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Etson – The worst is Beaulieu – pronounced Bewley. I worked on the Dirty Dozen when it shot there – drove through Beaulieu 4 times looking for Bewley! (See also Beauchamp + Beecham & Beaufort actually said Bowfort.)
THL, My great aunt is the same – moved here at age 20, now in her 80’s. When I lived in the UK we all just though she sounded American. Now she sounds quite English to me when I hear her.
Snatch is a great movie.
What about Scottish accents? Trainspotting was definitely a movie where I had trouble following convos.
joe- actually, come to think of it again because i lost a lot of my hearing when I was about 7, I did learn most of my english through reading. Even today I mispronounce words because I say them as I read them. I’d love to go all Bronx on your a$$ but sadly, lack the verbal chops 🙂
Well, ditto, theory and practice are two different things, I guess it depends on the speaker, because you are right, many people do say “wader”. When I was studying voice, I had hours upon hours of coaching learning how to pronounce words, in whatever language, so that they were understandable to the listener. Since one was also dealing with pitch and rhythm, you also had to make modifications to make it work. English is very difficult to sing in, and be understood, in a medium like opera and classical song, where there is no miking or amplification. Even in non operatic music, there’s an obvious reason why no one really knows the words to “Louie, Louie”. In singing German and English, we overpronounced the “k,t,and d” sounds at the ends of words, as in “dead”, or “todt” (also dead), so one could be understood. You would sound affected to do that in regular speech. It’s interesting stuff.
M4L, get what’s recommended on the link that I posted earlier. Also, he has good burgers there as well.
heared? Jeez.
My mother is English but has been living in The States for 40 years so even though everyone here still hears the accent when she goes home people refuse to believe she’s English. They sometimes ask if she’s from Australia but they NEVER think she’s English.
You should have just stayed in Manchester, Arkady!