Tag Archives: celebrity accents

“Every Man Thinks He’s a Tenor In Cork”

In my college “dialects” class, our instructor played a recording of a talented Irish actor imitating various Irish regional accents. When he got to Cork, he wryly observed, “In Cork, the voice always seems to be higher–every man thinks he’s … Continue reading

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Posted in Irish English | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

“Aristocratic” American, Part 2: Samuel Barber

[This is my second post on the non-rhotic accent once spoken by the Northeastern US Elite. My first post on the subject, about Eleanor Roosevelt’s accent, can be found here. West Chester is an town in Eastern Pennsylvania with a beautiful … Continue reading

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Posted in American English | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Richard III’s “Brummie Accent?”

[Ed. note: An earlier version of this post had an embedded sound clip of Philip Shaw reading a letter by Richard III in a historically accurate accent. Unfortunately, I’ve had a few embedding issues since updating to the latest version … Continue reading

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Posted in British English | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Irvine, The Prince, And Military Dialects

Food Network addicts will recognize the inspiration for today’s post, Robert Irvine, the energetic host of Restaurant:Impossible. From the moment I heard Irvine speak, I was more struck by his odd idiolect than his culinary acumen: Irvine is an Englishman … Continue reading

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Posted in Miscellaneous Accents and Dialects | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Piers Morgan’s “Hoity Toity” Accent

Politicians have a curious habit of mocking their own markers of privilege. How else does one explain Mitt Romney slamming Obama for attending Harvard, Romney’s MBA alma mater? Or G.W. Bush describing the “intellectual arrogance” he encountered while at Yale? … Continue reading

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Posted in British English | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Joey Barton and “French-English Accents”

By now, I suspect many readers have watched Liverpudlian footballer Joey Barton‘s recent interview about his French debut. I have little to say about his accent, other than to remind everyone that this native Englishman has spent but a few … Continue reading

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Posted in Miscellaneous Accents and Dialects | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Singing in Dialect, Part 2: When Brits Go GenAm

Like many young urbanites in the 2000s, I was obsessed with Joy Division. I’m not sure why this two-decades defunct* band from Manchester touched a nerve, but touch a nerve it did. Yet I always found it perplexing the way … Continue reading

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Posted in British English | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

The Speech of Old L.A.

My grandmother grew up in Los Angeles. Her L.A. was not the L.A. of contemporary stereotype. It was a city with one of the world’s finest rail systems, gracious Victorian homes in forgotten neighborhoods like Bunker Hill, and a bustling … Continue reading

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Posted in American English | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Aristocratic American (Mrs. Roosevelt’s Accent)

I often discuss Received Pronunciation, the British accent which was long the standard of educated speech in England. Although Americans have a hard time understanding how an accent spoken by so few people could be the ‘standard,’ we in fact had … Continue reading

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Posted in American English | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

Sean Connery’s /s/

Reader Jason Reid wrote me recently with a thoughtful question about a notorious celebrity quirk of pronunciation: Comedians often imitate Sean Connery by pronouncing /s/ like /?/ (as in she). Does Sean Connery really not make a distinction between those … Continue reading

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Posted in English Phonetics | Tagged , , | 22 Comments