Scottish/Irish Accents

[Jim H.]

Anyone know a good source to learn to have a real sounding accent?

Thanks,
Jim

[highlander_Daz]

Anyone know a good source to learn to have a real sounding accent?

Thanks,
Jim

glasgow or dublin !

[highlander_Daz]

Serious reply!

1 decide which one you want there is no "scottish accent"
and no "irish" accent there are legions of regional varition and Irish and Scots accents are soooo different despite sounding similar to the untrained ear,As Ive said before most Brits cant tell the difference between a Canadian and US accent Despite hoots of laughter from people on the other side of the pond its true. same with scots and irish to the unfamillier ear

Actors normally learn RP which is a very neutral English accent and then modify that to a regional variation RP sounds like captain Jean Luc Picard from star trek.

identify your country first then your region, Ireland -Ulster has a very hard accent like Gerry Adams but the republic has a softer accent like Terry Wogan

Scotland has a wide variation most times when you say Scots accent people assume Glasow is THE scots accent but its not really just the most common and in some ways its similar to Irish. but faster and trilled R sounds.

Irish tend to miss out Th so "three" becomes "tree" and the i sound is different so "sir" becomes "sor".

Glasgow is very fast and is vary hard to mimic even for scots from other areas, Billy Connely is "posh" slow Glasgow with the end of sentences declined and slightly trilled R sounds, as you head north the trill becomes more prounonced and can become a d sound so "brown" becomes "ber-down"
its not often rolled despite stereotypye mimicry.

Ewan Mcgregors accent is a good one to start with, its like a posh west coast accent, Sir seans is now very american posh Edinburgh so leave that one.
my advice is to contact a reputable acting coach with maybe scots connections or watch trainspotting and listen for the variations in each of the actors but idntify the common things like the oo sound is like hoop
good luck
it will require a LOT of work to be convincing . Johnny Depp in Finding Never land gets an honourable mention.

[Colin]

1 decide which one you want there is no "scottish accent" and no "irish" accent there are legions of regional varition and Irish and Scots accents are soooo different despite sounding similar to the untrained ear,As Ive said before most Brits cant tell the difference between a Canadian and US accent Despite hoots of laughter from people on the other side of the pond its true. same with scots and irish to the unfamillier ear

When I was in Scotland a friend of mine told me that people in Edinburgh even have a hard time figuring out what people in Glasgow are saying. I wouldn't have thought it true, had I not been to both places.

The same goes for Belfast and Dublin. Northern Ireland definitely sounds different than the Republic of Ireland. Of course it could be all the English tourists in Dublin (didn't care for the city myself).

As for Canadian and American accents, it is much the same. There are different accents between the two countries, and different accents within those countries. Try talking to someone from B.C and than someone from Newfoundland. You gotta love the Newfies, their dialect is similar to the pikies in Snatch.....a little mix of Scots, Irish, English, French, and American. Mind you a better group of people is hard to find, and I hear the same of the US south.

[highlander_Daz]

Glasgow is very fast and littered with slang and a weegie constantly asks you if you agree with them by making a i sound (Not I as in I but i as in pit) this "i" sound sometimes sounds like the word "Jimmy" hence you get the sterotypical Weegeis saying "See you Jimmy" and that type of stuff. So heres an example

"you all right i?, what you been dooing i?, just goin for a bletehr doon the pub what you think i?"
etc etc.

despite its reputation and bad press the weegies are very nice down to earth people but very hard to undrstand, I remember the BBC Pointlessly interviewing Kenny Dalgliesh after football matches and not being any the wiser, Kenny is one of the greatest player in history however he really has an accent that Alan Turing would struggle to decypher!.

[Andrew Breecher]

I love the Paisley accent. Perhaps that has something to do with a lovely lass from Paisley I once knew.... ;)

Andrew.

[auld argonian]

Having worked in the theatre and having therefore heard WAY too many really bad attempts at various accents....

...I'm almost convinced that you have to go there and live for about six months for it to rub off on you. My brother got sent to Ireland for three months by his company and came back with the "ending every sentence with an interrogative" thing...every sentence ended with "...isn't it?" or "...aren't they?" or something similar...it's a couple of years later and he still does it. I drink in a bar that has a healthy smattering of native Irish and they have the same tendency.

It's not just vowel sounds...it's cadence and intonation...rising and falling inflections...syntax...it's very complex and very subtle. That's probably why a native speaker can spot someone affecting an accent so easily.

best

auld argonian

[Tiran]

As for Canadian and American accents, it is much the same. There are different accents between the two countries, and different accents within those countries. Try talking to someone from B.C and than someone from Newfoundland. You gotta love the Newfies, their dialect is similar to the pikies in Snatch.....a little mix of Scots, Irish, English, French, and American. Mind you a better group of people is hard to find, and I hear the same of the US south.

I doon;t know what yur talking aboot, eh?

lol. Seriously, Ive worked with a few newfies, and most of them arent to hard to understand. When they are sober. Get a few drinks in them and they might as well be speaking greek. Can't understand a word, and theyre going a mile a minute.

[highlander_Daz]

I have allways been fascinated by accents, for me the master has to be Robert Carlyle, (Begbie- Trainspotting) as well as being one of the greatest actors produced by this fair country, his mastery of accents its astonishing, he was a Weegie in trainspotting, he added some Highland embellishments for Hamish Mcbeth, was a scouser in 51st State (I think it was called something different in the states) and recently played Hitler!!- and this was a truly chilling performance I urge anyone who enjoys watching a "real" actor to watch this, as opposed to wooden "superstar" performances.

In the city there is a beautiful chinese resteraunt I frequent, and its fun watching the tourists faces when the head waiter (whos father and mother came from Kowloon) greets guests in a perfect Highland accent !

I think the problem with Irish and Scots accents is peoples perception of them, especially overseas is very different to the reality, if people think that all Scots speak like groundskeeper Willie or Billy Connely then they are in for a dissopointment, there are some areas of Aberdeen where the accent is so flat and no trilled Rs. the the island accents as so different too.