User:Sluzzelin/sandbox for IS

Looking for a useful audio-guide on accents/dialects from Great Britain and Ireland

Title says it all; I've learned to distinguish and localize certain types of American English, but remain clueless on the differences among people from the British Isles. I only found youtube clips by self-professed accent-imitators covering the entire Anglosphere, but some of their American accents sounded pretty phony even to my ears, and I don't trust the authenticity of their other imitations.

Alternatively, if there is not one source covering all, I'd be equally grateful for links to people (characters in film or on TV, politicians, etc) speaking a certain dialect in a typical and unadultered fashion. I want to learn to identify them as specifically as reasonably possible (i.e. beyond "Scottish" or "Irish", which I can usually already recognize). Thank you very much. ---Sluzzelin talk 07:43, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

The first three external links at Dialect appear to be relevant to what you are seeking.

-- Wavelength (talk) 08:15, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Try this site: [1]

--TammyMoet (talk) 09:48, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

The soap operas offer a good starting point. Eastenders has some reasonably accurate cockney voices, Emmerdale has some of the more local Yorkshire accents, Brookside used to do Liverpudlian accents and Coronation Street is just rubbish. For Geordie look up Byker Grove. For famous people with distinctive regional voices (England)I would say Lily Savage, Harry Redknapp, Fred Dibnah (or Peter Kay), Jimmy Nail (or Ant and Dec), Liam Gallagher, Russel Howard (think he's Bristol accent?) and then the guy from Auf Wiedersehn Pet that sounds Brummie. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:41, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Russell Howard has a slight Bristol accent - but he does sometimes put on a stronger one for comedic effect. Jethro has a Cornish accent. DuncanHill (talk) 15:49, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

The guy from Auf Wiedersehen Pet who sounds Brummie is actually Timothy Spall, and he learnt the accent for the part. I agree he does sound authentic, but if you'd like to hear a Brummie accent, you need to hear Adrian Chiles (who is reasonably well-spoken but it still comes out from time to time), Frank Skinner (who is actually Black Country), or Carl Chinn (who gets called a "professional Brummie" from time to time...) hope this helps!--TammyMoet (talk) 18:41, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Michael Parkinson does a fair job of a typical Yorkshire accent. -- JackofOz (talk) 19:17, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

If you want to hear a proper Liverpool accent, you'd be wanting to watch Boys from the Black Stuff by Alan Bleasdale. You'd be getting a decent representation there. Brookside is no longer on telly anymore.--KageTora (talk) 19:45, 10 December 2008 (UTC)--KageTora (talk) 19:45, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone for the pointers. I will eventually copy and re-organize this thread into userspace, for more in-depth exploration during the holiday season, so please keep adding! ---Sluzzelin talk 18:53, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

There are the Wallace and Gromit claymations where Wallace is voiced as a Northerner by Peter Sallis who also appears in Last of the Summer Wine set in Yorkshire. The accents are different according to the articles and the area is diverse anyway. Any shorts by Aardman Animations provide a range of British accents. Example, Creature Comforts with Victor the Geordie mouse and others. Then there's the Beatles for Liverpool of course. From Oasis (Manchester) Noel Gallagher speaks on YouTubeYouTube - Noel Gallagher on Russell Brand Radio Show.avi. Malcolm McLaren is London, while Johnny Rotten is housing estate North London, circa 1970s, and if you catch The Bill you'll find the housing estate accent has changed to a subtle mix (W'appen?). Don't forget Ali G for British wigger. Julia Rossi (talk) 22:14, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? for James Bolam's Geordie. DuncanHill (talk) 22:39, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

The Archers (radio) for English Midlands. It's bound to still play somewhere. If you can't find in on BBC reruns, try BFBS. 76.97.245.5 (talk) 01:10, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks again! ---Sluzzelin talk 08:31, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

"[:The F] is not a perfect piece, but from certain aspects it is nevertheless very fine, for here the music is not the docile servant of the dance. And at times you hear altogether unusual combinations of rhythms!" - Jacques Durand, Lettres de C.D. à son éditeur (Paris: Durand, 1927, trans by Morgenstern, p 80)

"I've recently seen S ... He says: my F, my S, like a child saying: my top, my hoop. And that's exactly what he is: a spoiled child who, on occasion, gives music a tweak on the nose. He's also a young savage who wears loud ties, and kisses the ladies' hands while stepping on their feet. When old, he'll be unbearable, that is to say, he won't be able to bear any kind of music; but, for the moment, he's incredible. He professes a great friendship for me, because I've helped him climb a height from which he can hurl grenades, which don't all explode. But, as I say, he's incredible." - C. D.: Lettres, ed. François Lesure (Paris: Hermann, 1980, trans by Fisk, p270)

"For us scurvy troublemakers, I S is one of the most remarkable geniuses ever to have existed in music. The lucidity of his mind has set us free; his fighting strength has won us rights that we can never lose again. That is a fact. His penetrating power is sharper than that of D and cannot be blunted; it is too finely tempered. S has so many different methods, such a sense of inventiveness, that one can only be amused. -The Writings of E.S. ed. & trans. Nigel Wilkins (London: Eulenberg, 1980, p84)

One of the characteristics of S's music is its "transparency of sound." This quality is always to be found in the works of pure masters, who never allow "left-overs" to be heard in their music -- leftovers that you will meet all the time in the "musical material" of the Impressionist composers, and even of certain Romantics, alas! ... Where S reveals to us the utter richness of his musical power is in his use of "dissonance". Here he declares himself and plunges us into a vast intellectual ecstasy. What a superb magician! For him, "dissonance" means "increased pressure," and through it he "leans" on the sensibility of the appreciative listener. The "dissonance" is in no way harsh: it takes place "in the wings," all shimmering, but always with a function. -The Writings of E.S. ed. & trans. Nigel Wilkins (London: Eulenberg, 1980, p96)

At one time he will toy with jazz, at another time with Bach and Beethoven seen through a distorted mirror. Or he will amuse himself by adding piquant "wrong notes" to the complacent beauty of Pergolesi. This seems to be not the work of a serious composer, but rather that of the too clever craftsman, one might almost say, the feats of the precocious child. --R.V.W., National Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1934, p 102)