I'm late to the Downton Abbey craze, but I just finished watching all the episodes that have been made so far and I love it. What I'm wondering about is what accents the characters have. I know that Ms. Hughes has a different one than Carson, who has a different one than O'Brien, but I can't place any of them. Obviously Tom Branson is Irish -- but are all the rest of the characters English? Are some Scottish? Welsh? Liverpudlian? London-born? Help me sort this all out.
Bonus: if you can identify any differences/matches between the accent the
character has, in comparison with the accent the actor or actress
who plays the character has.
posted by RingerChopChop
on Apr 28, 2013 -
9 answers
What's the deal with the recent spate of Midwestern/Southern (US) teenagers I've heard speaking with English accents? Is this a "thing"?
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posted by incomple
on Mar 29, 2013 -
25 answers
Actor Clark Gregg (our beloved Agent Coulson) has a voice that I really enjoy. One feature I like a lot is the way he says R sounds, especially in the middle or ends of words. For an example, at around 0:35 in the trailer for Much Ado About Nothing (
http://www.muchadothemovie.com/), it is especially apparent in the way he says "merry war" and "skirmish." (Also notable in the interrogation scene in "Thor" when he says "That's hurtful.") It's not a burred or rolled or flipped R, it's just sort of... liquid-sounding? I think it sounds really neat. In the past, I have noticed this in other actors and I always really like the way it sounds.
My question: is this a feature of a certain kind of regional accent? Is there an official/proper term for the sound I mean? Or is it just an individual thing that certain people have that isn't tied to anything in particular? Linguists of MeFi, help me out!
posted by oblique red
on Mar 18, 2013 -
8 answers
How long did it take for the United States to lose all traces of a British accent among its citizens?
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posted by newfers
on Dec 29, 2012 -
18 answers
Looking for scenes (television or film) in which an actor plays a character with a different accent and then
that character puts on the actor's native accent.
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posted by 256
on Nov 2, 2012 -
27 answers
Have there been any American actors that have been cast as primary characters on British shows and use a British accent?
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posted by curious nu
on May 6, 2012 -
30 answers
I have often have trouble understanding what ESL speakers are saying, and I pretty much feel like a jerk after asking someone to repeat something a third time.
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posted by anonymous
on Sep 9, 2011 -
26 answers
Growing up, I knew someone who pronounced the word "literally" as "litrally", and "battery" as "battry". When I asked her why she did that, she said it was a vestigial habit from acting classes in college, which would have been in the late 1960s.
Now, the guy who cut my hair pronounces things in that way, and, of course, there is Rob Lowe's character on "Parks and Recreation" who also does it.
My question: Is this a thing? Is it a regionalism? Was it ever taught in acting or elocution classes? Or is it just an affectation?
posted by everichon
on Aug 1, 2011 -
26 answers
I'd like to try making a "life goal" out of mastering stereotypical/fake accents... the impeccably snooty Frenchman, the stuck up Brit, redneck American, serious Japanese businessman, and so on. How does one intentionally learn (fake/funny/stereotypical) accents?
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posted by luciphercolors
on Jun 30, 2011 -
34 answers
in english, for the most part, it's vowel sounds that differ across regional accents. in other languages i've studied (italian, hungarian), consonant transpositions seem to be more common. what gives? or am i even drawing accurate conclusions?
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posted by nevers
on Jul 13, 2010 -
23 answers
Is there a resource that demonstrates how to do foreign accents by re-spelling words in such a way that when read aloud by an American, will closely resemble the accent? For example, in "Australian", Down = Dan.
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posted by TimeTravelSpeed
on Apr 2, 2010 -
15 answers
I want to expand my collection of accents. What movies should I watch? I'm especially interested in regional American, UK and Irish accents, but hearing non-native English speakers is helpful as well.
posted by freshwater_pr0n
on Feb 24, 2010 -
35 answers
Can you think of movies, television or radio shows which feature British actors playing American characters putting on fake British accents? Extra bonus points if you can name other examples of actor from country X playing a character from country Y faking the accent of country X.
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posted by Kattullus
on Jan 2, 2009 -
28 answers
My boss would like me to drop my accent by developing a Southern one. Is this a bad idea?
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posted by anonymous
on Nov 14, 2007 -
65 answers
What is the shortest sentence that would highlight differences in dialects and accents in the English language?
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posted by Samuel Farrow
on Jul 21, 2007 -
26 answers
I'm looking for movies featuring evil/bad psychiatrists. I'm also looking for movies that feature good (West) Texas accents. An example of the first would be Michael Caine in "Quills,"an example of the second would be Sissy Spacek in "Badlands." Bonus points for contemporary time frame and female actors, but not necessary. Comedies are fine too.
posted by rainbaby
on Aug 22, 2006 -
34 answers
Why do many German speakers pronounce the v sound in English as a w?
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posted by ob
on Aug 8, 2006 -
24 answers
Why does Windows think I want to permanently type in "accent character" mode?
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posted by Jimbob
on May 17, 2006 -
7 answers
I am looking for word processing software that will do very specific accented-character-related tasks.
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posted by anjamu
on May 9, 2006 -
5 answers
LinguisticsFilter: There are a lot of resources explaining how to transcribe a language into IPA, but I don't have any that get into the nitty gritty of how one language pronounces a given consonant compared to another. Are there good resources on this front? Are there resources on how to speak in various foreign accents?
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posted by sirion
on Apr 27, 2006 -
8 answers
French speakers: can anyone characterize the Breton (Brittany, not Cape Breton) accent for me?
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posted by blissbat
on Mar 12, 2006 -
10 answers
How do I do a convincing New Zealander accent? And how do I do a convincing Australian accent? And how do I manage to not make them sound the same?
posted by Big Fat Tycoon
on Jan 27, 2006 -
22 answers
My wife wants to be able to put Spanish Accents in on our PC Laptop however we have not found a solution. Is there one for a PC Laptop Keyboard without using that Function method?
posted by Hands of Manos
on Jul 27, 2005 -
4 answers
In the US, the first syllable of "privacy" rhymes with "eye." In the UK, it rhymes with "give." So why, when listening to an audiobook, did I hear a British reader (with a standard British dialect) pronounce it the American way? Was the reader just being weird, or is the pronunciation of "privacy" becoming Americanized? Are there any other common Brit-pronunciations that are migrating across the pond?
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posted by grumblebee
on May 8, 2005 -
22 answers
This is an easy one (I hope). Had some UK'ers over for a wedding recently, they were talking about a vacation region that I'd like to know more about, but I don't know remotely how to spell it or where it is. They pronounced it Mee-ork-ah. Once I know the spelling, I suspect Google will be able to tell me all I need to know, but if you've got information or stories, please share.
posted by Capn
on Mar 8, 2005 -
13 answers
When I hear English spoken with, say, a Spanish or a Persian accent, I find it interesting and intriguing. However, whenever I hear Spanish or Farsi spoken with an (American) English accent, I find it irritating and unattractive.
Why doesn't it work both ways? (+)
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posted by BuddhaInABucket
on Jan 11, 2005 -
20 answers
Is it more difficult to learn two or more foreign languages at once than it is to learn one? Can the experience gained learning one foreign language be used to benefit the learning of the other? And on the subject of accents, those of you who can turn accents on and off at will, how did you achieve this talent?
posted by arimathea
on Nov 24, 2004 -
15 answers
What are the stereotypes of the native English speaker's accent as perceived by non-English-speakers?
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posted by Shane
on Oct 7, 2004 -
16 answers
I was listening to
sound recordings of Theodore Roosevelt's voice, circa 1912, and was struck by TR's accent. It's nasal and aristocratic, and there are hints of both modern British and American dialects. I couldn't quite pin down TR's accent to a stereotypical New York, New England, or Long Island dialect. Which got me wondering:
At what point did the vocal style of American and Canadian English become distinct from British and Scottish English? I know that regional dialects are shaped by the immigrant communities that populated that region. But there is a fundamental difference between accents on either side of the Atlantic.
Put another way, what did Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin "sound" like? And how did the generic Midwest voice that we call "American" - Mr. Game Show Host and Ms. Voicemail - develop from the milieu of voices of Puritans, German/Irish immigrants, and slaves?
posted by PrinceValium
on Jun 8, 2004 -
14 answers
