----- Original Message ----- From: "Ruth Anne Baumgartner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > ... And a friend who works at the stage supply > company says she can always recognize one particular community- > theater box office tape on the phone because the speaker "has a phony > British accent, which people seem to equate with being artistes!" > (No offense intended to any true Brits out there who ARE artistes, or > to Cockneys who ARE refined!)
Reminds me of a favorite line from some movie I can't think of: "Is she British, or just affected?" The whole topic, though, reminds me of something that I love to research when I have a spare second: the development of the American (and British) accent. I always wondered what, for example, people like Benjamin Franklin actually sounded like when they talked. I mean, it would make sense that their accents would be a lot closer to modern British than modern American, right? As it turns out, no, but not the other way round, either. If anyone in the 18th century sounded like anyone in the 21st century, it was the 18thC Brits; they sounded like 21st century Americans. Apparently the Brits had this thing for following linguistic fashions, which the Americans largely ignored, leaving regional British accents almost intact in the associated American regions. (Although we did finally follow suit and rid ourselves of that whole thing where the "a" in "father" sounded like the "a" in modern-American-accent "apple," though. Whew.) OK, completely off topic, and I'm explaining it poorly anyway! -E House _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
