Help me get a Cockney, No a West Country? Nope, just Wheatley's accent.

[Maralais]

I know this sounds weird, so let me explain.

Well, English is not my native language and here in my country, I'm one of the few lucky who has something similar to an accent(the others just disregard phonetic rules completely, as seen here (http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=385) ), for my case, similar to RP(probably due to the training books we'd do on classes, and I first started using that accent because I thought it was funny, but it got stuck on me. Ironic.) yet it's probably a mix of all the regional accents in the UK.

So, to fix this mixture of accents, I want to use just one of them, and I think I like the way Stephen Merchant speaks as Whatley on Portal 2. If you could advise tv shows where people use that accent, tips, anything, it'd be nice.

[Brother Oni]

Unless you want to be lynched, NOT **** Van Dyke from Mary Poppins.

Most films by Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) have plenty of examples of the accent.

The 1968 Oliver! musical film has Bill Sykes and Nancy with good accents.

[ForzaFiori]

Corporal Newkirk, on Hogan's Heroes, uses a cockney accent (I'm pretty sure that it isn't Richard Dawson real accent though)

Pretty much anything with a lower class english person in it tends to use cockney (at least in America). Badger from Firefly(I think), Charlie Chaplin in Shanghai Knights, any movie version of Oliver Twist is sure to be loaded with it.

[Archonic Energy]

... go to London.

what, it's a valid answer.

[Maralais]

Well, it's on my long-term plans...

[Zen Monkey]

It will partly depend on which era. For modern, Jason Statham movies and Lily Allen songs are good for that working class inflection. Also, there's the rhyming slang, if you want to speak in recognizable words but indecipherable meaning.

However, you could also play with the region a bit. You could go for Birmingham, like Ozzy Osbourne or Lemmy von Motorhead, or maybe Liverpool like John Lennon.

(I may be mixing up places, but the idea is still that you can play with the regions a bit when just doing it for fun instead of accuracy)

[Kobold-Bard]

It will partly depend on which era. For modern, Jason Statham movies and Lily Allen songs are good for that working class inflection. Also, there's the rhyming slang, if you want to speak in recognizable words but indecipherable meaning.

However, you could also play with the region a bit. You could go for Birmingham, like Ozzy Osbourne or Lemmy von Motorhead, or maybe Liverpool like John Lennon.

(I may be mixing up places, but the idea is still that you can play with the regions a bit when just doing it for fun instead of accuracy)

Liverpool's accent isn't the one the Beatles had anymore. It's now the Scouse accent, and trust me when I say the OP doesn't want one of those.

[Traab]

Just say the words garn, birds, luv, and wot alot. You will be close enough. :p

[Kislath]

Watch the movie My Fair Lady. It's not only a great movie that everyone should see anyway, it has some strong cockney examples in it.

[Pentachoron]

Watch the movie My Fair Lady. It's not only a great movie that everyone should see anyway, it has some strong cockney examples in it.

+1

Basically just do the exact opposite of what they do to Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady

[Om]

So, to fix this mixture of accents, I want to use just one of them, and I think I like Cockney the most(Wheatley from Portal 2 uses it too)Stephen Merchant doesn't have a cockney accent. AFAIK its more of a West Country lilt, which makes sense given that he's from Bristol

And trying to 'learn' cockney is probably a really bad idea. Its more likely to come out as mockney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockney)

[Maralais]

Well, then I should restate my wish as "the accent Stephen Merchant speaks. Kinda." because I also watched some videos about how to have a Cockney accent today, and they were... Different from what I expected:smallbiggrin:

[Brother Oni]

You want a westcountry accent now? :smallconfused:

Aside from wanting to sound like a complete yokel, is there a particular one you're after? Bristolian, Wiltshire, Devonian and Cornwallian accents are all slightly different (I may be biased as this is where I live). There's also Welsh which isn't too far from here, but is also audibly distinct.

For examples of the devonian accent, try and find youtube clips of the newer Cadbury's Caramel bunny adverts as she speaks in archetypical devonian.

Watching the English version of Too Human will acquaint you with the Bristolian accent (although I have no idea why you want one).

I can't think of a decent internet example of the Wiltshire or cornwallian accent.

Alternately, talk like a pirate as that's not too far off a westcountry accent due to historical reasons (well a cornish one anyway).

Edit: Ah, Stephen Marchant's accent. When I get home, I'll see if I can find better sources for you as my work computers have no speakers.

[Om]

Aside from wanting to sound like a complete yokel...I've always thought that was an unfair stereotype. Not least because I find the lilting accents of that part of the country (plus the Welsh) to be far more tolerable than the hideous Estuary English that dominates further east

[Thufir]

Stephen Merchant doesn't have a cockney accent. AFAIK its more of a West Country lilt, which makes sense given that he's from Bristol.

But the stereotypical West Country accent is the sort of farmer "Ooh arrr,"


Aside from wanting to sound like a complete yokel,

Yokel. That was the word I was looking for.

Note I say stereotypical. I realise not everyone from that region lives on some farm out in the sticks, that the West Country is not entirely rural, and that they're not all backwards, insular, inbred yokel farmers (I'm exaggerating somewhat, just in case that's not clear). But that's the thing which comes to mind if someone talks about West Country accents.
If you referred instead to a Bristol accent, I wouldn't know off the top of my head what accent that was, but I wouldn't mentally jump to that stereotype either. Also of course it's a more specific accent, and somewhat different to the stereotypical West Country accent.

[Maralais]

Oh great, this is confusing...

Well, what I want is basically this: Something close to RP, yet is actually a cultural dialect. Though it seems every accent that I think is this turns out to be something quite different from RP(as in, quite hard to understand)

[Brother Oni]

I realise not everyone from that region lives on some farm out in the sticks, that the West Country is not entirely rural, and that they're not all backwards, insular, inbred yokel farmers (I'm exaggerating somewhat, just in case that's not clear).

Unless you're from Tavistock, where it's true. :smalltongue:
(I'm not actually exaggerating too much - there's a number of physical... similarities shall we say, that people in Tavistock and other small rural towns/villages tend to have).

Anyway, link time:

Cadburys Bunny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA52tVIBEbw&feature=related)
The Wurzels - Combine Harvester (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btEpF334Rtc)

The Brizzle accent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgUeY1BExk)

Cornwall accent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW23Zd4X_DI)

Actually that last link led me to this guy EMG Colonel who has a number of old recordings of various regional accents, which may be helpful.

[Maralais]

Unless you're from Tavistock, where it's true. :smalltongue:
(I'm not actually exaggerating too much - there's a number of physical... similarities shall we say, that people in Tavistock and other small rural towns/villages tend to have).

Anyway, link time:

Cadburys Bunny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA52tVIBEbw&feature=related)
The Wurzels - Combine Harvester (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btEpF334Rtc)

The Brizzle accent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgUeY1BExk)

Cornwall accent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW23Zd4X_DI)

Actually that last link led me to this guy EMG Colonel who has a number of old recordings of various regional accents, which may be helpful.

Hmm, I might have a problem on my ears, but I think they sound quite similar to a Texan accent.

[TheBST]

Liverpool's accent isn't the one the Beatles had anymore. It's now the Scouse accent, and trust me when I say the OP doesn't want one of those.

As a Liverpudlian, I whole-heartedly agree.

Maralais, there really aren't any regional UK dialects similar to RP. RP is, generally speaking, the dialect of the upper class (and newsreaders). It's more about social status than region- you could be born in any part of the country and still speak in RP.

Anyway,this site (http://sounds.bl.uk/BrowseCategory.aspx?category=Accents-and-dialects) has a database of audio samples of UK dialects by region.Try picking the 'browse by map' option and have a browse around the South end of the country.