…and this is a 
Americans have to own up to a little bit of an inferiority complex in one thing: our accents. If you watch TV at all, you know that whenever a documentary wants its viewers to be impressed with the erudition of the narrator, it's got to have a British accent — it sounds so posh and educated and aristocratic, you know.
I have a cure.
Watch the videos below. These are direct recordings from the exhibits in a creation museum in the UK, and you get to hear those lovely British voices reciting the most godawful drivel, the most cliched creationist nonsense, the most ridiculous lies, and I guarantee you that after 20 minutes of that, those round vowels and gentle 'r's will sound to your ears like the braying nasalities of an episode of Hee Haw.
Oh, and you will realize that English creationists are just as stupid, if not more so, than their American counterparts.
I shouldn't pick on Hee Haw, though. The most beautiful accents in America are from the South — just listen to Shelby Foote sometime. There are good things that come out of Mississippi, even.
Comments
Posted by: J Dubb | October 18, 2009 10:53 AM
Wow, Americans don't have a monopoly on the stupid.
By the way, one of my favorite things ever came out of Mississippi -- blues music. You could argue that ALL American music is based on it.
Posted by: skeetar
|
October 18, 2009 10:57 AM
They may be just as stupid, but our "museum" is "better" so they can suck it.
Posted by: defiantskeptic
|
October 18, 2009 10:59 AM
"Our" museum was started by an Australian.
Australian creationists are the worst and most bullheaded because they come from a continent-sized museum to evolution.
Posted by: MikeMa | October 18, 2009 10:59 AM
May be my last chance to comment before the registration returns so happy days!
Stupid is everywhere.
I think the banjo music was a nice touch.
Posted by: Noah | October 18, 2009 11:01 AM
Really interesting to see what the fools down at AiG would do if their budget wasn't millions of dollars.
And I totally agree with the Southern American accent. I live in Ohio, so I only rarely get to hear it, but it's always a treat.
Noah
Posted by: cedgray.wordpress.com
|
October 18, 2009 11:02 AM
I'm sure it's not hard to find British actors who'll take a shilling to spout bullshit. Take, for example, most of our politicians, clergy, newspaper editors...
SERIOUSLY, PLEASE TAKE THEM!
Posted by: ice9
|
October 18, 2009 11:06 AM
As you suggest, accents are purely relative both in the listener and the hearer. Americans are tone deaf to their own, as most people are, though perhaps a little more due to the general American habit of assuming two places: here, and somewhere less trustworthy. But the American habit of valuing British overlooks tone and timbre--I think Morgan Freeman, for example, has a lovely voice for content, but that's also just habit and familiarity.
Your arbitrary declaration that southern sounds good...well, that's a minnesotan talking. It only takes a few years up here to lose all perspective. Vonnegut called the Indianapolis accent "like a bandsaw cutting galvanized tin" but that covers the Minnesota tones pretty well. Yet my people up here see "Fargo" and frown. "We don't talk like dat," they say reprovingly, while talking like dat. "Ohhh, sure ya dô," I say.
Perhaps its the difference in southerners...hard to imagine one friend's buttery Mobile phonemes wrapped around scientific terms, since she was a vocal literal creationist and once told me Carl Sagan belonged in prison. Of course, I spent a lot of time in the Appalachians, where a typical lyrical bit of elegant language would have been "Ahn gonna fuck y'all up," in which the uncertainty of whether that is a contraction, a second person singular, or second person plural pronoun was part of the charm.
ice9
Posted by: littlejohn | October 18, 2009 11:09 AM
As a native-born Wes Virginian, ah thinks southern accents sound, you know, erudite-like. Why, when my Aunt Mom and Uncle Dad were watchin Hee Haw on the TV box, we'd even shut down the backyard still and quit screwin the livestock and such. There ain't no prejudice against us hill-folk among the college-type elite fellers. No, not a bit.
Posted by: Kimpatsu | October 18, 2009 11:20 AM
But... I don't HAVE an accent! You colonials do!
---
Note 1: Nowhere has a monopoly on stupid, but this is absurd, even by British standards, and we apprecaite eccentrics.
---
Note 2: Pursuant to PZ's ope nletter: FIX THE DAMN COMMENTING! I can't get to sign in, so I can't comment. Period.
---
Note 3: I still don't have an accent, you know...
Posted by: James F | October 18, 2009 11:22 AM
"Pull the other one" indeed. On the other hand, their "museum" isn't a $27 million affair.
Posted by: Katkinkate | October 18, 2009 11:26 AM
I also like Morgan Freeman's voice and accent. Actually I like any voice that's pitched lowish and not in a hurry. I don't really like the southern accent itself much. And I can't stand that nasally 'country' twang. Garrison Keelor is nice to listen to though. I don't think the English accent sounds more distinguished necessarily. It depends on which bit of England you're talking about. Oxford, yeah maybe. Yorkshire, not so much.
Posted by: Bueller_007
|
October 18, 2009 11:29 AM
"Americans have to own up to a little bit of an inferiority complex in one thing: our accents. If you watch TV at all, you know that whenever a documentary wants its viewers to be impressed with the erudition of the narrator, it's got to have a British accent."
Right, except for some reason you Murkans replaced David Attenborough with Sigourney Weaver on the Planet Earth series. That's some unforgivable shit, right there.
Posted by: JW | October 18, 2009 11:35 AM
I cycle past this place most weeks. Its right by the Portsmouth (Historic)Dock Yard (HMS Victory, Mary Rose etc). I've never seen anybody go in though.
Posted by: bobxxxx | October 18, 2009 11:38 AM
Oh, and you will realize that English creationists are just as stupid, if not more so, than their American counterparts.
I haven't watched the video yet, but it's extremely difficult for me to believe anyone could be more stupid than the American creationists.
Posted by: James F | October 18, 2009 11:42 AM
Oh, and the "braying nasalities" of Hee Haw made for some memorable comedy tunes.
Posted by: Cruithne | October 18, 2009 11:50 AM
As a Brit I love American accents, I don't know why you would feel inferior?
Anyway, the best British accents are the Scots and the Northern Irish.
(now I've lit the blue touch paper, I'm going to stand well back)
Posted by: Maria | October 18, 2009 11:51 AM
I wouldn't dare watching the video. I'm such a sucker for british accents that I might end up thinking they've got a point.
Posted by: Hideki | October 18, 2009 12:07 PM
If not more so?
The cheek of it!
Posted by: Goheels | October 18, 2009 12:12 PM
I got through part one, then the stupid started to burn too furiously so I stopped. And as someone born in Georgia and raised in North Carolina, we can't help our accents, not all of us are creatiotards.
@ Maria #17, despite the charming accents, their "points" were so nonsensical and badly reinforced that there is no danger of you thinking they're right about anything.
Posted by: nixscripter
|
October 18, 2009 12:20 PM
It just goes to show: British accents, like nuclear power, can be used for good or evil.
Posted by: Don | October 18, 2009 12:21 PM
Last chance to comment before the baffling returns, so I'll just say that these people are largely giggle-fodder in the UK. Usually reported as 'American nuttiness creeping in'.
...replaced David Attenborough with Sigourney Weaver on the Planet Earth series. Really? Why? Seriously, why do that? Attenborough is our secret accent weapon, along with Dawkins and James Mason.
Posted by: Knockgoats | October 18, 2009 12:26 PM
I could only take 4 minutes. Anyone notice Lyall (a.k.a. Liar) Watson being quoted as an authority?
Now as a Brit, I've got to take you up on this "British accent" crap. Which British accent? RP (the one most Americans probably think of, the "posh" accent), "Estuary" (white working class southern England, full of glottal stops), the whole range of Black British and South and East Asian British accents, "Scouse" (Liverpool), "Geordie" (Newcastle), "Brummie" (Birmingham) Norfolk, Glaswegian, Morningside (the Scottish posh accent, named after the richest part of Edinburgh), Yorkshire, Bristol (where "w" is substituted for "l"), "Doric" (Aberdeen, source of my nym), Welsh...
I can at least tell the difference between a Californian, a Texan, a New Yorker, a mid-Westerner and a Boston Brahmin, and I can usually identify an African American just by ear. Nor do I have a particularly good ear for these distinctions. OK, we hear you speaking more than vice versa - but do make some effort to acknowledge that we don't all sound the same, just as we don't all think the same!
Posted by: Lilith | October 18, 2009 12:33 PM
I never thought I had an accent until I moved from Melbourne to Canberra, where I had Canberrans spotting me as a Melbournian whenever I opened my mouth.
Apparently we swap the 'e' and 'a' sounds over slightly. The example someone gave me at the time was that 'Elton John's new album' comes out as "Alton John's new elbum'.
I thought it was bollocks.
Now, after living in Canberra for 15 years, I can hear that accent whenever I speak to clients in Melbourne on the phone.
For those attending the Conference in March, you can all play spot the Melburnian, now :-)
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 18, 2009 12:34 PM
I'll ignore your name and agree fully with your point.
Signed
NCSU grad
Posted by: Bingo Bango | October 18, 2009 12:36 PM
I'm kind of partial to Welsh accents, but that's probably due to watching too much Torchwood and Doctor Who.
Posted by: Iain Walker | October 18, 2009 12:38 PM
Scots I'll grant you. For an accent that sounds both sexy and intelligent you can't beat Kirsty Wark. On the other hand, the sound of the Gorbals ... not so much (sorry, Glaswegians).
(rant on)
But the Northern Irish accent? Jesus H. Christ Esq on a pointy stick. The southern Irish accent is a thing of beauty, but on the northern side of the border it mutates into the most hideous, unmusical, grating noise imaginable. The only person who's ever managed to make a Northern Irish accent sound good is Liam Neeson, but that's only because (a) his accent is softer than most, and (b) he has a Voice with a capital "V".
One of the reasons I left Northern Ireland was so that I wouldn't have to listen to the fucking accent any more. Since which, I've spent the past twenty years trying to get rid of my Belfast vowels (pronounced "vouls"), with limited success. It's like I've got vowel cancer.
Bloody hell ...
(Rant off)
Happy to oblige. ;-)
Posted by: Annapolitan | October 18, 2009 12:40 PM
Good grief, I got seasick watching the first minute or so of the first video and had to give up before the voices started. First time holding a video camera there, fella?
And I agree with you, PZ, that a posh British accent automatically gives the speaker an extra 10 to 20 points in IQ in the mind of a typical American.
I had a British acquaintance point out that in American TV and films, British accents are used to denote a a certain suave and clever criminal type. I asked him if the opposite were true in British movies and television (i.e., do the British use American accents to denote stupid characters?)
"No, we just make them Irish."
Posted by: Peter G.
|
October 18, 2009 12:40 PM
Would I be wrong in assuming that everyone here knows that intelligence in humans follows a normal distribution and that half the population in England ,the US, Canada and everywhere else is in the bottom half of the class. There is stupid everywhere but there is no need to make a freaking competition out of it.
Posted by: NewEnglandBob
|
October 18, 2009 12:49 PM
Uh, no, the most beautiful accents in America are NOT from the South.
...and I can not listen to creationist drivel, no matter what the accent.
Posted by: momkat
|
October 18, 2009 12:52 PM
It's all local. I can't understand a rural northern New Englander without a few repetitons and he's supposedly speaking the same language I am. I even have trouble with some isolated areas in my own state. But give me a posh Scottish accent and I'm yours. Must be the "genetic memory".
Posted by: Marion Delgado | October 18, 2009 12:55 PM
Those of us more involved with physics than biology would cite "The Great Global Warming Swindle."
I should add that the British accents I like the most are pretty working-class - scouse, Manchester, Londoner in, say, Hounslow, and the rural regional accents. Oh, and the West Country/Cornish.
Posted by: vhutchison | October 18, 2009 12:57 PM
Almost all of us have a map in our mouths!
Posted by: Don | October 18, 2009 1:08 PM
Interesting how advertising uses accents. In the UK the south-western accent is most often used for laid-back or luxurious products. Yorkshire and Tyneside for practical, reliable items, Birmingham and the west-midlands to denote a dolt, Scots for canniness and probity...
Posted by: george.w
|
October 18, 2009 1:09 PM
I would love to see a study where a narrator on-camera re-enacts scenes from Root Of All Evil only with a Southern US accent, maybe Texan. Same words, production values, just different accents. Then show the clips separately to US audiences and poll them on how they liked the narrator.
My guess is Americans would be more likely to listen to the Southern accent, and would think the Brit (Dawkins) was "arrogant". But maybe the result would surprise me. Anybody doing a linguistics class project, feel free to steal the idea and publish the results.
Posted by: Dust
|
October 18, 2009 1:10 PM
Ummmm, Shelby Foote. Not only did he have a great Southern accent, but he had many intelligent things to say. Too bad he is no longer with us.
It would be fun to be able to hear one owns accent, methinks.
Posted by: AdamK
|
October 18, 2009 1:12 PM
If you want to hear beautiful American accents, spend some time in Hawaii.
Posted by: cmflyer
|
October 18, 2009 1:22 PM
I figured it out! Those are all just entries in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the section Reasons to be Thankful the Vogons Blew up the Earth. Partly Harmful.
Posted by: Schi-Chi
|
October 18, 2009 1:24 PM
Some british accents are truly mesmerizing - the aristocratic musicality is precisely why America has not produced a PG Wodehouse. THough I have heard the posh talkers themselves rave about the lyricality of the south ("where the words lean on each other a little") or spanish accents. The other thing is that it can be quite the liability, I've heard, because when they talk to Americans, they are frequently being accused of being condescending, and that they can't convincingly pull off "normal" idioms. So they are more often hated and mocked in public than admired *plays violin*
One more observation, some of these accents we admire came from, yes, a privileged background, but also strict practice. One person even told me that really his accent only signifies countless taunts, humiliations, and teachers rapping him on the wrist with rulers. So we are well to observe that our admiration is sometimes directed at that which had a conscious and physically enforceable disdain of the working class.
Posted by: Lindis | October 18, 2009 1:27 PM
to make us brits look better again, here is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0
homeopathic A&E (ER that is for Americans ;) )
Posted by: Schi-Chi
|
October 18, 2009 1:32 PM
now for some australian observations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tyzG_ZKVfU
Posted by: maureen brian | October 18, 2009 1:34 PM
But which Northern Ireland accent? But stop! You are bringing back the nightmare of starting school speaking English in the posh-Manx style but with Belfast vowels - product of one of the Judge's dreaded inter-tribal marriages, you see!
Posted by: heracliteanfire.net
|
October 18, 2009 1:37 PM
Ahem.
Posted by: Takma'rierah
|
October 18, 2009 1:40 PM
#27: In my meager experience with Doctor Who, which I will readily admit is nothing like a reliable representative, a few of the most presumptuous characters had American accents. Of course it's somewhat difficult to pick them out, especially now that a few of the British accents are starting to sound everyday to me too. As a side note, I was intrigued to find out that John Barrowman originates from Illinois, which makes him what we Wisconsinites affectionately refer to as a "FIB."*
I was in British Colombia a few years ago visiting my relatives on my mom's side of the family; as far as I can tell none of them have accents relative to mine but one of my cousins nonetheless started laughing at how we pronounced our O's like A's. Very perplexing. Now at work I often get the "You kind of have an accent! =D" line, which is sort of odd considering that I've lived here all my life. I'm going to chalk it up to being one of those literary types who doesn't get out much.
*Urban Dictionary would have you believe that this is purely an insult, but while many of the points raised against FIBs tend to be true, I've never heard it said with any real venom.
Posted by: jpf | October 18, 2009 1:42 PM
Do British people really use the term "megachip" or are these exhibits from the late '80s? It is quaint sounding, though, and reminds me of the classic BBC science education series "Look Around You".
Posted by: h2g2bob
|
October 18, 2009 1:42 PM
It's a bit unfair to find one small creationist museum when millions - yes millions - of people visit the Natural History Museum each year. It had plenty of displays about evolution before opening a new building called the Darwin Centre.
Posted by: Stardrake
|
October 18, 2009 1:43 PM
Knockgoats @ 22: For most of us benighted colonials, "British Accent" means what I have heard called the "BBC Accent"--fairly posh. Apart from Brittanophiles like me, most have heard little of the deeper Brittanic accents here--except for PBS fans who ate up ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, for instance. (When some PBS stations ran EASTENDERS here, they had to subtitle it....)
Posted by: Standard Curve
|
October 18, 2009 1:47 PM
I always wonder how well actors can really pull off non-native accents. For instance, in the show True Blood, at least three main characters are played by actors from New Zealand, England, and Australia, but to my southern California ears they sound good. What would someone from Louisiana really say? Many of the other actors are also not southern, and sound right to me.
Posted by: Iain Walker | October 18, 2009 1:48 PM
#42
I'd willingly concede the point if I'd ever heard Seamus Heaney speak. However, since this computer has no audio, I still haven't heard him speak, so I can't.
He mouths the words very nicely, though ...
Posted by: clare | October 18, 2009 1:48 PM
A fellow grad student (some time ago) combined flaming red hair and one of those open, freckly faces with a lovely, slow, soft Alabama drawl. It was a joy to watch him talking with other students at a meeting, leading them on to greater heights of condescension and patronizing comments, then finally, never raising that voice a bit, completely skewer them for their own research weaknesses, pointing out areas that could do with some improvement, suggesting more appropriate statistical analyses, etc. Their faces were redder than his hair. Wonderful.
Posted by: Peter G.
|
October 18, 2009 1:51 PM
A brief anecdote on language snobbery. My sister worked in a high end hotel in London and reported the following exchange between the food and beverage manager and an American guest. The manager was getting on the same elevator as my sister and asked the guest who was waiting outside if he could "hold the lift for him." in his posh accent. The American said; "We call it an elevator and we invented it." The manager replied : " We invented the language and we call it a lift". Then he hit the close button.
Posted by: Southern Fried Scientist | October 18, 2009 1:52 PM
"The most beautiful accents in America are from the South."
Durn tootin'!
Posted by: PZ Myers
|
October 18, 2009 1:56 PM
Schi-Chi AKA Frankosaurus: morphing is very annoying. I have to monitor the comments for spammers, and one of the cues I use is when individuals use multiple pseudonyms, so you are throwing up all kinds of red flags. Knock it off. Stick with ONE pseudonym, or you'll find yourself using none at all.
Posted by: Standard Curve
|
October 18, 2009 1:59 PM
Answered my own question by google... apparently they don't do a very good job with the accents, but I probably haven't heard too many REAL southern accents in movies, or the white house for that matter.
Posted by: Vidar | October 18, 2009 2:01 PM
*after watching the first bit of the second video*
'Megachip'? 'MEGACHIP'?
Don't you mean MICROCHIP? There's no such thing as a bloody 'megachip'. If you're going to bullshit money from people, at least try to make it sound a little believable.
Also, 'information' doen't need to come from an intelligent source. Information is simply interpreted data, and data is everywhere. You also don't need something intelligent to interpret data. Computers interpret the data on their hard disks every day, and they are not intelligent (they mindlessly follow instructions, and nothing more).
Any database administrator can tell you that mutations in information do not always cause a loss in information, otherwise they would be called 'deletions' instead of mutations. There's also inserts of new bit of information, and changes of existing information.
* turns off video in disgust*
I'm not even a biologist, and even I can see the mindless bullshit these idiots are peddling.
I need a drink.
Posted by: Matt | October 18, 2009 2:01 PM
Hey, I'm from Mississippi! =\
Posted by: Carlie of the lacy, gently wafting adjectives
|
October 18, 2009 2:04 PM
Huh - I'm from Illinois and have never heard the term FIB before. I guess that means I probably am one?
Barrowman lived in Scotland from birth until sometime in grade school, and when he moved to Illinois he tried to scratch the accent as quickly as possible. There's an amusing bit on Charlotte Church's show where he translates Scottish brogue to English.
Posted by: realinterrobang
|
October 18, 2009 2:04 PM
My boyfriend is English, has what he calls a "middle-class" accent (with some northern pepper in it from all his years living in Bihhkinhead), and we still have arguments for fun over pronunciation. This is what happens when you put a geek with a fully rhotic accent in a room with one who doesn't have one.
Granted, Canadians get accused of having all kinds of weird accent quirks we don't actually have -- we neither sound like the people in Fargo nor actually say "aboot"; trust me on this one -- my maternal grandfather's and paternal grandmother's entire families were from Scotland -- I had relatives who actually said "aboot," so I can certainly hear the difference. It isn't our fault you folks' ears can't handle a diphthong with three vowels in it (aou), although how you get from "aou" to "oo" is beyond me. Sheesh.
On the other hand, speaking of hideous accents, if only someone would teach Al Gore not to sound like he ought to be wearing a pair of overalls that are out at the knees and chewing on a timothy stalk, I'd be really happy. I haven't got a clue how he can be on tv so much and still sound as awful as he does. His accent is right up there in terms of hideously unlistenable American accents with the Michigander thing that turns Os as in "dollar" into long, flat, ugly As, like, "daaaaller."
Posted by: Pareidolius | October 18, 2009 2:20 PM
WARNING: COMMENT CONTAINS DARJEELING-FUELED COMPULSIVE GRAMMAR-TROLLERY . . .
People! People! We're talking about dialects, not accents. Accents are the various inflections added when one speaks a foreign language. Dialects are regional/societal variations between native speakers of a given language.
He speaks English with with a strong French accent.
Her thick West-Belfast dialect made it impossible to find work at a shop in Mayfair.
I know accent is common usage and I'll probably get a ration of shit for bringing this up, but it's kind of like confusing RNA and DNA to put it in scientific terms. As a theatrical dialect coach, it makes me mental.
And speaking of mental, those gits in Portsmouth didn't even try to use critical-thinking! Every crudely wrought display was a logical fallacy. There was more torture going on there than Guantanamo Bay. I also loved how the sign at the entrance said "as featured in New Scientist." IDiots.
Posted by: sidhe1
|
October 18, 2009 2:21 PM
I got seasick watching the first few minutes of that clip and had to make it stop. I will take your word that it is full of drivel, though.
To my Arizona native ear, I can tell there *is* a difference between British accents but I wouldn't know how to describe the differences. Some sound more high-class to me, and others sound like Ozzy, and there are lots in between but I can't differentiate them by region or anything. I prefer Irish and Scottish accents, even though sometimes I just have to smile and nod because I can't understand them. LOL.
I remember reading once that Patrick Stewart uses a completely different accent for his work than what his natural accent is, which he described as Cockney. It was because to do the RSC the actors had to have one specific accent in general, or so he said. I thought that was interesting.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | October 18, 2009 2:22 PM
personally, I'm only familiar with three British accents:
the thing Londoners do when they want to be understood by foreigners
the thing Londoners do when they don't want to be understood by foreigners
Scottish
Posted by: brianjordan
|
October 18, 2009 2:25 PM
I could have done to watch these, to see exactly what rubbish they're peddling, but my laptop (1.7GHz P4) goes straight up to 100% CPU usage and feels to be heading for thermal meltdown! Is it the "museum" or something technical with the video affecting it so? I don't have any trouble with other YouTube stuff. Either way, it's unwatchable unfortunately. Shame, after all the effort he's put into it.
Posted by: Notagod | October 18, 2009 2:29 PM
The christian practice of making people sick is barbaric but if they are going to do it, I wish the christian would do the humane thing and just puke me with a spoon instead of christian shit.
Posted by: Iain Walker | October 18, 2009 2:30 PM
#41
Well, Bulfaust was the one I had to live with most of the time. And the Bullamina accent has the minor saving grace of sounding rather comical, due to the traditional rapid-fire delivery ...
Gladly.
Posted by: Standard Curve
|
October 18, 2009 2:35 PM
The whole thing about Canadians saying aboot is nonsense... It's more like aboat, as in there's a boat on the water. Well, at least that's what I get from HNIC via the NHL network.
Funny... "Das Boot" is actually pronounced Das Boat in German... Coincidence??? Hmmm. I think it's a sign of the FSM at work. Must have something to do with pirates in a round aboat way.
Posted by: Zmidponk | October 18, 2009 2:36 PM
Cruithne #16:
No, some Scottish accents are nice, lyrical and flowing. Others, well...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKdSdnEcptM
(NSFW)
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
|
October 18, 2009 2:41 PM
The video is 360X640, 30 fps, and H264 encoded at about 700 kb/sec. So, it may be more CPU intensive than a typical .flv file.Posted by: james | October 18, 2009 2:42 PM
Oh god. I'm embarassed to be English right now.
The stupid seems so much worse in a posh UK accent.
Anyone know where this is?
Posted by: Jaroslav | October 18, 2009 2:46 PM
Quit at part 2, 1:12. Which branch information theory used in practice says anyhing about intelligence of the message source - apart from work like Prof. Gitt's ? Gosh, even whether it's sunny or stormy weather can be considered a message, and you don't consider atmosphere inteligent.
Anyway, those creationists don't keep thenselves informed about modern memory capacities, as you can store (haploid) human genone in just 6 GB of storage. Double for haploid. it's still much less efficient, but it's not easy to utilize DNA as storage in the first place.
Posted by: Silič O'Nopolitanopoulos, Färschdbischuf Beesknees aus Ulm und Klein Elguth, Elector Pharynguline.
|
October 18, 2009 2:51 PM
Great. Flash has decided to cut sound again. Perhaps I should be grateful.
But does anyone know how to get it to work again without rebooting?
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
|
October 18, 2009 2:54 PM
If your computer is set for multiple users, logging out, then logging back in sometimes works. At least on Macs.Posted by: Pygmy Loris
|
October 18, 2009 3:02 PM
realinterrobang and Standard curve,
Some Canadians say "aboot." They really, really do, so get over it. Canadians also don't all sound the same. There isn't one Canadian accent anymore than there's one American accent.
real interrobang,
Wow, way to not know the difference between Southern accents and country/rural/redneck accents.
Posted by: Jafafa Hots | October 18, 2009 3:04 PM
Canadians DO pronounce Mazda and pasta funny though.
Posted by: Corin | October 18, 2009 3:05 PM
I'll admit to a strong Anglophilia in my preference for dialects -- I find it far easier to listen to someone, even if they're speaking rubbish like this, speaking English correctly. But then my mother was English, and had a beautiful public school voice.
I, on the other hand, am Canadian -- which means I have no accent at all. It's everyone else that talks strangely.
Posted by: tim Rowledge
|
October 18, 2009 3:10 PM
During my years working in the code-mines of SIlicon Valley I observed that my very-BBC accent appeared to be worth about 50 points on perceived IQ, about $10k pa on salary and and extra inch or so ... elsewhere.And somebody please shoot the sign-in system. Right now if you click to sign in with the simple 'sign in' link you go to a place that doesn't even list Type Pad. You have to spot the secondary links (that only mention Type Pad and Movable Type) and explicitly go there. Sigh.
Posted by: Jaroslav | October 18, 2009 3:30 PM
Part 2, 4:26 - Darwin's "eye" quotation, of course missing the second part. Aaargh!
Posted by: Lilith | October 18, 2009 3:38 PM
When they first started showing the never-ending Scottish cop show, 'Taggert', on Australian TV there were complaints to the ABC that it was unintelligable and should be subtitled.
Personally, I never found the accents that heavy, but I've always had a good ear for accented English. Handy in my job where about 70% of the people I deal with come from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Posted by: Goheels | October 18, 2009 4:15 PM
@ Rev.BigDumbChimp #24:
"I'll ignore your name and agree fully with your point.
Signed
NCSU grad"
How about we both just agree that Duke sucks?
Posted by: butterflyfishhm
|
October 18, 2009 4:18 PM
@ #22:
Every. Last. One. No seriously. Anything from the England/Wales/Scotland/Ireland area sounds good to me. Even the ones I can't entirely understand. Don't know what they're saying, but I hope they keep saying it.
Australia/NZ accents aren't far behind. Karl Urban. woo.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 18, 2009 4:40 PM
Triphthong.
(Real technical term. Languages like Chinese are full of them.)
All wrong. :-) Different accents are different pronunciation systems of one language. Dialects differ from each other not only by pronunciation ( = accent), but also grammar (you know what that term actually means, don't you!?! – includes the actual meaning of "inflection") and vocabulary.
Now I understand! It's called the Canadian vowel raising.
No, we just spell it sanely.
Day saved.
Posted by: MadScientist
|
October 18, 2009 4:49 PM
I've got no problem with Richard Feynman's Bronx accent. Then there was Carl Sagan. I can't imagine someone with an English accent telling me about the moon; I want to hear folks like Gene Shoemaker or some geek at CalTech/JPL (or NASA Ames, Langley, etc). Face it, the UK hasn't got much of a track record in space so an English accent in that case just doesn't sound genuine.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
|
October 18, 2009 4:57 PM
The 'fire breathing dinosaurs' bit cracked me up.
At this moment, I am deeply ashamed that such idiocy has found it's way to the shores of dear old Blighty. There were so many points that were not even wrong in those videos that they were genuinely painful to listen to. To hear the Queen's English abused so stikes at the heart of any Britisher.
In defence of my fellow Brits, I think I ought to point out that creationists have little influence and less power in the UK. They are viewed as rather sad cases whose credibility is roughly on a par with ufologists. It's just that some people over here consider it bad form to laugh at them for their crackpot beliefs and so listen politely while thinking all the while how sad it is when people completely lose their faculty for rational thought.
I myself have no such inhibitions. I think that such wilfully ignorant and pernicious morons should be mocked and excoriated at every turn for the good of society.
So go on, PZ. Lead the charge against the impeccable diction of British stupidity. Do it for Albion. Do it for Sir David Attenborough and Professor Richard Dawkins. Do it for Queen and Country (though admittedly, not your Queen and Country, but we obviously need the help over here). But most of all, do it for the credibility of the standard British accent as a mark of sense and erudition out there in the colonies . . . err, I mean in the homeland of our much beloved Transatlantic cousins *sheepish grin*.
Posted by: crewvy | October 18, 2009 5:10 PM
Nice statue of Barney there I did`nt know he laid eggs.
Posted by: Uncle Glenny
|
October 18, 2009 5:24 PM
When I first started communicating with Apple employees in Cupertino I was taken aback at how many of them sounded like gay porn stars.
Posted by: Schi-Chi
|
October 18, 2009 5:53 PM
Schi-Chi it is. I wanted to wind Frank down into a silent burial because of the trouble he's seemed to cause. Not so subtle I suppose. Apologies.
"In defence of my fellow Brits, I think I ought to point out that creationists have little influence and less power in the UK. They are viewed as rather sad cases whose credibility is roughly on a par with ufologists."
This may be off topic to explore, but I think there are important sociological reasons why there are fewer creationist nutters in the UK, including:
1) America doesn't have a nationally sanctioned religion. For better or for worse, on average, a national religion unites and moderates religious beliefs better than a non-national religion, where weird sects can grow with lesser resistance.
2) The seperation of church and state in the states has been interpretted in ways of increasingly removing religion from the public sphere. As such, it is driven more underground (like homeschool), and isn't as easily tempered by public discussion. So it becomes weirder and more fanatical and driven more to the margins.
Source: "Liberal Democracy and Religious Morality" in Law and Religion: a Critical Anthology, ed. Stephen Feldman.
Posted by: davem | October 18, 2009 6:04 PM
I thought the best thing on the door was 'pull the other one'. Indeed.We can't be as bad as the US, because our museum is so desperate for visitors that it's free. It looks like a disused pub, too.
Posted by: Mike Caton | October 18, 2009 6:15 PM
This is awesome! Thanks P-Zed for scoring one for modern English (as opposed to British English). From now on I hope science fiction villains can be American too. Just think of Darth Vader with a Texas drawl. Rock on!
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
|
October 18, 2009 6:22 PM
"Thanks P-Zed for scoring one for modern English (as opposed to British English)."
Modern English? Bastardized 'American' patois, I say! Watch your colonial tongue, you uncouth Blagguard!
Tarry no longer sir, lest I unseam you from the nave unto the chops!
Posted by: gcaveman1 | October 18, 2009 6:27 PM
Why thank you Paul! As a native Mississippian, I wonder what makes you think something good comes from Mississippi.
Is it William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Jim Henson, B. B. King, Elvis, John Grisham, Jimmy Rodgers, Mahalia Jackson, Conway Twitty, the Ruffin brothers, Sela Ward, Steve Forbert, or me?
You'll have to provide the good science guys from there, the only one I know is a micobiologist, Bill Gressett.
The first bone pin surgery? The first Coca Cola bottled? The first state to allow conjugal visits at a prison? Well, who?
Posted by: Gerald M. Jones | October 18, 2009 6:31 PM
Damn, I knew I left somebody out!
And Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors. And he's got a jammin' blues club in the Delta!
Posted by: Cath the Canberra Cook
|
October 18, 2009 7:04 PM
One thing that always comes up in accent threads is people who don't understand that you can't possibly communicate phonetics with normal alphabetic English. Canadians probably do say what sounds like "aboot" when that is said by a person with a different accent. And of course it doesn't sound like "aboot" to the Canadian saying it.
Like when we Aussies joke that New Zealanders say "fush and chups" - that's how it sounds to *me*. To them it sounds like "fish and chips", and I don't know what I sound like to them. I'd guess "fesh and cheps".
Posted by: Standard Curve
|
October 18, 2009 7:20 PM
David Marjanović, thanks for the link about Canadian Vowel raising. I never knew there was such a term. Now if I only knew how to read those phonetic symbols...
Posted by: PaulJ | October 18, 2009 7:30 PM
I visited this museum in February (it's near where I live), and I also reported my findings.
The content of the video (despite the wobbles) is an accurate and thorough depiction of Genesis Expo — that is, feeble creationist arguments that were refuted decades ago, backed up by equally feeble exhibits. The bookshop, however, is stocked with mostly imported (American) books and DVDs, though the creationist pamphlets are British, produced by the long-established Creation Science Movement (whose HQ occupies the offices above the museum).
Posted by: PaulJ | October 18, 2009 7:33 PM
It's actually a disused bank.Posted by: Eric | October 18, 2009 7:40 PM
Well yeah, I think ALL of the good things eventually come out of Mississippi
Posted by: willbxtn
|
October 18, 2009 7:53 PM
My University (Surrey)'s Atheist, Humanist & Agnostic society plans a trip down there in the near future. From this, I'm looking forward to it...
Posted by: Kapitano
|
October 18, 2009 7:58 PM
Wonderful! You've found the creationst museum in my home town!
I did once spend half an hour wandering around inside. There were exhibits on how "there are no transitional fossils", next to exhibits on how "fossils are not a reliable guide to the past" and "fossils occur in layers, confirming the great flood history revealed in the bible". I did think to point out that these three contradict each other, but didn't bother.
There were also two families with young children wandering around, but they only stayed 10 minutes and chatted about everything except the displays. Though one boy did want to climb up the 12 foot papier-mache T.Rex.
There were a lot of dinosaurs. Rubber toy dinosaurs, dinosaur postcards, dinosaur keyrings...and an alligator skull in a glass box labeled "Dinosaur Head". The whole thing is obviously aimed at young children, but without any visible success. There's been neither a local outcry nor a wave of local support - just indifference.
We brits aren't an irreligious bunch - most of us are christians of a very vague form. But our religion just isn't important to us.
As for the nice british accents, I recognised the commentary voices from a hundred other voiceovers. There's a stable of maybe a dozen voiceover actors who seem to do almost all the voiceover work in the UK. One of them is Andrew Sachs - Manuel from "Fawlty Towers" :-), but I couldn't give names to many others.
Posted by: Gerald M. Jones | October 18, 2009 8:09 PM
Sorry for the going off......and the goinng off topic. But ignorance is a topic close to my heart, since I am surrounded by so much of it here. I am thankful that, as several posters here have said, that ignorance is not the province of any particular group.
I just have Mississippi pride. There have been times when an inferiorty complex has been foisted upon us, and we can be as guilty as anyone of crass stupidity, but......
Remember the names of the sports teams of our three largest universities, the Rebels, the Golden Eagles, and the Bulldogs.
We test NASA's rocket engines in south Mississippi.
Oprah Winfrey came from here, right, the richest woman in the world?
Sorry, I git all Glenn Becky when you start tawkin' bout my state, and all tourism-promoter when you gits me a-goin'
and up on mah gawddam soapbox like a Bible sellin' preacher, but jist yall rmemba, after we Mississippians, we Amurcans.
Don't forget to come to the International Ballet Competition in Jackson next spring, either.
Momma always used to say stupid is as stupid does. At's awl ah got ta say.
Posted by: Andrew | October 18, 2009 8:11 PM
"There's a stable of maybe a dozen voiceover actors who seem to do almost all the voiceover work in the UK. One of them is Andrew Sachs - Manuel from "Fawlty Towers" :-), but I couldn't give names to many others."
Manuel's catchphrase: "I know nothing" really does suit the creationist.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
October 18, 2009 8:13 PM
When I was in the Navy ever so many years ago, the submarine I was in made a port call at the Royal Naval Base in Faslane, Scotland. We needed a couple of typewriters fixed, so a tech came out from Glasgow. Our Chief Yeoman was a black guy from Alabama. The two men couldn't understand each other's accents so they were reduced to writing notes to one another. But if you had asked each of them what they were speaking, they would have told you they were using their native language, English.
Posted by: Rieux | October 18, 2009 8:58 PM
Such as Brett Favre!Vikes 6-0, baby! Woo-hoo!
(C'mon--it's a Minnesota blog, after all.)
Posted by: Snoof | October 18, 2009 9:34 PM
I'm pretty sure a megachip is 10^9 times larger than a microchip.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | October 18, 2009 9:40 PM
Yes. And I'm horribly embarrassed by my football team this year.
Posted by: Vince Whirlwind | October 18, 2009 10:08 PM
Um, no!
"Das Boot" is pronounced "bo:t" and "the boat" is pronounced "b@Ut"
Admittedly, scottish dialects have "the boat" pronounced "bo:t", but nobody should have to put up with hearing that hideous noise.
Two memorable moments of "english"-language subtitling are Trainspotting (all of it) and the "turn down the TV" cocktail-pub scene in "Lock, Stock...".
Posted by: Last Hussar | October 18, 2009 10:44 PM
Will you damned colonials stop calling it BRITISH English. It is English. No one says French French or Portugese Portugese. Your inability to ennunciate properly is not our problem.
My Christian wife had trouble getting her head round the idea when I explained this place when we were on holiday in Portsmouth. Unfortunately we never had time to visit. She also got quite angry at the homophobic creationists on Dawkins latest Channel 4 series last week. I think she is beginning to understand why I keep getting into arguments with people who knock at the door though.
Posted by: Barb
|
October 18, 2009 11:36 PM
Speaking of accents, listen to the quote given by "Prof. Louis Bounoure, director of research at the french national center of scientific research" in part2 4:00-4:25
It is the WORST fake french accent I have ever heard!!!
Posted by: Pygmy Loris
|
October 18, 2009 11:42 PM
Last Hussar,
We would, but, you see, there are more of us. It's not our fault there's some weird, isolated population that didn't get the memo on how awesome the USA and Canada are and chose to remain on a crowded island back in the Old World. Haven't y'all got the message? Young is in, and we say you speak British English. Just be glad we let you call it English ;)
Posted by: N__B | October 18, 2009 11:46 PM
I've got no problem with Richard Feynman's Bronx accent.
Queens. He was from Rockaway.
My father has a Bronx accent, I have a Queens accent. There's a discernible (to the right ear) difference.
Posted by: Thanny
|
October 19, 2009 1:01 AM
Just a quick reminder that the current "British" accent is actually a relatively recent invention. Brits did not sound like Brits when the US was founded.
Also, it's clear that the Brits are the ones with the accent, when you hear them sing - almost all English singers sound American without trying.
And by "American accent", I mean the mostly neutral accent found in the western NJ and eastern PA regions.
Posted by: Charlie Foxtrot | October 19, 2009 1:15 AM
Ey-up!
I've got a soft spot for the Yorkshire accent, maybe from watching 'All Creatures Great and Small' (about vets, not theists) when I was young.
Checked out YouTube for an example and found this 'lil munki' - she's right cute and right funni.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3ieNhEsDY
Posted by: Kiefer | October 19, 2009 2:32 AM
Tis Himself @ 99
The tech from Glasgow may well have described his language as Scots, not English. It is recognised as a different language, by the EU I think.
Posted by: Gyeong Hwa Pak | October 19, 2009 2:59 AM
Why can't you just say it as it is: a retracted and labialized alveolar approximant.
Posted by: Feynmaniac | October 19, 2009 3:16 AM
I recently saw an episode of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and it had the actor who played Wesley on Angel speaking with an American accent and the the guy who played Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica with a British accent. It was weird for me even though apparently they were both using their real accents.
/having trouble going to sleep
Posted by: Richard Eis
|
October 19, 2009 6:22 AM
I thought the numerology-like attempt on the chinese characters was pretty funny.
It's not really a national disgrace though when it's clear no-one actually cares. It's really just very very sad.
Posted by: Rufus | October 19, 2009 7:17 AM
"Just think of Darth Vader with a Texas drawl."
Vader was voiced by James Earl Jones who was born in Mississippi and was raised in Michigan. What would have been more funny would have been the original tapes with David Prowse (the man in the suit) doing the lines with his very strong bristolian dialect/accent.
Posted by: nodzou | October 19, 2009 7:27 AM
Ahoj - from this side of the atlantic things do look a little different - I live in a nation that prides itself on being the least theistic nation on a continent full of them. That is, I live in Prague, Czechia. But from personal experience, I think the emphasis on the 'Americanization' of stupidity is misplaced.
Look, I cannot begin to count the many encounters I have had with folks who insist that they observe no woo - yet are as addicted to their poppycock stories just the same as any one else. europe the heart of civilization (as if colonialism was a good thing) europe the enlightened (only amurikans pollute, our cars breath lily scented freshness) europe the paragon of moral virtue (all the puritans went to america, after all, leaving europe populated by morally superior beings).
It was once explained to me that americans invented slavery - this came in the middle of an impromptu lecture on how americans know nothing of history. And just last week some fucktard irish dude informed me that all americans are 'lost souls, inherently biased towards evil as a result of having lost all sense of roots' . . . sorry, what he calls 'roots' I call pride of ignorance. His 'center' was, and I quote, "the mystical qualities of the Irish blood which inherently embraces peace, something you rootless americans can never understand" - Ireland. Inherently Peaceful. (can you say ignorant doofus?) And this from a guy proudly proclaiming his atheism as evidence of his profundity.
BTW, I am american, mid-forties, this is the third continent I have called home. I teach at the big state university here, and meet folks from all walks of life - from my highly educated colleagues to the guys at the local. And yah yah, the accents. Whatever, that's not the point.
The point is that stupid is a universal condition of life - and one that must be countered with persistent effort, as stupid can get not only yourself killed, but also others whose only association to you is one of mere proximity.
Too much focus on a single metric of stupidity - say, the number of folks who buy into the creationist bull - will give you a highly skewed and useless bit of information. All the folks claiming that Amurika is the stoopidest nation on the planet (excepting their own pretty little selves of course) are buying into the same US Exceptionalism that the rethuglicans have so very successfully sold.
Posted by: Roger Stanyard | October 19, 2009 9:57 AM
I've been in this scruffy tinpot apology for a museum.
It's tiny. The top clip shows the front from the outside. It's a former retail bank premises (and doesn't even have parking for its vistors). It occupies the ground floor and the actual "museum" bit is about 15 feet by 20 feet in area.
Last time I checked with the Charity Commission, the turnover of the entire organisation responsible for it was about £60k (say US$90) a year. Moreover, it's going nowhere (like Answers in Genesis UK) - turnover has been static for years.
I calculated that it has well under 60 vistors a day - and I suspect that is a gross over-estimate. You should bear in mind that entrance is free.
To say its not on the same scale as Ken Scam's crapola museum in the USA is a gross understatement.
Matters regarding accents: The museum is located in Hampshire where the locals have a distinct twang to their accents. Runour has it that the twang became the Australian accent on the grounds we had a lot of criminals in Hampshire. When the US war of independence broke out, we lost our main prison colony, hence the need to ship our dodgy characters down under instead.
Posted by: Edd | October 19, 2009 9:58 AM
Wow, a lot of Pharynguloids near me - it's literally five minutes round the corner from where I live - visitors are welcome to poke me or something if they visit for a recuperative beer.
It's an extra big embarrassment as it's right next to Portsmouth Uni, which is known for paleontology, cosmology and other fields of science that are hideously misrepresented there.
The council used to have it listed as a 'science centre' on a tourist info website a while back - but fortunately the council saw sense when I emailed them and without hesitation cut the entry down to something a little more appropriate. Sanity does largely prevail here, despite this little blip.
Posted by: ajay | October 19, 2009 10:00 AM
except for some reason you Murkans replaced David Attenborough with Sigourney Weaver on the Planet Earth series. That's some unforgivable shit, right there.
True, but replacing Sigourney Weaver with David Attenborough in "Aliens" actually worked surprisingly well.
Posted by: Knockgoats | October 19, 2009 10:30 AM
*Sigh* If only I'd had the nous to spend my late teens/early 20s in the USA. The accent might have gained me a good many more opportunities for horizontal jogging than came my way in Blighty!
Posted by: MrFire
|
October 19, 2009 11:26 AM
This golden-oldie Heineken advert is a perfect example.
I believe Carrie Fisher nicknamed him "Darth Farmer" on set.
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood
|
October 19, 2009 1:04 PM
nodzou @ 115;
Mindless anti-Americnism is a problem in many parts of the world. Even in the UK, which is on balance fairly pro-American, you frequently hear bile filled morons seeking to belittle America as a nation. They talk as if all the 300-odd million citizens of the USA are completely homogenous and then go on to ascribe the most unpleasant attributes of the worst examples of individual foolish American's to the whole.
The acheivements of great American intellectuals and public figures are, of course, conveniently forgotton. They cuss out American greed and consummerism even while using American brand products. They mock the near mythic attributes of 'American ignorance' while betraying their own breathtaking lack of understanding. These are the kind of people who cannot tell America and Canada apart.
While these idiots certainly are vocal, I just wanted to let you know that there are still plenty of Brits and other non-American's around the world who admire and respect the many fine attributes of the USA as a nation and accept the problems America has with groups like the Xian's as an unfortunate blight that afflicts all nations to varying degrees, some far more so that the USA.
Any Brit mocking America is in a serious 'airborne stones and glass houses' situation given our own storied history as a nation.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp
|
October 19, 2009 1:27 PM
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say that there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
-Frank Zappa
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | October 19, 2009 1:34 PM
really? Scots is a local flavor of English? I was under the impression Scots was a local flavor of Gaelic.*Le ooops*
Posted by: Tezcatlipoca | October 19, 2009 2:00 PM
realinterrobang at #57,
Bah you Candians do say aboot and you mispronounce the word dollar. It must have something to do with having a duck or something on your $1 coin.
hahaha...
Also, milk is properly pronounced "malk", since that's how the Californian grad students say the folks here at Michigan State University say it. I'm not even going to go on about the time the grad student from Texas and I were at Home Depot and he kept asking me to repeat the word "caulk".
In the realm of bad to non-existant movie accents some friends and I went and saw Whip It this weekend. It is set in Austin Texas with Ellen Page and her family being from some small town outside Austin. None of those people were from Texas. You may argue that half of Austin is from somewhere else but the people in that small town shouldn't have been. Not one y'all to be heard. Ridiculous!
Posted by: Doc Holladay | October 19, 2009 2:33 PM
Good lord. I had no idea anyone was audacious enough to use Darwin's out-of-context eye quote anymore.
Also, when he cut to the dinosaur statue at the front at the museum, I lost it. Absolutely hilarious.
Posted by: AmyD
|
October 19, 2009 2:47 PM
I love how he signs himself "Answers in books" at the end. :D
Posted by: nodzou | October 20, 2009 5:17 AM
Gregory @121,
Thanks for the comment - I could not agree more. I did not intend to imply that there are not intelligent folks on this continent (and its islands) who see the mindless anti-americanism for what it is - and what it isn't. The inspiration for my rant was aimed more at my fellow Americans, including some of the posters here at this site, particularly the doctrinaire lefty types who mythologize Europe and/or specifically Britain. Few of these folks have left the states and fewer still have ever made any concrete study of the shape and form of non-american stupidities.
But your depiction of the situation is dead on - including the damage caused by the xian blight - both in and out of the states. The only thing I would hasten to add is that religion is not just in churches. It happens all the time, and all over this bloody planet - generally involving some claim of inherent superiority or special status (moral superiority is always available, even to the most pathetic) and sometimes it takes the form of ridiculously absurd statements about 'unique' stupidity of 'murika - both inside and outside the states.
That said, we still need to be able to talk coherently about incoherence - but we need a more universal metric than the easy sleazy gut check olde p-nut 43 championed.
Posted by: John Phillips, FCD
|
October 20, 2009 11:37 AM
@Thanny, Brits singing with an American accent is more a pop culture thing due mainly, initially at least, to the influence of such as Rock and Roll, Elvis et al, where many Brit singers mimicked American accents. Either because they were doing covers of American songs or because sounding American was seen as cool so competed better alongside American records and it has stuck. However, if you ever hear British folk songs, irrespective of the part of the UK the singers are from, it is invariably and very obviously sung in the regional accent of the singers.