I've been refraining from participating in this but I can't resist now.
As a Yank who lived in Britain for 7 years and travelled the breadth and
scope of the country, I picked up all the regional accents I could want. I
can 'do' Scouse, Brummie, Mancunian, Glaswegian, Yorkshire, Essex Girl,
Cornish-- but over here there are very few people that can tell one from
t'other. Any 'north-of the-Home Counties' accent is one and the same to
most Americans and if you even get that right it's saying something.
Want to hear true Cockney? Watch EastEnders, or even rent a Python movie
(Life of Brian my pers fav). Notice how it's hard to understand them at
first? That's one of the reasons (I hope!) Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett
did NOT use a true Cockney, but a stylized American accent. She used
Cockney vowels but not Cockney inflection, for the most part - because true
Cockney inflection (again, watch EastEnders to see what I'm on about here)
is very fast, musical, staccato, and kind of slurred together (thus the
dropped 'h's and 't's) - and sounds like a foreign language film to most
Americans.
I find the major difficulty for an American trying to 'speak' British is not
words - just like in French or Italian, it's easy to say one word in
isolation correctly - but the way the words go together, the pitch and roll
of sentences. If your dialog is written well - that is to say, the words
themselves are true to the character's supposed accent - that will help a
lot.
Carol S.
Carol Ansell Spradling, Mezzo-soprano
Director of Music, St. Augustine's, Syracuse
http://home.twcny.rr.com/spradling
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Belsey <Idbelsey@y...>
From: Ian Belsey <Idbelsey@y...>
To: <vocalist-temporary@egroups.com>
To: <vocalist-temporary@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2001 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: [vocalist] British dialects
|
| -Christine,
|
| Don't get me wrong. I love Mary Poppins. Apart from
| the fact it has Jules in it (who I love) I'm also a
| big fan of Dick!! That aside, it still remains a
| terrible account of Cockney, guaranteed to make any
| Englisher wince with embarrassment!!
|
| Take care,
|
| Ian
|
| ____________________________________________________________
|
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