Lots of questions about Gabriel Byrne's accent
Isabelle Cecchini
particularly noticeable. I've read in this altogether very interesting
interview
http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2009/04/gabriel-byrne-hollywood-interview.htmlthat
that the choice of accent was in fact his own choice.
At one point in the series, one of the female characters tells him, or
rather Paul Weston, the character played by Gabriel Byrne:
"... Look at you, I'm sure you don't have any trouble finding women,
with the accent, and the eyes ..."
What's implied here is that Americans, or at least American women, would
consider an Irish accent highly seductive in a man. Do you find that it
is true?
Would that same Irish accent in a woman be considered equally charming?
What about non-Americans? What's your reaction? Excluding the Irish, maybe.
In the interview I read, Gabriel Byrne mentions that someone working on
the show was somewhat puzzled about that Irish accent and warned him
that he "might not be understood". The actor laughed it off. I, a lowly
foreigner, have absolutely no difficulty understanding Paul Weston. How
likely is it that any native English-speaker would have trouble
understanding him?
--
Isabelle Cecchini
Garrett Wollman
Isabelle Cecchini <isabelle...@wanadoo.fr.invalid> wrote:
>What's implied here is that Americans, or at least American women, would
>consider an Irish accent highly seductive in a man. Do you find that it
>is true?
>
>Would that same Irish accent in a woman be considered equally charming?
Speaking for myself alone, sure. (Actually, there are few
L1-English-speaker accents that I'd consider particularly unattractive
or particularly difficult to understand -- most of them from England.)
Of course, I live near Boston, where there is still a large community
of actual Irish people[1], many working in the construction trades.
-GAWollman
[1] There is an even larger community of people who fancy themselves
"Irish" because their great-great-grandparents came over during the
Potato Famine.
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Derek Turner
> Would that same Irish accent in a woman be considered equally charming?
Don't know about Americans but to this Brit, oh yes! Provided that it's a
southern Ireland accent that is: I can't abide the Northern Irish accent.
Mike Lyle
Actually, there are very pleasant northern accents which remain markedly
northern. I theorize that it depends on the speaker's character: urban
NI speech sounds particularly ugly when used by nasty people. And of
course we've heard from a lot of very nasty Northern Irish people over
the past forty years, but they aren't typical. (But I've heard a
southerner say northerners sound as though they've got their heads in a
bucket of water!)
--
Mike.
Chuck Riggs
I find many NI accents particularly pleasant when emanating from
women. They are occasionally musical from men, IMO, but I sometimes
find them difficult to understand, especially if the speaker is a
working class man or woman. In those cases, they are occasionally
unintelligible, even, to this American, or nearly so. It is like
hearing another language altogether. I have known many people in the
Republic who feel the same way, the accent can be so extraordinary.
--
Regards,
Chuck Riggs,
who speaks AmE, lives near Dublin, Ireland
and usually spells in BrE
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
>On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:16:20 +0100, "Mike Lyle"
><mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>Derek Turner wrote:
>>> On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:00:00 +0200, Isabelle Cecchini wrote:
>>>
>>>> Would that same Irish accent in a woman be considered equally
>>>> charming?
>>>
>>> Don't know about Americans but to this Brit, oh yes! Provided that
>>> it's a southern Ireland accent that is: I can't abide the Northern
>>> Irish accent.
>>
>>Actually, there are very pleasant northern accents which remain markedly
>>northern. I theorize that it depends on the speaker's character: urban
>>NI speech sounds particularly ugly when used by nasty people. And of
>>course we've heard from a lot of very nasty Northern Irish people over
>>the past forty years, but they aren't typical. (But I've heard a
>>southerner say northerners sound as though they've got their heads in a
>>bucket of water!)
>
>I find many NI accents particularly pleasant when emanating from
>women. They are occasionally musical from men, IMO, but I sometimes
>find them difficult to understand, especially if the speaker is a
>working class man or woman. In those cases, they are occasionally
>unintelligible, even, to this American, or nearly so. It is like
>hearing another language altogether. I have known many people in the
>Republic who feel the same way, the accent can be so extraordinary.
There are many different accents in Northern Ireland. There are a few
examples here:
http://web.ku.edu/~idea/europe/northernireland/northernireland.htm
They do not include any of the Belfast accents.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Cece
wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:18:30 +0100, Chuck Riggs <chri...@eircom.net>
>
> - Show quoted text -
All I really know about specific Irish accents is that the five Irish
Rovers had four different accents.
Yes, to a female American ear, a male voice with an Irish (or Scot)
accent can be very sexy.
Isabelle Cecchini
>
> Yes, to a female American ear, a male voice with an Irish (or Scot)
> accent can be very sexy.
Thanks, Cece, Garrett, Derek, Mike, Chuck and Peter, for you insights!
Judging the connotations of an accent is one of the areas that are
almost impossible to fathom for a non-native speaker.
It's also one area in which reading aue has really been very helpful for
me over the years.
--
Isabelle Cecchini
Isabelle Cecchini
>
> Yes, to a female American ear, a male voice with an Irish (or Scot)
> accent can be very sexy.
Thanks, Cece, Garrett, Derek, Mike, Chuck and Peter, for your insights!
Chuck Riggs
If I could squeeze some sound out of this old laptop, I would. It is
irksome to have to pass by web sites requiring sound capabilities,
such as the above one. Once Windows 7 arrives, I may replace both my
hardware and software.
Peter Moylan
> If I could squeeze some sound out of this old laptop, I would. It is
> irksome to have to pass by web sites requiring sound capabilities,
> such as the above one. Once Windows 7 arrives, I may replace both my
> hardware and software.
Once Windows 7 arrives, you will most certainly have to replace your
hardware, but even then you will discover that some of your most-valued
Windows software won't run. One review of Windows 7 that I've read
says something like "Windows 7 repeats all the faults of Windows Vista,
without fixing any of them".
I myself have Windows Vista (on my laptop - my main computer has a
non-Microsoft operating system). I have been trying for a couple of
years to have it upgraded to Windows XP, which is a very significant
improvement over its successors. If I had had to depend on my laptop
as my primary computer I would be screaming by now. Vista is, I must
concede, a superior tool for looking at internet pornography, but for
everything else it's a total loss.
My eldest son, who is more cognisant of the Windows world than I am,
has explained to me that the real problem is Windows XP. Apparently
XP is the only operating system that Microsoft ever released that
was faster than its predecessor; and this has created unrealistic
expectations among the Microsoft customers.
My own observation has been that XP was the last Microsoft operating
system that could run all, or most, Windows software. Once you
"upgrade" beyond that point, you might find yourself having to lay
out large sums of money to replace the applications programs that
no longer work.
The bottom line: if you have a copy of Windows XP, hang onto it.
It will be worth a fortune a few years from now.
--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.
Chuck Riggs
wrote:
>Chuck Riggs wrote:
>
>> If I could squeeze some sound out of this old laptop, I would. It is
>> irksome to have to pass by web sites requiring sound capabilities,
>> such as the above one. Once Windows 7 arrives, I may replace both my
>> hardware and software.
<snip>
>The bottom line: if you have a copy of Windows XP, hang onto it.
>It will be worth a fortune a few years from now.
Then, baby, I'm a rich man, baby, I'm a rich man, baby, I'm a rich
man, now.
Almost.
Isabelle Cecchini
[...]
> There are many different accents in Northern Ireland. There are a few
> examples here:
> http://web.ku.edu/~idea/europe/northernireland/northernireland.htm
>
> They do not include any of the Belfast accents.
Another good site is
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/
on which we can hear six Northern Irish accents, with one from Belfast.
The site provides learned commentaries, phonological and historical, on
some of those accents.
I've also been playing with
http://www.soundcomparisons.com/
at the University of Edinburgh, which provides different pronunciations
of individual words in the English-speaking world. I find it totally
mesmerising.
There's a companion site on Germanic languages
http://www.languagesandpeoples.com/Germanic.htm
with, for instance, no less --or should that be no fewer?-- than five
Dutch accents (Hello, Jan!), one from Alsace, and lots of other goodies.
I couldn't make all the sound links work, but, still, a fantastic
playground.
--
Isabelle Cecchini