though not always exact (like greek, latin or German), it has been put to good use by the likes of Shakespeare, Jefferson, & Gene Roddenberry (because of him, the whole Univrse speaks english ;-)) ok, I'll grant you that, sounds Brit, cheerio, old boy
Sorry, I haven't been keeping track of this thread since it went a bit dormant. That was my comment about borrowing from French. What kind of enlightenment about English were you looking for? Linguistics is one of my strong suits. I can write pages about it. And I suppose I have done so over the years on SciForums. If there's anything particular you want to know about, or if you're just curious about some facet of the language, just ask. Chances are good that I can tell you something interesting about it. Or if I don't I can distract you from my ignorance with something interesting about some related topic. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
OK. It's on the topic. You haven't commented on where you think the british got their accent. I already posted my theory about it a few posts ago.
Much of what we think of as the "accent" of spoken language is the cadence -- the length of the vowels, the aspiration of the consonants or lack thereof, the stress on the syllables, the spaces between the words, the change in pitch. Much of that is overridden by the demands of the music -- you have to make the syllables fit the beats, you learn to aspirate differently to avoid adding breathy noises to your singing, and the pitch is completely defined by the score. It's much more difficult to tell a Cockney from a Midlander from a Scotsman in singing than in speech, or a Bostonian from a Georgian from a Los Angeleño, or an Aussie from a Kiwi. But on top of that, there's always a "proper" accent for a particular genre of music. In the early 1960s, much rock and roll was sung by Americans with various Southern accents, so when the British invasion started, many British bands copied them. Things went full circle before long and British accents became not only accepted in Britain but admired in America. But now the pendulum has swung back. Americans in general don't seem to appreciate rock sung with a British accent any more, with an occasional spectacular exception like the Spice Girls. Shirley Manson was undoubtedly told that she needed to sound American for an American audience. It's not that hard, since as I said, most of an "accent" is overridden by the music itself. She just needed to change a few vowels to their American counterparts and she was done. If you think she's amazing, have you heard the darling of country & western, Keith Urban? He's Australian. In interviews he's pure Crocodile Dundee. But on record he's pure Garth Brooks. Aussies love American country music and there are plenty of native Aussie bands who play it. They've been practicing the accent for at least twenty years and they've really got it down.
