Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA07991 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 1 Dec 2000 12:48:06 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745B67@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: RE: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 12:45:21 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
American by birth, australian by upbringing, no wonder Mel's so
anti-english!
I haven't heard that programme, but in New Scientist last week, in their
'last word' Q and A section, there were some detailed responses to a
question about how long in takes accents to become distinct, and how long
accents remain distinct.
One of the respondents mentioned a community in the US, I believe it was
somewhere in Virginia although it might be Carolina from what you've said,
where there has been very little social churn, with most residents families
having been there for some 400 years or so, and their accent carrying a west
country twang to it, that some say is as close as we'll ever get to knowing
how people of Shakespeare's era ever spoke.
Linking back to the trivia, anyone who's seen 'Gladiator' may want to know,
as I do, why Hollywood thinks that the most likely accent of the Romans was
RADA english. Still it was nice to see that despite all the British thesps
in that film, the baddy was played (exceedingly well, with lots of camp) by
an American. Still, that doesn't explain Crowe's bizarre accent (apparently
he was overheard on the set claiming to be the best actor in the world, so
it's nice tosee stardom hasn't gone to his head).
Actually, if it's not too tenuous, this is an interesting minor meme- the
use of english accents in Hollywood films to denote evidently non-english
eras/races etc. How did that get started?
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Gatherer, D. (Derek)
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Friday, December 1, 2000 11:09 am
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: RE: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp
>
> Vincent:
> I'm pretty certain that Mel Gibson, like Russell 'Gladiator' Crowe, is
> Aussie-born,
>
> Derek: No, he's American by birth, as indeed was Maria Callas - there's
> another good one for a trivia quiz.
>
> Vincent:
> Aren't the BeeGees British?
>
> Derek:
> But you're right on that one. They are British by birth.
>
> Vincent:
> distinguish between Aussie and English accents
>
> Derek:
> Off the trivia quiz, have you been listening to Melvyn Bragg's current
> series on spoken English on Radio 4? It's getting critical raves.
> Apparently in South Carolina for instance (this example is from the first
> series last year), it's possible to distinguish 4 regional accents which
> correspond roughly to 4 groups that settled the territory. Coastal
> Carolinian (if that's the word) has affinities with Devon/Cornwall
> English,
> central agricultural Carolinian has SE English roots and the hill dialect
> is
> from Ulster. Can't remember the 4th one..... Incidentally, have you
> heard
> Newfoundland dialect? It's incredibly Irish sounding, even though some
> are
> 5th or 6th generation immigrants.
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 01 2000 - 12:50:31 GMT