So after reading a ton of your comments the consensus seems to be that these accents deserve to be included in the canon: 🗣 Mid-Atlantic Accent: kind of similar to the Preppy Accent, but associated mainly with midcentury Hollywood actors and other elites who were consciously trying to sound proper and sophisticated. I feel like these days you mostly see it employed in the context of parodying old-timey actors and their unnatural, affected, very clipped and fast-talking ways. You see this a lot in parodies of “Film Noir” movies in particular. I feel like Kate McKinnon on SNL does this accent a lot when playing some sort of tough, old fashioned woman, which probably comes from its association with Katherine Hepburn. 🗣 Cajun Accent: Arguably just another sub-tier of the broad “Southern Accent” coalition, but the Cajun accent, from Louisiana, is noticeably a bit more French-influenced and theatrical. Even though I feel like it is most often used in the context of a character who is very explicitly supposed to be from Louisiana, it’s also come to be commonly associated with a certain idea of Cajuns as some of the most extreme and flamboyant southerners, who are the most over-the-top in their stagey manners and usually somewhat creepy and unhinged as well. Bill’s cousin in King of the Hill was often mentioned as a very stereotypical Cajun character, along with some of the characters in the Princess and the Frog. I would say “Big Daddy” (as distinct from regular daddy) in that one episode of the Simpsons as well. 🗣 The “Gay” Accent: this one is fast falling out of fashion but is the lispy, feminine, theatrical way of talking once associated with gay men. In pop culture, it is not always used to imply that a character is literally gay, just that they’re kind of weak and feminine and odd. So Jack in Will and Grace or Big Gay Al in South Park would be a classic gay example, but then you would also have characters like the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland or the Lion in the Wizard of Oz as sort of retro examples where a character is sort of “gay coded” through his accent. I feel like the Big Cheese in Samurai Pizza Cats is very much this as well.
About British media from a Brit's perspective: we don't use American accents very much to begin with, unless someone is doing a one-off impression. We have a similar situation to Canada, where British culture keeps being strongly pushed for in TV and film (at least it's not baked into law as much here, but sometimes it does feel overbearing or forced). Usually when someone is playing a parody character and they're using an American accent, they're playing a rich, frivolous, airheaded Hollywood celebrity. The type of character you'd see on MTV cribs.
My favorite subversion of the southern accent is the southern genius. Jake gyllenhall’s character in October Sky, usually at least one character in every Space Race movie (NASA is in Texas), and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory (ugh), to name a few. Political shows and movies often have a brilliant southerner who people underestimate because they “sound dumb”. Frank Underwood from House of Cards, Ainsley Hays from The West Wing, are both classic examples. It’s a bit of art imitating life, as LBJ and Lee Atwater were both very powerful figures.
@J.J. McCullough Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
I think the interesting thing about British accents that America doesn't have is received pronunciation, the accent that the Royal Family use which is completely affected and isn't really the accent of any particular place. traditionally. Public-school (as in not-free) educated people tend to have this accent and it's also used commonly by continuity announcers on television and radio, as well as being the accent associated with all historical news footage before about 1965. The relative class of someone's accent is essentially measured by how similar to RP is it. So someone who has a "neutral" London accent will be seen as higher class than someone with a regional accent. In terms of American accents on British TV - the general American stereotype to British audiences is probably that they are less buttoned-down than their British counterparts, more 'New-Age' and sexually liberated, I think playing on a very coastal stereotype (e.g. Jack Harness in Doctor Who). In terms of specific accents, the Vermont accent is used to symbolise American New Money in period dramas (Downton Abbey has a notable one) and TV series of the 1980s and 1990s would occasionally have an American businessman modelled on JR from Dallas with the Southern Gentleman accent, representing someone with oil money. In terms of British stereotypes, I don't want to insult my countrymen, but my accent is the "estuarine" accent, which is the accent of people born in counties outside of London such as Essex and Kent (the estuaries of the River Thames). Thanks to the reality TV show "The Only Way Is Essex", it has become a byword for stupid, vacuous, "New Money" people. The Poorly educated children of Baby Boomers who were born as working-class Londoners but achieved a middle-class status around the time of Margaret Thatcher.
If you're gonna mention the British accent, you might as well mention how the Australian accent is often associated with park ranger/nature enthusiast type characters (probably largely thanks to Steve Irwin). And the German accent is often associated with fictional doctors and scientists, and basically intelligence in general
Tbf those are fairly hyper-specific. It's 100% possible to never encounter a park ranger type character. The German thing though is less avoidable esp since that accent accounts for like half of the mad scientist types in the 2000s
German accent, at least I would say, is used in one of three ways: -evil military man -a doctor or a scientist, who is not very concerned with well-being of others (Medic from TF2) -a European tourist
The so-called "Trans-Atlantic" accent is also worth mentioning, aka "that accent 30s-50s actors all had that no one had in real life." Which is literally true, it was an invented accent that supposedly combined the best aspects of American and British accents. And it lives on as the 'old time movies' accent.
People had this accent in real life and it was more widespread in the 19th century but as English influenced American accents declined all of these American accents declined and or vanished.. Just like southern aristocratic accents also vanished
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
Seriously, look up a person named Edith Skinner. She manufactured the Trans-Atlantic / Mid-Atlantic accent in the 1930s-40s, as a mashup of bits and pieces of various American and British accents, designed to sound posh. No one spoke it natively, but people adopted it because it was popular in the entertainment industry and in some high-class circles.
When I was living in Tennessee, I met a man that was an Orthodox Rabbi and a fluent Yiddish speaker but spoke with a very thick Southern accent, because he grew up in rural Mississippi. It really threw me for a loop when he would speak Yiddish, because my perception of how he "should" sound, with his full beard, black hat, etc., clashed so heavily with how he did sound. Mass media really does kind of train us into believing in stereotypes, sometimes.
@@JJMcCullough there’s a video online of an Asian couple with southern accents, and it really throws you off, because Asians aren’t usually stereotyped with that accent
@@JJMcCullough my cousin's husband is Chinese by birth but grew up in Austrailia, I know when I first met him it really threw me off. I find it interesting.
@@thefabulouskitten7204 I actually once had an Uber driver who was from a family of Chinese immigrants to Peru. So Spanish was his first language and he had a stereotypical Latino accent.
I lived in S. Korea for a few years, and in Seoul, a lot of people speak English, though obviously with a Korean accent. For a few months after returning to the US, I would be surprised briefly when I spoke with an Asian-American who had no or even a southern accent.
I get that JJ couldn't cover all the nuances, but I appreciated the delineation between the uses of southern accents. The big difference is that Appalachian accents are the ones used to convey "stupid", while more deep south plantation or "syrupy" accents are used to convey "flirty" "fake" or "snooty" This goes back to ethnicity differences since most Appalachians are decedents poor of Scotch and Irish immigrants, while the plantation accents are associated with wealthy British landowners. As JJ pointed out... the use of the accents in media continues very problematic classist stereotypes. As an Appalachian, it can be painful to think that your accent and culture are shorthand for dumb and uneducated.
And for his third example, it's generally specifically Texan accents that're used to convey a character being brash, hotheaded, and aggressive, hence Sandy from Spongebob being explicitly from Texas.
A good example of an American accent in British pop culture would be Rocky, voiced by Mel Gibson, in Aardman's 'Chicken Run'. The accent is often used to show a character is brash, (over)confident, loud, flash and a bit of a show off. American characters are often tycoons, investors, directors, actors, rock stars etc. I think this attitude stems back to the Second World War when American servicemen were based in Britain. In fact, the crusty old RAF chicken in 'Chicken Run', Fowler even complains ' Pushy Americans, always showing up late for every war. Overpaid, oversexed, and over here'
@@gabagool3502 Mostly when Americans are portrayed, it’s a general American accent. Think newscasters or tv personalities. For many years this was personified imho by Tom Brokaw ( who was born and raised in South Dakota), Johnny Carson (born in Iowa and raised mostly in Nebraska) and Walter Cronkite, who in spite of growing up in Texas was born in Missouri and had no trace of an accent. All were tv personalities with Brokaw and Cronkite being news readers, while Carson was the host of the tonight show from 62-92. All has general American accents. Southern is common to show either being a hillbilly or kind of old school but polite.
I'm fascinated by how Scottish accents are used to signify characters who are gruff, masculine, and slightly foreign: the Dwarves in World of Warcraft, the Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon, Leonidas in 300, etc.
Even in LOTR Gimli seems to sound Scottish compared to his more natural Welsh accent. Also don’t forget groundskeeper Willie in the Simpsons, who is a tough brash and crude. In a way I feel like it’s a way to make them a kind of foreign hillbilly
I can think of two other major examples: one is the stereotypical "gay accent" which, besides being used to suggest a character is gay, also brings to mind an effeminate, materialistic and sassy man concerned primarily with his own status. It's almost like a male version of the valley girl accent. Then there's also the "nerd" accent which, obviously, signals someone who is very smart. There's two main variations on it: the wimpy nerd (like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory), who sounds like they're speaking with braces on, and the annoyingly self-important nerd (like the Polar Express glasses kid), which sounds more nasal.
Yes. For the gay accent 2 examples that first come to mind are Big Gay Al from South Park and Damian from Mean Girls (despite the actor of him actually being gay)
I would say that we also use Spanish accents for certain characters as well. Usually confident, sassy, flirty, and sometimes outright sexual. Like Puss in Boots is a great example, so is the pool boy in legally blonde.
I noticed that the American Southern accent is often used to show that somebody is rural/dumb or in the opposite case with the California Valley accent showing somebody who is urban/dumb
@@JJMcCullough you should do a future video on foreigners' depiction of these accents/stereotypes. I noticed you used a lot of Nintendo examples and I noticed it even more even in recent titles like Clem from Luigi Mansion 3
I wonder if perhaps a rural American accent overlaps a bit with a Southern Accent because of how substantially the Appalachians disgorged it’s largely Scot’s Irish-descendants everywhere throughout the country thought both the 19th and 20th centuries.
@@krgoodrich1 I thought that too. Like to me, the 'rural hick' accent of Clytus in the Simpsons is more what I'd expect to hear in West Virginia than say rural Georgia or Texas. I probably would have coded it as an Appalachian accent rather than Southern per se because I've definitely heard that accent in both Kentucky and Vermont.
@@Steadyaim101 That's the weird thing, when patterns show up irrespective of their location of origin, we start to figure out what actually causes them. The many similarities in the bad english spoken by rural people from one area, rural people from another totally different area, kids who haven't learned yet, foreigners who haven't learned yet, people with actual mental disorders, or just urban people who hate education... kinda tells you a lot about how the human brain tries to process the tangled shower drain clog that is English.
As a modern californian: I can say that without a doubt, the surfer accent is real and present. Growing up around people that spoke like that, it's also an amazingly easy accent to slip into (though I do have my experiences code switching elsewhere due to social context).
I grew up in Kansas and moved just outside the Bay Area about 5 years ago, and I recently noticed how my speech has morphed into a funny mixture of midwestern/“surfer”. I still say my Kansas-y things like “ope” and “geez”, but now I also say “dope” and “hella” all the time and I call literally everyone “dude” “man” and “bro” no matter the age or gender lmao.
piggy back on this, the valley girl accent is also very much present still as well. the amount of times i myself will say "like" is absolutely crazy. sometimes seems like half of all words i say is "like."
@Luis F you probably just don't hear it, I'm not a native Californian, but lived in southern California for many years. I once met someone while traveling in Europe, and my second sentence to him was "what California beach town are you from?" He looked at me dumbfounded before replying "Huntington Beach"
This might turn into a rant, but I want to say how amazing this channel is. Just how much variety in topics, but with basically 1 central idea for each one. I love how you're able to actually word things in a very clear and concise way, without even coming close to being prestigious or condescending. I have a tough time picking up on lots of smaller social cues, and it sometimes takes me a while to fully understand what's being said vs what's being conveyed. Your videos help me feel "normal" in ways I've never gotten to feel. Thank you. Genuinely, thank you JJ for what you do.
Thank you so much for these kind words my friend! My day is made better for having read them! I’m so glad you get as much out of my videos as I put into them. Everything you described about them is exactly how I want them to be.
(As an Australian) I think the California surfer dude accent seems to carry over to the Australian (male) accent, with the difference being that the characters are often portrayed with more romantic appeal than their California counter-parts. There’s definitely a consistency of “laid back” Australian characters and the attempts at the accents are fascinating to hear.
I think it's really interesting how the narrative of the British accent has changed in America. The number of "Bri'ish 'people'" and "chewsday innit" jokes I hear kinda show that American awareness of British 'lower-class' accents is becoming more common. Make of that what you will.
@@painbow6528 many Americans do say tyoosday. Typically in New England and some parts of Appalachia. I do, but I have the Transatlantic accent so I don't really count.
The Valley girl accent has to be one of the most infectious accents I've ever heard. So much so that even people who are not from California often adopt it without realizing it, including me and my sister from the central U.S..
Talk about it! I'm not even a native English speaker, but i still has some slight valley girl accent stuck to me (along with, for some reason, the distinct AAVE accent).
At this point it's become more of a sexist stereotype. Air headed girls and women are assumed to have this accent and portrayed as having it. So even if a woman doesn't have the accent, if she says "Like" a lot, she's assumed to be air headed too and treated like she's stupid. People that aren't white who hate and mock white women, act as if all white women have that accent, and they use it in a mocking tone when they're making fun of white women.
I did hear that, not any American accent, but the "Mid-Atlantic" accent held some prestige in Britain because it implied that someone was important enough to fly back and forth between the US and Britain on business trips.
@@BadgerCheese94 I think they can be used Interchangeably. I don’t think there’s much of an accent, that isn’t just a standard American accent, around the Middle of the East coast anyways but I could be wrong because I’m from Maryland lol
@@BadgerCheese94 No, it is really called Mid-Atlantic accent. Because it is a blend of east coast american with British English. (And be the middle between both places would be in the Atlantic Ocean, hence the name)
@@TheKingOfBeans it is. Its a 'not used' accent created from both british and american accents (so an accent that would be spoken in between the us and uk). It was consciously learned by american upper class in the early 20th century.
"Coming To America" showed quite the variety of American accents Eddie Murphy could pull off, including ESL (Akeem), several varieties of African American (Clarence the barber, the singer), and elderly Jewish (the old Jewish man at the barbershop).
There’s also the use of a southern accent to designate someone as overtly religious. Televangelists, traveling preachers, and judgmental nosey neighbors almost always have southern accents.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
The only major American accent that wasn’t showcased is the “Mid-Atlantic” accent; a constructed accent used in radio shows and movies in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It gives characters an “old timey” feel in modern media. There’s also the Boston accent, but it’s not something I see as much as the New York accent.
Its kind of not really a major accent anymore, I would say it was a major accent in the mid 20th century maybe to the 80s or 90s or so but not so much anymore. But it would've been cool for JJ to mention it/ talk about it.
That's basically what #7 is, as exemplified by Gilligan's Island's Thurston Howell III. It's the accent that was used by moneyed people in the early 20th century to imply that they spent time on both sides of the Atlantic. FDR is a famous real-world example.
I love that in basically every Barbie movie where Barbie plays a princess, she has a General American accent but her posh parents and other older relatives have RP English accents. The power of characterization shorthand trumps all practicality, it seems.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
As a Japanese-American fluent in both languages, I just have to pitch in that Japan does the same with accents acting at times as a characteristic shorthand in addition to the multitude of first/second/third-person pronouns, which gives the character an instantly recognizable trait, especially in anime that take place in a non-Japanese environment (although some pronouns and dialects/accents do tend to go hand-in-hand). Kansai dialect is probably the most distinct, with various other regional non-Tokyo dialects reflecting various shades of rural-ness.
@@dylanoleary3805 The Kansai dialect (kansai-ben) can serve a multitude of different purposes, so I'll try my best to keep it concise: 1. Alternate roots/upbringing: Kansai-ben is the second-most recognized version of Japanese in Japan, to the point where it is often allowed to be aired on most TV shows alongside standard Japanese (save formal programs like the news). This special status allows it to be an easy way to distinguish a character as someone slightly outside the norm, such as having been raised in a different culture without the need of someone speaking Japanese like a second language. 2. Mercantilism/Frugality: Osaka, the heart of the kansai region, is famously regarded in Japan as a center of commerce and trade. The mercantile attitude of bargaining and buying cheap is a common Osaka trope to the point that the dialect alone acts as a shorthand for someone that is merciless at trade, or just plain stingy. 3. Toughness/unruliness: Non-standard dialects are sometimes associated with people who do not sit well with society, such as thugs or mobs (think of the stereotypical Italian mobster kind of accent). Sometimes the dialect is used to show someone as being a tough guy or a bully, although the Hiroshima dialect is probably the most strongly associated with mob or yakuza-style characters in Japan. 4. Comic effect: Osaka is the heart of Japanese comedy for both traditional rakugo and modern TV or theater comedy. Japanese in general like to adopt a faux-Kansai dialect tone when engaging in casual humor due to its abundance on the media, so sometimes someone who is just funny or goofy is given this dialect. Hope this helps!
@@noelleelizabeth9991 American media for some reason has decided that is the English accent of choice when localizing a character with a Kansai accent but there is nothing about it that actually relates to any similar culture or image. If anything I'd say Kansai dialect and how people are perceived when they speak with it, is more akin to how people not from the area respond to hearing heavy Brooklyn or Boston accents. I'm not sure who decided to commonly use Southern accents or why.
Hey J.J, British viewer here. One good example of how we portray Americans in our media is that you are overly extrovert and overly friendly and the best example would be the American tourists in the sketch show "Harry and Paul", they come from the American state of "Badiddlyboing, Odawidaho". I have never seen the film "Greenstreet", but it's a violent football film where Elijah Wood plays the 'clueless Yank' character. I've studied French and Spanish, so I can tell you that this accent division exists a lot in European media. In my native Britain, we have "Gavin and Stacey" a TV series of a love story of a boy from Essex and a girl from Southern Wales co-created by James Corden. Spain has the TV series "Allí Abajo" and the film "Ocho apellidos Vascos" and France has "Chez les Ch'tis", all of them showing a north and south divide of their respective countries.
I’m also British and I absolutely agree, Americans are portrayed as loud, extroverted, overly friendly and mostly unintelligent. I can’t recall ever seeing an intelligent character with an American accent in a UK tv show.
I will say that as an american it is mostly a stereotype but due to he size of not just the nation but the population you are garunteed to find a group of americans easily fitting that description. You could likely find any kind of stereotype in the US just because it's a melting pot of culture, and language
The main example of an American character (played by an actual American) in British pop culture that comes to mind for me is captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who/Torchwood. He's a good example of trope of writing Americans as a particular mix of extroverted, energetic, and hedonistic. I feel like it's also fairly common to write them as either business men or military men, possibly a folk memory of the American soldiers stationed here during WWII (or simply The War as it's still often referred to here).
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
It's not really in the Southern category, it should be its own category. Cowboys come from the West, not the South. And Texas is more Western (really Southwestern) than Southern.
Came here to say this. JJ was wrong about that accent, as it was "southern", but more specifically "Texas", and even more specifically, "rural Texas". A prime example of this accent is George Bush.
golden girls is such a good example! blanche (southern accent) is charming, flirtatious, superficially polite but kind of mean and judgmental underneath. rose (fargo/minnesotan accent) is innocent, simple minded, rural, but very kind. dorothy and her mother sophia (italian new yorker accent, despite sophia being born in sicily) are blunt, rational, 'tells it like it is', etc.
I don't think he has a southern gentleman accent. he isn't soft spoken enough. He definitely is more of a crude character where it almost feels like "how tf is this guy so rich?"
I think you can include the Australian accent as well. American pop culture loves to use it when its a character that is supposed to be a kind of frontiersman. This no doubt comes from characters like crocodile dundee and the much beloved Steve Irwin.
I think you forgot one important one! The Native American accent! It's always used to make someone sound mystical/spiritual and doesn't really fit well in the ESL category. As if the person exists in some other ethereal plane of existence separate from the general society the main characters are in. It isn't really used much anymore, but in a lot of 20th century film and TV anyone with that accent was always portrayed as this stern, powerful, serious, spiritual figure. John Redcorn from King of the Hill has it and every time he speaks they make it seem like it's coming from some deep 2387425837234 year old wisdom. There is actually an old stand-up sketch of Jim Carrey doing it and he goes right into the stereotype.
Yeah that should have been included. Other famous Native accent characters include Chief from Wonder Woman, Chief Firewater from Sausage Party and the Na'vi from Avatar.
E.S.L immediately reminds me of Rolf from Ed, Edd & Eddy. Specifically, I think he makes a great example of the kind of vaguely foreign character who mixes a few complicated English words with simple grammar and blunt, unfiltered statements.
The thing that I always loved about Rolf is that he's so culturally and ethnically vague. He isn't identifiably European, Asian, American, etc. He's just foreign, proudly and unapologetically foreign.
I feel like a big part of the ESL Accent can often involve having a character say the phrase “How you say?” as a way of showing they are so foreign that their knowledge of the English language is very cursory or novice. It often seems like a good way to show that not only is the person foreign in their manner of speaking, but they are also new to America in general. Better Call Saul has a German excavating contractor who will ask “How you say” in most exchanges with Mike (a native English speaker) because the German cannot think of an English equivalent for a word or phrase.
I'll also say as a language learner that is something I say a lot in the languages I study. Even after studying for years it's common to blank on the specific word you need in the moment. It's frustrating because you could say it perfectly in your native tongue, but your second language is more limited so you often end up coming up blank and having to say something as you search for the right word
"How you say" can also be used as a point of emphasis by characters with a foreign accent but a mastery of the language. Like for a snide or sarcastic remark.
I would say the Cajun accent used to have a pretty strong showing, and typically was used either as a stand in for the southern rural accent especially when the show takes place somewhere with more typically Southern people (see Bill and his family from King of the Hill), but the more interesting example is that they often are portrayed as con-men or gamblers, and weirdly often more vicious. In X-men Gambit famously speaks with that Cajun charm, while in the Green Mile Eduard Delacroix is a rather sinister murderer.
Well the thing is the green mile takes place in Louisiana, but I do have to say you're gambit analogy was the first thing I could think of. My grandmother is from Louisiana so that accent is one of the few I remember growing up around so it comes to mind pretty often. Also the use of it for healers like the mystic creole in the swamp that do magical feats. Like in pumpkin head with the Lady the brings pumpkin head to life
@@kuriboh635 And that merges into the use of Caribbean accents for people with mystical powers, which I guess is getting further afield into foreign-accent stereotypes again.
Seriously, it's amazing how much personality is put into those characters based purely on their accents and the national/regional stereotypes they represent.
TF2 is honestly a masterclass in creating memorable characters, every aspect of the nine mercenaries is fine-tuned to make them some of the most iconic in gaming
Tf2’s use of accents serves two main purposes I notice: The characters either perfectly fit the stereotypes associated with said accent, or they subvert them. Characters like the Scout and Spy act exactly like the stereotypes associated with Boston and France respectively, however a character like Engineer speaks with a Southern accent (an accent usually used to convey a character is “simple” or “dumb”, despite the Engineer himself being fairly intelligent). It’s one of my favorite examples of accent use in pop culture.
Being British it seems that a lot of American characters in our shows are very extroverted, outlandish and overly confident. This is sometimes presented negatively, being offensive to the more quiet and reserved characteristics many people see as a quintessential aspect of 'Britishness'. It really just plays into the stereotype of Americans as endlessly optimistic and outgoing.
Hilarious that JJ suggests James Corden is 'posh'! Agree with all your descriptions though. What always depresses me is to hear British actors and actresses attempting a US accent, however generic. I can't think of anyone - apart from Kate Winslet - who has pulled it off.
as an endlessly optimistic and outgoing American... I think I would at least make an impression in the UK XD... not sure if it would be good or bad but I'd be impossible not to notice.
@@rogink What about Christian Bale, Tom Holland, Andrew Lincoln and countless other actors? I'm always surprised to find out a lot of actors are English because there American accents are so good
To me, as a second language English speaker, American accents have always been fascinating because for the most part, they are not seen that backwards as they may be sometimes seen in my country of Poland. Of course, it depends on who you ask, but there are probably many people who subconsciously associate having an accent with being uneducated. After WW2, when people were forced to move, they started speaking a form of Polish that is more standard, in order to understand each other. But my personal opinion is that they are NOT a signifier of the lack of education. Even I speak with a little accent, despite being a Gen Z person, however my vocabulary is even more obviously "local". My parents, who grew up in the 80s (we all live in a rural area) have a somewhat stronger accent, however I am not ashamed of it at all. We have two accents that I can say are iconic - the Podhale one (a mountain region in the south) and the Silesian accent, usually when speaking Polish because Silesian on its own is considered by many as a proper language (it is used by quite a lot of people) or at the very least a dialect, since it doesn't have a unified orthography or alphabet. However, these can be recognized by basically any Pole. This is my take on the accents, but from a different perspective and in a different place. Have a nice day :D
I thing It's very interesting, as for me (a brazilian) always thought of english as beeing homogenous, so for me someone describing english as having distinct accents sounds strange
My dad was born around Wroclaw's hinterland in the mid '60s (which, as you might know, it used to be a German city), he claims to speak with a standard accent and not with a regional one, unfortunately I can't prove that since I don't speak Polish. On the other hand, since I'm a second generation Italian (and thus with no Italian regional background at all) I speak with a very neutral accent with an occasional Roman slang term thrown in the mix, and because of this some people tend to mistake as someone from the North (which was affected a lot by internal migration from South, kind of like the ex-German regions of Poland), even tho I was born and raised in Rome my whole life.
@@polipod2074 it used to be German, it's true, but after WW2 these lands were settled by people from the Eastern Frontiers as we call them (today's Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania) and people in such areas seem to have shifted towards the more standard form, however some aspects can be retained, I guess. Coincidentally, a lot of my relatives live there, but they are Rusyns who were forced to leave their native land (where I live, because my grandfather managed to return, though he was Polonized). Most Rusyns shared this fate.
@@polipod2074 I remember reading a Polish linguist in the early 00s about the Polish of Wroclaw and he basically confirmed what you've just said. Because of migration after the war, the people of Wroclaw started speaking with the most neutral version of Polish
3 more I would add: The occasionally used Cajun or New Orleans accent when you want the southerner to be a little more exotic, there's a kind of Chicago accent that is used with old-timey gangsters, and there is a pretty distinctive, urban Mexican-American accent as well, as popularized by Cheech & Chong
Real people from the city in New Orleans sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Impossible to convey over text, but I am from North Mississippi and have a proper classic southern accent. My wife is from northern Indiana where it's like Canadian light. Anyway, our first house in New Orleans we met our landlords and postulated they must've came from NY, until we realized everyone spoke like that.
As an American, I must say that it’s amazing how these accent shorthands work their way into our subconscious-specifically as it pertains to voiceless characters in literature. For example, I always imagined Mrs. Godfrey from the Big Nate comics as having a British accent. She’s portrayed as the villain of the series, so my mind made that connection even though it makes no sense for a small town American school teacher to have such an accent.
in the same vein as the African American accent, I would definitely say there is a native American accent in media. sorta the John redcorn way if speaking which is usually pretty deep and mellow, and gives off some form of wisdom
YES, how could we have missed that one? Also, there's the Hispanic-American accent, which lumps together a whole universe of different stuff but is usually just portrayed as Mexican-American (probably because so much media comes out of southern California), and which has different connotations from generic "foreign", especially since people with this accent may be US-born and even monolingual English speakers.
In UK media the American accent also tends to be associated with another stereotype of a sort of dopey innocence/ignorance or otherworldliness maybe associated with young American gap year tourists or just baseball capped tourists in general. Nancy in Peep Show - who is actually Canadian actress Rachel Blanchard but we don't really distinguish the accents - is a good example. Or Rich in cult comedy snuff box, or Lorna Wynne in Toast of London.
I think a good family-friendly example of Nancy being like this would be when she says Poland is in the third world and that the people there live in huts
The “Valley Girl” accent was popularized by the 1982 hit single of the same name by Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon. Moon, a teenager living in the San Fernando valley, spoke in the accent to make fun of how her peers talked, and the song’s success turned “Val-speak” into a cultural phenomenon. I think it’s interesting how the stereotype continues on, even if the song itself has been more-or-less forgotten.
Los Angeles is also the hub of movie and TV production, so it makes sense it would turn up in many films and TV programs. Kids in general picked up on it as entertainment became evermore universal and centralized in the U.S.
I was really surprised (and slightly offended) that JJ didn’t include Cher from Clueless as a typical Valley Girl. She popped up immediately when I thought of the Valley Girl trope
Zappa's "Valley Girl" song certainly brought the accent to the attention of the American public first, but I wouldn't discount popularization by a number of, typically low budget, 1980s & early 90s movies that promoted the Valley Girl and Surfer Dude stereotypes. In fact, the trope became quite common in comedy and horror movies during that time period. These can be seen (or rather heard) in movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless or the 1985 cult horror film Return of the Living Dead.
As someone who’s been born and raised in nyc- every borough has pretty much the same accent the only variations you’ll see is usually based on ethnicity or class and even those differences are slight and often ignored in pop culture
It is my understanding that when American movies are dubbed into German, to imply a southern accent or hickish person, the Germans will use a recognizably Bavarian 'country' accent to convey the same instantly recognizable feature of the German language. I may be totally wrong.
@@anthonyshea6048 Specifically a rural Styrian accent, yes. Meanwhile Arnold's German dubbing voice is very suave and slick. 😅 Definetly changes the characters.
@@LucasBenderChannel Please man make more video,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.(also what do you think about feli from Germany?)
Fun fact, the Vally Girl accent was popularized by Frank Zappa. His daughter, Moon Unit, would parody some girls at her school and he decided to record Valley Girl with Moon using her mocking voice as a joke song and it became a top 40 single. Giving the Valley Girl accent a national spotlight.
@@cockenballtorture his kids are named Moon Unit, Dweevil, Ahmet Rodan and Diva. Zappa’s Italian, so Ahmet Rodan is named after an imaginary Arab butler they joked about having and Rodan from the Godzilla franchise.
As a British person, British shows generally don't really use American accents as Britain itself as distinct enough accents along with their stereotypes, for example the British accent used in America is still the main aristocratic old money esc accent here, Scottish accents tend to give off a aggressive and more outward speaking, generic London accents tend to give off to a docile frame of speech, a lower class accent like the one shown in the video would be associated with a pub(similar to a bar) goer or a middle/northern English region which itself as a quite brute and limited vocabulary stereotype, then there are Irish stereotypes which mainland Irish would be seen as happy or friendly, as northern similar however also more aggressive. Welsh accent which has similar contentions to the 'lower class' accent however more friendly and rural. then there are city accents one mentioned being London, another one being Liverpool being not the most intelligent and assertive however not aggressive and urbanised. There are far more but you get the point, American accents aren't really used here because we have are alternatives however due to dominance of American media nearly every British person with an internet connection know and can distinguish these accents, however by far the most common is the general American here as it generally as a stereotype of friendly and some degree of blissful ignorance
Can't forget the West Country accent which is almost exclusively used to portray somebody as a farmer/rural person, usually giving them a more friendly and often times simple personality.
Yeah, here in the US certain English accents in tv shows are typically associated with being snobby or villainous or both while I have noticed that some scottish and irish characters that appear in shows tend to be associated with being dumb (like the stereotype of all Irish being drunkards that just want to fight all day)
Trying to think of an example of each of these from My Little Pony was a fun exercise. Most ponies speak with General American, and the whole Apple family speaks with a Southern Accent. Rarity's parents have the Fargo Accent, Jet Set and Upper Crust have the Preppy Accent, Sandbar has the Surfer Accent, Babs Seed has the New York accent and Fancy Pants has a British Accent. The other three were harder. The ESL accent is a bit nebulous, but Zekora and/or the Yaks could probably be considered examples (although Zekora might be more specifically African). The African American Accent and Jewish New York accent were the only ones I couldn't think of any examples of.
I remember in Azumanga Daioh, the English dub of the anime comedically has a character referred by her classmates as 'Osaka,' after the province of Japan she lives in. Her English VA performs the character in a typical Southern American accent to emphasize how much she stands out from her inner city classmates, being a transfer student and all. I felt it was a pretty fun way the localizers helped American viewers piece together the relation between inner city Japanese students and those from Osaka while still staying faithful to the source material in a way. Osakans generally have this "rural and rough" image in all Japanese media, by the by.
Specifically the local Texan accent that those particular actors would know being from there, which works really well because Osakans are seen as kinda uncultured, but also very YEEHAW exciteable and into money like a cowboy oil tycoon. So well that dubs continued to do that, most noticeably in Amenobashi.
In the first English translation of the manga, she was given a New York accent. One of the girls even asked if she brought a meatball sandwich for lunch! It was a weird time for manga.
I'd love to hear more about how accents are used in other cultures. For example I read somewhere that in German, the Austrian accent carries a lot of the same connotations as the American Southern accent, being somewhat dim or hickish Your cultural videos lately have been fantastic. Absolutely killing it J.J.
I think in one of his films, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not allowed by the producers to voice his own character in the German translation because of his strong Austrian accent. Apparently it would have been unbefitting of the character being portrayed. I don’t recall which film it was, though.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
I might have missed it, but I'm surprised that your "New York Accent" wasn't mentioned as being a stereotype of Italian Immigrants - and this is often used in the context of characters inspired by the NY Italian Mob like the Crime Bosses of Gotham (most recently in The Batman) or the robo-Mobsters of Futurama, which you mention in the video.
I think he did mention the connection to east coast Italian-American. I would go as far to say that new york accent is also used for basically any white working class character in an urban setting. For example rocky balboa sounding more like someone from new york than someone from philadelphia.
An interesting thing is that a little bit of the “type 3” southern accent is pretty widespread in the actual military even in people not from the South. When groups of people serve with people from all over the country for extended periods of time their accents sort of mix, and Southern inflections tend to be easier to pick out
In US aviation, and offshoots like the astronaut corps, people seem to have adopted that cowboy drawl as the standard voice to use over the radio--standardizing on SOME accent does, I think, help with disambiguation when the reception isn't great. And many of them are military or ex-military.
Certain 'southern' or 'hick' ways of saying things results in a more clear enunciation. It seems the military has embraced it, but the rest of us catch ourselves doing that and try to suppress it.
I'm not from the south, but if I want to sound badass, and I've maybe been listening to a certain amount of Toby Keith, then that would be a voice I might lean towards. It helps I'm from more rural stock and the funny thing is I feel like people who want to signify their "down to earth" "non-urban" status and pride will take on a sort of southern twang. Listen to how many non-southern country musicians sing. It's really quite similar to how non-black rap artists will adopt a certain degree of "black voice" given that it's the primary voice within the genre.
and I'd guess the deep red flavor of patriotism in southern states (and poverty too) could make for a disproportionate amount of southerners in the military...
I noticed that there's a degree of standardization of the Southern accent in pronunciations of military specific terms. For example, the number 4 is supposed to be pronounced with the two-syllable drawl in radio communications ("fow-er").
Some good examples of an educated character with a southern accent would be The Engineer from Team Fortress two, Ray Gillette from Archer, T-Bone Grady from Watch_Dogs and Augustus Sinclair from Bioshock 2. Another accent in pop culture not mentioned is the one usually on nerdy characters. Usually a stuffy nasally sounding voice or a lisp. Sometimes a condescending tone like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
@@myself2noone Remember that one episode though where the flower spores that make people happy infected McCoy and he relaxed into his natural way of speech, which was some form of Southern accent?
I think its also because southerners are stereotypically thought of as more right wing and patriotic and as such would tend to engage in activities for their country more eagerly. Outside of america a southern accent is often perceived as a stereotypical American accent.
During the Civil War, Confederate generals played up an image of being adventerous warriors and were known for rather reckless and bloodthirsty tactics, so this image probably has a lot of historical precedent.
Since I think the Southern accent, outside of the aristocratic lowlands planter accent, is Scots-Irish, and those are a people who have a long history of feuding and also have always made up a disproportionate percentage of the American military.
this is really interesting. i remember when watching HBO's "Chernobyl" wondering what the different British accents were trying to tell me about the characters. So i looked it up. ending up they weren't necessarily character choices but just their regular accents. but does seem to support the idea that at least Americans (but maybe all English speakers?) tend to use accents as short hand for character types.
Yes, that’s essentially what stereotyping is. Assuming that a person from a certain place has a certain way of speaking and a certain personality, too. You wouldn’t, for example, expect the surfing turtle in Finding Nemo to turn out to be the bad guy. But Jeremy Irons British accent voicing Scar in the Lion King is a perfect signal to him being clever in a malevolent sort of way
I kept waiting for you to mention The Critic. In that classic animated series from the 90's, there are many different examples of the accents you mentioned. Jay and his sister have the standard accent, while their parents have the preppy accent. Being set in New York, you get examples of the various Bronx and Jewish accents, including Jay's makeup artist and plenty of rabbi jokes. Jay's boss who happens to be the owner of the network is example of the southern aristocrat while Jay's girlfriend Alice is more the poor southern belle. The restaurant owner has the ESL accent, and one of Jay's friends has an Australian accent, which has it's own connotations. That show took a lot of it's humor from making fun of Hollywood and playing into stereotypes, so it's not surprising to see this in hindsight.
Another good example of the more southern gentleman accent would be Gideon and Bud Gleeful from Gravity Falls. Both of them have a sort of cheery, gentleman-like facade but are actually a lot more sinister than initially made out to be.
Something I find funny/interesting is when American accents get applied to non-American shows. For example, in a lot of dubbed anime, if a character is supposed to be from rural Japan, they'll give them some kind of Southern Accent, even though this accent doesn't exist in Japan. I get what the dubbing studios are trying to do, but it's funny hearing someone who's supposed to be from Kanto sound like they just moved in from Texas.
In translating Nosaka Akiyuki's short story Grave of the Fireflies, which was adapted into the Ghibli film, the translator deliberately chose to add a bit of Southern accent in the contractions and slang to the characters to convey the Kansai accent of the original.
I've seen rural japanese also depicted as cockney, most notably the character shuten doji from fate grand order is sometimes translated like this, notably calling people "guv". Although in the official translation of the game she's written as having a more normal or sort of posh accent and it's tended to be doujins that give her the cockney accent.
5:37 As a curious fact, in Spain Cletus was dubbed with an Andalusian accent, a region of southern Spain from which I am from and to which similar stereotypes are associated
Those characters with southern accents who were being stereotyped as “hicks” seemed to all have more of an Appalachian accent. While the ones stereotyped as southern bell had what I would consider a more “standard” southern accent like from South Carolina or Georgia. While the ones who were brash and violent seemed to have more of a Texas accent. Not sure if I’m right about those but just what it sounded like to me as someone from the south.
I noticed that the white southern accent in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina are almost always used for plantation owners (no matter the state the movies set in) or an affluent overly charismatic flamboyant and affluent character like he described.
There's a lot of weird muddling in pop culture between appalachian "hillbilly" accents, and a melange of southern accents from the classic southeast southern to the cowboy accents of the southwest
Yeeeeesss. I was going to say something along those lines--these are different sub-regional accents. The hillbilly accent is upland, Appalachian; the "Southern aristocratic" is more toward the coasts, including the Virginia Tidewater variant. And the "cowboy" accent is the variant from further west, which is also a drawl that some professions like military pilots ended up adopting more generally even if the people weren't from there.
I live in Columbus Ohio which is known for our almost weirdly “general” accent. A lot of news casters actually come here to try to get there “general American” accent right. It kinda makes me wonder where do other people go to get accents that aren’t just associated with a city or a state to practice.
Ohio is definitely what I think of when picturing generic American. Although as a Canadian I still find it somewhat different enough from a standard North American accent to differentiate it.
@@Steadyaim101 it’s mostly just Columbus known for our accent Clevelanders have a accent which sound kinda like something you would hear in the north east mixed with Fargo And Cincinnatites sound a bit southern
@@bigfish3846 Cincinnati is just North Kentucky. If you think Cleveland sounds weird, you should hear how they speak in the capital of Michigan, "Ian" Arbor.
Columbus and broader Ohio outside the other major cities does have a very strong "General American" accent, however it is still heavily flavored by Canada, in my opinion. One major example is the use of "pop" over "soda". Likewise they have their own quirks that are perhaps shared with the rest of the Midwest, e.g. "ope", and replying to thanks with "mmhmm". Both of these influences would be rejected by most people when describing "General American", so perhaps the idealized accent doesn't actually exist anywhere in a pure form.
British media tends to portray Americans as very vain and full of themselves, and also as very well off. Id say this comes from 2 places. One would be the reverse of the Brits in America, in that Americans in Britain tend to be very skilled businessmen or professionals, often mingling with very powerful people. The other is more specific. During the Second World War, before the invasion of France, millions of American soldiers were stationed in Britain for the invasion. For many British people, these were the first Americans they had ever seen. The American soldiers were seen as very wild people, known fur excessive drinking and engaging with prostitutes. Theg were also better paid than British soldiers, and bringing new things like Coca cola and chewing gum, which gave the idea that they were very well off. This lead to some level of resentment to the Americans, particularly by British soldiers who coined the term "overpaid, oversexed and over here". A good example of the second would be Rocky the Rooster from the Aardman film Chicken Run.
@@noahbarnhartandit2365 I mean the Americans made their own saying. "Underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower" in reference the General Dwight Eisenhower
In fact there are various old training films for American soldiers on how to behave in Britain and you can also find pdf versions of the Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain which gives quite an insight into the differences between the two cultures.
15:58 My mom loved The Nanny! I always thought Fran was so fun and cool, she's like the fun auntie who takes you out to parties as soon as you turn 21, very cool and modern she always seemed, maybe that's why I've always felt extra comfortable around people with NY accents.
I'd like to add that Sandy, even though somewhat embodying the southern stereotype, is also somewhat a flip on it when it comes to the ignoramus part. Despite her accent, she shows to be very intelligent and having a high technical prowess in spite of other characters' perceptions of her.
It seems noteworthy that in this scene, Sandy seems especially sensitive to the idea that Texans are "dumb." ua-cam.com/video/jg53WYCPCjI/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AzeezOrochiHassan It also plays into the idea that Texans have a lot of state pride.
While we are often portrayed as less intelligent in a classical sense, if some mechanical/engineering genius character is needed they are often portrayed as a southerner with the most commen accent for them being the Carolina drawl.
That's often used as a form of subversion - either of the trope itself, or of the character. The one who "sounds" like an idiot and everyone ignores them but is actually a genius ready to save the day when all the "smart" people have exhausted their options. Its particularly common with the so-called "ESL accent". That is, some foreign speaker who isn't bad with English because they're dumb, its simply because its not their first language. The audience (usually) is intended to realize the subversion while the other characters are not. Particularly when the foreign speaker is supposed to be Asian (generic East Asian or Indian) because it feeds into the "model minority" stereotype.
@@McKae00 Well, before Silicon Valley took over the tech industry, a lot of the big names in technology were based out of Texas-the most obvious being Texas Instruments which singlehandedly invented the transistor, the microchip, and the microprocessor.
an E.S.L accent that is close to my heart is Rolf from Ed Edd n' Eddy, who was explicitly designed as a character who is "Foreign" but from a totally fictional land called "The Old Country" who has completely bespoke and ad hoc culture customs purely to confuse and confound the residents of the Cul-De-Sac. Rolf is also my favorite character... but really the whole cast of Ed Edd n' Eddy are just dynamite.
Rolf immediately came to mind as an example, but also Borat. In these you get a mix of what JJ talked about, but also this kind of inscrutable exoticism that exploits the general American knowledge of what is and is not within the realm of credulity.
Supposedly Rolf is supposed to be a bit of a author insert for Antonucci, who is a child of Italian immigrants to Canada (the surname is pretty obvious there). To me I could totally see him as being a sort of mish-mash of southern Italian and Balkan rural culture. His olive skin tone also lends itself well to this idea.
@@joelsmith3473 Or Bronson Pinchot's character Balki from "Perfect Strangers", who comes from a made-up country with bizarre and comical folkways he is constantly bringing up. His accent is generically "foreign". In the appearance that first brought him to general attention, a small bit in one of the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies, he was doing more a cross between the "ESL accent" and the stereotypical "gay accent". In the TV sitcom they leaned over more to the "wacky foreigner" side.
@@MattMcIrvin You reminded me of Latka Gravas, Andy Kaufman's character from Taxi which did the same wacky "old country" immigrant angle, but might not fit the ESL accent category because it wasn't really playing with any kind of existing language tropes, but was just Kaufman's funny voice and a gibberish language.
Bubs is specifically a homage/impression of a distinct black man: Redd Foxx. The Brothers Chaps loved Sanford and Son so much that they decided to make Bubs sound like (to the extent possible) Fred Sandford.
and Coach Z is a good male example of the upper midwestern "Fargo" accent, used to identify him as a culturally oblivious weirdo even by the standards of the rest of the cast
As a Central Coast Californian, most of us have the General plain and accent-less accent, but I have met people with the stereotypical Surfer Dude accent. The Valley Girl accent has kind of transcended race and time, with almost every teen girl having this accent across the whole state.
Eh... Sandy has a Texas Accent. In media, it is typically used to show independence or brashness. Also, it can be used to show some level of being inconsiderate. But with King of the Hill as an example, it can also be used to portray the people of the southwest. Also, the Texas accent mixed with a military history has weird results and is sometimes confused with southern or midwestern.
True, but each of the three Southern accent examples are often portrayed by different Southern accents. It's not like someone who talks like the first group get mistaken for the second. I would definitely say the Texas accent is more commonly used for the third group.
@@KanyeTheGayFish69 "The Midwest doesnt have an accent" lol lie again. He clearly mentioned the "Fargo accent." The Midwest has several accents but the most distinct would be Chicago, Minnesota/Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Another lesser used accent would be the lower Midwestern accent which has a SLIGHT southern influence to it. Go listen to Kathleen Madigan. She is from Saint Louis and her accent is fascinating because shes got traits of both major regions of the Midwest. Some words she says sound more northern and others more southern. Missouri in particular is a transitional area for Midwestern accents. Also in the Great Lakes/Upper Midwest region theres a lot of influences from Canada but also the Northeast. I will say between Boston and Fargo, Americans have a similar way of pronouncing words like "cash" and "bag." More like "kesh" and "beg." Another thing is the Upper Midwest goes hard on the Rs. Where New England drops the R, the Upper Midwest emphasises it. "Paaark yer carrr." It almost sounds Irish.
There's a whole family of East Coast accents that all involve dropping the ending "R" sound in words that end in "R", called "non-rhotic" accents. This includes the stereotypical Boston and New York accent, and many sub-regional variations, like the Brooklyn or Long Island accent. Interestingly, all of these accents are considered "low class", but the stereotypical British accent also drops ending "R" sounds, but is considered high class. Also, non-rhotic accents appear to be less and less common these days. When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, New York, pretty much every other adult had a stereotypical Long Island/New York accent. Nowadays, it's really only the older generations that still speak that way.
Many of the "dumb" accents seem to be dying off. The southern and west coast accents have been experiencing a decline as kids try not to be associated with those stereotypes.
Though the *upper-class* East Coast accents, your J. Thurston Howell or Charles Emerson Winchester dialect, were also non-rhotic and coded as high-class.
...Also, the Southern accents that code as "plantation aristocrat holding a mint julep" are the non-rhotic ones, whereas "cowboy" or "hillbilly" tend to be rhotic.
Star Trek gave their head engineer a Scottish accent, to the extent he is called Scotty. I'd say that was to make it something non-American that Americans would have no opinion on whatsoever to show the true diversity of the future.
James Doohan suggested the Scottish accent to Rodenberry because in his opinion the best engineers historically were the Scottish. Rodenberry initially didn't particularly care about the character and let Doohan decide the name and background, the character was included as a favour to the pilot's director on behalf of Doohan.
Gene Roddenberry said in an interview that he wanted a Scottish accent for the chief engineer because he thought of Scots as being historically known as shipwrights. The irony is that James Doohan was from Canada and didn't speak with a Scottish accent out of character.
Diversity... reminds me of a joke. An Arab sheikh takes his son to see the US president. The sheikh says Mr President, my son says there are black people in Star Trek, there are Russians, there are Japanese, but there are no Arabs. Mr President, why are there no Arabs in Star Trek? The President says well you see son, it's set in the future.
I would say the 3 types of southern accent you pointed out should all be considered distinct accents, as they all come from different geographic regions of the United States. The “southern hick” accent comes from Appalachia, the “southern belle” accent is associated with the Deep South, and the “cowboy accent” obviously comes from Texas. They are also very different stereotypes, as you said.
I think the "snooty" accent goes hand in had with the British accent in American culture. I think the snooty accent is merely evocative of how Americans view the upper escholns of society as having an affinity with a certain "euroness." Most new Englanders speak similar to Bostonioans. Also, I think the point about southern accents is right, in that sometimes it's used to describe "hicks" and other times it's used to describe the gentry class. Even more specifically, the Appalachian accent is used for hicks, while the deep southern accent is used for the gentry or antebellum themes.
I think the New England/Boston accent is also gradually fading, replaced in younger generations by something more like a "General American" broadcaster accent.
The surfer dude/valley girl accent is definitely my favorite, it always makes me laugh. Shoutouts to Baltimore accents btw, they're not common in pop-culture but I think they're hilarious, it's almost like a fusion of northern and southern accents simultaneously. Please look up the "aaron earned an iron urn" video it's amazing
Philidelphia/South East Pa have some distinct accents as well but they sound ugly so the media never uses them lol. They just give philly characters new york accents like rocky
@@jacobjones4766 Philly, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh form a triangle of ugly but fascinating accents in that part of the country, and i wish they got used more in media
I speak as an adult with a variation on the preppy type, but my native accent, as well as that of my dad and my mom’s parents, are variations on the type of working-class accent you hear in the Rust Belt. In my grandparents’ case, they were from Chicago and Cleveland, but in my hometown of Pasadena, most of the city’s original settlers came from that region so the accent that has persisted is a weird mutated version of that. I’m surprised you didn’t bring it up; I would generally associate it with being naïve or unambitious. ETA: the closest British equivalent I can think of is Yorkshire: gert men in Victorian rowhouses who used to work in big steel mills and eat lots of sausage.
I've watched quite a few of your videos. I've noticed you have a very British pronunciation for words like "bath", "grass" or "chance" but otherwise you sound like an educated New Yorker which I assume is part of the Jewish ethnolect of English, especially in your "coffee" or "daughter" and "fought" vowels.
@@TheSwordofStorms It’s not. There isn’t really a Jewish ethnolect of English unless you’re Hasidic, beyond the simple fact that like 1/3 of American Jews just happen to live in New York- but none of my family do or ever did. For some reason, when I started doing TV work in university I instinctively switched into this Orson Welles kind of voice and now I can’t stop unless I’m with my family for prolonged periods or heavily intoxicated.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
this is one of the best videos on accents/linguistics ive ever seen. incredible material! i think you should do a part 2 or something to go deeper into this
Still thinking of examples, but wanted to mention that I loved the movie "sorry to bother you"--I'm black and it was actually a very compelling message--but I didn't super know the premise beforehand, and I watched it with my mom. It was a bonding experience, but damn was it strange lol
Of course this is because I’m from Texas and we like to self aggrandize (everything IS bigger here 😜), but I can always hear the difference between the more Appalachian southern accent (like the clip from the Simpsons), the “Texan” southern accent (similar to the 3rd type of accent you present. Cowboy-esq), and the Deep South southern accent (Blanche from Golden girls.) An obscure American accent that i find fascinating is the Cajun accent found in Louisiana. It’s a southern/French/creole hybrid accent that is usually only used in pop culture when characters are from that area (the firefly from Princess and the Frog, or the accents in the movie The Waterboy.) It has its own unique flavor and is fascinating. Fun video! I really have been enjoying your content! Thanks ❤️💡
I wouldn't say that's about self-aggrandizement so much as it is about simple familiarity. Basically the same reason Americans in general have trouble distinguishing for example British vs Australian or even Irish vs Scottish accents (ymmv of course). We just don't hear them often enough to really pay attention to the nuance, and most of what we do hear is coming from cliched stylizations in pop culture, where the accents are not always used in a manner related to their real-world inspirations (as most of the examples in the video show) but also are not particularly careful to be exactly perfect about the characteristics of the particular accent, leading to a lot of crossover and just plain incorrect speech patterns relative to the accent they're aiming for, which in turn makes it that much harder again for unfamiliar listeners to distinguish.
@@INTJosh I mean, if we want to get deep into the weeds and semantics, I can see your point. However, many in Texas claim their accent as southern… and much of my family in Appalachia self identify their accent “redneck.” What we call these things has little effect on the truth that they’re related. An argument could be made that the variance in accents could have to do with the clash of Southern culture with the historic immigrant groups in a given region… like Cajun (French, Creole, and Southern) or Appalachian (scot-Irish and southern). Of course these are generalizations because it’s the only way to speak about cultural trends like accents. Those not from the US south will have trouble distinguishing these accents from one another, so speaking in generals can help them differentiate.
I think a tell of a false "Southern" accent is that it doesn't actually sound like any real Southern accent (Texan, Appalachian, Midlands, Gulf Coast, Atlantic, etc.). There is a lot more variety in Southern speech than people are used to considering because television simplifies the identity. There is a similar phenomenon for Northern accents. I talk to people about the Pacific Northwest, Utah, North Mountain West, Plains, etc. accents and usually get puzzled looks because people aren't used to making these differentiations even though (to my ear) there are noticeable speech patterns for each one.
I've noticed how in kids movies, they often cast British actors like John Oliver or James Corden to play these really obnoxious and/or flamboyant characters. Examples include Biggie and High-five from Trolls and the Emoji Movie who're played by Corden; and Vanity Smurf and Zazu from the Smurfs and Lion King remake who're played by Oliver. Meanwhile, an example of the Preppy accent I can think of might be Charles Winchester from M*A*S*H.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans. For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China. However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities. Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life: 1. Standard Mainland Chinese 2. General Taiwanese 3. Malaysian 4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians) 5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent) 6. Northerner/Northeast of China That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
i just found your channel and ive been obsessed w it! its incredibly interesting to learn about the culture i live in from an outside perspective. i dont think its truly possible to understand a culture without knowing it inside and out. its things i never wouldve even thought about being uniquely american that really interest me.
Off the top of my head, Silence of the Lambs makes a lot of use of accents. Hannibal is sort of generically villainous European accent, and Clarice's repressed Southern accent shows the awkward position that she's in in life: halfway between where she grew up and where she wants to be.
It’s hilarious to listen to Hopkins’ posh English accent in that film and then hear him revert to his Welsh lilt when thanking his friends and family after winning his Oscar
I forget what it was called (maybe mid-Atlantic?) but there was a movement in the US to sound more cultured that kind of spawned that generic European accent back in the 30s and 40s that Hopkins draws from.
@@ifeeltiredsleepy I think I read that he was inspired by mid-Atlantic accents and HAL-9000. Definitely a unique fictional accent for a man "from Baltimore", especially since the show has made him...Lithuanian?
I know some other comments touched on it, but I feel like the trans-atlantic accent is a big one, and one often just confused for a "fake british accent". I remember when the legend of zelda breath of the wild came out a bunch of people criticized zelda for using this voice, despite the fact that it makes perfect sense to translate the higher class japanese she was using into the accent that was specifically designed to be for high class people.
I've just started replaying BotW, coincidentally. Zelda's accent isn't Transatlantic, it's "American doing a shaky impression of a posh English accent". Maybe it's more noticeable if you're British and used to hearing both real-life speech and bad impressions in media. I just wish they'd hired an English voice actor if that's the style they wanted.
When I had a phone-based job and tried to really enunciate clearly for people, I ended up with southerners thinking I sounded british. The hilarity being southern accents come from northern british dialects.
Having watched cartoons translated in Romanian, my native language, for most of my childhood, I find it very interesting how a lot of these accents were also carried over from English. I don’t quite know how to explain it 🤔 while most of the vocabulary and grammar particularities associated with each of the stereotypes couldn’t be translated, the voice actors clearly did everything they could to sound as close to the original performances as possible so one could identify each of the American accents in their respective Romanian translations (I’m sure this is also true for other languages). Also, another example of an evil British voice: Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars: Rebels, played by Lars Mikkelsen (or really any Imperial Officer from the Star Wars movies lol)
I know what you mean, It is kind of the same situation with latin American spanish. Anyone could identify a "Black character Voice" (like the one from the actor who always dubs Will Smith in every movie) although it doesnt sound remotely close to what an actual Black latin american person from, lets say, the Colombian Caribbean would sound like. It is just a made up accent specifically made to translate the "Black people from American TV" vibe.
Throw in my insights 1. The Basic Southern Accent- The South and Texas both have a both a lot of military bases and traditionally more soldiers enlisted from these regions per capita. So the stereotype is really soldier = Southerner. 2. African American Accent- This is about Jazz from Transfomers. This might been a mild shout out to original (G1) cartoon's voice actor, the late Scatman Carruthers. The G1 cartoon also had tough guy veteran Ironhide with a Southern accent (done by French Canadian Peter Cullen who more well known for being Optimus Prime) and the small bully Rumble with a New Yorker accent (done by Frank Weller who done everyone from Megatron, robotic voiced Soundwave, Fred from Scooby Doo, and many, many others). 3. New York Jewish accent - This is more older than the Nanny. I usually think Mel Brooks when I hear this accent. 4. British- A lot of peoples' first exposure to British TV in the pre-internet days was PBS. So the first exposure many a Yank got to British TV was either educational TV or John Cleese from Monty Python or maybe Fawlty Towers.
Great vid. A few others that come to mind are the "Texas Oilman" accent, which is a very bombastic version of the Southern Accent: the Boston accent, which is similar to the New York accent but with a more "Irish" flair. The Cajun accent, which is regional to southern Louisiana and rarely seen in pop culture. Variations of the ESL accent which are usually associated with one race or another: the "Asian" accent, the "Indian" accent, the "Latin American" accent being the big ones that come to mind.
Sandy Cheeks from the Spongebob Squrepants franchise is the perfect example of a characterization of a "Cowboy" accent. I'm glad you mentioned her! I feel Sandy being a Cowgirl archetype is a perfect foil for the mostly homogenous "inner city pedestrian" archetype of most of the fish characters in the show.
I had no idea that Michigan had a distinct accent until after I came home from my first enlistment in the US Navy. During my first few years, I ended up adopting an amalgamated accent that was largely based on the "General American Accent" that is really common in professions where everyone comes from different places. Now, living in Wisconsin, I can't *not* notice the variety of dialects.
After many years in the US Army, some handy “rural” or “Southern” phrases have made a home in my personal lexicon. For instance, I almost always say “you all” for the 2nd person plural pronoun. I like the way it sounds better than “youse guys.”
I'm from Michigan and didn't know we had an accent until I enlisted and got made fun of for it in the southern and western states l was stationed in 😂😭
In the Game Hades, all the Gods of Olympus speak with various south British Accents, whereas the Gods of the Underworld (excluding Hades and his son) speak in a more American accent Hades even has a line where he admits explicitly making sure his son grew up with his “olympian” accent
I have on occasion seen Japan's Kansai dialect portrayed in translation as an exaggerated Brooklyn/Bronx/New Jersey 'HEY, I'M WALKIN' HERE' 🤌 kind of thing. The Kansai dialect is celebrated, but it is undeniably considered more low-brow, crude and comical by those not from the Kansai region. Kanto Japanese is 'standard' and Kansai Japanese sounds like delinquents and comedians, so the somewhat snobbish Tokyoite thinking goes. I don't necessarily find the choice of New York/New Jersey to portray Kansai dialect unfitting, and I am curious about other potential examples of a work in translation trying to approximate the feel of a distinct way of speaking from the original language into one that a reader/viewer of the translated version would be familiar with in their own language.
I know I saw an anime once where there was a character from a rural region who would occasionally slip into a kind of "hick" Japanese. The translator writing the subtitles transcribed it as a strong Appalachian accent.
For the Anime Azumanga Daioh's dub. They made Osaka, a character who's whole thing is that she speaks in a Kansai dialect(hence the nickname), Southern. So I think it's just all across the board.
@@maddie9602 That is also true of how Lotta Heart was translates in the Ace Attorney games. Mandelin, the writer of the Legends of Localization site JJ mentioned, let me know about this.
I think in general, a New York or maybe a Chicago accent or something fits Kansai quite well when translated into English. The one I feel like I saw the most though when I lived in the US was translating a Kansai dialect into a Southern or some other more rural accent, which I find not fitting at all. While Kansai isn't the standard dialect, it is centered around a massive urban area, so it hits me as strange to equate the accent of someone from a place like Osaka to rural US. I think as you mentioned a bit, that it probably stems from a bit of a snobbish Tokyo attitude. I've even heard people from Tokyo say that all other parts of Japan outside of Tokyo are rural.
The amount of care and research that goes into these videos is astounding. Thank you for being both informative and entertaining; this channel truly is a treasure.
I had always heard the anecdote that the use of British accents specifically for villains was mostly popularized by Star Wars, which used predominantly British actors for the Imperial characters because simply because that was where the set was and it was much cheaper to hire local actors. I'm not sure if this was the driving force of this trope or merely a factor, though.
22:07 As a new Jerseyan who speaks with the accent and lived in a time when ‘The Jersey Shore’ was on air, you are right. The biggest stereotype I think of is that of someone loud, obnoxious, vain, and “unsophisticated” when it’s used in pop culture
Also conveys a hard working nature and being blue collar/working class. It's unfortunately stereotyped as low class sometimes. I wish it wasn't as I speak this way, but when I travel I downtimes get interesting comments on the way I speak. It does seem to be way more unknown outside of America ofc.
When you brought up the ESL Accent, the first character I thought of was Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy. He has this vaguely Eastern European accent and a lot of the jokes involving him are about how he doesn’t understand American culture
I'd get German and Russian, but I wonder what's the context for associating South African accent with villainy in films. Is it because their English sounds "distorted" to American ears?
South African? What's an example of that accent being used as shorthand for villain? I can think of plenty Russian and German villains in American pop culture, but not South African.
@@ionasappy2732 no it’s because these accents are formed from the perceived evils of the societies they come from, therefore the violent racism of the apartheid government was translated into seeing the accent of white South Africans as “evil” in the same way high class southerner is synonymous with racist as well.
It is interesting that the whole localization of, especially cartoons, in terms of these accents also have to be translated. Like, I saw an interview once with the actor who did the Danish voice for Timon from the Lion King. He said in that interview that he used an accent from a certain region of Copenhagen. As, that was sort of the thing that'd most closely communicate the same thing as Nathan Lane's sort of New York accent.
I think the movie "Love, Actually" would be a good example of this, where the one British character goes to America because he thinks his accent will make him appear attractive, which it immediately does to a group of girls who speak with a Fargo acceent.
I like how for the Black Accent you included two characters by Phil Lamar. Which led me to remember his character Samaria Jack, which was a "wise mystical kung-fu master Asian" Japanese accent.
One of my favorite examples of accents informing characters is in the original yugioh duel monsters localization, where despite all being from the same region, many characters have very different accents, which was a choice they made to replace exactly the different versions of I and me in Japanese that you mention at the beginning.
In British media, characters with American accents are sometimes presented as "hotshots" such as Rocky in Chicken Run or Tom Sawyer in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Also Pierce Brosnan is Irish, not British
@@sh4dowveil749 Historically, the term is British Isles, but the current political standard in documents drawn up between Ireland and the UK is to refer to them as "these islands." This is because 'British' has insoluble connections with the UK and UK citizenship - for example, certain citizens of Northern Ireland consider themselves British, because NI is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - British is synonymous with UK citizenship, presumably because of the historical union of Great Britain and Ireland and because there is no other national identity term for UK citizenship - if there was it might solve a lot of semantic arguing. However, they would not consider those in the North who think of themselves as Irish or citizens of the Republic of Ireland to also be British - the British and Irish identities are partially defined by not being the other. So, while there is a historio-geographical sense in which Ireland is a British island, the term simply isn't used that way when describing people and has the potential to cause great offence if it is. While, conversely, there are Irish accents which are simultaneously UK accents because part of the island of Ireland is in the UK and those accents are shared by those who consider themselves British and those who consider themselves Irish.
I like the way that accents are used in Team Fortress 2 the video game and its shorts.. it's set in a rural American setting in I think like 1930s and so its quite stylized, but it includes a collection of different accents important to the American accent canon, and each character has a different accent and is characterized differently. I think it leaves out perhaps some important accents but as a silly collection of accents and stereotypes it serves its purpose perfectly.
A think a very interesting subversion of the Southern accent is the Engineer from Team Fortress 2. Being from the south I often hear people say my accent stands out amongst a crowd, sometimes negatively. But the Engineer’s accent showcases how a southern accent doesn’t equate to ignorance, since in the game he is seen as being one of the smartest members of his team. Having a southern drawl and making various southern phrases during gameplay gives him a very charming and welcoming feeling in a game about psychopathic mercenaries.
Makes sense that engineers would be associated with the South and Texas in particular given their association with the oil industry and aerospace/defense. Or at least that is why I assume we see more of those types of characters with Sandy and Engineer.
So after reading a ton of your comments the consensus seems to be that these accents deserve to be included in the canon:
🗣 Mid-Atlantic Accent: kind of similar to the Preppy Accent, but associated mainly with midcentury Hollywood actors and other elites who were consciously trying to sound proper and sophisticated. I feel like these days you mostly see it employed in the context of parodying old-timey actors and their unnatural, affected, very clipped and fast-talking ways. You see this a lot in parodies of “Film Noir” movies in particular. I feel like Kate McKinnon on SNL does this accent a lot when playing some sort of tough, old fashioned woman, which probably comes from its association with Katherine Hepburn.
🗣 Cajun Accent: Arguably just another sub-tier of the broad “Southern Accent” coalition, but the Cajun accent, from Louisiana, is noticeably a bit more French-influenced and theatrical. Even though I feel like it is most often used in the context of a character who is very explicitly supposed to be from Louisiana, it’s also come to be commonly associated with a certain idea of Cajuns as some of the most extreme and flamboyant southerners, who are the most over-the-top in their stagey manners and usually somewhat creepy and unhinged as well. Bill’s cousin in King of the Hill was often mentioned as a very stereotypical Cajun character, along with some of the characters in the Princess and the Frog. I would say “Big Daddy” (as distinct from regular daddy) in that one episode of the Simpsons as well.
🗣 The “Gay” Accent: this one is fast falling out of fashion but is the lispy, feminine, theatrical way of talking once associated with gay men. In pop culture, it is not always used to imply that a character is literally gay, just that they’re kind of weak and feminine and odd. So Jack in Will and Grace or Big Gay Al in South Park would be a classic gay example, but then you would also have characters like the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland or the Lion in the Wizard of Oz as sort of retro examples where a character is sort of “gay coded” through his accent. I feel like the Big Cheese in Samurai Pizza Cats is very much this as well.
About British media from a Brit's perspective: we don't use American accents very much to begin with, unless someone is doing a one-off impression. We have a similar situation to Canada, where British culture keeps being strongly pushed for in TV and film (at least it's not baked into law as much here, but sometimes it does feel overbearing or forced). Usually when someone is playing a parody character and they're using an American accent, they're playing a rich, frivolous, airheaded Hollywood celebrity. The type of character you'd see on MTV cribs.
My favorite subversion of the southern accent is the southern genius. Jake gyllenhall’s character in October Sky, usually at least one character in every Space Race movie (NASA is in Texas), and Sheldon from Big Bang Theory (ugh), to name a few.
Political shows and movies often have a brilliant southerner who people underestimate because they “sound dumb”. Frank Underwood from House of Cards, Ainsley Hays from The West Wing, are both classic examples. It’s a bit of art imitating life, as LBJ and Lee Atwater were both very powerful figures.
My Pittsburghese accent or “yinzer” is very similar to the eastern Italian American accent
@J.J. McCullough Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
I think the interesting thing about British accents that America doesn't have is received pronunciation, the accent that the Royal Family use which is completely affected and isn't really the accent of any particular place. traditionally. Public-school (as in not-free) educated people tend to have this accent and it's also used commonly by continuity announcers on television and radio, as well as being the accent associated with all historical news footage before about 1965. The relative class of someone's accent is essentially measured by how similar to RP is it. So someone who has a "neutral" London accent will be seen as higher class than someone with a regional accent.
In terms of American accents on British TV - the general American stereotype to British audiences is probably that they are less buttoned-down than their British counterparts, more 'New-Age' and sexually liberated, I think playing on a very coastal stereotype (e.g. Jack Harness in Doctor Who). In terms of specific accents, the Vermont accent is used to symbolise American New Money in period dramas (Downton Abbey has a notable one) and TV series of the 1980s and 1990s would occasionally have an American businessman modelled on JR from Dallas with the Southern Gentleman accent, representing someone with oil money.
In terms of British stereotypes, I don't want to insult my countrymen, but my accent is the "estuarine" accent, which is the accent of people born in counties outside of London such as Essex and Kent (the estuaries of the River Thames). Thanks to the reality TV show "The Only Way Is Essex", it has become a byword for stupid, vacuous, "New Money" people. The Poorly educated children of Baby Boomers who were born as working-class Londoners but achieved a middle-class status around the time of Margaret Thatcher.
If you're gonna mention the British accent, you might as well mention how the Australian accent is often associated with park ranger/nature enthusiast type characters (probably largely thanks to Steve Irwin).
And the German accent is often associated with fictional doctors and scientists, and basically intelligence in general
Also is somebody is a surf teacher they’re Australian almost by default for some reason, guess all the locals are busy smoking & doing nonsense 😂
English accent. You dont call scottish or welsh accents british.
German accents are almost always used for mad scientists
Tbf those are fairly hyper-specific. It's 100% possible to never encounter a park ranger type character. The German thing though is less avoidable esp since that accent accounts for like half of the mad scientist types in the 2000s
German accent, at least I would say, is used in one of three ways:
-evil military man
-a doctor or a scientist, who is not very concerned with well-being of others (Medic from TF2)
-a European tourist
The so-called "Trans-Atlantic" accent is also worth mentioning, aka "that accent 30s-50s actors all had that no one had in real life." Which is literally true, it was an invented accent that supposedly combined the best aspects of American and British accents. And it lives on as the 'old time movies' accent.
People had this accent in real life and it was more widespread in the 19th century but as English influenced American accents declined all of these American accents declined and or vanished.. Just like southern aristocratic accents also vanished
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
Dead now
Lmao it was definitely a real accent.
Seriously, look up a person named Edith Skinner. She manufactured the Trans-Atlantic / Mid-Atlantic accent in the 1930s-40s, as a mashup of bits and pieces of various American and British accents, designed to sound posh. No one spoke it natively, but people adopted it because it was popular in the entertainment industry and in some high-class circles.
When I was living in Tennessee, I met a man that was an Orthodox Rabbi and a fluent Yiddish speaker but spoke with a very thick Southern accent, because he grew up in rural Mississippi. It really threw me for a loop when he would speak Yiddish, because my perception of how he "should" sound, with his full beard, black hat, etc., clashed so heavily with how he did sound. Mass media really does kind of train us into believing in stereotypes, sometimes.
I think a lot of people are weirded out by black people with British accents, I’ve seen some British black people do comedy routines on this.
@@JJMcCullough there’s a video online of an Asian couple with southern accents, and it really throws you off, because Asians aren’t usually stereotyped with that accent
@@JJMcCullough my cousin's husband is Chinese by birth but grew up in Austrailia, I know when I first met him it really threw me off. I find it interesting.
@@thefabulouskitten7204 I actually once had an Uber driver who was from a family of Chinese immigrants to Peru. So Spanish was his first language and he had a stereotypical Latino accent.
I lived in S. Korea for a few years, and in Seoul, a lot of people speak English, though obviously with a Korean accent. For a few months after returning to the US, I would be surprised briefly when I spoke with an Asian-American who had no or even a southern accent.
I get that JJ couldn't cover all the nuances, but I appreciated the delineation between the uses of southern accents. The big difference is that Appalachian accents are the ones used to convey "stupid", while more deep south plantation or "syrupy" accents are used to convey "flirty" "fake" or "snooty" This goes back to ethnicity differences since most Appalachians are decedents poor of Scotch and Irish immigrants, while the plantation accents are associated with wealthy British landowners. As JJ pointed out... the use of the accents in media continues very problematic classist stereotypes. As an Appalachian, it can be painful to think that your accent and culture are shorthand for dumb and uneducated.
And for his third example, it's generally specifically Texan accents that're used to convey a character being brash, hotheaded, and aggressive, hence Sandy from Spongebob being explicitly from Texas.
Agree heavily with the last part, my closest friends have Appalachian accents and they aren’t stupid or uneducated.
Fax i was pleasantly surprised by that as a north carolinian
@@hieronymusbotch5156 it's funny that as a kid I didn't notice Sandy's accent was so strong or that she even had one.
Or New Orleans, a pretty unique southern accent
A good example of an American accent in British pop culture would be Rocky, voiced by Mel Gibson, in Aardman's 'Chicken Run'. The accent is often used to show a character is brash, (over)confident, loud, flash and a bit of a show off. American characters are often tycoons, investors, directors, actors, rock stars etc.
I think this attitude stems back to the Second World War when American servicemen were based in Britain. In fact, the crusty old RAF chicken in 'Chicken Run', Fowler even complains ' Pushy Americans, always showing up late for every war. Overpaid, oversexed, and over here'
Yes! Such a great film too.
@@silvesby yes! Underappreciated I think.
What would be the American accent you would see in most British shows?
@@gabagool3502 Mostly when Americans are portrayed, it’s a general American accent. Think newscasters or tv personalities. For many years this was personified imho by Tom Brokaw ( who was born and raised in South Dakota), Johnny Carson (born in Iowa and raised mostly in Nebraska) and Walter Cronkite, who in spite of growing up in Texas was born in Missouri and had no trace of an accent. All were tv personalities with Brokaw and Cronkite being news readers, while Carson was the host of the tonight show from 62-92. All has general American accents.
Southern is common to show either being a hillbilly or kind of old school but polite.
@@TheBrunohusker makes sense
I'm fascinated by how Scottish accents are used to signify characters who are gruff, masculine, and slightly foreign: the Dwarves in World of Warcraft, the Vikings in How to Train Your Dragon, Leonidas in 300, etc.
and Shrek
Even in LOTR Gimli seems to sound Scottish compared to his more natural Welsh accent. Also don’t forget groundskeeper Willie in the Simpsons, who is a tough brash and crude. In a way I feel like it’s a way to make them a kind of foreign hillbilly
My freshman Greek prof actually said there are some who think the Spartans actually had an accent sort of like Scottish
And that guy from the Simpsons
@@bogsacheann240 Groundskeeper Willie
I can think of two other major examples: one is the stereotypical "gay accent" which, besides being used to suggest a character is gay, also brings to mind an effeminate, materialistic and sassy man concerned primarily with his own status. It's almost like a male version of the valley girl accent. Then there's also the "nerd" accent which, obviously, signals someone who is very smart. There's two main variations on it: the wimpy nerd (like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory), who sounds like they're speaking with braces on, and the annoyingly self-important nerd (like the Polar Express glasses kid), which sounds more nasal.
Yes. For the gay accent 2 examples that first come to mind are Big Gay Al from South Park and Damian from Mean Girls (despite the actor of him actually being gay)
@@Toastertott I've never watched South Park, so hearing they have a character called Big Gay Al is absolutely hilarious to me
I miss when 70s celebrities like Paul Lynde could just be sassy and not have any extra baggage on it.
I understand the braces problem.
I find it funny that Americans dont realise that to us Brits that there accent sounds like a "gay" accent to us. 😂😂😂😂
I would say that we also use Spanish accents for certain characters as well. Usually confident, sassy, flirty, and sometimes outright sexual. Like Puss in Boots is a great example, so is the pool boy in legally blonde.
I noticed that the American Southern accent is often used to show that somebody is rural/dumb or in the opposite case with the California Valley accent showing somebody who is urban/dumb
That’s a great insight
@@JJMcCullough you should do a future video on foreigners' depiction of these accents/stereotypes. I noticed you used a lot of Nintendo examples and I noticed it even more even in recent titles like Clem from Luigi Mansion 3
I wonder if perhaps a rural American accent overlaps a bit with a Southern Accent because of how substantially the Appalachians disgorged it’s largely Scot’s Irish-descendants everywhere throughout the country thought both the 19th and 20th centuries.
@@krgoodrich1 I thought that too. Like to me, the 'rural hick' accent of Clytus in the Simpsons is more what I'd expect to hear in West Virginia than say rural Georgia or Texas. I probably would have coded it as an Appalachian accent rather than Southern per se because I've definitely heard that accent in both Kentucky and Vermont.
@@Steadyaim101 That's the weird thing, when patterns show up irrespective of their location of origin, we start to figure out what actually causes them.
The many similarities in the bad english spoken by rural people from one area, rural people from another totally different area, kids who haven't learned yet, foreigners who haven't learned yet, people with actual mental disorders, or just urban people who hate education... kinda tells you a lot about how the human brain tries to process the tangled shower drain clog that is English.
As a modern californian: I can say that without a doubt, the surfer accent is real and present. Growing up around people that spoke like that, it's also an amazingly easy accent to slip into (though I do have my experiences code switching elsewhere due to social context).
Yeah I only seem to notice it in myself when I talk to east coasters (who talk fast in my opinion)
I am from California and the only people in my experience who have the surfer accent aren’t usually sober
I grew up in Kansas and moved just outside the Bay Area about 5 years ago, and I recently noticed how my speech has morphed into a funny mixture of midwestern/“surfer”. I still say my Kansas-y things like “ope” and “geez”, but now I also say “dope” and “hella” all the time and I call literally everyone “dude” “man” and “bro” no matter the age or gender lmao.
piggy back on this, the valley girl accent is also very much present still as well. the amount of times i myself will say "like" is absolutely crazy. sometimes seems like half of all words i say is "like."
@Luis F you probably just don't hear it, I'm not a native Californian, but lived in southern California for many years. I once met someone while traveling in Europe, and my second sentence to him was "what California beach town are you from?" He looked at me dumbfounded before replying "Huntington Beach"
This might turn into a rant, but I want to say how amazing this channel is. Just how much variety in topics, but with basically 1 central idea for each one. I love how you're able to actually word things in a very clear and concise way, without even coming close to being prestigious or condescending. I have a tough time picking up on lots of smaller social cues, and it sometimes takes me a while to fully understand what's being said vs what's being conveyed. Your videos help me feel "normal" in ways I've never gotten to feel. Thank you. Genuinely, thank you JJ for what you do.
Thank you so much for these kind words my friend! My day is made better for having read them! I’m so glad you get as much out of my videos as I put into them. Everything you described about them is exactly how I want them to be.
Honestly I agree, I enjoy how it's easy to comprehend but not flavorless either
He's such a unique voice. There would be literally no replacement if he disappeared.
J.J. is the best. He'd make a great college professor.
Wow, that’s incredible. I’m happy for you!
(As an Australian) I think the California surfer dude accent seems to carry over to the Australian (male) accent, with the difference being that the characters are often portrayed with more romantic appeal than their California counter-parts. There’s definitely a consistency of “laid back” Australian characters and the attempts at the accents are fascinating to hear.
California surfer has deep roots in Hawaiian pidgin. One of the first surfers in California was a Hawaiiam alii at Santa Cruz in 1885.
I think it's really interesting how the narrative of the British accent has changed in America. The number of "Bri'ish 'people'" and "chewsday innit" jokes I hear kinda show that American awareness of British 'lower-class' accents is becoming more common. Make of that what you will.
Bruv, woodja loike a bo'ow o' wa'ah. - A Br*tish "Person"
I love that Americans think pronouncing Tuesday correctly is a class thing. How do they pronounce moosic and ooseful? (or, you know, the letter U?).
@@painbow6528 you probably: “its chewsday innit”
@@painbow6528 many Americans do say tyoosday. Typically in New England and some parts of Appalachia. I do, but I have the Transatlantic accent so I don't really count.
I'm from Alabama, and Toosdee is a common pronunciation for people whose families were born and bred here.
The Valley girl accent has to be one of the most infectious accents I've ever heard. So much so that even people who are not from California often adopt it without realizing it, including me and my sister from the central U.S..
I think its sort of reached the point where its become a general American girl accent.
Hell, Canadian teen girls and women in their 20's often, like (see what I did there? Lol), talk like Valley Girls.
Talk about it! I'm not even a native English speaker, but i still has some slight valley girl accent stuck to me (along with, for some reason, the distinct AAVE accent).
We have this effect in Dublin, Ireland. It’s insane!
At this point it's become more of a sexist stereotype. Air headed girls and women are assumed to have this accent and portrayed as having it. So even if a woman doesn't have the accent, if she says "Like" a lot, she's assumed to be air headed too and treated like she's stupid. People that aren't white who hate and mock white women, act as if all white women have that accent, and they use it in a mocking tone when they're making fun of white women.
I did hear that, not any American accent, but the "Mid-Atlantic" accent held some prestige in Britain because it implied that someone was important enough to fly back and forth between the US and Britain on business trips.
You mean Transatlantic? Cuz Mid-Atlantic would be New York down to Maryland.
@@BadgerCheese94 I think they can be used Interchangeably. I don’t think there’s much of an accent, that isn’t just a standard American accent, around the Middle of the East coast anyways but I could be wrong because I’m from Maryland lol
@@BadgerCheese94 wouldn’t mid Atlantic be the middle of the ocean?
@@BadgerCheese94 No, it is really called Mid-Atlantic accent. Because it is a blend of east coast american with British English. (And be the middle between both places would be in the Atlantic Ocean, hence the name)
@@TheKingOfBeans it is. Its a 'not used' accent created from both british and american accents (so an accent that would be spoken in between the us and uk). It was consciously learned by american upper class in the early 20th century.
"Coming To America" showed quite the variety of American accents Eddie Murphy could pull off, including ESL (Akeem), several varieties of African American (Clarence the barber, the singer), and elderly Jewish (the old Jewish man at the barbershop).
And a lot of them were acted by the same guy
There’s also the use of a southern accent to designate someone as overtly religious. Televangelists, traveling preachers, and judgmental nosey neighbors almost always have southern accents.
Oddly enough, I saw the Simpsons Preacherbot as more of a televangelist, than a black preacher. Many black preachers just have a televangelist accent.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
Do you think Layton T. Montgomery is one of them?
Yeah, just watch _Woodlawn_ and you'll get your yearly fix of the southen religious accent.
@@SImrobert2001 otherwise known as evonics
The only major American accent that wasn’t showcased is the “Mid-Atlantic” accent; a constructed accent used in radio shows and movies in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It gives characters an “old timey” feel in modern media. There’s also the Boston accent, but it’s not something I see as much as the New York accent.
Pretty sure the accent lasted as lasted as the 1970s.
Boston accents aren’t ANYWHERE close to NY accents.
Signed,
A Bostonian
I love doing that voice
Its kind of not really a major accent anymore, I would say it was a major accent in the mid 20th century maybe to the 80s or 90s or so but not so much anymore. But it would've been cool for JJ to mention it/ talk about it.
That's basically what #7 is, as exemplified by Gilligan's Island's Thurston Howell III. It's the accent that was used by moneyed people in the early 20th century to imply that they spent time on both sides of the Atlantic. FDR is a famous real-world example.
I love that in basically every Barbie movie where Barbie plays a princess, she has a General American accent but her posh parents and other older relatives have RP English accents. The power of characterization shorthand trumps all practicality, it seems.
Same with Lois from Family guy. She has a typical nazally American Midwest accent while her mom speaks like she's British
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
As a Japanese-American fluent in both languages, I just have to pitch in that Japan does the same with accents acting at times as a characteristic shorthand in addition to the multitude of first/second/third-person pronouns, which gives the character an instantly recognizable trait, especially in anime that take place in a non-Japanese environment (although some pronouns and dialects/accents do tend to go hand-in-hand). Kansai dialect is probably the most distinct, with various other regional non-Tokyo dialects reflecting various shades of rural-ness.
would you mind explaining what a kansai dialect voice generally indicates in media?
Was going to point this out too.
@@dylanoleary3805 The Kansai dialect (kansai-ben) can serve a multitude of different purposes, so I'll try my best to keep it concise:
1. Alternate roots/upbringing: Kansai-ben is the second-most recognized version of Japanese in Japan, to the point where it is often allowed to be aired on most TV shows alongside standard Japanese (save formal programs like the news). This special status allows it to be an easy way to distinguish a character as someone slightly outside the norm, such as having been raised in a different culture without the need of someone speaking Japanese like a second language.
2. Mercantilism/Frugality: Osaka, the heart of the kansai region, is famously regarded in Japan as a center of commerce and trade. The mercantile attitude of bargaining and buying cheap is a common Osaka trope to the point that the dialect alone acts as a shorthand for someone that is merciless at trade, or just plain stingy.
3. Toughness/unruliness: Non-standard dialects are sometimes associated with people who do not sit well with society, such as thugs or mobs (think of the stereotypical Italian mobster kind of accent). Sometimes the dialect is used to show someone as being a tough guy or a bully, although the Hiroshima dialect is probably the most strongly associated with mob or yakuza-style characters in Japan.
4. Comic effect: Osaka is the heart of Japanese comedy for both traditional rakugo and modern TV or theater comedy. Japanese in general like to adopt a faux-Kansai dialect tone when engaging in casual humor due to its abundance on the media, so sometimes someone who is just funny or goofy is given this dialect.
Hope this helps!
Isn't the Osaka accent supposed to be the equivalent of a US Southern accent?
@@noelleelizabeth9991 American media for some reason has decided that is the English accent of choice when localizing a character with a Kansai accent but there is nothing about it that actually relates to any similar culture or image. If anything I'd say Kansai dialect and how people are perceived when they speak with it, is more akin to how people not from the area respond to hearing heavy Brooklyn or Boston accents. I'm not sure who decided to commonly use Southern accents or why.
Hey J.J, British viewer here. One good example of how we portray Americans in our media is that you are overly extrovert and overly friendly and the best example would be the American tourists in the sketch show "Harry and Paul", they come from the American state of "Badiddlyboing, Odawidaho". I have never seen the film "Greenstreet", but it's a violent football film where Elijah Wood plays the 'clueless Yank' character.
I've studied French and Spanish, so I can tell you that this accent division exists a lot in European media. In my native Britain, we have "Gavin and Stacey" a TV series of a love story of a boy from Essex and a girl from Southern Wales co-created by James Corden. Spain has the TV series "Allí Abajo" and the film "Ocho apellidos Vascos" and France has "Chez les Ch'tis", all of them showing a north and south divide of their respective countries.
I’m also British and I absolutely agree, Americans are portrayed as loud, extroverted, overly friendly and mostly unintelligent. I can’t recall ever seeing an intelligent character with an American accent in a UK tv show.
I'm Spanish and though I haven't watched Spanish TV in a while, I'm fairly sure that there is in fact a North-South accent division.
@@CarMedicine probably biggest difference is how south is more in common with Latam spanish (in some areas) than their northern counterparts
@@jamier65551 Yup, with the seseo and whatnot.
I will say that as an american it is mostly a stereotype but due to he size of not just the nation but the population you are garunteed to find a group of americans easily fitting that description. You could likely find any kind of stereotype in the US just because it's a melting pot of culture, and language
The main example of an American character (played by an actual American) in British pop culture that comes to mind for me is captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who/Torchwood. He's a good example of trope of writing Americans as a particular mix of extroverted, energetic, and hedonistic. I feel like it's also fairly common to write them as either business men or military men, possibly a folk memory of the American soldiers stationed here during WWII (or simply The War as it's still often referred to here).
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
John Barrowman is Scottish.
@@dansanders9121 Yeah, but he moved to the US at the age of 8, and grew up there.
The third example in the “southern” category would actually be more of a texas/old west cowboy tone. Ranchers, not sharecroppers if that makes sense
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
That's the Slim Pickens riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove.
That’s a good point, it’s mostly associated with the south, but not really the same stereotypes, it’s kind of it’s own thing
It's not really in the Southern category, it should be its own category. Cowboys come from the West, not the South. And Texas is more Western (really Southwestern) than Southern.
Came here to say this. JJ was wrong about that accent, as it was "southern", but more specifically "Texas", and even more specifically, "rural Texas". A prime example of this accent is George Bush.
golden girls is such a good example! blanche (southern accent) is charming, flirtatious, superficially polite but kind of mean and judgmental underneath. rose (fargo/minnesotan accent) is innocent, simple minded, rural, but very kind. dorothy and her mother sophia (italian new yorker accent, despite sophia being born in sicily) are blunt, rational, 'tells it like it is', etc.
Don't forget Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome. An example of the southern gentleman.
Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome?
@@jamesbernardini9063 That's right. Doug Dimmadome, owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome.
@@jamesbernardini9063
Not right! Timmy Turner my name is ua-cam.com/video/ts5af0aFcuw/v-deo.html
I don't think he has a southern gentleman accent. he isn't soft spoken enough. He definitely is more of a crude character where it almost feels like "how tf is this guy so rich?"
I think you can include the Australian accent as well. American pop culture loves to use it when its a character that is supposed to be a kind of frontiersman. This no doubt comes from characters like crocodile dundee and the much beloved Steve Irwin.
Also, a ruffian '/ larrakin type character.
Captain Boomerang from Suicide Squad or Kano from Mortal Kombat for example
Not prevalent enough to justify including it on this list
Makes me think of the questionable use of an Australian accent for Wolverine - a Canadian - in the Spider-Man cartoons.
I think you forgot one important one! The Native American accent! It's always used to make someone sound mystical/spiritual and doesn't really fit well in the ESL category. As if the person exists in some other ethereal plane of existence separate from the general society the main characters are in. It isn't really used much anymore, but in a lot of 20th century film and TV anyone with that accent was always portrayed as this stern, powerful, serious, spiritual figure. John Redcorn from King of the Hill has it and every time he speaks they make it seem like it's coming from some deep 2387425837234 year old wisdom. There is actually an old stand-up sketch of Jim Carrey doing it and he goes right into the stereotype.
If I remember correctly it was called "Tonto accent" because of the same name character.
yes good one!
Yeah in Canada its called a "rez accent". Short for Reservation.
Yeah that should have been included. Other famous Native accent characters include Chief from Wonder Woman, Chief Firewater from Sausage Party and the Na'vi from Avatar.
I am surprised he didn't talk about this one
E.S.L immediately reminds me of Rolf from Ed, Edd & Eddy. Specifically, I think he makes a great example of the kind of vaguely foreign character who mixes a few complicated English words with simple grammar and blunt, unfiltered statements.
Or Fez from that 70s show
Yes! Also Bolby from Jimmy Neutron.
i thought of esteban from suite life of zack and cody who is very doofy...
Ed boys!
The thing that I always loved about Rolf is that he's so culturally and ethnically vague. He isn't identifiably European, Asian, American, etc. He's just foreign, proudly and unapologetically foreign.
I feel like a big part of the ESL Accent can often involve having a character say the phrase “How you say?” as a way of showing they are so foreign that their knowledge of the English language is very cursory or novice. It often seems like a good way to show that not only is the person foreign in their manner of speaking, but they are also new to America in general. Better Call Saul has a German excavating contractor who will ask “How you say” in most exchanges with Mike (a native English speaker) because the German cannot think of an English equivalent for a word or phrase.
I'll also say as a language learner that is something I say a lot in the languages I study. Even after studying for years it's common to blank on the specific word you need in the moment. It's frustrating because you could say it perfectly in your native tongue, but your second language is more limited so you often end up coming up blank and having to say something as you search for the right word
"How you say" can also be used as a point of emphasis by characters with a foreign accent but a mastery of the language. Like for a snide or sarcastic remark.
"so I says to him, I says..."
You said Lois from family guy isn’t Jewish but you clearly missed the episode where she discovered she was
Nuance, bro
they all have a very New England accent on that show, it takes place in Rhode Island for pete's sake.
Was that pass season 11?
Well, she's half Jewish.
She was given that accent well before that episode was even written.
I would say the Cajun accent used to have a pretty strong showing, and typically was used either as a stand in for the southern rural accent especially when the show takes place somewhere with more typically Southern people (see Bill and his family from King of the Hill), but the more interesting example is that they often are portrayed as con-men or gamblers, and weirdly often more vicious. In X-men Gambit famously speaks with that Cajun charm, while in the Green Mile Eduard Delacroix is a rather sinister murderer.
I think of the villain from the Frog Prince. All of them are charming, suave, but with this undertone of like playing with dark and dangerous things.
Cajun and creole usually get merged into one accent as well. Shows tend to give one accent for Louisiana.
Well the thing is the green mile takes place in Louisiana, but I do have to say you're gambit analogy was the first thing I could think of. My grandmother is from Louisiana so that accent is one of the few I remember growing up around so it comes to mind pretty often. Also the use of it for healers like the mystic creole in the swamp that do magical feats. Like in pumpkin head with the Lady the brings pumpkin head to life
@@kuriboh635 And that merges into the use of Caribbean accents for people with mystical powers, which I guess is getting further afield into foreign-accent stereotypes again.
The game "team fortress 2" is a really great example of how accents can develope a character's personality and stereotypes
Seriously, it's amazing how much personality is put into those characters based purely on their accents and the national/regional stereotypes they represent.
TF2 is honestly a masterclass in creating memorable characters, every aspect of the nine mercenaries is fine-tuned to make them some of the most iconic in gaming
Tf2’s use of accents serves two main purposes I notice: The characters either perfectly fit the stereotypes associated with said accent, or they subvert them. Characters like the Scout and Spy act exactly like the stereotypes associated with Boston and France respectively, however a character like Engineer speaks with a Southern accent (an accent usually used to convey a character is “simple” or “dumb”, despite the Engineer himself being fairly intelligent). It’s one of my favorite examples of accent use in pop culture.
too bad the aimbotters dont have a memorable accent #fixtf2 lol
Being British it seems that a lot of American characters in our shows are very extroverted, outlandish and overly confident. This is sometimes presented negatively, being offensive to the more quiet and reserved characteristics many people see as a quintessential aspect of 'Britishness'. It really just plays into the stereotype of Americans as endlessly optimistic and outgoing.
Hilarious that JJ suggests James Corden is 'posh'! Agree with all your descriptions though.
What always depresses me is to hear British actors and actresses attempting a US accent, however generic. I can't think of anyone - apart from Kate Winslet - who has pulled it off.
@@rogink I’m pretty sure the British actors normally can do a perfectly fine American accent.
as an endlessly optimistic and outgoing American... I think I would at least make an impression in the UK XD... not sure if it would be good or bad but I'd be impossible not to notice.
Interesting lol, I wonder how that stereotype engrains itself over time.
@@rogink What about Christian Bale, Tom Holland, Andrew Lincoln and countless other actors? I'm always surprised to find out a lot of actors are English because there American accents are so good
To me, as a second language English speaker, American accents have always been fascinating because for the most part, they are not seen that backwards as they may be sometimes seen in my country of Poland. Of course, it depends on who you ask, but there are probably many people who subconsciously associate having an accent with being uneducated. After WW2, when people were forced to move, they started speaking a form of Polish that is more standard, in order to understand each other. But my personal opinion is that they are NOT a signifier of the lack of education. Even I speak with a little accent, despite being a Gen Z person, however my vocabulary is even more obviously "local". My parents, who grew up in the 80s (we all live in a rural area) have a somewhat stronger accent, however I am not ashamed of it at all.
We have two accents that I can say are iconic - the Podhale one (a mountain region in the south) and the Silesian accent, usually when speaking Polish because Silesian on its own is considered by many as a proper language (it is used by quite a lot of people) or at the very least a dialect, since it doesn't have a unified orthography or alphabet. However, these can be recognized by basically any Pole. This is my take on the accents, but from a different perspective and in a different place.
Have a nice day :D
Cool
I thing It's very interesting, as for me (a brazilian) always thought of english as beeing homogenous, so for me someone describing english as having distinct accents sounds strange
My dad was born around Wroclaw's hinterland in the mid '60s (which, as you might know, it used to be a German city), he claims to speak with a standard accent and not with a regional one, unfortunately I can't prove that since I don't speak Polish. On the other hand, since I'm a second generation Italian (and thus with no Italian regional background at all) I speak with a very neutral accent with an occasional Roman slang term thrown in the mix, and because of this some people tend to mistake as someone from the North (which was affected a lot by internal migration from South, kind of like the ex-German regions of Poland), even tho I was born and raised in Rome my whole life.
@@polipod2074 it used to be German, it's true, but after WW2 these lands were settled by people from the Eastern Frontiers as we call them (today's Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania) and people in such areas seem to have shifted towards the more standard form, however some aspects can be retained, I guess.
Coincidentally, a lot of my relatives live there, but they are Rusyns who were forced to leave their native land (where I live, because my grandfather managed to return, though he was Polonized). Most Rusyns shared this fate.
@@polipod2074 I remember reading a Polish linguist in the early 00s about the Polish of Wroclaw and he basically confirmed what you've just said. Because of migration after the war, the people of Wroclaw started speaking with the most neutral version of Polish
3 more I would add: The occasionally used Cajun or New Orleans accent when you want the southerner to be a little more exotic, there's a kind of Chicago accent that is used with old-timey gangsters, and there is a pretty distinctive, urban Mexican-American accent as well, as popularized by Cheech & Chong
Yeah. Like Rogue, which he mentioned
@@shuruff904 True, but the other two were fresh examples
Cheech and Chong accent also has to have spanish words mixed into English
Real people from the city in New Orleans sound almost like they're from Brooklyn. Impossible to convey over text, but I am from North Mississippi and have a proper classic southern accent. My wife is from northern Indiana where it's like Canadian light. Anyway, our first house in New Orleans we met our landlords and postulated they must've came from NY, until we realized everyone spoke like that.
And the standard Native American accent.
As an American, I must say that it’s amazing how these accent shorthands work their way into our subconscious-specifically as it pertains to voiceless characters in literature. For example, I always imagined Mrs. Godfrey from the Big Nate comics as having a British accent. She’s portrayed as the villain of the series, so my mind made that connection even though it makes no sense for a small town American school teacher to have such an accent.
in the same vein as the African American accent, I would definitely say there is a native American accent in media. sorta the John redcorn way if speaking which is usually pretty deep and mellow, and gives off some form of wisdom
YES, how could we have missed that one?
Also, there's the Hispanic-American accent, which lumps together a whole universe of different stuff but is usually just portrayed as Mexican-American (probably because so much media comes out of southern California), and which has different connotations from generic "foreign", especially since people with this accent may be US-born and even monolingual English speakers.
The Chicano accent and generic Hispanic accents are massive.
Also, Hawaiian accents.
I think he's touched on the native American accent on another video. It's really an interesting observation of American Pop culture
he touched the monotone Rez accent in a previous video. the chicano accent is also used a lot of latinos.
@@neonsamurai4604 It's also common in a lot of white and even some black people in the Southwest, especially in southern California.
In UK media the American accent also tends to be associated with another stereotype of a sort of dopey innocence/ignorance or otherworldliness maybe associated with young American gap year tourists or just baseball capped tourists in general. Nancy in Peep Show - who is actually Canadian actress Rachel Blanchard but we don't really distinguish the accents - is a good example. Or Rich in cult comedy snuff box, or Lorna Wynne in Toast of London.
I think a good family-friendly example of Nancy being like this would be when she says Poland is in the third world and that the people there live in huts
In terms of British comedy, American characters are generally given a southern accent and portrayed as ignorant and trigger happy.
@@eldrago19 I think this is more a by-product of American films using Southern accents for military types though.
The “Valley Girl” accent was popularized by the 1982 hit single of the same name by Frank Zappa and his daughter Moon. Moon, a teenager living in the San Fernando valley, spoke in the accent to make fun of how her peers talked, and the song’s success turned “Val-speak” into a cultural phenomenon.
I think it’s interesting how the stereotype continues on, even if the song itself has been more-or-less forgotten.
My aunt is in her 50s and still talks like that, dated slang and all.
Los Angeles is also the hub of movie and TV production, so it makes sense it would turn up in many films and TV programs. Kids in general picked up on it as entertainment became evermore universal and centralized in the U.S.
I was really surprised (and slightly offended) that JJ didn’t include Cher from Clueless as a typical Valley Girl. She popped up immediately when I thought of the Valley Girl trope
@@timcombs2730 I would like to speak to her for an hour or two. Just to experience that. Probably no longer than that though.
Zappa's "Valley Girl" song certainly brought the accent to the attention of the American public first, but I wouldn't discount popularization by a number of, typically low budget, 1980s & early 90s movies that promoted the Valley Girl and Surfer Dude stereotypes. In fact, the trope became quite common in comedy and horror movies during that time period. These can be seen (or rather heard) in movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless or the 1985 cult horror film Return of the Living Dead.
As someone who’s been born and raised in nyc- every borough has pretty much the same accent the only variations you’ll see is usually based on ethnicity or class and even those differences are slight and often ignored in pop culture
in NYC it's the body language that identifies your borough, sure as shit people can tag you immediately that way
It is my understanding that when American movies are dubbed into German, to imply a southern accent or hickish person, the Germans will use a recognizably Bavarian 'country' accent to convey the same instantly recognizable feature of the German language.
I may be totally wrong.
I heard Arnold couldn't dub his own voice for the German release of the terminator because his accent was deemed "too hickish"
Yeah! He wrote about it in his book, because his German was an Austrian accent
Sadly we don't. I wish we dubbed our movies in more accents! But usually every single character is dubbed in standard German with very few exceptions.
@@anthonyshea6048 Specifically a rural Styrian accent, yes. Meanwhile Arnold's German dubbing voice is very suave and slick. 😅 Definetly changes the characters.
@@LucasBenderChannel Please man make more video,PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.(also what do you think about feli from Germany?)
Fun fact, the Vally Girl accent was popularized by Frank Zappa. His daughter, Moon Unit, would parody some girls at her school and he decided to record Valley Girl with Moon using her mocking voice as a joke song and it became a top 40 single. Giving the Valley Girl accent a national spotlight.
im sorry.. his daughter, What
@@cockenballtorture Moon Unit Zappa. i think she got off better than her brother, Dweezil Zappa or her younger sister, Diva Zappa
the man was a goof..
She has a pretty name.
Bollocks.
@@cockenballtorture his kids are named Moon Unit, Dweevil, Ahmet Rodan and Diva.
Zappa’s Italian, so Ahmet Rodan is named after an imaginary Arab butler they joked about having and Rodan from the Godzilla franchise.
As a British person, British shows generally don't really use American accents as Britain itself as distinct enough accents along with their stereotypes, for example the British accent used in America is still the main aristocratic old money esc accent here, Scottish accents tend to give off a aggressive and more outward speaking, generic London accents tend to give off to a docile frame of speech, a lower class accent like the one shown in the video would be associated with a pub(similar to a bar) goer or a middle/northern English region which itself as a quite brute and limited vocabulary stereotype, then there are Irish stereotypes which mainland Irish would be seen as happy or friendly, as northern similar however also more aggressive. Welsh accent which has similar contentions to the 'lower class' accent however more friendly and rural. then there are city accents one mentioned being London, another one being Liverpool being not the most intelligent and assertive however not aggressive and urbanised. There are far more but you get the point, American accents aren't really used here because we have are alternatives however due to dominance of American media nearly every British person with an internet connection know and can distinguish these accents, however by far the most common is the general American here as it generally as a stereotype of friendly and some degree of blissful ignorance
Totally
Can't forget the West Country accent which is almost exclusively used to portray somebody as a farmer/rural person, usually giving them a more friendly and often times simple personality.
Yeah, here in the US certain English accents in tv shows are typically associated with being snobby or villainous or both while I have noticed that some scottish and irish characters that appear in shows tend to be associated with being dumb (like the stereotype of all Irish being drunkards that just want to fight all day)
15:27
You know, Lois is TECHNICALLY Jewish…
Trying to think of an example of each of these from My Little Pony was a fun exercise. Most ponies speak with General American, and the whole Apple family speaks with a Southern Accent. Rarity's parents have the Fargo Accent, Jet Set and Upper Crust have the Preppy Accent, Sandbar has the Surfer Accent, Babs Seed has the New York accent and Fancy Pants has a British Accent. The other three were harder. The ESL accent is a bit nebulous, but Zekora and/or the Yaks could probably be considered examples (although Zekora might be more specifically African). The African American Accent and Jewish New York accent were the only ones I couldn't think of any examples of.
Oh nice to see you here!
Hehe, guess I'm not the only one who thought of My Little Pony (probably because I grew up with it)...
I am surprised there are not any black coded ponies
Please upload we all miss you :(
Rarity has an English accent which is funny bc her parents have a diff accent than hers
He has returned but as a cameo!?
I remember in Azumanga Daioh, the English dub of the anime comedically has a character referred by her classmates as 'Osaka,' after the province of Japan she lives in. Her English VA performs the character in a typical Southern American accent to emphasize how much she stands out from her inner city classmates, being a transfer student and all. I felt it was a pretty fun way the localizers helped American viewers piece together the relation between inner city Japanese students and those from Osaka while still staying faithful to the source material in a way. Osakans generally have this "rural and rough" image in all Japanese media, by the by.
Specifically the local Texan accent that those particular actors would know being from there, which works really well because Osakans are seen as kinda uncultured, but also very YEEHAW exciteable and into money like a cowboy oil tycoon. So well that dubs continued to do that, most noticeably in Amenobashi.
Osaka was the first character I thought of at the start of the video.
In the first English translation of the manga, she was given a New York accent. One of the girls even asked if she brought a meatball sandwich for lunch! It was a weird time for manga.
I'd love to hear more about how accents are used in other cultures. For example I read somewhere that in German, the Austrian accent carries a lot of the same connotations as the American Southern accent, being somewhat dim or hickish
Your cultural videos lately have been fantastic. Absolutely killing it J.J.
I think in one of his films, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not allowed by the producers to voice his own character in the German translation because of his strong Austrian accent. Apparently it would have been unbefitting of the character being portrayed. I don’t recall which film it was, though.
@@harvestedvoltage4324 it was the terminator
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
I might have missed it, but I'm surprised that your "New York Accent" wasn't mentioned as being a stereotype of Italian Immigrants - and this is often used in the context of characters inspired by the NY Italian Mob like the Crime Bosses of Gotham (most recently in The Batman) or the robo-Mobsters of Futurama, which you mention in the video.
I think he did mention the connection to east coast Italian-American. I would go as far to say that new york accent is also used for basically any white working class character in an urban setting. For example rocky balboa sounding more like someone from new york than someone from philadelphia.
@@davisdavis468 There's also the stereotypical Boston/New England accent which has been used plenty.
An interesting thing is that a little bit of the “type 3” southern accent is pretty widespread in the actual military even in people not from the South. When groups of people serve with people from all over the country for extended periods of time their accents sort of mix, and Southern inflections tend to be easier to pick out
In US aviation, and offshoots like the astronaut corps, people seem to have adopted that cowboy drawl as the standard voice to use over the radio--standardizing on SOME accent does, I think, help with disambiguation when the reception isn't great. And many of them are military or ex-military.
Certain 'southern' or 'hick' ways of saying things results in a more clear enunciation. It seems the military has embraced it, but the rest of us catch ourselves doing that and try to suppress it.
I'm not from the south, but if I want to sound badass, and I've maybe been listening to a certain amount of Toby Keith, then that would be a voice I might lean towards. It helps I'm from more rural stock and the funny thing is I feel like people who want to signify their "down to earth" "non-urban" status and pride will take on a sort of southern twang.
Listen to how many non-southern country musicians sing. It's really quite similar to how non-black rap artists will adopt a certain degree of "black voice" given that it's the primary voice within the genre.
and I'd guess the deep red flavor of patriotism in southern states (and poverty too) could make for a disproportionate amount of southerners in the military...
I noticed that there's a degree of standardization of the Southern accent in pronunciations of military specific terms. For example, the number 4 is supposed to be pronounced with the two-syllable drawl in radio communications ("fow-er").
Some good examples of an educated character with a southern accent would be The Engineer from Team Fortress two, Ray Gillette from Archer, T-Bone Grady from Watch_Dogs and Augustus Sinclair from Bioshock 2.
Another accent in pop culture not mentioned is the one usually on nerdy characters. Usually a stuffy nasally sounding voice or a lisp. Sometimes a condescending tone like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
I would also add Gideon Gleeful from Gravity Falls to the list.
Forgetting about my man Leonard "Bones" McCoy? Dude was the doctor on the Federation flag ship.
@@myself2noone Remember that one episode though where the flower spores that make people happy infected McCoy and he relaxed into his natural way of speech, which was some form of Southern accent?
Don't worry boys
The Engineer
Is Engi-here
It's kind of dead now though, it was more a Golden Age Hollywood thing.
Southern accents in the military may reflect a reality that a very disproportionate amount of US soldiers and especially officers are from the South.
I think its also because southerners are stereotypically thought of as more right wing and patriotic and as such would tend to engage in activities for their country more eagerly. Outside of america a southern accent is often perceived as a stereotypical American accent.
@@poke-champ4256 That makes sense as well, though as I say the stereotype has some base.
During the Civil War, Confederate generals played up an image of being adventerous warriors and were known for rather reckless and bloodthirsty tactics, so this image probably has a lot of historical precedent.
Due to lack of economic opportunities many southerners join the military
Since I think the Southern accent, outside of the aristocratic lowlands planter accent, is Scots-Irish, and those are a people who have a long history of feuding and also have always made up a disproportionate percentage of the American military.
this is really interesting. i remember when watching HBO's "Chernobyl" wondering what the different British accents were trying to tell me about the characters. So i looked it up. ending up they weren't necessarily character choices but just their regular accents. but does seem to support the idea that at least Americans (but maybe all English speakers?) tend to use accents as short hand for character types.
I think they definitely used certain accents to get character traits across. The miners being Scottish comes to mind for me.
Also, the Death of Stalin uses British accents to outline different personality traits within Soviet historical figures.
Yes, that’s essentially what stereotyping is. Assuming that a person from a certain place has a certain way of speaking and a certain personality, too. You wouldn’t, for example, expect the surfing turtle in Finding Nemo to turn out to be the bad guy. But Jeremy Irons British accent voicing Scar in the Lion King is a perfect signal to him being clever in a malevolent sort of way
I kept waiting for you to mention The Critic. In that classic animated series from the 90's, there are many different examples of the accents you mentioned. Jay and his sister have the standard accent, while their parents have the preppy accent. Being set in New York, you get examples of the various Bronx and Jewish accents, including Jay's makeup artist and plenty of rabbi jokes. Jay's boss who happens to be the owner of the network is example of the southern aristocrat while Jay's girlfriend Alice is more the poor southern belle. The restaurant owner has the ESL accent, and one of Jay's friends has an Australian accent, which has it's own connotations. That show took a lot of it's humor from making fun of Hollywood and playing into stereotypes, so it's not surprising to see this in hindsight.
Another good example of the more southern gentleman accent would be Gideon and Bud Gleeful from Gravity Falls. Both of them have a sort of cheery, gentleman-like facade but are actually a lot more sinister than initially made out to be.
is that the "Oh i declare" southern slave owner accent ?
Something I find funny/interesting is when American accents get applied to non-American shows. For example, in a lot of dubbed anime, if a character is supposed to be from rural Japan, they'll give them some kind of Southern Accent, even though this accent doesn't exist in Japan. I get what the dubbing studios are trying to do, but it's funny hearing someone who's supposed to be from Kanto sound like they just moved in from Texas.
In translating Nosaka Akiyuki's short story Grave of the Fireflies, which was adapted into the Ghibli film, the translator deliberately chose to add a bit of Southern accent in the contractions and slang to the characters to convey the Kansai accent of the original.
Given that it's Grave of the Fireflies, it was probably a Hiroshima accent which is even more rural than Kansai.
@@franciscoflamenco Grave of the Fireflies takes place in Kobe, not Hiroshima.
I've seen rural japanese also depicted as cockney, most notably the character shuten doji from fate grand order is sometimes translated like this, notably calling people "guv". Although in the official translation of the game she's written as having a more normal or sort of posh accent and it's tended to be doujins that give her the cockney accent.
PIKOWBOY, I CHOSE Y'ALL!
5:37
As a curious fact, in Spain Cletus was dubbed with an Andalusian accent, a region of southern Spain from which I am from and to which similar stereotypes are associated
It's also a city in Alabama, a southern US state. That seems more likely where they're talking about.
@@suddensirens8281 No. Zapan is talking about dubbing in the SPANISH language. In SPAIN.
Those characters with southern accents who were being stereotyped as “hicks” seemed to all have more of an Appalachian accent. While the ones stereotyped as southern bell had what I would consider a more “standard” southern accent like from South Carolina or Georgia. While the ones who were brash and violent seemed to have more of a Texas accent. Not sure if I’m right about those but just what it sounded like to me as someone from the south.
Same. The 'hick' accent is something I hear quite often in Vermont. To me its definitely more an Appalachian thing than Southern.
I noticed that the white southern accent in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina are almost always used for plantation owners (no matter the state the movies set in) or an affluent overly charismatic flamboyant and affluent character like he described.
I would say the brash version are more of a western southern accent and not just a solely Texas one.
There's a lot of weird muddling in pop culture between appalachian "hillbilly" accents, and a melange of southern accents from the classic southeast southern to the cowboy accents of the southwest
Yeeeeesss. I was going to say something along those lines--these are different sub-regional accents. The hillbilly accent is upland, Appalachian; the "Southern aristocratic" is more toward the coasts, including the Virginia Tidewater variant. And the "cowboy" accent is the variant from further west, which is also a drawl that some professions like military pilots ended up adopting more generally even if the people weren't from there.
I live in Columbus Ohio which is known for our almost weirdly “general” accent. A lot of news casters actually come here to try to get there “general American” accent right. It kinda makes me wonder where do other people go to get accents that aren’t just associated with a city or a state to practice.
Ohio is definitely what I think of when picturing generic American. Although as a Canadian I still find it somewhat different enough from a standard North American accent to differentiate it.
I miss the day when the newscasters and reporters in New York had New York accents.
@@Steadyaim101 it’s mostly just Columbus known for our accent Clevelanders have a accent which sound kinda like something you would hear in the north east mixed with Fargo
And Cincinnatites sound a bit southern
@@bigfish3846 Cincinnati is just North Kentucky. If you think Cleveland sounds weird, you should hear how they speak in the capital of Michigan, "Ian" Arbor.
Columbus and broader Ohio outside the other major cities does have a very strong "General American" accent, however it is still heavily flavored by Canada, in my opinion. One major example is the use of "pop" over "soda". Likewise they have their own quirks that are perhaps shared with the rest of the Midwest, e.g. "ope", and replying to thanks with "mmhmm". Both of these influences would be rejected by most people when describing "General American", so perhaps the idealized accent doesn't actually exist anywhere in a pure form.
British media tends to portray Americans as very vain and full of themselves, and also as very well off. Id say this comes from 2 places. One would be the reverse of the Brits in America, in that Americans in Britain tend to be very skilled businessmen or professionals, often mingling with very powerful people. The other is more specific. During the Second World War, before the invasion of France, millions of American soldiers were stationed in Britain for the invasion. For many British people, these were the first Americans they had ever seen. The American soldiers were seen as very wild people, known fur excessive drinking and engaging with prostitutes. Theg were also better paid than British soldiers, and bringing new things like Coca cola and chewing gum, which gave the idea that they were very well off. This lead to some level of resentment to the Americans, particularly by British soldiers who coined the term "overpaid, oversexed and over here". A good example of the second would be Rocky the Rooster from the Aardman film Chicken Run.
Thanks for sharing, I never considered that!
This is very true. My mother (born 1930) used to say how smart the American soldiers' uniforms were, compared to the shabby British ones.
"overpaid, oversexed and over here"
...two outta three ain't bad.
@@noahbarnhartandit2365 I mean the Americans made their own saying. "Underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower" in reference the General Dwight Eisenhower
In fact there are various old training films for American soldiers on how to behave in Britain and you can also find pdf versions of the Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain which gives quite an insight into the differences between the two cultures.
15:58 My mom loved The Nanny! I always thought Fran was so fun and cool, she's like the fun auntie who takes you out to parties as soon as you turn 21, very cool and modern she always seemed, maybe that's why I've always felt extra comfortable around people with NY accents.
I'd like to add that Sandy, even though somewhat embodying the southern stereotype, is also somewhat a flip on it when it comes to the ignoramus part. Despite her accent, she shows to be very intelligent and having a high technical prowess in spite of other characters' perceptions of her.
It seems noteworthy that in this scene, Sandy seems especially sensitive to the idea that Texans are "dumb." ua-cam.com/video/jg53WYCPCjI/v-deo.html&ab_channel=AzeezOrochiHassan
It also plays into the idea that Texans have a lot of state pride.
While we are often portrayed as less intelligent in a classical sense, if some mechanical/engineering genius character is needed they are often portrayed as a southerner with the most commen accent for them being the Carolina drawl.
That's often used as a form of subversion - either of the trope itself, or of the character. The one who "sounds" like an idiot and everyone ignores them but is actually a genius ready to save the day when all the "smart" people have exhausted their options.
Its particularly common with the so-called "ESL accent". That is, some foreign speaker who isn't bad with English because they're dumb, its simply because its not their first language. The audience (usually) is intended to realize the subversion while the other characters are not. Particularly when the foreign speaker is supposed to be Asian (generic East Asian or Indian) because it feeds into the "model minority" stereotype.
@@McKae00 Well, before Silicon Valley took over the tech industry, a lot of the big names in technology were based out of Texas-the most obvious being Texas Instruments which singlehandedly invented the transistor, the microchip, and the microprocessor.
@@stevethepocket weren't it the rust belt the big industrial polo of US before sillicon?
an E.S.L accent that is close to my heart is Rolf from Ed Edd n' Eddy, who was explicitly designed as a character who is "Foreign" but from a totally fictional land called "The Old Country" who has completely bespoke and ad hoc culture customs purely to confuse and confound the residents of the Cul-De-Sac.
Rolf is also my favorite character... but really the whole cast of Ed Edd n' Eddy are just dynamite.
Rolf immediately came to mind as an example, but also Borat. In these you get a mix of what JJ talked about, but also this kind of inscrutable exoticism that exploits the general American knowledge of what is and is not within the realm of credulity.
Supposedly Rolf is supposed to be a bit of a author insert for Antonucci, who is a child of Italian immigrants to Canada (the surname is pretty obvious there). To me I could totally see him as being a sort of mish-mash of southern Italian and Balkan rural culture. His olive skin tone also lends itself well to this idea.
@@joelsmith3473 Or Bronson Pinchot's character Balki from "Perfect Strangers", who comes from a made-up country with bizarre and comical folkways he is constantly bringing up. His accent is generically "foreign".
In the appearance that first brought him to general attention, a small bit in one of the "Beverly Hills Cop" movies, he was doing more a cross between the "ESL accent" and the stereotypical "gay accent". In the TV sitcom they leaned over more to the "wacky foreigner" side.
@@MattMcIrvin You reminded me of Latka Gravas, Andy Kaufman's character from Taxi which did the same wacky "old country" immigrant angle, but might not fit the ESL accent category because it wasn't really playing with any kind of existing language tropes, but was just Kaufman's funny voice and a gibberish language.
Bubs is specifically a homage/impression of a distinct black man: Redd Foxx. The Brothers Chaps loved Sanford and Son so much that they decided to make Bubs sound like (to the extent possible) Fred Sandford.
Elizabeth, I'm comin' to join ya!!!
and Coach Z is a good male example of the upper midwestern "Fargo" accent, used to identify him as a culturally oblivious weirdo even by the standards of the rest of the cast
As someone with no familiarity with Redd Foxx, he just ended up sounding like Louis Armstrong to me.
As a Central Coast Californian, most of us have the General plain and accent-less accent, but I have met people with the stereotypical Surfer Dude accent. The Valley Girl accent has kind of transcended race and time, with almost every teen girl having this accent across the whole state.
Yeah I’ve noticed anywhere north of Sacramento is the same way going all the way up to Washington/ Idaho
Eh... Sandy has a Texas Accent. In media, it is typically used to show independence or brashness. Also, it can be used to show some level of being inconsiderate. But with King of the Hill as an example, it can also be used to portray the people of the southwest. Also, the Texas accent mixed with a military history has weird results and is sometimes confused with southern or midwestern.
The Midwest doesn’t have an accent
True, but each of the three Southern accent examples are often portrayed by different Southern accents. It's not like someone who talks like the first group get mistaken for the second.
I would definitely say the Texas accent is more commonly used for the third group.
@@KanyeTheGayFish69 "The Midwest doesnt have an accent" lol lie again. He clearly mentioned the "Fargo accent." The Midwest has several accents but the most distinct would be Chicago, Minnesota/Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Another lesser used accent would be the lower Midwestern accent which has a SLIGHT southern influence to it. Go listen to Kathleen Madigan. She is from Saint Louis and her accent is fascinating because shes got traits of both major regions of the Midwest. Some words she says sound more northern and others more southern. Missouri in particular is a transitional area for Midwestern accents.
Also in the Great Lakes/Upper Midwest region theres a lot of influences from Canada but also the Northeast. I will say between Boston and Fargo, Americans have a similar way of pronouncing words like "cash" and "bag." More like "kesh" and "beg."
Another thing is the Upper Midwest goes hard on the Rs. Where New England drops the R, the Upper Midwest emphasises it. "Paaark yer carrr." It almost sounds Irish.
@@ZipplyZane ya
Yeah
There's a whole family of East Coast accents that all involve dropping the ending "R" sound in words that end in "R", called "non-rhotic" accents. This includes the stereotypical Boston and New York accent, and many sub-regional variations, like the Brooklyn or Long Island accent. Interestingly, all of these accents are considered "low class", but the stereotypical British accent also drops ending "R" sounds, but is considered high class. Also, non-rhotic accents appear to be less and less common these days. When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, New York, pretty much every other adult had a stereotypical Long Island/New York accent. Nowadays, it's really only the older generations that still speak that way.
Many of the "dumb" accents seem to be dying off. The southern and west coast accents have been experiencing a decline as kids try not to be associated with those stereotypes.
It makes me so sad that people aren't speaking those accents anymore. I have always loved the accents of New York, Jersey, etc.
Though the *upper-class* East Coast accents, your J. Thurston Howell or Charles Emerson Winchester dialect, were also non-rhotic and coded as high-class.
...Also, the Southern accents that code as "plantation aristocrat holding a mint julep" are the non-rhotic ones, whereas "cowboy" or "hillbilly" tend to be rhotic.
It's because we DO use the "R" sound, it's just more muted than the American "R". Personally I hate the strong US r sound since it's so obnoxious.
Star Trek gave their head engineer a Scottish accent, to the extent he is called Scotty. I'd say that was to make it something non-American that Americans would have no opinion on whatsoever to show the true diversity of the future.
James Doohan suggested the Scottish accent to Rodenberry because in his opinion the best engineers historically were the Scottish. Rodenberry initially didn't particularly care about the character and let Doohan decide the name and background, the character was included as a favour to the pilot's director on behalf of Doohan.
With the amount of Americans that claim to be 1/ whatever the hell scottish I’d say they’re not exactly neutral on the topic of Scots.
Scottish ship builders and engineers have been well known since the 1500's.
Gene Roddenberry said in an interview that he wanted a Scottish accent for the chief engineer because he thought of Scots as being historically known as shipwrights.
The irony is that James Doohan was from Canada and didn't speak with a Scottish accent out of character.
Diversity... reminds me of a joke. An Arab sheikh takes his son to see the US president. The sheikh says Mr President, my son says there are black people in Star Trek, there are Russians, there are Japanese, but there are no Arabs. Mr President, why are there no Arabs in Star Trek? The President says well you see son, it's set in the future.
I would say the 3 types of southern accent you pointed out should all be considered distinct accents, as they all come from different geographic regions of the United States. The “southern hick” accent comes from Appalachia, the “southern belle” accent is associated with the Deep South, and the “cowboy accent” obviously comes from Texas. They are also very different stereotypes, as you said.
I think the "snooty" accent goes hand in had with the British accent in American culture. I think the snooty accent is merely evocative of how Americans view the upper escholns of society as having an affinity with a certain "euroness." Most new Englanders speak similar to Bostonioans.
Also, I think the point about southern accents is right, in that sometimes it's used to describe "hicks" and other times it's used to describe the gentry class. Even more specifically, the Appalachian accent is used for hicks, while the deep southern accent is used for the gentry or antebellum themes.
I think the New England/Boston accent is also gradually fading, replaced in younger generations by something more like a "General American" broadcaster accent.
Here native speakers from America with English type regional accents ua-cam.com/video/bXjU60a8dmI/v-deo.html
@@MattMcIrvin Outside of Portland there is still a distinct native Mainer accent that is going strong to current day.
Echelons
The surfer dude/valley girl accent is definitely my favorite, it always makes me laugh. Shoutouts to Baltimore accents btw, they're not common in pop-culture but I think they're hilarious, it's almost like a fusion of northern and southern accents simultaneously. Please look up the "aaron earned an iron urn" video it's amazing
Philidelphia/South East Pa have some distinct accents as well but they sound ugly so the media never uses them lol. They just give philly characters new york accents like rocky
“Errn erned en erren ern.” What? “AA-RON EARNED AN IORN URN!”
Agreed.
@@jacobjones4766 Philly, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh form a triangle of ugly but fascinating accents in that part of the country, and i wish they got used more in media
I like the New Yorker Accent!
I speak as an adult with a variation on the preppy type, but my native accent, as well as that of my dad and my mom’s parents, are variations on the type of working-class accent you hear in the Rust Belt. In my grandparents’ case, they were from Chicago and Cleveland, but in my hometown of Pasadena, most of the city’s original settlers came from that region so the accent that has persisted is a weird mutated version of that. I’m surprised you didn’t bring it up; I would generally associate it with being naïve or unambitious.
ETA: the closest British equivalent I can think of is Yorkshire: gert men in Victorian rowhouses who used to work in big steel mills and eat lots of sausage.
I've watched quite a few of your videos. I've noticed you have a very British pronunciation for words like "bath", "grass" or "chance" but otherwise you sound like an educated New Yorker which I assume is part of the Jewish ethnolect of English, especially in your "coffee" or "daughter" and "fought" vowels.
@@TheSwordofStorms It’s not. There isn’t really a Jewish ethnolect of English unless you’re Hasidic, beyond the simple fact that like 1/3 of American Jews just happen to live in New York- but none of my family do or ever did. For some reason, when I started doing TV work in university I instinctively switched into this Orson Welles kind of voice and now I can’t stop unless I’m with my family for prolonged periods or heavily intoxicated.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
this is one of the best videos on accents/linguistics ive ever seen. incredible material! i think you should do a part 2 or something to go deeper into this
Still thinking of examples, but wanted to mention that I loved the movie "sorry to bother you"--I'm black and it was actually a very compelling message--but I didn't super know the premise beforehand, and I watched it with my mom. It was a bonding experience, but damn was it strange lol
Of course this is because I’m from Texas and we like to self aggrandize (everything IS bigger here 😜), but I can always hear the difference between the more Appalachian southern accent (like the clip from the Simpsons), the “Texan” southern accent (similar to the 3rd type of accent you present. Cowboy-esq), and the Deep South southern accent (Blanche from Golden girls.)
An obscure American accent that i find fascinating is the Cajun accent found in Louisiana. It’s a southern/French/creole hybrid accent that is usually only used in pop culture when characters are from that area (the firefly from Princess and the Frog, or the accents in the movie The Waterboy.) It has its own unique flavor and is fascinating.
Fun video! I really have been enjoying your content! Thanks ❤️💡
I wouldn't say that's about self-aggrandizement so much as it is about simple familiarity. Basically the same reason Americans in general have trouble distinguishing for example British vs Australian or even Irish vs Scottish accents (ymmv of course). We just don't hear them often enough to really pay attention to the nuance, and most of what we do hear is coming from cliched stylizations in pop culture, where the accents are not always used in a manner related to their real-world inspirations (as most of the examples in the video show) but also are not particularly careful to be exactly perfect about the characteristics of the particular accent, leading to a lot of crossover and just plain incorrect speech patterns relative to the accent they're aiming for, which in turn makes it that much harder again for unfamiliar listeners to distinguish.
Then why don't people from Austin have a big Texan accent?
@@sammiller6631 Well… lost in Austin these days are transplants. But I still hear some accent from those who’s family are from the south.
@@INTJosh I mean, if we want to get deep into the weeds and semantics, I can see your point. However, many in Texas claim their accent as southern… and much of my family in Appalachia self identify their accent “redneck.” What we call these things has little effect on the truth that they’re related.
An argument could be made that the variance in accents could have to do with the clash of Southern culture with the historic immigrant groups in a given region… like Cajun (French, Creole, and Southern) or Appalachian (scot-Irish and southern).
Of course these are generalizations because it’s the only way to speak about cultural trends like accents. Those not from the US south will have trouble distinguishing these accents from one another, so speaking in generals can help them differentiate.
I think a tell of a false "Southern" accent is that it doesn't actually sound like any real Southern accent (Texan, Appalachian, Midlands, Gulf Coast, Atlantic, etc.). There is a lot more variety in Southern speech than people are used to considering because television simplifies the identity. There is a similar phenomenon for Northern accents. I talk to people about the Pacific Northwest, Utah, North Mountain West, Plains, etc. accents and usually get puzzled looks because people aren't used to making these differentiations even though (to my ear) there are noticeable speech patterns for each one.
I've noticed how in kids movies, they often cast British actors like John Oliver or James Corden to play these really obnoxious and/or flamboyant characters. Examples include Biggie and High-five from Trolls and the Emoji Movie who're played by Corden; and Vanity Smurf and Zazu from the Smurfs and Lion King remake who're played by Oliver.
Meanwhile, an example of the Preppy accent I can think of might be Charles Winchester from M*A*S*H.
Hi, I am from Malaysia and in future JJ videos I would like to provide an Asian or specifically ethnic Chinese perspective on the issues presented as it may not be known to most north Americans.
For Chinese popular culture media, there is not much difference between accents spoken by characters. However, to characterise that someone is either old, uneducated or a gangster, they will speak Mandarin in a Hokkien accent or whatever accent that is non-standard. They will also speak in an entirely different Chinese dialect. Otherwise, in Taiwanese shows everyone speaks in a general Taiwanese accent, which is the same for Mainland China.
However, in Malaysia, the characters in dramas either speak in an accent that is close to the Taiwanese accent but not exactly, because the Taiwanese accent is perceived to be more prestigious than the Malaysian Chinese accent which doesn't sound elegant. However, characters who are supposed to be more hillbilly or rural will speak in a Malaysian accent or a whole nother dialect. UA-camrs in Malaysia don't attempt to change their Malaysian accent for most videos because I think their appeal is that they are real life people and not faraway celebrities.
Here are a list of accents that are more popular and are used in real life:
1. Standard Mainland Chinese
2. General Taiwanese
3. Malaysian
4. Singaporean (Singaporeans who are good in Chinese will sound more like Taiwanese but with a Malaysian base (basically slightly less hillbilly than Malaysian), while those who are bad in Chinese will sound more someone trying to learn Chinese, while maybe the older generation speaks like Malaysians)
5. Cantonese/Hong Kong (although Nigel Ng is from Malaysia, Uncle Roger speaks in this accent)
6. Northerner/Northeast of China
That's all I can think of. Not many other accents. And my description may not be accurate because I have less experience.
i just found your channel and ive been obsessed w it! its incredibly interesting to learn about the culture i live in from an outside perspective. i dont think its truly possible to understand a culture without knowing it inside and out. its things i never wouldve even thought about being uniquely american that really interest me.
Off the top of my head, Silence of the Lambs makes a lot of use of accents. Hannibal is sort of generically villainous European accent, and Clarice's repressed Southern accent shows the awkward position that she's in in life: halfway between where she grew up and where she wants to be.
It’s hilarious to listen to Hopkins’ posh English accent in that film and then hear him revert to his Welsh lilt when thanking his friends and family after winning his Oscar
I think in the movie Hopkins was going for a mid-Atlantic to cover his Welsh accent.
I forget what it was called (maybe mid-Atlantic?) but there was a movement in the US to sound more cultured that kind of spawned that generic European accent back in the 30s and 40s that Hopkins draws from.
@@ifeeltiredsleepy I think I read that he was inspired by mid-Atlantic accents and HAL-9000. Definitely a unique fictional accent for a man "from Baltimore", especially since the show has made him...Lithuanian?
@@Steadyaim101 It was an actual accent that was made to bridge the US and England it was basically the posh American accent
I know some other comments touched on it, but I feel like the trans-atlantic accent is a big one, and one often just confused for a "fake british accent". I remember when the legend of zelda breath of the wild came out a bunch of people criticized zelda for using this voice, despite the fact that it makes perfect sense to translate the higher class japanese she was using into the accent that was specifically designed to be for high class people.
touhou
I've just started replaying BotW, coincidentally. Zelda's accent isn't Transatlantic, it's "American doing a shaky impression of a posh English accent". Maybe it's more noticeable if you're British and used to hearing both real-life speech and bad impressions in media. I just wish they'd hired an English voice actor if that's the style they wanted.
When I had a phone-based job and tried to really enunciate clearly for people, I ended up with southerners thinking I sounded british. The hilarity being southern accents come from northern british dialects.
Having watched cartoons translated in Romanian, my native language, for most of my childhood, I find it very interesting how a lot of these accents were also carried over from English. I don’t quite know how to explain it 🤔 while most of the vocabulary and grammar particularities associated with each of the stereotypes couldn’t be translated, the voice actors clearly did everything they could to sound as close to the original performances as possible so one could identify each of the American accents in their respective Romanian translations (I’m sure this is also true for other languages).
Also, another example of an evil British voice: Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars: Rebels, played by Lars Mikkelsen (or really any Imperial Officer from the Star Wars movies lol)
Yeah, the Americans love using us as villains, even as German and Russian ones. 🤣
Great avatar, by the way, mate!
@@Beedo_Sookcool aww 😂 also, I can return the compliment 🫢🫢
I know what you mean, It is kind of the same situation with latin American spanish. Anyone could identify a "Black character Voice" (like the one from the actor who always dubs Will Smith in every movie) although it doesnt sound remotely close to what an actual Black latin american person from, lets say, the Colombian Caribbean would sound like. It is just a made up accent specifically made to translate the "Black people from American TV" vibe.
Throw in my insights
1. The Basic Southern Accent- The South and Texas both have a both a lot of military bases and traditionally more soldiers enlisted from these regions per capita. So the stereotype is really soldier = Southerner.
2. African American Accent- This is about Jazz from Transfomers. This might been a mild shout out to original (G1) cartoon's voice actor, the late Scatman Carruthers. The G1 cartoon also had tough guy veteran Ironhide with a Southern accent (done by French Canadian Peter Cullen who more well known for being Optimus Prime) and the small bully Rumble with a New Yorker accent (done by Frank Weller who done everyone from Megatron, robotic voiced Soundwave, Fred from Scooby Doo, and many, many others).
3. New York Jewish accent - This is more older than the Nanny. I usually think Mel Brooks when I hear this accent.
4. British- A lot of peoples' first exposure to British TV in the pre-internet days was PBS. So the first exposure many a Yank got to British TV was either educational TV or John Cleese from Monty Python or maybe Fawlty Towers.
For southern Accent, Old Man McGucket has the first version and with the southern Gentleman, Benoit Blanc from Knives Out is an example
Great vid. A few others that come to mind are the "Texas Oilman" accent, which is a very bombastic version of the Southern Accent: the Boston accent, which is similar to the New York accent but with a more "Irish" flair. The Cajun accent, which is regional to southern Louisiana and rarely seen in pop culture. Variations of the ESL accent which are usually associated with one race or another: the "Asian" accent, the "Indian" accent, the "Latin American" accent being the big ones that come to mind.
The "Texas Oilman" accent, as you call it,;># not a Southern accent. It's a Texan accent, which is distinct.
Sandy Cheeks from the Spongebob Squrepants franchise is the perfect example of a characterization of a "Cowboy" accent. I'm glad you mentioned her!
I feel Sandy being a Cowgirl archetype is a perfect foil for the mostly homogenous "inner city pedestrian" archetype of most of the fish characters in the show.
I had no idea that Michigan had a distinct accent until after I came home from my first enlistment in the US Navy. During my first few years, I ended up adopting an amalgamated accent that was largely based on the "General American Accent" that is really common in professions where everyone comes from different places. Now, living in Wisconsin, I can't *not* notice the variety of dialects.
After many years in the US Army, some handy “rural” or “Southern” phrases have made a home in my personal lexicon. For instance, I almost always say “you all” for the 2nd person plural pronoun. I like the way it sounds better than “youse guys.”
I'm from Michigan and didn't know we had an accent until I enlisted and got made fun of for it in the southern and western states l was stationed in 😂😭
@@GoshRae EVERYONE has an accent. It's just that when you're with people who speak the same way, it's not noticeable.
In the Game Hades, all the Gods of Olympus speak with various south British Accents, whereas the Gods of the Underworld (excluding Hades and his son) speak in a more American accent
Hades even has a line where he admits explicitly making sure his son grew up with his “olympian” accent
I have on occasion seen Japan's Kansai dialect portrayed in translation as an exaggerated Brooklyn/Bronx/New Jersey 'HEY, I'M WALKIN' HERE' 🤌 kind of thing. The Kansai dialect is celebrated, but it is undeniably considered more low-brow, crude and comical by those not from the Kansai region. Kanto Japanese is 'standard' and Kansai Japanese sounds like delinquents and comedians, so the somewhat snobbish Tokyoite thinking goes. I don't necessarily find the choice of New York/New Jersey to portray Kansai dialect unfitting, and I am curious about other potential examples of a work in translation trying to approximate the feel of a distinct way of speaking from the original language into one that a reader/viewer of the translated version would be familiar with in their own language.
I know I saw an anime once where there was a character from a rural region who would occasionally slip into a kind of "hick" Japanese. The translator writing the subtitles transcribed it as a strong Appalachian accent.
For the Anime Azumanga Daioh's dub. They made Osaka, a character who's whole thing is that she speaks in a Kansai dialect(hence the nickname), Southern. So I think it's just all across the board.
My favorite example (I think anyway) is "Joey" from Yu-Gi-Oh. The famous Brooklyn rage and nyeh from the abridged series showing how silly it was
@@maddie9602 That is also true of how Lotta Heart was translates in the Ace Attorney games. Mandelin, the writer of the Legends of Localization site JJ mentioned, let me know about this.
I think in general, a New York or maybe a Chicago accent or something fits Kansai quite well when translated into English. The one I feel like I saw the most though when I lived in the US was translating a Kansai dialect into a Southern or some other more rural accent, which I find not fitting at all. While Kansai isn't the standard dialect, it is centered around a massive urban area, so it hits me as strange to equate the accent of someone from a place like Osaka to rural US. I think as you mentioned a bit, that it probably stems from a bit of a snobbish Tokyo attitude. I've even heard people from Tokyo say that all other parts of Japan outside of Tokyo are rural.
The amount of care and research that goes into these videos is astounding. Thank you for being both informative and entertaining; this channel truly is a treasure.
I had always heard the anecdote that the use of British accents specifically for villains was mostly popularized by Star Wars, which used predominantly British actors for the Imperial characters because simply because that was where the set was and it was much cheaper to hire local actors. I'm not sure if this was the driving force of this trope or merely a factor, though.
22:07 As a new Jerseyan who speaks with the accent and lived in a time when ‘The Jersey Shore’ was on air, you are right. The biggest stereotype I think of is that of someone loud, obnoxious, vain, and “unsophisticated” when it’s used in pop culture
Also conveys a hard working nature and being blue collar/working class. It's unfortunately stereotyped as low class sometimes. I wish it wasn't as I speak this way, but when I travel I downtimes get interesting comments on the way I speak. It does seem to be way more unknown outside of America ofc.
When you brought up the ESL Accent, the first character I thought of was Rolf from Ed Edd n Eddy. He has this vaguely Eastern European accent and a lot of the jokes involving him are about how he doesn’t understand American culture
I always thought Rolf was from the subcontinent i.e. preferably India.
@@tevinrobinson4871 idk, he names his livestock European names like Viktor and Wilfred, so I feel like he’s probably European.
As a tangent to your point on different nationalities, it's interesting how German, Russian and South African accents are shorthand for "villain"
A German accent can also be shorthand for mad scientists, often a villain but not always
I'd get German and Russian, but I wonder what's the context for associating South African accent with villainy in films. Is it because their English sounds "distorted" to American ears?
South African? What's an example of that accent being used as shorthand for villain? I can think of plenty Russian and German villains in American pop culture, but not South African.
@@ionasappy2732 no it’s because these accents are formed from the perceived evils of the societies they come from, therefore the violent racism of the apartheid government was translated into seeing the accent of white South Africans as “evil” in the same way high class southerner is synonymous with racist as well.
@@flyingrat492 what examples of South African bad guys are there?
As soon as the preppy accent came up, DOTT George Washington came to mind. I’m so happy J.J. mentioned it!
It is interesting that the whole localization of, especially cartoons, in terms of these accents also have to be translated. Like, I saw an interview once with the actor who did the Danish voice for Timon from the Lion King. He said in that interview that he used an accent from a certain region of Copenhagen. As, that was sort of the thing that'd most closely communicate the same thing as Nathan Lane's sort of New York accent.
I think the movie "Love, Actually" would be a good example of this, where the one British character goes to America because he thinks his accent will make him appear attractive, which it immediately does to a group of girls who speak with a Fargo acceent.
I like how for the Black Accent you included two characters by Phil Lamar. Which led me to remember his character Samaria Jack, which was a "wise mystical kung-fu master Asian" Japanese accent.
Phil Lamar voicing characters with Asian accents is a weird trend in recent animation.
One of my favorite examples of accents informing characters is in the original yugioh duel monsters localization, where despite all being from the same region, many characters have very different accents, which was a choice they made to replace exactly the different versions of I and me in Japanese that you mention at the beginning.
In British media, characters with American accents are sometimes presented as "hotshots" such as Rocky in Chicken Run or Tom Sawyer in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Also Pierce Brosnan is Irish, not British
Irish is british because it is within the british isles, I think you mean it isn't a uk accent which is true
@@sh4dowveil749 Historically, the term is British Isles, but the current political standard in documents drawn up between Ireland and the UK is to refer to them as "these islands." This is because 'British' has insoluble connections with the UK and UK citizenship - for example, certain citizens of Northern Ireland consider themselves British, because NI is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - British is synonymous with UK citizenship, presumably because of the historical union of Great Britain and Ireland and because there is no other national identity term for UK citizenship - if there was it might solve a lot of semantic arguing. However, they would not consider those in the North who think of themselves as Irish or citizens of the Republic of Ireland to also be British - the British and Irish identities are partially defined by not being the other. So, while there is a historio-geographical sense in which Ireland is a British island, the term simply isn't used that way when describing people and has the potential to cause great offence if it is. While, conversely, there are Irish accents which are simultaneously UK accents because part of the island of Ireland is in the UK and those accents are shared by those who consider themselves British and those who consider themselves Irish.
@@sh4dowveil749 Eire is not a British Isle
@@sh4dowveil749 Ireland is not British. It may be in the British Isles, but Britain and Ireland are different places
@@sh4dowveil749 Ireland is Irish not British.
I like the way that accents are used in Team Fortress 2 the video game and its shorts.. it's set in a rural American setting in I think like 1930s and so its quite stylized, but it includes a collection of different accents important to the American accent canon, and each character has a different accent and is characterized differently. I think it leaves out perhaps some important accents but as a silly collection of accents and stereotypes it serves its purpose perfectly.
1960s
Which short is it?
@@gringocolombian9919 The Meet the Team shorts released to introduce the game's characters
You have a nice subversion with demoman, an enormous black man who speaks with a thick Glaswegian accent.
A think a very interesting subversion of the Southern accent is the Engineer from Team Fortress 2. Being from the south I often hear people say my accent stands out amongst a crowd, sometimes negatively. But the Engineer’s accent showcases how a southern accent doesn’t equate to ignorance, since in the game he is seen as being one of the smartest members of his team. Having a southern drawl and making various southern phrases during gameplay gives him a very charming and welcoming feeling in a game about psychopathic mercenaries.
Makes sense that engineers would be associated with the South and Texas in particular given their association with the oil industry and aerospace/defense. Or at least that is why I assume we see more of those types of characters with Sandy and Engineer.