Carson Becketts accent?

[Ar-Pharazon]

Would someone who's Scottish know what a Scottish accent sounds like?

To them, a proper Scottish accent wouldn't sound like an accent.

I can hear when non-American actors are butchering an American accent, like that guy from Avatar. So I'm sure others can do the same for their own native accents as well.

I suppose what I'm wondering is, does a Scottish person perceive a different Scottish accent the same way I would?

Probably impossible to really know.

 

[137th Gebirg]

How about all the Northern Irish characters in the current season of Sons of Anarchy? They seem authentic, or at least incomprehensible enough that I'd assume they are.

That one did throw me for a loop. I have no problem understanding most people with Scottish accents (and I always thought Beckett's was pretty good), but these Irish folks are damn near incomprehensible to me. I actually had to turn on close-captioning to understand what was being said when I was shocked to realize I was missing critical parts of the story. The irony is that James Cosmo (the Catholic priest) is a well-known Scottish actor, whom I really like (Highlander, Train Spotting, Braveheart, etc.) and Titus Welliver (Jimmy O'Phelan) is an amazing voice actor from Connecticut - his voices and impersonations in the extras disc for "Deadwood" make Rich Little look like an amateur.

Getting a little OT, but my prediction for that show:

Spoiler: Jax's Lineage

I'm thinking that Maureen Ashby is Jax's real mother. Nobody has ever asked the question how two non-blond parents (Gemma and JT) can have a very blond kid. That, plus Maureen referring to Jax as "JT's boy" and Gemma's defensive response "My boy", and finally Gemma's ominous prediction of "unturned stones" in Belfast.

 

[Listener4]

His accent seemed convincing to me. Not that I know anything about scottish accents.