Do you accent?

[Sabina]

I've heard my accent described as Cockney when I try to do English. But my Italian accent is believable I hear. I'm not exactly a fan of the Shakespearean dialect that seems to be a steriotype of fair speak. When I have more time this summer I hope to do some English Renaissance literary reading to find a more proper use of language to apply at fair.

I study to many languages though and find myself slipping into other languages when I talk to begin with so now that fair season is on I've added that to the mix.

This fair I had a hard time doing an accent when I focused on it, I'd tried to do Cockney and do Italian instead and then when some one asked me to do the Italian I'd do the Cockney.

Buggers!

[Aaroncois]

My British accent meanders all over the place, slipping into everything from German to Spanish to southern-US to Apu from the Simpsons. It's awful. As such, I adopted a French persona since at least my semi-outrageous French accent is fairly stable. However my wife and kids are too shy to interact with anybody and I'm not really all that adept at ad-libbing, so the end-result is that we walk around and look at stuff and eat stuff all day and don't really talk to anyone except each other. Without accents. 

[Magister]

Being Irish, I don't even try any other accents.  It's just a disaster.  Over the last twenty years though I've gotten pretty confident with my American (thanks to several years of accent reduction speech therapy). 

It always amazes me how Brit / Irish / Aussie actors pop in and out of their native / and other accents so fluidly.

[Sabina]

On the subject of actors using accents I would like to note I feel that the old "Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" with DeCaprio could really have done with the use of accents. It was on TV recently and as I was thinking of the idea of accents and fair speak it seems that if one speaks in a Shakespearean tongue but with an American accent it simply sounds horrid. I'll have to listen closely at fair now to see if applies to people in live theater. Maybe it was just that movie.

[Katie Bookwench]

Being Irish, I don't even try any other accents.  It's just a disaster.  Over the last twenty years though I've gotten pretty confident with my American (thanks to several years of accent reduction speech therapy). 

Was it the Northern dialect?

If so I'll take the shreds of it that you might have left....I've been trying, but I haven't quite picked it up yet.

Those crazy dipthongs have me flummoxed.   

[Magister]

Kate .. no, sorry .. I'm from a small village north of Cork (southern coast). 

John Barrowman is certainly one of them .. Hugh Laurie from House.. the guy who played on Life - Damian something or another, I think is another.  The blond girl on Fringe is from the UK (see her in Mistresses a show on the BBC, wow!).  Of course for me is Colin Farrell (he's from Dublin), and Ciaran Hinds (from Belfast or somewhere near).  When you see them in American movies it just seems odd.  Especially if you've seen their Irish work (Rent: Intermission).

Speaking of Doctor Who though, David Tennet is another Scot.  You'd never guess hearing him on the show.  I watched him doing an interview recently, and it was just eerie.

There is an article in the UK Times today saying how with the financial crunch in the UK many more actors from there are making their way to Hollywood to try to follow in Hugh Laurie's footsteps.  I expect we'll see many more give it a go here soon.

As for faire accents, I think it's hard for people who are from the UK, Ireland, Germany, etc. to go and hear people here at faire try it out.  At least it was for me the first few years. 

I have a friend from the UK (Bristol Beach area) that has been in NY forever that I took to a faire once.  He actually pulled me aside and asked if the performers were intentionally making fun of him (and Brits in general).  He said it would be like if Southerners went up to NY and visited a park where the actors were all trying to talk in Georgia accents (Ya'll reckon you'd like ta get'ya'sum chitlin's and greens with dat?)  I just had to laugh.

Maybe it's just me, but I still prefer it when the actors and patrons at faire just speak with their regular voice without trying to hard.  Too many times it just gets pushed to a caricature of what they are hoping to achieve.  Unless that was their intention, of course.

Besides the American accent is just an evolution of the accents of the people who made this country.  You can still hear the Irish and Scot in the South, the German in Pennsylvania, the Dutch / Netherlands in Wisconsin and Minnesota .. and then there's Texas

Anyways ...

[Betty Munro]

As for faire accents, I think it's hard for people who are from the UK, Ireland, Germany, etc. to go and hear people here at faire try it out.  At least it was for me the first few years. 

I have a friend from the UK (Bristol Beach area) that has been in NY forever that I took to a faire once.  He actually pulled me aside and asked if the performers were intentionally making fun of him (and Brits in general).  He said it would be like if Southerners went up to NY and visited a park where the actors were all trying to talk in Georgia accents (Ya'll reckon you'd like ta get'ya'sum chitlin's and greens with dat?)  I just had to laugh.

Maybe it's just me, but I still prefer it when the actors and patrons at faire just speak with their regular voice without trying to hard.  Too many times it just gets pushed to a caricature of what they are hoping to achieve.  Unless that was their intention, of course.

That is exactly why I have never tried to talk with an accent, I think I would just insult those I love.  I do like to try to use Ren phrases ... g'day, huzzah, and of course, who has Loki???

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Yeah, Tennant is remarkable.  I was shocked when I heard him on BBC radio with Catherine Tate a couple months ago.  First time I'd heard him speaking normally.  But now that I know he's Scots, I can hear it leak through every once in a while when he's playing the Doctor.

[Dracconia]

Kate .. no, sorry .. I'm from a small village north of Cork (southern coast). 

John Barrowman is certainly one of them .. Hugh Laurie from House.. the guy who played on Life - Damian something or another, I think is another.  The blond girl on Fringe is from the UK (see her in Mistresses a show on the BBC, wow!).  Of course for me is Colin Farrell (he's from Dublin), and Ciaran Hinds (from Belfast or somewhere near).  When you see them in American movies it just seems odd.  Especially if you've seen their Irish work (Rent: Intermission).

Speaking of Doctor Who though, David Tennet is another Scot.  You'd never guess hearing him on the show.  I watched him doing an interview recently, and it was just eerie.

There is an article in the UK Times today saying how with the financial crunch in the UK many more actors from there are making their way to Hollywood to try to follow in Hugh Laurie's footsteps.  I expect we'll see many more give it a go here soon.

As for faire accents, I think it's hard for people who are from the UK, Ireland, Germany, etc. to go and hear people here at faire try it out.  At least it was for me the first few years. 

I have a friend from the UK (Bristol Beach area) that has been in NY forever that I took to a faire once.  He actually pulled me aside and asked if the performers were intentionally making fun of him (and Brits in general).  He said it would be like if Southerners went up to NY and visited a park where the actors were all trying to talk in Georgia accents (Ya'll reckon you'd like ta get'ya'sum chitlin's and greens with dat?)  I just had to laugh.

Maybe it's just me, but I still prefer it when the actors and patrons at faire just speak with their regular voice without trying to hard.  Too many times it just gets pushed to a caricature of what they are hoping to achieve.  Unless that was their intention, of course.

Besides the American accent is just an evolution of the accents of the people who made this country.  You can still hear the Irish and Scot in the South, the German in Pennsylvania, the Dutch / Netherlands in Wisconsin and Minnesota .. and then there's Texas

Anyways ...

And then there is Texas....what sir? ;P

[DonaCatalina]

Texas..........it's like a whole other country. 

[Magister]

Texas..........it's like a whole other country. 

Bingo!  The Republic of Texas, indeed.

.....  It was either TRF or Scarby when I first heard the Southern ("Ye Olde, Ya'll") Shakespeare accent.

[Dinobabe]

I always think it's funny when you watch an actor on a show that speaks with his/her native accent and then later they make a guest appearance on another show and they try to hide it!

I used to accent but for the most part I found I really couldn't keep up with it so now I don't really try.

[Betty Munro]

If pistols are the equalizer in a fight ... then Rum is the equalizer in accents.
Everyone starts to sound the same if given enough Rum.
Unless they are a nasty drunk ... and then, may I refer back to the pistols?
I vote to import more native Irish and Scottish to our festivals. 

[Magister]

  Rum, Guinness, Meade ... Water? - who cares what you're drinking.  In the end, it doesn't matter where you're from, or where you are, so long as you're having fun with friends.

 

[Tygrkat]

  Rum, Guinness, Meade ... Water? - who cares what you're drinking.  In the end, it doesn't matter where you're from, or where you are, so long as you're having fun with friends.

 

I'll drink to that! 


...I don't really use an accent at Faire, but I do use the vocabulary...and the narrator in my head has a lovely accent ~ does that count?