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Tag Archives: dialects in TV
-ness: A Darn Productive Morpheme
The English lexicon contains numerous nouns formed by adding the suffix ‘-ness‘ to an adjective: ‘weakness,’ ‘fullness,’ ‘brightness,’ and countless others. And at least in American English, we find creative new uses of ‘-ness’ all the time, which seem to be … Continue reading
Poor Dick’s Profane Conversion
English-speakers have a unique way of appropriating everyday words to describe sex. From sports to farm animals to botany, we have a vast trove of erotic symbolism at our disposal. One of the stranger of these conversions is that of … Continue reading
‘The Jersey Shore’ & Jersey Accents
While in a hotel room the other night, I watched a few episodes of MTV’s The Jersey Shore. For those living on Mars these past two years, the show follows a group of young ‘Jersey’ layabouts during a raucous summer on the … Continue reading
The Accents in Downton Abbey
I am apparently the last person in the English-speaking world to watch Downton Abbey, but got a chance to see the first series over the past two evenings. For the unfamiliar, the show takes place in an English country estate … Continue reading
Accent of a Contrarian: Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens passed away yesterday. His controversial life is far beyond the purview of a blog about dialects, yet I can think of few people with an accent as inextricably linked with their personality. Here is a brief clip of … Continue reading
Language Log on the Accents in “The Wire”
Over at Language Log, Eric Bakovic has an interesting take on accent work in films and television. The first half of the piece discusses accents on the The Wire, one of the most linguistically fascinating series in the history of … Continue reading
Did We Speak More “Properly” 50 Years Ago?
Like countless others, I’m a fan of Mad Men. One of the things I find fascinating about the show is the choice its creators made about the speech of the characters. The series almost completely eschews regional dialects (it takes … Continue reading
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
A Rant: Accents and Bad Journalism
I realize that accents and dialects constitute a fairly obscure topic. But I’m finding myself increasingly dismayed by how terribly journalism bungles this area of study. Look, I understand how easy it is to mess up facts when it comes … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged celebrity accents, dialects and comprehension, dialects in TV 6 Comments