accents

I found this post in another group I belong to and thought some
members of this group might be interested, since we touched upon the
subject a while back.

Katy

Wondering how to depict that accent?
>

> This will help you rehearse the sounds in your head.
>
> http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
>
> Speech Accent Archive
>
> Developed by a team of researchers at George Mason University,
this
> ...
site contains speech samples of 259 individuals from different
> language backgrounds reading the same paragraph. Some of the
languages
> included on the site include Portuguese, Sardinian, Polish, and
Urdu.
>
> Clicking on any one of the languages will take users to an
> individualized page that contains a sound bar, some basic
demographic
> information, a phonetic transcription of the sample reading, and a
> link to the speaker's phonological generalizations. In many cases,
> there will be examples of several different speakers for each
> linguistic tradition from different regions. The site avoids
excessive
> technical jargon and provides basic descriptions of such
linguistic
> phenomena ranging from vowel raising, consonant deletion, and
voicing
> change. Finally, the site provides ...
links to additional resources.

I am from Georgia and have a fairly classic accent.  Every single time I visit NYC I get some version of "what are you, some kind of Brit?"  Once in Stratford I heard a fellow declaim in his idea of Shakespearean English and I thought it sounded like a credible Dixieland effort at English.  When I visit Australia and meet someone new they never assume at first that I am an American, but a Brit.  None of this is scholarly or scientific, just observation over and over.
 
I did learn Middle English at UGA long ago, and I have to say that on a very, very unscholarly basis I have often thought that among the less-educated in Alabama some little speech habits might have survived.  Of course we do pick on Alabama.
 
The truly fascinating thing about anything to do with history in my opinion is that it has everything to do with what we do today even if we aren't sure how.  And I want to know how!

This is all so fascinating and makes me wish I had had this
(asynchronous) conversation before I published my book about Richard III
in the 21st-century. I did consult with a linguist regarding my
supposition and, IIRC, the feedback I received was that my assumption
should hold up, if not all together accurate. Joy, your experience makes
me feel that I was not too far off the mark in the accent I gave
Richard, as do the comments from Marie, et. al.

I'm saving these emails for future reference. Thank you all so much.

Joan
---
author of This Time, a novel about Richard III in the 21st-century
website: http://www.joanszechtman.com/
blog: http://rtoaaa.blogspot.com/
ebook: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3935
2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards General Fiction Finalist

--- In , Joy Ballard
<joyballard6460@...> wrote:
>
> I am from Georgia and have a fairly classic accent. Every single time
I visit NYC I get some version of "what are you, some kind of Brit?"
Once in Stratford I heard a fellow declaim in his idea of Shakespearean
English and I thought it sounded like a credible Dixieland effort at
English. When I visit Australia and meet someone new they never assume
at first that I am an American, but a Brit. None of this is scholarly
or scientific, just observation over and over.
>
> I did learn Middle English at UGA long ago, and I have to say that on
a very, very unscholarly basis I have often thought that among the
less-educated in Alabama some little speech habits might have survived.
Of course we do pick on Alabama.
>
> The truly fascinating thing about anything to do with history in my
opinion is that it has everything to do with what we do today even if we
aren't sure how. And I want to know how!
>
>
>
>
>
>

I'm also saving it, though just for personal interest sake. It is a fascinating
discussion.


I like Joy's statement about history and the present. When I read it I was
looking for the "Like" button as on facebook!

Cheers, Dorothea





________________________________
From: joansr3 <u2nohoo@...>
To:
Sent: Wed, 6 October, 2010 10:24:08 AM
Subject: Re: accents


This is all so fascinating and makes me wish I had had this
(asynchronous) conversation before I published my book about Richard III
in the 21st-century. I did consult with a linguist regarding my
supposition and, IIRC, the feedback I received was that my assumption
should hold up, if not all together accurate. Joy, your experience makes
me feel that I was not too far off the mark in the accent I gave
Richard, as do the comments from Marie, et. al.

I'm saving these emails for future reference. Thank you all so much.

Joan
---
author of This Time, a novel about Richard III in the 21st-century
website: http://www.joanszechtman.com/
blog: http://rtoaaa.blogspot.com/
ebook: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3935
2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards General Fiction Finalist

--- In , Joy Ballard
<joyballard6460@...> wrote:
>
> I am from Georgia and have a fairly classic accent. Every single time
I visit NYC I get some version of "what are you, some kind of Brit?"
Once in Stratford I heard a fellow declaim in his idea of Shakespearean
English and I thought it sounded like a credible Dixieland effort at
English. When I visit Australia and meet someone new they never assume
at first that I am an American, but a Brit. None of this is scholarly
or scientific, just observation over and over.
>
> I did learn Middle English at UGA long ago, and I have to say that on
a very, very unscholarly basis I have often thought that among the
less-educated in Alabama some little speech habits might have survived.
Of course we do pick on Alabama.
>
> The truly fascinating thing about anything to do with history in my
opinion is that it has everything to do with what we do today even if we
aren't sure how. And I want to know how!
>
>
>
>
>
>

Joy, You really should stop picking on Alabama :) !!!!

--- On Tue, 10/5/10, Joy Ballard <joyballard6460@...> wrote:


From: Joy Ballard <joyballard6460@...>
Subject: accents
To:
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2010, 5:44 PM


 



I am from Georgia and have a fairly classic accent.  Every single time I visit NYC I get some version of "what are you, some kind of Brit?"  Once in Stratford I heard a fellow declaim in his idea of Shakespearean English and I thought it sounded like a credible Dixieland effort at English.  When I visit Australia and meet someone new they never assume at first that I am an American, but a Brit.  None of this is scholarly or scientific, just observation over and over.
 
I did learn Middle English at UGA long ago, and I have to say that on a very, very unscholarly basis I have often thought that among the less-educated in Alabama some little speech habits might have survived.  Of course we do pick on Alabama.
 
The truly fascinating thing about anything to do with history in my opinion is that it has everything to do with what we do today even if we aren't sure how.  And I want to know how!

Hi,

I think the general trend is that rural dialects - and there are lots of them - tend to preserve lots of archaic features,and some American accents do still sound very English. But I still say the search for the survival of a completely fossilised form of medieval English is vain.

Tangier Island (with its Norfolk-type drawl) is a fascinating case, as shows just how relatively fixed not only the accent of the Tangier Islanders, but also that of English country people, remained between the late 1600s and the 20th century (real country dialects remained impenetrable to people from other areas of England even in my lifetime), so that after all that time they still sound so alike.

The problem, however, with making a claim of 'medievalness' for any accent that survives today (particularly an American one as the Americas did not even start to be colonised until 17th century), however, is that, as I have described, the pronunciation of English had altered more radically than at almost any other time in the 200 years from 1450, particularly during the last 150 years of that period. I know some American accents still have a very English sound, but sadly it isn't the sound that English people had in Richard's time. The most archaic American accent I have heard is that of the Tangier Islanders, but Richard coudn't have had a Norfolk accent anyway!
Geordies & Scots have preserved the original medieval pronunciation of ou/ow (toon for town), and Jamaicans still give it the value that was just coming in in Richard's day - o+oo. Other dialects probably preserve other features of 15th century English accents, but the k+n & g+n are completely dead, as far as I'm aware. And the cadences of 15th century English we can only guess at.
Perhaps we would be safer taking snippets of 15th-century writing and reconstructing the pronunciation using linguistic guides than looking for a surviving off-the-peg model. There are also plenty of recordings of Chaucer in the original Middle English, and the changes since that time would not have been so very great.

http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/oconnell/language.htm#

I'm afraid I personally don't find the Appalachian ACCENT (as opposed to vocabulary) very 15th century, but I suppose it's all in the ear of the listener. To me, the vowel sounds seem to be further removed from the 15th century values than those of most other areas. One thing we can probably be fairly confident of, and that is that, given the period he lived in and the amount of time he spent in the North, Richard's accent would not have had an appreciable twang?

To answer Katy's earlier question, yes indeed, Richard would also have been able to speak (and read) French. And we know he could speak Latin, though Von Poppelau (who clearly regarded himself as a Latin genius) found Richard's Latin conversation a bit basic.

Marie


, --- In , Joy Ballard <joyballard6460@...> wrote:
>
> I am from Georgia and have a fairly classic accent.  Every single time I visit NYC I get some version of "what are you, some kind of Brit?"  Once in Stratford I heard a fellow declaim in his idea of Shakespearean English and I thought it sounded like a credible Dixieland effort at English.  When I visit Australia and meet someone new they never assume at first that I am an American, but a Brit.  None of this is scholarly or scientific, just observation over and over.
>  
> I did learn Middle English at UGA long ago, and I have to say that on a very, very unscholarly basis I have often thought that among the less-educated in Alabama some little speech habits might have survived.  Of course we do pick on Alabama.
>  
> The truly fascinating thing about anything to do with history in my opinion is that it has everything to do with what we do today even if we aren't sure how.  And I want to know how!
>
>
>
>
>
>