Lorne Greene ( Ben Cartwright from Bonanza) was indeed from Canada.
American accents, Bette Midler, Clinton, Rick Fearon, Strathclyde, Morningside
by slimboyfat 48 Replies latest social current
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Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Midwestern here, of the rather generic TV American accent variety.
It was explained to me in Bethel that the WT recordings and most "worldly" broadcasting is done using the midwestern accent and a lot of native Canadians, because their pronunciation is so readily understandable to all other English speakers. Most discernible is pronunciation of the Rs, th (both of them), d, ch, sh, wh, but also the vowel sounds. As BOC mentioned, we don't pronounce caught and cot the same. That's something more Southern, I think.
Just my opinion, but I think the accent evolved in my area because more than a century ago it was settled by Americans moving in from the East and the South as well as new immigrants from Germany (lots of them), Netherlands, Scandanavia, and France to that rural area, and Irish, Italians, etc. in the nearby urban areas. The local accent evolved in such a way that these people could understand one another and absorb some of their previous speech patterns.
And another opinion, I think religion has an impact as well. For example, when Baptists and Pentecostals get in religion mode, they seem to ratchet up the Southern sound. Others take on various self-righteous tones. I think the sound of Rutherford, Franz, and Knorr preaching was an effort to sound more like Russell than of anything "normal". I think I heard lots of brothers and newer GB that seemed to fake an accent to sound more like these dudes:
Chuck Russell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5tgGpynaac
Joe Boozerford:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHkZ0RfvHQ0
Freddy "The Oracle of Brooklyn" Franz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBwKX-5qXT0
Nathan Snorr:
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GrreatTeacher
I am in Maryland which is smack in the middle of the Northeast and the American South. It's a mixed bag.
So, some words you think might rhyme do not.
Sad and had do not rhyme with mad and bad. The two former words might sound like you'd expect the short a sound to be.
However, mad and bad have almost two vowel sounds, more like mayud and bayud, ( see also dayumn! when you're really angry )
And, the Baltimore long o sound is almost a long oo sound, as in food. And, everybody calls everybody hon, short for honey, but the pronunciation is weird. Think the short oo sound as in hook and then add in on the end. Something like hooin. This is a dying accent and only some of the town spoke it and it was mainly a working class accent.
You might hear something like this when asking about the Orioles baseball team :
"Didja hear bout them Oo's?"
"No, hooin! Jew?" (No, hon. Did you?)
Also, "Jeet yet?" means Did you eat yet?
Baltimoreans also warsh their cloothes in the zink with wooder sometimes when the warshing machine is dee-oin.
(Wash their clothes in the sink with water when the washing machine is down.)
Down in another weird one pronounced with two vowel sounds like dee and then oin, but blended together quickly.
And in the summer, they'll go "Downy oocean, hoo-in." for vacation. (Down to the ocean, hon.)
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talesin
GT My grandfather used to say 'warshing machine', must be a NE thing. : D -
GrreatTeacher
Yes, also dishwarsher. :)
I guess I should also talk about the second person plural : you, as in multiple people.
In the Northeast you hear a lot of "you guys" or "youse guys" or just " youse." Pittsburgh and surrounding areas say "yinz" which is short for you ones. Sometimes these folks are called Yinzers.
As you move further down south, you hear more of "you all." In Maryland, you do hear this some (mostly you guys or sometimes just you), but the stress is on the first word- "YOU all."
Then, farther south, the second word is stressed- "you ALL," then the you gets sloppy and it blends into "y'all" and then in some places it becomes "all y'all."
I'd like to hear more of you guys ;) talk about the second person plural (you) where you live.
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dropoffyourkeylee
Billy thanks for those links.
, did Russell say ' shulamite's Son' at the end? What's up with that?
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RubaDub
I heard this on the news today:
Mr. Jones was killed in that major accident last week and pronounced dead at the scene.
When his body was returned to his home in Mississippi, he was pronounced day-ed.
Rub a Dub
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sparrowdown
Which accent is it where the g in the ing sound isn't pronounced eg thinkin, lookin, goin ? -
breakfast of champions
SPARROWDOWN - from my experience, that (dropping the g's) is very NYC/Northern NJ-ish. Actually more of New Jersey than NY. Perhaps it happens other places as well.
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sparrowdown
Thanks boc, "Penny" from Bing Bang does that droppin the g thing aswell.