Assistance with information about accents, for that girl from the deep South

[verucasalt123]

OK, I've got some fics I'm trying to work on, in both the AtS and BBC Sherlock fandom. I'm curious about the differences in the English accents I've heard, as I was born and raised in Georgia, haven't really done much traveling in my life, and the extent of my time in the UK is limited to a two week trip to Belfast and Ardara when I was 9 years old.

On AtS, Wesley and Spike are both British, but their accents are completely different from each other. On Sherlock, it seems the accents are all really unique among the characters, Sherlock and John and Lestrade and Mycroft all sounding very distinct from each other (not as much between Sherlock and Mycroft but John to some extent and especially Lestrade).

Is this something that comes from being raised in different geographical locations, like in the US, where someone from Michigan and someone from Alabama and someone from Massachusetts sound nothing alike? Or is it a cultural thing, like socioeconomic background (a college educated person from Michigan might not speak anything like her neighbor who grew up in a trailer park and dropped out of school in ninth grade)? Or cultural/learned (two kids in Alabama might grow up on the same block but if one is black and one is white, their voices and vocabulary tend to be at least somewhat different)?

Does anyone have any insight on this?

Comments

[cold-feets.livejournal.com]

Yes on all counts, but oh god, yes, accents are hugely reliant on geographical location. You can usually pinpoint where someone's from in Britain within 30 miles or so based on accent and speech patterns alone.

I don't know how much you know about linguistics and the IPA, but wikipedia is not a bad starting place for looking at some of the variations so long as you can wade through the terms and phonetic spellings.

There's also loads of books and cds, or heck, plenty of youtube videos where people try to show some of the different regional accents.

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

Can you (or anyone else who sees this) tell me what these different accents are called, if there is a name for them?

[lilithbint.livejournal.com]

It is both regional and class structured. With Spike and Wesley you have the confusion of two American actors doing English accents with various success. Wesley was definitely supposed to be public school posh while Spike adopted a more lower class/Sid Viscous from the Sex Pistols sound. Of course James was apparently coached by Tony Head who was a bit of a prankster and may not have steered him completely right. Interestingly Tony doesn't sound that much like Giles, he put on a posh accent which he doesn't have in real life (he's a Londoner)

On Sherlock you've got a lot of London accents which tend to be blended from lots of different regions so does have variation.
If you've ever listened to Benedict Cumberbatch talk that is pure posh. It's called Received Pronunciation or Queen's English.
Rupert Graves is from Somerset which is South West England down towards the bottom. Martin Freeman is from Hampshire which is east of Somerset. Mark Gatiss is from County Durham which is way up north above Yorkshire.

Regionally the dialects get thicker the further north you go.
Scouse is the term for a Liverpool accent (think Ringo Starr)
Geordie is the accent of Newcastle. A bit closer is Leeds in Yorkshire which is the accent of choice for yokel farmers on television. Get up to the top and you'll hit Scotland (Sean Connery).
There is a basic northern and southern divide with the accents where north refers to everything from York and above.
Class wise basically the rougher the accent the lower the class. If you've ever watched Misfits Kelly is often called a chav and her accent is pretty lower class although the actress uses her own native Derby accent, Derby's in the middle of England.
A lot of English actors use a bland not from anywhere accent keeping their vowels rounded and soft.
Here's a decent run down
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_the_English_language#Europe

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Thank you so so much! I know, throwing the wrench of two American actors playing English characters does complicate it a bit!!!!

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

And Alexis Denisof, who played Wesley, lived in England for quite a few years, which could be one reason why his accent is more authentic sounding than James Marsters'.

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Excellent point.

[mandatorily.livejournal.com]

I have the same sorts of problems you're having. I can tell that the British accents are different in some ways, but they sound so much better than the country drawl/twang around here (Texas) that it's all lovely to my ears. I've loved reading the comments on this post -- very informative!

You and I should talk sometime about the abysmal job of most "southern" accents on TV. ;)

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know!!!! But then, just like the other accents I was talking about, there's so much variation there too! I can pick out someone from Arkansas or Western NC (the President Clinton accent) or someone who's charm-school Georgia (like Roslyn Carter).

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Thanks so so much!! I can see where a lot of people might come out of college sounding different than when they went in, that's a natural progression, I think.

I don't know what accent Rupert Graves uses when he is playing Greg Lestrade or what he sounds like when he's not on TV (I should go find an interview or something) but whatever that accent is, the Lestrade one, is hottttt.