sexy accents

[Salty]

aye now tis an easy question.

give me a scots brouge any and every day.

[Tartan Jack]

A well done accent is fine.

The problem is that many are awful. It may be OK to the uneducated horde, but sound simply dreadful to someone who knows what it is supposed to sound like. I am from the American South and know a proper Southern accent. Yet, many attempts in TV and movies make me CRINGE and take away from whatever is being shown.

As for my own accent, I am trying to create characters that allow me to use my own accent. Fortunately, the Carolinas (where I live) was a prominent settlement at the time . . . where many got exiled from the British Isles in period. So, it is easy.

Some of my own ancestors were exiles to the Carolinas in the early 18th C.

[Tartan Jack]

Coming from California the "accent" is just plain english

Oh, EVERYONE has an accent, only question is from where. True, most folk who speak with something approaching the "New England television actor" accent assumes they have none, but they do. Even the Queen has an accent, and I'm told it's still her English.

Accents are fun, and I do so enjoy playing with them, and listening to those that play with them. Can't say too much that I have an actual favourite.

Me? Haligonian Nova Scotian accent, a sub-set of the many Canadian accents. Despite what South Park will tell you, there are as many regional accents in Canada as in the United States. Strange, i'n'it?

Californian IS an accent.

What Calico Jack is getting at, I assume, is that accents come from regional (sometimes a VERY small region, like a county or 3) ways of speaking and pronunciation. To anyone outside that region, it is an accent. In that region, it is "normal" and w/o an accent.

The reason many Americans see "no accent" is that there was an intentional drive to give everyone a "mid-western" accent, which is similar to a California accent. Film and television helped that move, as so many actors have a California accent.

My own accent is a blend of several regional dialects and I am seen as from "somewhere else" than wherever I am.

When using my natural accent, I can focus upon the CONTENT of what is being said to teach others about historic pirates and late 17th and early 18th C. seamen and so forth, rather that HOW I am pronouncing those words.

[LadyBarbossa]

LOL... forget it, folks. They can have whatever accent they can... if their voice is shoddy - not velvety - then no accent 'll do it.

Besides, David Kaye (I know you all have heard his voice) when he speaks in an accent, ladies, you will melt! LOL

Course, I've been told we midwesterners have an accent. huh?

~Lady B

[Christine]

Blonde hair + Green eyes + Southern Ireland (Cork and Kerry) = me fainting.

She could talk about cleaning a toilet and it would sound sexy! Whew!

LOL!

I have the blonde hair and green eyes and I have family from Ireland, but no Irish accent. Oh, well, 2 out of 3 ain't so bad.