accent-ism

[gumdrops]

its all been downhill since they let just any old accent get heard on tv....

 

[Mr. Tea]

Ironically this is one of the times where it would be better to use "one" I think because it sounds as though you are saying Grizzleb sometimes sees and hears that when you actually mean that people in general do.

Well yeah, but using "one" as a pronoun is the most glaring shibboleth of poshness in the whole language - which is annoying, because it's actually really useful.

 

[IdleRich]

"Well yeah, but using "one" as a pronoun is the most glaring shibboleth of poshness in the whole language - which is annoying, because it's actually really useful."

Wouldn't that be something that the posh can't/don't say? I suppose a shibboleth loosely means a give-away (right?) but wasn't it a give-away because people from the one tribe were unable to pronounce it (and were duly slaughtered)? Nice example of an accent mattering quite a lot anyway.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Hmm, that may be how the word originated but I think it's used these days to mean a word or usage that either excludes or includes someone from a certain group - as it did in the original case to mark someone as being an Ephraimite (who couldn't pronounce it) or a Gileadite (who could). [Thanks Wiktionary!]

 

[you]

Well yeah, "should've" (short for "should HAVE") is fine, it's what I usually say, but you sometimes here* (and read) what is unambiguously "should OF" - as Rich says, it's not to do with being "posh" or not, it's just wrong.

Anyway, accents on TV are a funny thing. There's a definite "regional accent code":

Scottish: nothing implies good, Protestant honesty and trustworthiness like a nice well-spoken Scottish accent (I'm guessing it's generally a middle-class Edinburgh accent? sounds like the Scottish equivalent of RP, basically). It's especially handy on adverts for things that are good for your body or, better still, your soul - for heartstring-tugging earnestness, you can't beat a really serious, sober Scottish accent for the v/o for your charity ad featuring abused donkeys or malnourished African children.

Northern: Yorkshire/Northumbria accents (Scouse and Manc, not so much) are de rigeur if you want to imply friendly, salt-of-the-earth matiness. Channel 4 worked this out about ten years ago and have exclusively employed Geordies as their anouncers ever since (all the better to distinguish the channel from the stuffy old BBC, of course). This approach can be taken to a patronising extreme, as in for example Victoria Wood's nauseating "Ooh crikey, Grommit!" Yorkshire brogue used on the Asda ads recently.

Cockney/Essex: Is your advert intended to appeal to BLOKES and LADS???? Then this is the accent for you!

West Country: can be used to impart the flavour of orl fings aaagriculch'ral; very often put on ("Mummerset") and generally played for laughs.

Brummie/Midlands: rarely heard, but, like West Country, generally seen as a 'comedy' accent.

Irish: WELL BEGORRAH, IF OI'M NAT THE MOST LOIKABLE ACCENT IN DA WHOLE WOIDE WORLD! Used to generally excruciating effect to imply, like Scottish and Northern accents, friendliness, honesty etc. etc., though often with an added 'comedy' element. Often works best if spoken very rapidly in a high-pitched, excitable manner.

Joanna Lumley: car insurance.

*christ, I really am a spastic sometimes

get back to writing charlie brooker's scripts tea..

edit - I actually dislike most strong accents, I heard two guys at Sonning Lock yesterday. I smiled at the preposterous accent mimicry gwan-on. Yah this and yah that, deepening their voices with such effort, hiding their square stubbly chins in the chasm of their bodened chests, almost like they had both had a few pints and were constantly trying to swallow a belch or squash a burp back down into themselves. I also loath the geordie accent, that high pitched bespectacled bird from panel shows and radio 4, with a whole career based on self depreciating quips ugh.... Sarah Millican - her accent cuts through me.

 

[crackerjack]

Irish: WELL BEGORRAH, IF OI'M NAT THE MOST LOIKABLE ACCENT IN DA WHOLE WOIDE WORLD! Used to generally excruciating effect to imply, like Scottish and Northern accents, friendliness, honesty etc. etc., though often with an added 'comedy' element. Often works best if spoken very rapidly in a high-pitched, excitable manner.

Unless on a female, where it's used exclusively to make men cum. Or is that just me?

 

[Mr. Tea]

Unless on a female, where it's used exclusively to make men cum. Or is that just me?

Haha, this is such a common fetish, isn't it? They can sound nice, for sure, but I don't go mad for them. Now Russian, on the other hand...

 

[Leo]

are there people over there who really speak like this?: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ozKU/away-luggage-job-offer (couldn't find it on YT)

between the accent and the copywriting, this currently holds #1 in my most-hated commercials. annoying in so many ways: the lifestyle, the privilege. I don't even know what the job is but find it annoying anyway. I like the dog but you know it's just a fashion accessory, and the fact that she has it situated just so in the new new apartment is fucking annoying.

btw, this luggage goes for $300-600 each.

 

[sufi]

i would say that accentism is now the no1 means of unfair discrimination in uk, above appearance, even skin colour?
what i mean is the bigots will forgive being brown or having a slovenly appearance or a disability to a great extent as long as you can put on an educated accent.

accent is so useful for racists as you can finely judge a lot about a person - especially taboo areas like social class and immigration history which are not generally stated openly.

I guess you could say that it's down to having a few generations of non-white folk here, though class prejudice based on accent is of course an ancient and time-honored core brit tradition, and most minority people aren't in a position to exploit accentism, as they are not posh. so does class trump race here?

still, i would say that being visibly muslim, even with the posh voice, will probably still face prejudice these days?

or am i wrong? as a white who can do the bbc voice, it's likely that i'm not the most insightful in this area.



and yes leo, that's a top of the tree accent, i'd say, not one that you'd hear on the public transport

 

[IdleRich]

Leo - short answer is, yes there are people who talk pretty much like that although the girl in that advert has this weird up-talk thing going on in addition to the accent which renders everything she says as both a) more annoying and b) as if lacking confidence - which in itself makes it more annoying cos I bet she's super confident. I think of up-talk as being from California or possibly Australia originally but I think it spread to lots of US accents and then permeated the UK via things such as Friends. Horrible way to talk and if I catch myself doing it I feel bad.

 

[Leo]

Leo - short answer is, yes there are people who talk pretty much like that although the girl in that advert has this weird up-talk thing going on in addition to the accent which renders everything she says as both a) more annoying and b) as if lacking confidence - which in itself makes it more annoying cos I bet she's super confident. I think of up-talk as being from California or possibly Australia originally but I think it spread to lots of US accents and then permeated the UK via things such as Friends. Horrible way to talk and if I catch myself doing it I feel bad.

interesting...so not necessarily an accent related to class or region, but more an adopted affectation.

 

[Mr. Tea]

are there people over there who really speak like this?: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ozKU/away-luggage-job-offer (couldn't find it on YT)

between the accent and the copywriting, this currently holds #1 in my most-hated commercials. annoying in so many ways: the lifestyle, the privilege. I don't even know what the job is but find it annoying anyway. I like the dog but you know it's just a fashion accessory, and the fact that she has it situated just so in the new new apartment is fucking annoying.

btw, this luggage goes for $300-600 each.

I think what really grates is that she sounds both privileged as hell and as if she's trying to sound 'normal' and 'relatable'. You hear this a lot with posh people under a certain age, like it's in a sense taboo to just sound unashamedly posh, but you can always tell anyway.

People who sound just straightforwardly posh like BBC announcers from fifty years ago are usually quite old.

 

[yyaldrin]

are there people over there who really speak like this?: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ozKU/away-luggage-job-offer (couldn't find it on YT)

between the accent and the copywriting, this currently holds #1 in my most-hated commercials. annoying in so many ways: the lifestyle, the privilege. I don't even know what the job is but find it annoying anyway. I like the dog but you know it's just a fashion accessory, and the fact that she has it situated just so in the new new apartment is fucking annoying.

btw, this luggage goes for $300-600 each.

i speak like this exactly. it's almost as if i'm hearing myself talking.

 

[Leo]

i speak like this exactly. it's almost as if i'm hearing myself talking.

really? please don't take offense, I think the copywriting in the ad is most of what I find annoying. I highly doubt you'd say such annoying things.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I highly doubt you'd say such annoying things.

yyaldrin be like "You don't know me!"

 

[IdleRich]

I think it's a mixture of an accent and an affectation... or maybe not an affectation as uptalk is usually seen as something people pick up involuntarily. I think.

 

[luka]

I'm not convinced she's super posh. A wel adjusted and successful member of the middle classes but not royal family. Good university, works in consultancy? PR professional? Management role in a big firm? Not like us losers but that's not saying much

 

[Leo]

good point. affectation is voluntary, a conscious decision.

let's not get started on vocal fry.

 

[Leo]

I'm not convinced she's super posh. A wel adjusted and successful member of the middle classes but not royal family. Good university, works in consultancy? PR professional? Management role in a big firm? Not like us losers but that's not saying much

Associate editor at Vogue? Or Fashion Week event manager for Burberry?

 

[luka]

Associate editor at Vogue? Or Fashion Week event manager for Burberry?

Exactly. Has to work for a living. Basically a pleb.