No idea where this would go, so here it is!
I cannot affect an accent to save my life. Even my (natural) accent gets odd looks on occasion. How do you make your voice sound more regional or even just more natural?
Accents and Impressions
Quote: ellipsis @ October 16 2009, 7:41 AM BSTNo idea where this would go, so here it is!
I cannot affect an accent to save my life. Even my (natural) accent gets odd looks on occasion. How do you make your voice sound more regional or even just more natural?
Not sure what you want to know - your own voice and way of speaking IS your natural accent. Are you saying you want to learn how to do accents for recording purposes?
It is possible to learn how to do accents and you can also call on others to do them for you if it is for a recording.
My natural accent doesn't sound natural, I suppose. Lots of people think I just learned English really well. Ah, the joys of not speaking regularly 'til late childhood.
Quote: ellipsis @ October 16 2009, 7:41 AM BSTHow do you make your voice sound more regional or even just more natural?
Regional: Just hang around the native speakers of whichever particular region you're keen on, listen to them and imitate them.
Natural: Naturally our speech is somewhat influenced by our parents, despite our best efforts to avoid this. Your own voice is as natural as you can get, unless you've spent most of your life hiding behind phony accents and foreign languages, and in the process have lost your own voice. Otherwise watch TV and listen to radio, and imitate whatever accents you feel are most natural.
Remember to avoid doing those accents which are deemed to be racist. So avoid impersonating an Indian*, but feel free to mock the French. No, it doesn't make much sense.
*unless you are on the Simpsons,
Here's aomewhere you can learn an authentic British Accent (in case you're going to Ireland)
Oh dear 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6pIi_Rh8A&feature=channel
And
Quote: Moonstone @ October 16 2009, 11:28 AM BSTHere's aomewhere you can learn an authentic British Accent (in case you're going to Ireland)
Oh dear
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Unless she's just having a laugh.
Quote: Moonstone @ October 16 2009, 11:28 AM BSTAnd
Quote: Kenneth @ October 16 2009, 11:38 AM BSTOh Unless she's just having a laugh.
You would hope so, but I think it's genuine!
There used to be a video someone made mixing her 'coffih' with cuts of 'Timmih' from South Park. Was really funny but the author took it down for some reason 
funny stuff.
I remember being 10 and watching "Nuns On the Run" with my family and copying the accents to my family's delight and later having to show it off to my parents friends for their amusement.
Do you have regional accents in Canada, Curt?
While doing my first practicum in an upper class High School here in Ottawa I was told by my associate teacher that I should try to loose my Northern Ontario accent because some students may loose respect.
I guess to him it sounded like something from "Fargo".
So I have tried to hold of on my "eh"s, "buddy", and "guy" but it still slips out when I'm excited about a topic. He told me to stop dropping the last letter of a word too.
example: "I was just talk'n to yer buddy over there and he'z say'n you threw a snowball at'em, that's not true eh?"
There are a lot of regional accents in the east coast. Nefoundlanders have several different accents depending on their location on or off the island.
There are a lot of different French accents in Canada too because of the isolation of they different French groups. My wife has a Northern Ontario French accent which makes Quebecers say stuff like "You speak excellent French...but it's not Quebec". Meaning she speaks proper French without all the terrible Quebec slang.
Apparently the oddest French accent is from Nova Scotia that is so thick people who only speak French can't understand it. They call it Accadian.
I've heard that accent Curt. A girl down the hall from me in college was from NS and she sounded bizarre.
Quote: Curt @ October 16 2009, 3:51 PM BSTWhile doing my first practicum in an upper class High School here in Ottawa I was told by my associate teacher that I should try to loose my Northern Ontario accent because some students may loose respect.
I guess to him it sounded like something from "Fargo".
So I have tried to hold of on my "eh"s, "buddy", and "guy" but it still slips out when I'm excited about a topic. He told me to stop dropping the last letter of a word too.example: "I was just talk'n to yer buddy over there and he'z say'n you threw a snowball at'em, that's not true eh?"
So is it still the same pronunciation-wise across the country? I mean there aren't any vowels or whatever that some areas say differently?
Quote: AndreaLynne @ October 16 2009, 3:53 PM BSTI've heard that accent Curt. A girl down the hall from me in college was from NS and she sounded bizarre.
Yea if you've never heard an east coast accent before it's a bizarre thing for anyone I think.
When I worked in the bush prospecting with two older Newfies I honestly didn't understand what they were saying for the first few weeks their accents were so thick. All I understood was the same joke they made every morning by putting two bacon bits on their eggs and shaking them and saying "look'atem dair boobies boyo! Look'atem dance!"
A lot of them try to loose their accents so they can be taken more seriously in business.
Newfy jokes are the blonde jokes of Canada.
Quote: Moonstone @ October 16 2009, 3:59 PM BSTSo is it still the same pronunciation-wise across the country? I mean there aren't any vowels or whatever that some areas say differently?
Yea you're probably right. We're just like the States in that there are very slight changes in how we say words. Probably from all the US TV we watch.
Except Newfies who can sometimes sound like a cross between some sort of British accent you might here in an old Pirate movie...but a bit goofier.
Here is a Newflander comedian
Quote: Curt @ October 16 2009, 4:16 PM BST
Wow, I understood about 10% of that!