American Accent

[TiK]

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Listen to Pierce Brosnan talk. Does he sound unmistakably Irish?

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That's a bad example. He was born in Ireland but spent a good part of his life in England.

[private joker]

What do we think of Catherine Zeta-Jones' accent? I think her American accent is actually her real one as she tries to dump the Welsh one from her early days. In interviews she tries to stifle the Welsh as well. But she doesn't do American all that well either. It has become some sort of weird hybrid.

[doc_1982]

That's true, and also they were born in completely different parts of Ireland (Pierce Navan, Farrell Dublin). But seeing as thats another accent that Hollywood constantly butchers, does his accent sound anything like the regular British accent on american TV?

[szw]

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I was born and grew up in Montreal Canada my whole life. But for some reason everybody thinks I have an american accent, from NJ specifically. Its really werid becuase iv never been there and im 4th generation montrealer, but when I traveled to europe this summer everybody thought I was from Jersey. I think its the attitude that you talk with. I try to talk with confidence so maybe thats different from the milder canadian speech?

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Yesterday three guys in a van were yelling at me at a stop light to try to get me to buy a stereo they had in the back. I was convinced it was a Jersey accent they had (at least the ones you see on TV/movies), but I saw they had Quebec plates when they drove away.

You guys are just weird.

[Hottie McBigTits]

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it would seem that it it actually very hard for a brit to do a decent American accent.

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I would say its much easier for an englishman to do an american accent than it is to do some regional accents from england itself.

Doing a realy broad bristolian or border counties for example is very difficult. Bristolians pronounce Bristol as Brizzle, when I first tmoved there it took me about 6 months before I could understand what the natives were talking about. I now live in Cornwall, maderdo-e.

Also it would seem that Brits can do Yank much better than Yanks can do Brit.

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I've noticed that Americans often seem to feel completely uncomfortable trying any accent other than their natural one. Even when trying to learn a foreign language (something most Americans never seriously try to do anyway), most will totally botch the pronouncation because they are uncomfortable with the accent.

Perhapse this is because Brits have a much greater varity of accents within their own country than we do in America. (Also, I suspect the Brits are exposed more to other languages due to their proximaty to europe, but I'm not sure about this).

[Hottie McBigTits]

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The thick Irish accent that you generally hear in movies and on TV is horrible, and sounds nothing like an actual modern Irish accent.

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This is true. There is an Irish man at my work, and for a long time I assumed he was British because his accent doesn't sound like what I thought an Irish accent was.

[talentdeficit]

i'm from a part of the uk where we swallow all our vowels hard and speak rather quickly. basically vowel sounds aren't pronounced at all unless they begin or end a word, and sometimes even not then. i pronounce 'sorry' like 'sir' for example. in order for north americans to understand me, i have to make a concious effort to pronounce my vowels and speak slower than is normal. people always assume i'm from california when i do this, so i guess american accents are as easy as pronouncing all vowel sounds and speaking slowly.

[AsH_KeTcHuM]

Kevin Kostner in Robin Hood Prince of Theives = worst British accent of ALL TIME

[Brainwalter]

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Kevin Kostner in Robin Hood Prince of Theives = worst British accent of ALL TIME

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I believe that honor belings to Dick van Dyke.

[katyseagull]

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I believe that honor belings to Dick van Dyke.

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lol- so true.