'd speculate that it may very well have been the dominant 18th century dialect in the South and Mid-Atlantic (much less so in New England, which had more roots in Southeast England).
Uriel   Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:54 am GMT
Guys, how many Cornish bands do you REALLY think I'm likely to be hearing on the radio? ;) I'm gonna go with "none". And I am pretty sure Cake and the Ben Folds Five aren't from Cornwall.
Rick Johnson   Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:10 pm GMT
A good local British band with local accents!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS_OkJaZFd4
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:09 pm GMT
The very worst Cornish pasty I ever had was one I bought in Boscastle, on the north coast of Conrwall. It was dreich - both my mate and I took a couple of bites out of them, binned them - and went to a nearby pub instead and had freshly caught sea bass, chips and home made mushy peas. My Scottish mum makes a better Cornish pasty than those we had in Boscastle. We did have some fantastic ones in Newlyn though - they were ace.

The pubs in Cornwall had some really good local bands some nights - singing in Cornish accents - very, very rhotic, not to mention lively.

If you want some really, really good pub talent bandwise then go to Crieff, in Perthshire, or Perth itself. Not at all rhotic - more erotic in fact. And very Scottish with it.
George   Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:05 pm GMT
Sorry about the bad Boscastle experience, Damian. Not all pasty makers are as good as my mum. I can even think of a well know manufacturer that does a pretty bad job, so you have to choose carefully. There popularity makes them easy targets for poor quality rip-offs, even in Cornwall.

...Mushy peas! There's something that's under-rated.
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Jul 30, 2008 3:37 pm GMT
Those home-made Cornish mushy peas were fantastic - and peas HAVE to be mushy to go with fish, especially those caught on the very same day you eat them, and all the fish served in the restaurant of that pub overlooking the harbour in Newlyn every evening of the week were caught that very day or so we were told by the very, very rhotic (almost incomprehensible) old salts in the very noisy public bar there, and who were we to doubt them? The fish tasted as fantastic as the mushy peas and that comes from someone used to the freshest of fish here in Edinburgh that were probably happily swimming around off the shores of eastern Scotland earlier on the day of their consumption.

Boscastle was unfortunate - maybe they were having a bad day, and it was after they had had those dramatic flash floods there, and in any case we had some great pasties in Penzance and Mousehole which more than made up for that rare experience - a bad Cornish Cornish pasty.

I take it you are a Cornishman? ;-) I adore Cornwall, but it's natural that I do, don't you think?
George   Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:19 pm GMT
I am indeed. I'm glad you like it. I think it's natural to like it, but I am biased.

Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities.
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:54 pm GMT
Who could NOT like Cornwall!!! You don't have to be part of the Celtic Brotherhood not to fall in love with Kernow and all its attractions. However, I was very disappointed to find only one person who could speak Cornish and that was just a smattering, with others just knowing one or two words.

Edinburgh: Well, it is my VERY favourite city for obvious reasons - it's my home city so now it's my turn to be biased. ;-) I'm under increasing pressure to take up a journo job in London which is so mega tempting but my heart will always be here in Auld Reekie so I'll stay put for as long as possible.

On the two occasions I've worked down in London over the past three years so far my native Edinburgh accent somehow became more pronounced - not a conscious decision at all, more of a reflexive reaction to either the all pervasive posh Southern English RP or just the standard Londonspeak, with the myriad of foreign accents chucked in to add to the mix. It was hard to find someone who was actually a native born Londoner!

August is completely taken up with the Edinburgh International Festival with its famous Fringe, and the whole world and his wife are already here ready for all the fun and culture, with the almighty fireworks party at the end of it all. I have tickets for all the shows I want to see, my favourite location being that at the Pleasance, but I am away on the Continent between 04/10 August.

http://www.eif.co.uk/
Guest   Wed Jul 30, 2008 11:18 pm GMT
<<Who could NOT like Cornwall!!>>

I hate Cornwall!
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:46 am GMT
***I hate Cornwall!***

As it's impossible to say which of the many "Guests" now posting in this forum you may be there is little point in bothering to make any worthwhile comment on this one other than to say that chances are you may never have been within three to five thousand miles of beautiful Cornwall anyway. ;-)
George   Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:39 pm GMT
Unfortunately Cornish is mostly a dead language. I know the meaning of a few words in place names, but can't speak it. It is spoken within a few very small groups, but these are more academic or those with a special interest as far as I know. The last woman to speak it and not English died at the end of the 18th century.

What's the story with the Lowlands? I understand Gaelic was only ever spoken in the Highlands. Is that right?
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Aug 04, 2008 7:33 am GMT
George:

Very quickly - Gaelic in Scotland is confined to the western and north parts of the country, especially the Western Isles, where it is the main means of communication for about 70% of the population, although everyone understands and speaks English, of course.

Scots is the Scottish version of an English dialect for much of the rest of Scotland and widely used on a more informal basis - Lowland Scots can also be called Lallans, and you could say it's almost a Language in itself. You could also say that I am bi-lingual in that I can have a conversation in standard English with you, as a Cornishman, and we would undersand each other perfectly well. If you were to hear me chatting with my mates in Scots you may well only get to understand small bits of what we were saying to each other.......we are not rude people by any means, but the Scots dialect can really come in useful sometimes. ;-) It's like the Welsh with their own very distinct Language which cannot really be called a dialect.

This part of Scotland (the south east) was the first to become Anglicised, which is not surprising seeing that the Lothian and Borders Region is tacked on to England, as is the Dumfries and Galloway region in south west Scotland.