All About Accents

Arrrrrr, here be treasure! In this episode Lucas and Dani chat about where the stereotypical “pirate” accent comes from. They discuss which real-life accent inspired the “pirate” accent, as well as what accents the characters in famous shows like Pirates of the Caribbean or Our Flag Means Death speak with.Mentioned on this episode and useful resources:- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson- Treasure Island (1950)- Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)- Our Flag Means Death (2022-2023)

This episode is all about RHOTICITY and NON-RHOTICITY, or in other words: How some English accents pronounce every single R that exists in the spelling of words, while other accents skip some of those Rs. We discuss the historical journey of Rs in English and learn the rules of when to drop Rs in non-rhotic accents like RP.

In this episode, Dani and Lucas discuss Christopher Nolan’s latest work “Oppenheimer” by taking a closer look at the dialect and accent choices available when creating shows set in the past. They consider the trade-offs of historically accurate accents compared to modern-day accents, and apply this analysis to the accent work in "Oppenheimer", among other examples.

In this episode we focus on how we produce consonant sounds with our speech articulators. Lucas and Dani make lots of silly sounds trying tounderstand what our speech muscles are doing to produce consonant sounds for speech. We encourage everyone who’s listening to join us in this exercise and think about how YOU pronounce certain sounds. This exercise can be quite difficult, especially if (like most people) you’ve never thought about what your facial muscles are actually doing when you speak, so don’t worry if you’re finding it hard!Mentioned on this episode and useful resources:Simplified drawing of a person's face showing all important articulators

Dani and Lucas talk about the music of accents and how different accent speakers use their voice in a wide range of different ways. They talk about how the music, rhythm and intonation vary between major accents, and they touch on what vocal fry is (and how it’s not just a feature of Valley Girl Talk). They also discuss what makes French such a great language for rap music. Mentioned on this episode: - Johnny Lee Miller in Trainspotting

Dani and Lucas talk about how accents are intertwined with people’s identities and why this is an important aspect for actors to take to heart when approaching a new accent. Much of this episode’s content is based on the first P, "people", of the “4 Ps of Accent Work” framework by Knight-Thompson Speechwork (see https://ktspeechwork.org/about-the-work/ ) Shows discussed in this episode: - Stranger Things : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 - Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11852724/ - Big Night : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115678/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1a - Spencer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12536294/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1