How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm • Hacker News Board

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#21

Post by neffy » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:46 AM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #13

" . . . sometimes called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, which is deeply offensive to those, like me, from the actual Mid-Atlantic . . . " " . . . elocution class is wildly offensive to most of the modern linguists . . . " What is it with this childish writing, being "deeply, wildly" offended at, instead of disagreeing with? Its the wrinting caliber of a young teen, and it seems to be popular.

Mermaid infiltration style? Colour me also more than slightly intrigued by this idea of being from the "actual Mid-Atlantic"- which was an ocean last time anybody checked.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#22

Post by sverige » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:49 AM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #13

" . . . sometimes called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, which is deeply offensive to those, like me, from the actual Mid-Atlantic . . . " " . . . elocution class is wildly offensive to most of the modern linguists . . . " What is it with this childish writing, being "deeply, wildly" offended at, instead of disagreeing with? Its the wrinting caliber of a young teen, and it seems to be popular.

I have worked with several people who were born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, which is about as mid-Atlantic as it gets. One had very earnestly replaced her accent with that of her adopted Austin, Texas. The other two tried to outdo each other in snobbishness whenever there was a conflict. I don't find it to be a very pleasant accent, but then again, I'm not from there.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#23

Post by sverige » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:51 AM UTC

neffy wrote: post #21

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #13

" . . . sometimes called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, which is deeply offensive to those, like me, from the actual Mid-Atlantic . . . " " . . . elocution class is wildly offensive to most of the modern linguists . . . " What is it with this childish writing, being "deeply, wildly" offended at, instead of disagreeing with? Its the wrinting caliber of a young teen, and it seems to be popular.

Mermaid infiltration style? Colour me also more than slightly intrigued by this idea of being from the "actual Mid-Atlantic"- which was an ocean last time anybody checked.

I think "Mid-Atlantic" in this case refers to the accents commonly found from Delaware and Maryland south to the northern parts of North Carolina.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#24

Post by sverige » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 1:52 AM UTC

hackermailman wrote: post #11

There is also many bands with fake accents, like 1980s Minor Threat with whatever UK accent Ian Mackaye was channeling

And all the British bands who have strangely Midwestern accents.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#25

Post by vacri » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:02 AM UTC

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #13

" . . . sometimes called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, which is deeply offensive to those, like me, from the actual Mid-Atlantic . . . " " . . . elocution class is wildly offensive to most of the modern linguists . . . " What is it with this childish writing, being "deeply, wildly" offended at, instead of disagreeing with? Its the wrinting caliber of a young teen, and it seems to be popular.

I was trying to find some sort of self-deprecating humour to explain this kind of obvious hyperbole, but it's not there. If the author was a linguist worth their salt, then they should know the perils of normalising such statements against trivial concepts.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#26

Post by flanbiscuit » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:09 AM UTC

neffy wrote: post #21

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #13

" . . . sometimes called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, which is deeply offensive to those, like me, from the actual Mid-Atlantic . . . " " . . . elocution class is wildly offensive to most of the modern linguists . . . " What is it with this childish writing, being "deeply, wildly" offended at, instead of disagreeing with? Its the wrinting caliber of a young teen, and it seems to be popular.

Mermaid infiltration style? Colour me also more than slightly intrigued by this idea of being from the "actual Mid-Atlantic"- which was an ocean last time anybody checked.

I was under the same impression. I thought they called it the "mid-atlantic" accent because it was halfway between the US and British accent. Boy do I feel stupid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_states

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#27

Post by ajeet_dhaliwal » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:10 AM UTC

ajlburke wrote: post #6

zeitgeb3r wrote: post #2

Why does all Star Wars movies use aristocratic British accent?

The original Star Wars movies were largely shot in Britain, and used British actors for many of the roles, especially the Imperial officers and officials. Carrie Fisher's family had worked in Hollywood during the "golden age" of the mid-Atlantic accent and she had been sent to an elocution school in the U.K. just before being cast for Star Wars - although she admits that her accent changed a lot in the first Star War…

The latest one too.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#28

Post by cperciva » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:20 AM UTC

flanbiscuit wrote: post #26

neffy wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mermaid infiltration style? Colour me also more than slightly intrigued by this idea of being from the "actual Mid-Atlantic"- which was an ocean last time anybody checked.

I was under the same impression. I thought they called it the "mid-atlantic" accent because it was halfway between the US and British accent. Boy do I feel stupid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_states

It is called a "mid-Atlantic" accent because it's halfway between American and British; it has nothing to do with mid-Atlantic states. The author even acknowledges this in the sentence immediately following the one where she claims to be deeply offended: "What that name means in this case is that the accent can be placed somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, halfway between New England and England".

This is simply poor writing.

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#29

Post by tagawa » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:26 AM UTC

dirtbox wrote: post #19

pash wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His accent, however, was not.

I'm British which I think qualifies me to say it very much was. He had a few inflections of the period, but there's no mistaking it.

I disagree - to me the inflections in his on-screen speech sound predominantly American. (For the record, I'm British too)

Re: How a Fake British Accent Took Old Hollywood by Storm

#30

Post by Osmium » Tue, Nov 01, 2016, 2:28 AM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #8

Whenever I'm traveling in areas where people speak with an accent (either english or my native language), I can't stop myself from imitating it. Really badly. After a week or so I'm terribly annoyed by the sound of my own voice. It has even happened when someone was visiting, and acting in some sort of leadership role with a lot of speaking time. So I could imagine a single Hollywood director could possibly start a t…

> Whenever I'm traveling in areas where people speak with an accent

Nit-pick, but everyone speaks with an accent :)

(I'm not sure if you meant it that way, but I have met people who genuinely think that they don't have an accent and are 'unaccented', and it's just other people who do...)