posted by [identity profile] archaeologist-d.livejournal.com at 10:27pm on 21/12/2008
Well, actually as a non-Southerner, I'd say there is a southern accent. It's obvious that it's from different parts of the South - Virginia is very different than Texas but it certainly isn't New England or California. A southern accent (to me) just means that it's from the southern states.

Of course, it may be the states vs regions question. I could pick out a Boston accent separate from Maine but they both have a Northern accent to me.

Probably the worst was Ewan's Down with Love accent. Just awful.
 
posted by [identity profile] deadcat-vagrant.livejournal.com at 12:07am on 22/12/2008
*twitches* Ewan is passable, but it's the passable of "Hollywood-ease" than "this ithe accent from the particular region I'm from and I made sure of it".

The town my family is from has at least five different distinct accents in it alone. Go from town to town in that area of Kentucky and you will hear all KINDS of different accents, based off of family history, particular location, family lineage, occupation, ect. If they ever tried to do pinpoint accents in that area it would break people. :)
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 12:21am on 22/12/2008
Yet, there are people who do just that. It fascinates me, really. A lot of entertainment is produced in New York and California, so they get those accents right. Even in New York where ethnicity and so forth affect the accents a great deal. We might refer to a New york accent, but there are really several.
 
posted by [identity profile] archaeologist-d.livejournal.com at 12:21am on 22/12/2008
Well, it may be that you are used to the accents so you hear the subtleties (can't speel worth a darn tonight). As a Northern, I'd likely just hear the overall accent.

It's like My Fair Lady. Henry Higgens could hear the difference. I just hear an English accent. I can recognize cockney because it's so very distinct just like I can recognize upper Bostonian from New Jersey accents (having lived in both areas) but telling accents apart when you aren't around them a lot is hard. So I tend to lump them together into regions.

Actually, I'm curious. If you watch the Clone War cartoons on cartoon network, what is the mascot's accent (he shows up to introduce the next part - looks like a metallic doughboy)? Sounds southern to me.
 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 12:16am on 22/12/2008
Well, I can tell the difference between a Philly accent and a Brooklyn accent, too. But the movies seem to treat Southern accents like they are all the same, yet if a movie had everyone in New York sounding like they came from Philly, people would get upset about it because most entertainment industry folks are familiar with those accents as separate entities. Entertainment folk familiar with the South almost always get it right (the Bloodsworth Thompsons had all of the Designing Women sound plausibly Atlantan, for example, and Billy Bob Thornton's entire cast of The Gift was flawlessly Louisianan) because they know the difference.
 
posted by [identity profile] archaeologist-d.livejournal.com at 12:33am on 22/12/2008
I wouldn't be able to tell a Philly accent from a NYC one - although tv 'Brooklyn' seems to be distinct. On the other hand, I go to Brooklyn quite a bit and most of the people there that I've talked to don't have a tv 'Brooklyn' accent. Of course, most NJ people don't have a tv 'Jersey' accent either; in fact, I don't think I've ever heard that Jersey accent outside the movies/tv. Very odd.

I can certainly see why it might be a sore point, though.

Perhaps I just don't have a good ear for it.

 
posted by [identity profile] asatomuraki.livejournal.com at 01:14am on 22/12/2008
Oh, I trained with an Italian guy from Brooklyn and a black fellow from near there. I thought it was funny how the one guy sounded like all the TV Brooklyn accents but the other guy didn't at all, and they both grew up there.

I suppose a lot of the people in New York are not from there, same here in Atlanta. Plus, you know, TV and radio have taken the edge off regional accents.

I was an Army Brat, so I am familiar with a lot of different accents. I also have a subconscious tendency to imitate accents I am around a lot, which is funny and sometimes disturbing. I don't know why.

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