Oh Dear!
Posted by Cassia on September 14, 1997 at 15:25:52:
In response to Americanization of English, written by Ann on September 12, 1997 at 16:26:53
] ] ] Paltrow ....... token effort in trying to be English amuses me.....(At least the majority of the cast weren't Americans pretending to be English as Paltrow was).
] ] Gwyneth Paltrow's accent isn't too bad, if what you want is a standardised, middle-class, twentieth century englishwoman.It didn't grate on me at all. But English accents, like those of any other country vary greatly geographically, and also in time.
] About a year ago I was listening to a broacast of the BBC, on my local public radio station. They had on two young English girls discussing something or other. With the exception of about 5 syllables in the entire piece, I could not distinguish their accent from the generic American one. So it seems the two accents are converging over the Atlantic.
I hope the accents are going to converge. When I was about 10 we lived in a neighborhood in Philadelphia with lots of eldrely people and one of the things I noticed was that their accents were lovely and that they did not exist anymore. Their way of speech spoke of place and life as they experienced it. If the Brits lose their accent we'll all end up sounding as dull and flat as a lot of Califorians do. What a loss.
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