sovay | I was never there, I only read the book, I only saw the film

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I was never there, I only read the book, I only saw the film

A double-header at this afternoon's medical appointment: the tech not only expressed surprise at my calendar age, but assumed from my voice that I was either foreign-born or had spent significant time out of the country, specifically she thought in the UK. Given the current climate, I should be clear that she was curious, not hostile; one of her children had been a staffer in the Obama administration and two others had been some kind of federal employee and she had considerable feelings on subjects from vaccines to tanks. But after I had gone through the standard litany clarifying the rather pathetic fact that I have lived my entire life in New England and the Boston area for most of it, she still thought I sounded British. "You should go over there. You'd blend right in." She herself had an old-school Boston accent. "People from anywhere, they can tell where I'm from." I am not good at other people's ages, but I don't believe that I look younger than my early forties, especially after the last few ravaging years, and I expect to be heard as American by anyone who actually has one or more of the plethora of accents on offer in the UK. Weirdest instance of trying to place my voice remains the time I was told by a very drunk Australian that I sounded like a Norwegian. Someday the question of my vocal origins will come around again because it has been doing so since my childhood and I will answer "Lisson Grove" just to see what happens.

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You have what I consider a highly educated way of talking. I have known other people who speech shares something in common with yours, and for all of you, there's a kind of fervency and a clear articulation of your words.

... I've never heard a Norwegian accent, but my mother had a Danish friend, and I adored her way of speaking.

You have what I consider a highly educated way of talking. I have known other people who speech shares something in common with yours, and for all of you, there's a kind of fervency and a clear articulation of your words.

That's fascinating. Thank you for suggesting some of what people might be hearing, since in terms of strict phonetics I shouldn't clear the mid-Atlantic: in which case it would be more a cultural ghost than an actual accent. I couldn't have picked it up from academia because I was being asked as early as elementary school.

... I've never heard a Norwegian accent, but my mother had a Danish friend, and I adored her way of speaking.

I have heard a Norwegian accent and it isn't an insult, I just don't think I have one!

Right; I don't think it's based on, e.g., your elementary school or higher education or even any one thing: it's *you*, basically, the you who watched cool movies and TV shows, who listened to radio shows, who has educated, involved parents, who as a child (and to this day) has broad interests, which meant/means listening and talking to people from all over the world who have expertise in those things.

And yeah, as Genarti says, it's great! And not even really attention worthy unless someone cares to call attention to it. I guess what I'm saying is, it's no big deal but it's not a nonexistent thing: people are noticing something that's noticeable, the way having distinctively long hair is noticeable.

I agree -- I don't think you have any other regional accent to my ear, but I do think you have a very precise and clear articulation of your words, which is what could be pinging people? And, yes, highly educated with a kind of fervency puts it very well. Most people speak with much less precision. (To be clear, I think your way of speaking is great! But in terms of trying to pin down what some people might be speculating based on.)

(To be clear, I think your way of speaking is great! But in terms of trying to pin down what some people might be speculating based on.)

I don't feel insulted by the analysis! I think of myself as having a comparatively uninteresting speaking voice and my personal impression of my diction is that it used to be precise and thanks to factors beyond my control is now sludge, so this conversation is probably doubling as a reality check on top of a discussion of American dialects.

lol u thot whut about ur diction
*brings the elegance*

You’ve been around, astonishment at your age notwithstanding! It has its tells!

*hugs*
You don’t look much older than I ever remember you looking; and it’s been kind of exhausting lately!

You’ve been around, astonishment at your age notwithstanding! It has its tells!

That's how I feel about it! And I have worked very hard on still being here!

You don’t look much older than I ever remember you looking; and it’s been kind of exhausting lately!

*hugs*

People's perceptions of accents can be a hoot. I was once chatting in line at a restaurant in Oregon with a couple from Minnesota, and they expressed surprise when I told them I was from North Carolina. "We thought you were Canadian!" I took it as a compliment, but that was years ago and I had much more of my original southern Appalachian accent then than I do now. Actually, it's probably a little more pronounced at this moment since I spent the weekend visiting relatives back in the old home pastures and it resurfaces when I'm there and then takes a little while to wear off once I'm back in the flatlands.

I was once chatting in line at a restaurant in Oregon with a couple from Minnesota, and they expressed surprise when I told them I was from North Carolina. "We thought you were Canadian!"

Aside from the obvious question of what they heard in your Appalachian to make them think of Canada and which part, that story is just a terrific regional confluence.

Actually, it's probably a little more pronounced at this moment since I spent the weekend visiting relatives back in the old home pastures and it resurfaces when I'm there and then takes a little while to wear off once I'm back in the flatlands.

Makes sense. I hope it was a nice weekend. Which part of the Appalachians is ancestrally yours?

Aside from the obvious question of what they heard in your Appalachian to make them think of Canada and which part, that story is just a terrific regional confluence.

I had years of speech therapy as a kid to keep me from ending up sounding like a cross between Gilda Radner's "Baba Wawa" and Andy Kaufman's "Foreign Man," so I don't care where people think I'm from based on my voice -- I just try to keep it somewhat Terrestrial.

Which part of the Appalachians is ancestrally yours?

Western part of the Brushy Mountains, Caldwell County, NC, going back over 200 years.

If it's of any interest, I get pinged as Canadian from time to time. Wisconsin+a lifetime of PBS and NPR, not to mention the CBC and a number of other international broadcasters, and there I go. I suspect the PBS aspect has left tells on both of us. :)

If it's of any interest, I get pinged as Canadian from time to time. Wisconsin+a lifetime of PBS and NPR, not to mention the CBC and a number of other international broadcasters, and there I go.

This has turned into such a neat thread of what different parts of this country sound like to other parts. I don't think anyone has ever asked if I was Canadian! I must be missing the illusion of characteristic features.

It truly has! :) ... For a minute there, I thought you meant visual illusions of characteristic features, before my reading comprehension kicked in. Whoops on me!

I absolutely get asked if I'm Ontarian, and not always by those far south of me. I also had one customer tell me I sounded like his relatives in Nova Scotia, and the especially oddly delightful thing was, two weeks later, I spoke to a Nova Scotian unconnected to the earlier exchange who, accent-wise, matched closely enough with me that we could have been sisters. I still can't explain that one, seeing as I was born and raised in Wisconsin.

I leave the tendency to accent shifts and mimicry aside, except to say that I'm forever worried I'm going to alter mine while in conversation with someone and they're going to take offense!

I also get pinged as Canadian. Constantly. CONSTANTLY. If I travel in the southern US I frequently get asked how I like this country, to the point where I have a standard answer: "Well, it has its ups and downs, but I'm used to it, since I was born here and have lived here all my life." This never fails to elicit shock.

I also get pinged as Canadian. Constantly. CONSTANTLY. If I travel in the southern US

I really hope you have seen

gullyfoyle's comment, since it now appears that pseudo-Canada is a two-way street.

I frequently get asked how I like this country, to the point where I have a standard answer: "Well, it has its ups and downs, but I'm used to it, since I was born here and have lived here all my life." This never fails to elicit shock.

It's concise and I will think of adopting it. I tend to end up itemizing where I was born, where I grew up, where my parents were born, where my parents grew up, where I went to school . . .

Yeah I actually DO sound Canadian, though. I don't know what those other Minnesotans were thinking.

Yeah I actually DO sound Canadian, though. I don't know what those other Minnesotans were thinking.

What kind of Canadian do you sound like? Adjacent southern Ontario?

Yes. Definitely not the Maritimes or Vancouver, or the Prairies, oof, and les Quebecois don't know what to make of me when it's not tourist season.

For me the sentence that I can say to knock people over laughing at my accent is, "float your boat with your goat," but I will do the more classic "out and about in a boat" on request.

For me the sentence that I can say to knock people over laughing at my accent is, "float your boat with your goat,"

That is a pretty funny sentence.

but I will do the more classic "out and about in a boat" on request.

I am now trying to figure out whether you are the person I can ask about Alex Knox's accent. It's fascinated me since The Sea Wolf (1941). He was born in 1907 in Strathroy, ON and the earliest I can hear him in his own voice, he's got something close to mid-Atlantic—it may have been literally transatlantic, given that he had by that point in his career worked in Canada, the U.S., and Britain—with discernible Canadian raising and a substrate of something that every now and then sounds almost like Scots to me. I have been suspecting it's southwestern Ontario. The difference in time is an obvious factor and I am aware there's at least one lake between your points of origin, but is he regionally-dialectally close enough to you that I could ask for an opinion?

Time will actually have had a major influence. Southern Ontario was very very very Brit-influenced up to the 1960s, especially by the Scots. My father was born in 1913; we all sound like him, so that my sister was nearly refused entrance to the USA at one point because British citizens needed a visa, and as recently as ten years ago a British expat asked what part of England I'd grown up in.

Television has flattened younger Toronto generations, who now sound like Minnesotans to me.

Southern Ontario was very very very Brit-influenced up to the 1960s, especially by the Scots. My father was born in 1913; we all sound like him, so that my sister was nearly refused entrance to the USA at one point because British citizens needed a visa, and as recently as ten years ago a British expat asked what part of England I'd grown up in.

This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for complete with historical matrix, so thank you for providing it! Especially the context for the Scots sound, because it's apparent even toward the end of his Hollywood period when he had audibly worked on his American (results: intermittent; me: whatever) as well as in his post-blacklist British career, therefore had to be pretty far down in the stratigraphy. He was often referred to in the UK as "Canadian-Scots." In the U.S., despite consistent mention of his Canadian-ness, his accent and manner were not infrequently referred to as British.

Edited 2025-09-05 03:02 (UTC)

Do you watch Letterkenny or Shoresy? There is a difference between my Minnesota accent and the rural Ontario accent Jared Keeso uses in those roles (and I suspect has as his home accent, or something close to it), but it's a subtle one if you're not from the north. Sounds like you're one of the few people who'd hear it immediately.

Edited 2025-09-05 02:26 (UTC)

This is actually how I became a hockey fan. I lived in California for four long years, and I was incredibly homesick. So I would put the hockey game on with the sound turned low so that I wasn't hearing the words, I was hearing the shape and rhythm of the announcer dialog, especially the vowels. It was where I could hear something sort of close to home. My computer faced away from the TV in our tiny California apartment, but every once in a while I'd have to get up to do something, and there's nearly always action in a hockey game, and I'd get caught up watching it and turn the sound up more. But it started with being desperate to hear the right vowels.

(I would also make someone go to the shore with me so I could look at something with enough space. It was a rough go, those four years.)

(I would also make someone go to the shore with me so I could look at something with enough space. It was a rough go, those four years.)

(I will relay this story to my mother, who came out from the Midwest to upstate New York for college and did not realize how claustrophobic she had felt until autumn when the leaves fell and suddenly there was something approaching a normal amount of sky.)

No, I umm actually don't have a television. But I'm also not good with Ontario accents outside my native Toronto (which still has three syllables in my diction, unlike everyone else.)

I don't have a lot of familiarity with Alex Knox specifically, but oddly I think that particular clip you've linked is a mix between the bit of my home accent that makes people think there's Scottish influence (the roundness of the o's and some of the consonants being clipped off, t's and s's in particular) and the OPPOSITE of what makes people think there's Scottish influence (I have joked that there are non-rhotic accents, there are rhotic accents, and then there are hyper-rhotic accents, and that last is what Scottish people and I have, if there's an r in it we will hit that r hard, harrrd). If I ever call someone Captain Larsson, by God you will know that there is an r in that name.

(You will also know there's an s in that name rather than a z. I have more than one Lars in my life, and one of the accent things that makes me want to scream is when people call them Larzzzzz.)

I don't have a lot of familiarity with Alex Knox specifically

I fell abruptly into his acting in July and am about three films behind on recording the experience. He was a cousin of

asakiyume's grandfather, totally unsuited for the Hollywood studio system, extremely suited for the crosshairs of McCarthyism, I have collected several grudges against the American film industry on his behalf and I like his work immensely.

but oddly I think that particular clip you've linked is a mix between the bit of my home accent that makes people think there's Scottish influence (the roundness of the o's and some of the consonants being clipped off, t's and s's in particular) and the OPPOSITE of what makes people think there's Scottish influence (I have joked that there are non-rhotic accents, there are rhotic accents, and then there are hyper-rhotic accents, and that last is what Scottish people and I have, if there's an r in it we will hit that r hard, harrrd). If I ever call someone Captain Larsson, by God you will know that there is an r in that name.

I was hoping for your ear! The non-rhoticity is part of what gives him the mid-Atlantic quality to mine, although every now and then it too flickers in a way that makes me really want to hear what he sounded like in his teens, before he had any kind of training. I can tell when he's working on his American accent because he shortens his vowels, especially that O; it slips back if he's seriously using his voice. The Scottish-ish intonation comes out unpredictably but as far as I can tell he never lost it, hence my assumption it was part of the baseline. I've heard him do a Scottish accent and think it may be the only one he could.

(You will also know there's an s in that name rather than a z. I have more than one Lars in my life, and one of the accent things that makes me want to scream is when people call them Larzzzzz.)

Please tell them I sympathize, since I have on a near-daily basis the experience of saying my name to someone who says it right back wrong.

Edited 2025-09-05 03:22 (UTC)

No one anywhere has ever said anything about my accent or lack thereof, but in Boston, people often assume I'm of Irish descent.

No one anywhere has ever said anything about my accent or lack thereof, but in Boston, people often assume I'm of Irish descent.

I don't know what to make of that, but it's fascinating! I used to get asked if I was Russian or Italian. Now I mask indoors and they just have my voice to comment on.

"You should go over there. You'd blend right in."

Well, I suppose that would be one way to solve the obtaining physical media problem, but a bit extreme, really. (A nice thought from my POV, though. You should come very soon, so I can show you my Doggerland beach before I move away. <3)

Anyway, commiserations on keeping having to deal with that!

ETA: Btw, I cannot remember if I told you that I recorded The Stone Tape off TPTV recently, but I did, and I've started watching it now and am enjoying it v much so far!

Edited 2025-09-04 19:35 (UTC)

A nice thought from my POV, though. You should come very soon, so I can show you my Doggerland beach before I move away.

I would love for you to show me Doggerland like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway, commiserations on keeping having to deal with that!

Thank you! It's odd! If I visit, you can tell me how British I don't sound!

ETA: Btw, I cannot remember if I told you that I recorded The Stone Tape off TPTV recently, but I did, and I've started watching it now and am enjoying it v much so far!

You had not told me! I'm so glad!

To add to the general discussion of Canadian accents in the comments: my family moved (albeit only, like, a three hours' drive) to Canada when I was in high school, so I had a few years of people commenting on my American accent followed by people commenting on my Canadian accent when I moved back, and it was like... guys. I sound exactly the same. I'm just from the Midwest.

my family moved (albeit only, like, a three hours' drive) to Canada when I was in high school, so I had a few years of people commenting on my American accent followed by people commenting on my Canadian accent when I moved back

That sounds inevitable and ridiculous.

Years ago, my first therapist in Boston had a fascinating accent. It sounded potentially eastern European to me? But when I finally asked her she said that it was her family accent, and her family had been in Massachusetts since before the Revolution and were almost certainly Boston Brahmins — apparently they all had it.

But when I finally asked her she said that it was her family accent, and her family had been in Massachusetts since before the Revolution and were almost certainly Boston Brahmins — apparently they all had it.

I've heard that accent, but only historically! I've never met anyone with it. That's so neat.

To me you look very young for your age in pictures, but I'm Australian so my perspective of age is probably skewed. You could definitely pass for 30s here.

To me you look very young for your age in pictures, but I'm Australian so my perspective of age is probably skewed. You could definitely pass for 30s here.

I feel that I look very different from my thirties, mostly in terms of massive wear and tear, and it feels strange for others not to see it even when they have no reason to, e.g. a random medical technician who has never met me before in their life. It isn't as though I have ever done anything to take care of my appearance other than make sure not to be allergic to my soap. I do trust what you are saying. I have to ask about the difference in Australian perceptions of age, though, assuming it isn't rude.

We expect a lot more sun damage (both lines on the face and sagging). I think I'd be mistaken for 20 years older in North America these days.

We expect a lot more sun damage (both lines on the face and sagging). I think I'd be mistaken for 20 years older in North America these days.

Check. I don't think I have ever seen a picture of you, so cannot give my opinion from North America, whatever it would be minimally worth.

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I was never there, I only read the book, I only saw the film

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