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Tag Archives: dialects in film
The Cockney v/w Mystery
When I think of ‘Cockney,’ my mind goes to gritty 1960’s tough guy films: Poor Cow, Get Carter, that kind of thing. That is, I imagine something like the hilarious ‘duelling Michael Caines’ from the Michael Winterbottom comedy The Trip: We … Continue reading
How George Washington Spoke (Brief Thoughts)
It’s the Fourth of July, the day when we Americans celebrate our nation’s independence from Britain. To celebrate (sort of), I am going to watch the HBO miniseries John Adams. At the time of the series’ release, I was intrigued by … Continue reading
Con-Dialects
One of my ‘nerdiest’ passions is for conlangs, short for ‘constructed languages.’ Examples of these include Klingon and the various tongues in Tolkien’s books. These are often created by creative linguists or people with an advanced knowledge of languages, although … Continue reading
Was There Ever a ‘Veddy British’ R?
One of the supposed traits of older types of British Received Pronunciation is that /r/ can be a tapped sound (for those reading this week, this sound is similar to the ‘tt’ in American ‘butter’). In ‘traditional’ RP, this typically occurs … Continue reading
An Accent Myth? The East Asian L/R Mix-Up
A few days ago, I watched the American holiday classic A Christmas Story. At the end of the film, the family of the main character visits a Chinese restaurant. Being Christmas, the wait staff attempts to entertain their American patrons … Continue reading
Dialect Work in the Old Days
Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is a wonderful piece of classic moviemaking, but there is something amiss with the accent (not to mention dialect) of its leading man, Robert Donat: Donat is the handsome chap who remarks, ‘Daaahhhling, fancy seeing … Continue reading
Anna Karenina … in a British Accent?
This week, British actress Keira Knightley revealed that the upcoming film adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina will feature British accents instead of Russian. Quoth Knightley: “It’s going to be an English accent. It’s always very tricky when you are doing something that is … Continue reading
Anne Hathaway’s Accent in ‘One Day’
In news of the dialect work of movie stars, the romantic comedy One Day opens soon. As I did with Mel Gibson’s accent in The Beaver, I’d like to briefly examine Anne Hathaway‘s “Yorkshire accent” in this adaptation of the popular … Continue reading
Posted in British English Tagged accents for actors, dialects in film, Northern English accents 37 Comments
Why is Fantasy Always in a British Accent?
[Ed. Note: I’m on vacation till Saturday, July 30th, so I’m publishing some old posts I drafted but never published. Some of these might be rough around the edges. Also note that it may be difficult for me to respond … Continue reading
“Top o’ the Morning:” Myth and Reality
Few dialect myths rankle more people than the purported Irish phrase, “top o’ the morning.” Any Irish person will inform you that they have never, ever heard even one of their countrymen utter these words. So where did the greeting come … Continue reading