What accents can you do?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I can do a fairly succesful Welsh, a killer Northern Irish, a half-decent Manchester, a not-bad Yorkshire, a passable London, a really quite poor Australian, a decent Afrikaans, bad Southern, poor Quebec and abysmal Newfie.
Et tu?

[phillybri]

1. New Yawker, Philly, Boston...

English (cockney or proper), Hindu, and a killer Ray Romano.

[rogerashton]

2. Southern.

also: less sourthern.

[ihaveaquestion]

18. Southern US variations

There are several different southern accents. My best are Alabaman (slow & gutteral) and Virginian (sweet & smooth).

The real hard ones elude me though. West Virginian is a very different accent - a combination southern and appalachian. But the accent spoken by Chesapeake natives of eastern Maryland has to be the hardest by far. It sounds like a combination of Maine and southern - very weird!

[terrya]

3. I can do a fairly passable Kate Hepburn type Yankee accent.

[elperromagico]

4. Hmm. Let's see.

Various English accents, fragments of Irish, bits of Scottish, portions of Welsh. In a white wine sauce, if you please.

German, French, Indian, Spanish, Russian, Canadian, various American dialects, et cetera.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

5. When I'm watching Harry Potter I can do English and Irish....

Skip always tell me that if I get to London I'll be sounding like them after a couple days. hehe
Duckie

[Magrittes Pipe]

6. It depends to whom I am speaking.

Most often, I end up with a southern OH/northern KY accent -- but sisnce that's my natural accent, let's put it aside.

I can do what is known to the outside world as a "Wisconsin accent," but is more properly understood by those from the Milwaukee area as a Cudahy accent. Southeastern Ontario comes pretty easy if I've been in Toronto or Ottawa for a day or two. I can also pull off accents from a bit further down the Appalachian Trail, through Kentucky, Tennessee, and northern Georgia.

I cannot successfully speak with any Deep South accents, nor Atlantic coast accents. I surely cannae do a Scottish accent.

Oh, and I can talk very convincingly like a leprechaun, but not as an actual Irishman. Funny, that.



on edit: I used to be able to do a spot-on Essex when I was 17 and listened to little music that wasn't Billy Bragg. Can't do it any more, though.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. I can do a half-decent Essex. You have to drawl it out.

[Magrittes Pipe]

16. It ewlps if yer saound loike a roit stewpid git.

Er a'leass an arseohl.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

17. That's right, my ill-educated friend.

[eyesroll]

7. If I'm talking to someone, I can take on their accent a little

If I lived in another English-speaking area of the world for awhile, I'd probably be able to do that accent passably.

That's it. I'm terrible otherwise.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. Jamaican is my claim to fame

French Canadian, Russian, VERY stereotypical Cockney,Tennesee, a good non-steriotypical Pakastani, Boston,

[Screaming Lord Byron]

11. But can you do Pakistani without it turning Welsh?

That's my greatest difficulty

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. My fiancée was in aplay where she learned Welsh from a nationaly reknowned

voice coach - she does that lilt quite well

[Screaming Lord Byron]

15. I do a mean Richard Burton.

That's probably my favourite. Very booming. Nice and resonant.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. Pittsburghese, Southeastern, Texan,

generic foreign accent, French, New Yawk, Cajun, New England,

[DS1]

12. None.

woof

[XNASA]

13. Ah till yew wut........., mah East Texan is purdy damn convincin'.

Having lived in Houston for a number of years, I can successfully converse with most natives of that region fluently.

When I was younger, I had the knack for vocal impressions. Not so much anymore.

[soothsayer]

19. I used to do GREAT accents, but as I've gotten older, that ability has

faded. Or else I don't hear enuff of them.

Irish and Scottish and some kinds of British are ok, but what happened to my French, Italian, Russian, German, Japanese? It's weird.

[samplegirl]

20. I do a great "Crankyanker"

i LOVE (cant say) Yeah Yeah!!!!!!

[Festivito]

21. Almost the opposite of your list.

I emulate a good Londoner's accent along with the south of England and up to Oxford. Manchester's heavy dropping of consonants pales to the northeast's utter lacking in which I delight too much rather than recall the gradual lack heading north.

I used to do a good scotch. (And could mean the evil Dewars.) But, haven't been able lately.

New Zealanders keep me speaking PROPerLY, and I can slide into the quick and lazy Aussie without too much trouble.

South African lost me when I met two Republicanesque redneck racist businessmen who would not take me up on my movie offer to see "Biko." Apartheid was still strong then.

And, Indian from India I do pretty well. My southern is a little too transparent to southerners. But, olde Detroit Michigan's Midwest "A" that sounds like a horrible "Engh" I, unfortunately replicate without thinking.

My Swedish accent is lousy despite being Swedish, my German fools Germans even though I have never having been to Germany, my Spanish makes South Americans think I am Brazilian and my Brazilian Portuguese makes the Brazilians take interest in me, well, Brazilians are interested in everyone, regardless.

In any case, I was just struck on how opposite your Screaming Lord Byron list was to mine. Perhaps we'd make quite a team.

Good life to you,
Fes

[noonwitch]

22. Southern USA, arabic

I think everyone can do a southern twang, just sing along to country music and it will come out.
I started the arabic thing when I had an Egyptian boss who was a very animated individual (a very nice guy, however). When he would drink too much coffee, he'd get to talking really fast and it would be difficult to understand him. I never did the accent to his face, but guys on the staff could and did, and he laughed about it.

[Unperson 309]

23. Several

I do excellent Japanese (fool native speakers) very good Black American (inner city modern and old Southern Negro), UK (upper class London, Lower class London, Yorkshire and reasonable upperclass Scots), Upper and lower class Australian (Sydney and Melbourne), reasonable French (not enough to fool a native) comic-Hispanic (Cheech and Chong) Upper and lower class Southern (Louisiana and Tennessee, NOT Texas which is too nuanced), Missouri and Oklahoma and New York and New Jersey.

My st5andard speaking voice (as a professional voice actor) is broadcast standard, but I have several accents to my repertoire and use them for profit, so it behooves me to study them and use them correctly. I study breath control, timespacing between words and phrases, sentence structure and idiomatic expression to get it right. If pressed, I can do German, Hispanic, Russian, Boston clip and others, but I'm not certain enough of my skills to call it 'fluent' and don't put them on my resume.

Interestingly enough, when speaking in the language of the accent, (german, French, Russian or Japanese) but not while speaking english, I *can* fool native speakers! I'm not at all sure WHY the accents shift when I switch back to English. Weird, eh?


309

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. Brazilian (nt)