who has got the coolest American accent?

Jim C, Jorvikskyr   Wed Apr 26, 2006 11:13 am GMT
I'm a big fan of House, to my untrained ears I think that Hugh Laurie's is really accurate, but if you have ever seen "A bit Fry and Laurie" (they allways used to do finger quotes when talking about the title) He never used to be able to pull off the accent accuratly.
Here is a clip of his screen test I found, let me know where he is going wrong, if he does at all.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7602271037122417732&q=hugh+laurie&pl=true


Also here is a funny scetch about pretentious language experts ;) (script only, cant find any footage of the show)
http://www.geocities.com/mmemym/bits1/fal0058.htm
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:23 pm GMT
This is the first time I've heard Hugh Laurie speak with a (supposedly) American accent. To me it sounds pretty authentic......my eardrums are assailed by American accents on a fairly regular basis living where I do...certainly in the summer season....August sounds like the whole of Illinois or Pennsylvania are walking around the city. On the whole they all seem to sound exactly the same to me, like they all come from the same city or neighbourhood which I know is a wee bit stoopit.....I mean, America is one vastness of a country, is it not?.....from sea to shining sea? That's a whole lot of territory...yet when I hear them they all sound exactly the same to silly Scottish me......a bit like Laurie in that clip. I need to go on an intensive AAIC (American Accent Identification Course). LOL
Guest   Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:11 pm GMT
When did Jason Isaac do an American accent?

Uriel- a bunch of non-Americans did American accents in Black Hawk Down: Jason Isaacs (a VERY strong Southern...he does a good GA in another movie, but I cannot remember its name because I didn't watch the whole thing), Orlando Bloom (eh), Ewan MacGregor (bad), even Ewen Bremner (surprisingly decent). Actually, were there any Americans at all in Black Hawk Down?
Guest   Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:40 am GMT
It's very disappointing when an English-speaking non-American affects an American accent. You can understand the financial incentive, but even so, to lower one's standards to that extent...
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:00 am GMT
Financial incentive just has to be the sole reason......and a mega one at that to make our Ewan sport an American accent...however dreich his effort. A bad Brit American accent is worse than a bad American Brit accent I reckon. The first prize in the east/west - west/east Transatlantic Accent Stakes just has to go to Gwyneth Paltrow. How come she has a Welsh name?
Uriel   Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:18 am GMT
<<On the whole they all seem to sound exactly the same to me, like they all come from the same city or neighbourhood which I know is a wee bit stoopit.....I mean, America is one vastness of a country, is it not?.....from sea to shining sea?>>

It's true, Damian -- you can drive for hundreds and hundreds of miles across the US and when you get out of the car, people will sound pretty much the same. Linguists may quibble over a fronted vowel here or a this or a that, the honest truth is that an ordinary person would probably never pick up on that stuff. Southerners and New Englanders will stand out when they talk, but the rest of us tend to merge together, with only minor variations.

<<A bad Brit American accent is worse than a bad American Brit accent I reckon.>>

Honestly, I think an affected American accent has to be pretty terrible before we'll even notice. We just don't tend to be as picky as you. Or as accent-savvy.
Kirk   Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:38 am GMT
<<It's true, Damian -- you can drive for hundreds and hundreds of miles across the US and when you get out of the car, people will sound pretty much the same. Linguists may quibble over a fronted vowel here or a this or a that, the honest truth is that an ordinary person would probably never pick up on that stuff. Southerners and New Englanders will stand out when they talk, but the rest of us tend to merge together, with only minor variations. >>

I'd also add the Northern Midwest to that list, at least from my perspective. At least to those of us outside the Upper Midwest, even the average person unfamiliar with linguistics in any way often just *knows* when another speaker is from the Upper Midwest. I know this because I've consistently heard my friends (who know nothing about linguistics) comment about meeting people from places like Michigan, Minnesoa, the Chicago area, Wisconsin, etc. and comment on their "weird accent" (I'm sure people from the Upper Midwest would be likely to say the same about Californians) which they then try to imitate (not well but it shows they're at least aware there are significant differences).

But, yes, compared to the UK the difference between dialects and the distances you must go to hear big differences are much greater. All thruout the 770 miles/1,240 kilometers of California I cannot hear a difference in accent, tho there are a very few lexical differences between Northern and Southern California. Not until you get to Oregon and Washington do you start hearing different-sounding accents, and even then the differences are not usually that big comparatively, tho dialectal features have been emerging there. Of course, I'm looking at it from a Western US point of view. In older parts of the US you don't have to travel as far between places to start hearing distinct dialectal features. It's likely to eventually become more that way in the West as time goes on and the already-nascent regional features in various places in the West begin to develop further and spread.
Travis   Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:35 am GMT
>>I'd also add the Northern Midwest to that list, at least from my perspective. At least to those of us outside the Upper Midwest, even the average person unfamiliar with linguistics in any way often just *knows* when another speaker is from the Upper Midwest. I know this because I've consistently heard my friends (who know nothing about linguistics) comment about meeting people from places like Michigan, Minnesoa, the Chicago area, Wisconsin, etc. and comment on their "weird accent" (I'm sure people from the Upper Midwest would be likely to say the same about Californians) which they then try to imitate (not well but it shows they're at least aware there are significant differences). <<

We don't sound weird (how could we, of all people, sound weird?), you Californians sound weird! :D

(Well, other Upper Midwesterners who use the words "water/drinking fountain" and "pop" are also weird, I must say. "Bubbler" and "soda" are obviously the correct words, as any clear-headed rational individual must know.)
Uriel   Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:42 am GMT
I would not be able to pick out a midwestern accent, I'm afraid.
Guest   Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:35 am GMT
<<Ewan MacGregor (bad)>>
I think BHD was his first on-screen attempt at an American accent. He has improved since then, in my opinion, if "The Island" is any sort of indicator.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Apr 28, 2006 4:16 pm GMT
It's amazing how the accent/dialect patterns in the UK and the USA are so different.......it's as if the UK is a sort of micro version of the USA in that respect....all in proportion to physical size. Take a car journey from one end of the UK to the other you literally pass through a hell (am I allowed to say that in here? LOL) of a lot of regional accents/dialects, some literally just a few miles apart.

It's like when I went from Edinburgh to Anglesey (Wales) over Easter, and at the stops along the way the accents of people in the service stations (tank fill up, coffee and nosh..oh... and to take a leak) changed noticeably...some more than others... from one to the next and my satnav put the total distance from Edinburgh to the place I went to in North Wales (not far from Holyhead, Anglesey....ferry port to Ireland) directly at 326 miles, with three countries included in that journey. The trip over to Ireland.....yet another accent...and a different currency.

I think it would be really nice to drive right across the USA from, say New York, down to Texas then across to San Francisco then back through the mid West to Chicago and back to New York. I'd be gutted if everybody sounded the same when the spoke! They won't I know....not in Texas anyway ;-)

It's another holiday on Monday. Yay! Happy May Day everyone!
Jim C, Jorvikskyr   Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:43 pm GMT
Mayday! Remember to say "white rabbit" three times as the first thing you say before anything else when you wake up on monday. Bad luck to say anything else on the first day of a month, though I think it is reserved for Mayday nowerdays.

I'm going on a hunt for some Morris Dancers. Or infact some longsword dancers, as I've never seen them, even though its our county's dance, seemingly.

http://www.rathergood.com/morris_dancers/
Uriel   Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:10 pm GMT
Well, Damian, it's a 12-hour drive across Texas alone -- I know, because I've done it -- and in the eastern part you'll hear pseudo-Southern, but in El Paso you'll be lucky to hear English at all -- but the English you hear there will sound either Spanish-accented or utterly General American. I knew a guy from Houston, down on the coast -- he spoke GA with only the faintest soft drawl -- very sexy!
Fred kruegger   Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:51 pm GMT
there is not any best accent in US, because all of them are assholes.
Jim C, York   Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:13 am GMT
Did any one like my Morris Dancing/Mayday celebration link? Here's another!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/video/belthane.htm

There are some more for your enjoyment, funny kind of fellas arn't they?
Looks fun though!