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December 21, 2019 9:40 AM   Subscribe

What 'sub-category? dialect?' of British-English accent does the character Alyssa (Jessie Barden) speak in?

I've really enjoyed the Netflix series 'The End of The Fucking World'. Profoundly skilled young performers. Quite amazing screenwriting. To me, atypical sub-dialects as heard here in the US.

Any linguists have an opinion? I'm also curious about geographic range and class-implications. And anything really that could be curious or interesting for a layperson.

Thanks!
posted by j_curiouser to Writing & Language (6 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I read that she was from Yorkshire (the actress) and when you google interviews with her it’s similar to her own dialect. She said that people in the States recognize her from her dialect. To me it also sounds like a a wee bit of American ‘bored teenager/Valley Girl’ thrown in there as well.

We are obsessed with that show and her manner of speaking - not even just her dialect, but her mannerisms - it’s really interesting!
posted by canda at 10:35 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Jessie herself is from Northallerton in North Yorkshire, which isn't far from places like Darlington and Middlesbrough, which have a kind of Yorkshire-cum-North East accent, and from watching clips, she's probably using her own accent for the character Alyssa.

It's not the same as the stereotyped "eeh bah gum, t'foot th'stairs, tha knows, Ilkley Moor bar t'at" Yorkshire accent, which is probably more typical of South/West Yorkshire and is the sort of thing you might hear in, e.g., Brassed Off; nor is it the same as a Geordie accent (which tends to be the north-east accent most people think of), but has elements of each.

(cue all the Yorkshire MeFites piling into the thread...)
posted by parm at 10:50 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]


Best answer: You can hear in interviews that it is her own, authentic Leeds variety of Yorkshire accent.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:17 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


I only watched some clips but her own accent (from an interview) sounds considerably stronger/more common than what I heard in the clips.
In the clips that I saw, her accent does seem to vary. Its not strongly yorkshire but you can hear it at times - its so mild I might even say it comes off more midlands, eg. Nottingham area (although I'm biased, I currently live there but I did live in yorkshire for 10 years), like Canda, I hear a touch of american in there too. In some of the clips she sounds posher, not upper class but more stage school/private school (although her bio doesn't indicate she went to either). Its hard to say if the accent is a conscious choice or its just her "acting voice".
posted by missmagenta at 12:09 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


Best answer: And in terms of class, it's a middle class accent. She pronounces her Gs so she's well-spoken.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:13 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]


It is quite a subtle accent - probably because it’s smoothed out with middle-class-ness, as DarlingBri suggests. Mrs Fabius and I are both English, and at times I thought Alyssa sounded a bit middle-class Essex/London (helped by the fact she reminds me of a female middle-class Essex actor I know), while Mrs Fabius thought she was a bit Liverpool/Manchester. None of which is to deny its Yorkshire nature, just to emphasise how confusing accents like this can be (or maybe that the two of us are terrible at recognising them).
posted by fabius at 3:32 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


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