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But how exactly do they choose British accent instead of a Canadian one or an Australian one or whatever?
by looping8 3y ago
But how exactly do they choose British accent instead of a Canadian one or an Australian one or whatever?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Izkata 3y agoPersonally, I have no idea what makes a Canadian accent, and the only Australian one I can think of is over-exaggerated Steve Irwin. British accents on the other hand are pretty common in TV/movies.
- denton-scratch 3y agoMy solitary marker for a Canadian accent: "out" sounds like "boat". B ut I believe even that marker is restricted to central and western Canada. /me a Brit; used to have a Canadian boss (from Ontario).
- ndsipa_pomu 3y agoMe: I watched Titanic the other night. Canadian: What's that about? Me: Yes, a big one and it sank.
- mbg721 3y agoWhen Canada was founded, it was intended to be "Cnd", but the guy dictating the charter said "It's spelled C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?"
- naravara 3y agoA lot of British television is popular on streaming here, and there is very little Australian television. Canadian accents are largely indistinguishable from the generic American "TV accent" aside from a few specific sounds and vocabulary choices. If you go into the Boonies of Canada you hear more distinctive ones, but those are more like regionalisms, you don't hear them as much in the media.
- AdmiralAsshat 3y agoThe average American would likely fail to identify all but the most exaggerated Canadian accent (adding "eh?" to the end of every sentence). That's why we're constantly shocked when Hollywood blockbuster actors are Canadian.
- NikolaNovak 3y agoCanada is also Huuuge! My limited experience is that differences inside these two countries (e.g. New Foundland accent to Winnipeg accent, or Texas to Boston) are way bigger than averaged difference between countries (i.e. Manitoba to Minnesota). Most "Canadian" English is broadly similar to most "American" English, especially the standardized TV / Movie kind.
- CoastalCoder 3y agoIs "Emglish" a special term or just a typo?
- NikolaNovak 3y agoLoL, typo, corrected thanks :-)
- Humdeee 3y agoYes. Central Canada is where 'eh' is said the most; I say and hear it a lot. Atlantic Canada certainly has the most distinctive dialect, and you can immediately hear it's gaelic roots. When a Canadian accent is being poked fun at, it's usually an extreme version of how the prairie provinces speak. Then splash in some Quebecoise and that will really diversify things. Much of rural Quebec may not even speak English altogether. But you can tell the difference between Quebec French and France French pretty easily, with the latter sounding smoother. I've never been out west but I assume that BC and Alberta is the most 'normal' of the Canadian differing accents.
- hydrok9 3y agoI've been shocked at the McKenzie brothers-esque quality of some of the rural accents outside WPG.
- rippercushions 3y agoIt's recognizable and easy enough to fake, at least to the degree that another American would recognize it as British English. Most people would not recognize a (say) New Zealand or South African accent, much less be able to replicate it. It's also interesting that it's always a "posh" British accent: nobody ever fakes Cockney or Scouse or something.
- mach1ne 3y agoNot only are Cockney & Scouse less prevalent in entertainment, their standing is almost always represented as lower.
- denton-scratch 3y ago> nobody ever fakes Cockney or Scouse or something The article specifically refers to faking an "Essex" accent. The Essex accent they're referring to is basically a cockney accent, softened a bit. When East London was gentrified, from roughly the 70s, many East Londoners moved out into Essex.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago> It's also interesting that it's always a "posh" British accent: nobody ever fakes Cockney or Scouse or something. *Dick Van Dyke has entered the chat*
- nobodyandproud 3y agoIn a heartbeat, I would if I could. There’s something endearing to me about working class and regional accents.
- xwdv 3y agoBecause stereotypically British aren’t seen as very threatening people, they sound quite docile really. There’s also a lot of exposure to British accents in popular media compared to the others.
- fifticon 3y agothis is a recent thing, the 1700s would like to have a word :-)
- happymellon 3y agoAnd why do they never choose to copy Brian Blessed or Matt Berry?
- twirlip 3y agoOr Stephen Fry.
- ndsipa_pomu 3y ago"Fire the nucular weapons" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8xliaDUPwg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8xliaDUPwg
- UncleSlacky 3y agoI raise you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfq3B9JvIcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfq3B9JvIcQ
- mbg721 3y agoThanks to Paul Hollywood, I mentally hear baking terms in Liverpudlian, and I can't be the only one. ("It's oonderPROOVED!")
- eternalban 3y agoBecause Hollywood has been promoting* that accent. * Review films made in the past 2 decades (that’s roughly when I began noticing the trend). Invariably, an English accent is used to imply authority or superiority (of some kind). Why this is happening in American movie industry is unknown to me but that it has been going on is clear for me.
- bee_rider 3y agoSome British accents have implied a sort of eliteness in the US for much more than a couple decades. See the transatlantic accent. By the late 19’th century it a widespread enough sentiment that we made up an accent to copy it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent
- eternalban 3y agoAmericans used to have an inferiority complex vis-a-vis Europe (in general) and English. WWII put an end to that. People the world over started aping Americans, including the English. It is (strangely) after US decides to officially be ‘an empire’ that our propaganda organs started speaking posh language. (No one :) affects a cockney accent, ey?)
- pjc50 3y agoThere used to be a trend to star Brits as villains in movies, of which Alan Rickman in Die Hard (doing a variety of accents) may be the peak example.
- unethical_ban 3y agoCanada doesn't have an accept other than saying "out and about" like "oat in a boat" Source: Texan who has been close to Canada once by visiting New York City. I know a Canadian and wouldn't have known it if he didn't tell me. Serious answer, we hear a lot more British in pop culture than we hear Australian or NZ.
- TulliusCicero 3y agoI've known a bunch of Canadians, and the ones who aren't French Canadians sound mostly identical to Americans. There's a few different words and pronunciations, but unless you stumble into those during a conversation, it's very hard to tell.