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Uncanny (BBC Programme / Podcast)

escargot said:
An American poster on this very messageboard once poured scorn on an assertion that the British Isles, and especially England, has so many distinctive accents and dialects. Obviously, the place is too small. Everybody must be speaking the same.

I mentioned a couple of thousands of years where the population lived in isolated villages separated by rivers and woodland with limited outside contact.
Nah, that didn't happen.

:dunno:
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I am going to assume they had never spoken to anyone from the UK. Or they were tone deaf. I can detect the different accents from the different areas. I wouldn’t know where someone is from, but the accents are different. Also they probably never watched any British tv shows or movies. And, OBVIOUSLY, did not watch Corrie.:chuckle:

Canada is much more British influenced than the States are.
 
brownmane said:
I am going to assume they had never spoken to anyone from the UK. Or they were tone deaf. I can detect the different accents from the different areas. I wouldn’t know where someone is from, but the accents are different. Also they probably never watched any British tv shows or movies. And, OBVIOUSLY, did not watch Corrie.:chuckle:

Canada is much more British influenced than the States are.
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Yup, I were gobsmacked, like. :chuckle:

Oh, dear Corrie. Here's Ena Sharples glowering from the heights of the new Mancunian concrete jungle.
 

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escargot said:
An American poster on this very messageboard once poured scorn on an assertion that the British Isles, and especially England, has so many distinctive accents and dialects. Obviously, the place is too small. Everybody must be speaking the same.

I mentioned a couple of thousands of years where the population lived in isolated villages separated by rivers and woodland with limited outside contact.
Nah, that didn't happen.

:dunno:
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Oh, isn't it wonderful when people who've never even been to our country know more about it than us?
 
gattino said:
I'm from Liverpool. I have a Liverpool accent. But many times over the years I've been mistaken for ...or asked if I was ..any number of different nationalities. This may just be unfamiliarity on the part of some foreigners who detect a difference but have to guess it's Scots or Irish. But I've had it from UK people too...one Welsh person in Chester was offended when I insisted I had no idea what he was saying in Welsh.

These "confusion with something else" incidents haven't happened for a long time but my Airbnb guests frequently comment how they can't understand the locals but can understand me. I'm left to deduce that a combination of my father 's Belfast accent influencing some aspects of my own and years of annunciating more clearly for foreign guests has eroded the edges from my Scouse accent.

Interestingly what I have noticed lately is my voice itself has changed/aged. I'm in my 50s but like most deluded myself that I don't feel any older than 30 something. But hearing my own voice recordings I recently realised I'd never mistake myself for a young person over the phone. There's a "bloke down the pub" mellowing which amuses and bemuses me as I've only just noticed it.

But on the subject of accents generally the thing that most fascinates me is trying to work out what an accent per se actually is. I can imitate someone else's accent ...but can't work out how I'm doing so. What is my mouth doing differently , and how the hell does it know what to do?
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And here it is I have unmasked the great Tom Sleman .....only joking :chuckle:
 
Frideswide said:
@Ermintruder ? what do I sound like?
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OK- key factors: firstly, you sound younger than you look / really are. Your pitch is higher than one might expect (we all have presumptive expectations of others' speech & style, based upon their appearance).

Secondly, you tend to talk faster than many people of your age (but not continuously: in bursts).

Thirdly (but probably first-equal) your vocabulary makes you sound incontrovertibly-academic (and oh yes, that's a very-familiar world to me): and that has a big affect upon your overall perceived style.

Finally (for now): many moons ago you self-caricatured your own accent as being interpreted (by the combined entitled constituents of your family) as being the delectable daughter of Hyacinth Bouquet and Rab C Nesbitt. I do appreciate the roots of that shorthand summation, but it's a raw oversimplification.

I'll return to this later (when I don't need to be 20+miles south of where I am now, an hour ago).

escargot said:
I tell Americans that my speech is like that of Daphne in Frasier. She affects a sort of strangled Mancunian. :nods:
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We'll have (appropriately-enough!) words about this later, as I contest that your acuitive comparison both fails & succeeds in equal (metaphorical) measure.
 
escargot said:
An American poster on this very messageboard once poured scorn on an assertion that the British Isles, and especially England, has so many distinctive accents and dialects. Obviously, the place is too small. Everybody must be speaking the same.

I mentioned a couple of thousands of years where the population lived in isolated villages separated by rivers and woodland with limited outside contact.
Nah, that didn't happen.

:dunno:
Click to expand...
My recollection is that when the police were investigating the Yorkshire Ripper murders and were trying to trace the source of the hoax tapes, they had a linguist who could pinpoint the origin of the hoaxer almost to the street where he was brought up, so distinctive were the differences. The American poster must have had a spectacularly limited experience of English speakers if they thought someone from Cornwall sounds the same as someone from Newcastle.
 
MorningAngel said:
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So is this along the lines of what I suggested a few posts back about utilising the huge number of experiences his listeners haver sent in to make an episode or two of three minute cases? I hope so and that it isn't just those apocryphal folklore tales eg '... so did she see the ghost of the maid who drowned in the lake after being jilted on her wedding day, name and date unknown?" and "... it is said that on every All Hallows Eve the ghost of Sir Jasper rides out across the battlements" etc...
 
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Sogna said:
My recollection is that when the police were investigating the Yorkshire Ripper murders and were trying to trace the source of the hoax tapes, they had a linguist who could pinpoint the origin of the hoaxer almost to the street where he was brought up, so distinctive were the differences. The American poster must have had a spectacularly limited experience of English speakers if they thought someone from Cornwall sounds the same as someone from Newcastle.
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Nah, we were making all up. :chuckle:
He must have noticed differences in British accents on TV. Even the soap characters speak like people from the area they're supposed to live in.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
So is this along the lines of what I suggested a few posts back about utilising the huge number of experiences his listeners haver sent in to make an episode or two of three minute cases? I hope so and that it isn't just those apocryphal folklore tales eg '... so did she see the ghost of the maid who drowned in the lake after being jilted on her wedding day, name and date unknown?" and "... it is said that on every All Hallows Eve the ghost of Sir Jasper rides out across the battlements" etc...
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Okay, so just looked at the BBC Sounds App and they are real-life ghost stories submitted by listeners, so that is great news
 
So this first episode was just 60 seconds long but credit to Danny for squeezing in an intriguing paranormal experience from a listener and I guess some will be relived they were spared the theme tune. He did ask for listener feedback so hopefully something more substation will follow in November (?)
 
Sogna said:
they had a linguist who could pinpoint the origin of the hoaxer almost to the street where he was brought up,
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He said Castletown in sunderland but he guessed the wrong side of the river,john Humble AKA Wearside Jack was from Ford Estate,the next estate to the one I was brought up,he was actually caught by DNA on the envelope he had licked.
 
gattino said:
Today's speculated that the hospital apparition was the deceased old man "leaving all his pain behind"....by going to the toilet?

I mean we've all done it. But it sounds less spiritually consoling when you spell it out.
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Don't knock it until you get old yourself. It's difficult to describe how important toilets are when the urge becomes erratic and you're not sure you'll reach them in time.
 
Trying to find something to analyse in each story, today's one raises questions. The stranger ...an "army man"...is assumed to be the storyteller's grandfather as he was "a colonel in the Irish army". The child identifying him in the photo is a frequent trope in personal ghost stories.

My thought is...why would he appear presumably in army uniform? Unless theres been some misspeaking in the summary and they meant an Irish regiment of the British army, then it seems unlikely granddad died or was even injured or saw any emotionally impactful actions being in the Irish army. In other words it would appear to be merely a career like any other. Perhaps he was in for life and the uniform was his 7 days a week mode of dress. But otherwise , why would a sentient conscious "spirit" operating in the here and now and interacting with a flesh and blood child, be wearing his work clothes which meant nothing to the child?

We would have to surmise it was intended to identify him later to the parents via comparisons with his photo. Which suggests a thought out extended motive for intervening beyond merely looking out for the kid.

That doesn't reflect on the veracity of the story in either direction. Just a thought.
 
gattino said:
Trying to find something to analyse in each story, today's one raises questions. The stranger ...an "army man"...is assumed to be the storyteller's grandfather as he was "a colonel in the Irish army". The child identifying him in the photo is a frequent trope in personal ghost stories.

My thought is...why would he appear presumably in army uniform? Unless theres been some misspeaking in the summary and they meant an Irish regiment of the British army, then it seems unlikely granddad died or was even injured or saw any emotionally impactful actions being in the Irish army. In other words it would appear to be merely a career like any other. Perhaps he was in for life and the uniform was his 7 days a week mode of dress. But otherwise , why would a sentient conscious "spirit" operating in the here and now and interacting with a flesh and blood child, be wearing his work clothes which meant nothing to the child?

We would have to surmise it was intended to identify him later to the parents via comparisons with his photo. Which suggests a thought out extended motive for intervening beyond merely looking out for the kid.

That doesn't reflect on the veracity of the story in either direction. Just a thought.
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Unless I missed it, there wasn't a timescale given for this story. It could have happened decades ago in which case, a grandfather could easily have died in action.
 
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