Picard's British Accent

[Triskelion]

I've got no problem understanding accents - it's the idioms that leave me wondering! As well as word differences.

Words like "git" - in Britain, an insult, in USA, a verb you say to dogs.

I heard there was a Scottish element to Stewart's accent?

 

[DizzyMan]

I heard there was a Scottish element to Stewart's accent?

If there is, I’ve never heard it.

I do hear the Yorkshire in him though, now and again.

 

[Iamnotspock]

^ You can actually hear some of PS's flat vowels from time to time in TNG. When he says "boldy" in "to boldy go" you can hear it; also occassionally when he says "Picard" - particularly the "i" sound. Also, there's an episode where he says "Grand". That sounds decidely Yorkshire to me, too. Generally, though, his RP is very convincing.

There's the odd rhotic 'r' as well. Listen to his very first Captain's Log entry at the beginning of ...Farpoint, and the way he says Riker.

 

[WillsBabe]

^ I have that, too. I'm just across the Pennines from him.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I've got no problem understanding accents - it's the idioms that leave me wondering! As well as word differences.

Words like "git" - in Britain, an insult, in USA, a verb you say to dogs.

I heard there was a Scottish element to Stewart's accent?

Stewart's a Scottish name and he did do the "If it's not Scottish, It's crap!" sketch on SNL. So you might have conflated it from that.

 

[Timo]

1. Picard’s family could be from the UK. Just because he has the name ‘Picard’ doesn’t mean the family haven’t spent several generations living in the UK. One of his parents could have been completely British.

2. In the 24th century, the French accent may have died out in certain immigrant communities. There are immigrant communities in England today where the traditional English accent is rarely heard (people sound more Jamaican, or Indian).

3. Picard and his family are always speaking French. The Universal Translator turns French into English for the benefit of Picard's colleagues. And the default setting is that French (and perhaps also German, Polish and Italian) gets translated into British-accented rather than Californian-accented English, to symbolically indicate the general European origins of the speaker.

Of course, since the camera that Paramount sneaked into the 24th century was also equipped with a UT that had the default settings, that's what the audience hears even when Picard and his family are together without any non-French speakers around.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

or 4. as I said many posts ago, lots of French people speak English with an English accent because that's where they learn it. Generally, they posher they are, the more likely they are to have a flawless accent. A lot of rich kids go to school in England from all over the world.

 

[Timo]

...Although 4 wouldn't explain why the family speaks in British-accented English even in the privacy of the Picard home in France. So 4 would have to fold back to 1, where the Picard family did not learn British English as a foreign language, but in fact learned it as their native language.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Deckerd]

Not so, if you watch a documentary (or fly on the wall or whatever) of any monied family in Europe, they generally all speak excellent English. Beyond Europe it tends to be titled people or royalty. The other, much more common occurrence, is that if there is one or more member of the family who is of another native tongue then the children grow up truly bilingual.

I should of course have mentioned the other common occurrence: ex patriate families where again the children are truly bilingual.

 

[Krieg1981]

As we all know (and are used to), the Frenchman Captain Picard has a British accent. When TNG first aired, did that bother a lot of the fans?? Does anyone remember?

Absolutely not. I remember my father commenting on it....but that was as far as that went. No one really cared!

 

[Trekker4747]

As we all know (and are used to), the Frenchman Captain Picard has a British accent. When TNG first aired, did that bother a lot of the fans?? Does anyone remember?

Absolutely not. I remember my father commenting on it....but that was as far as that went. No one really cared!

No internet back then, no vast landscape of people sitting around at their desks bitching about things.

Though, I'm sure some UserNet forums had some helpings of bitching.

 

[WillsBabe]

^ We still had fan clubs, though, and letterzines, that kind of thing. There were still plenty of people doing plenty of bitching. It just took us a lot longer to have conversations than it does now!

 

[roguephoenix]

As we all know (and are used to), the Frenchman Captain Picard has a British accent. When TNG first aired, did that bother a lot of the fans?? Does anyone remember?

about as much as a british-accented betazoid, american-accented aliens, illogical vulcan. the regular stuff.

 

[Longinus]

...Although 4 wouldn't explain why the family speaks in British-accented English even in the privacy of the Picard home in France. So 4 would have to fold back to 1, where the Picard family did not learn British English as a foreign language, but in fact learned it as their native language.

No, they actually speak French amongst themselves, just like aliens speak Alienese. Actors however speak English, because Americans don't like to read sub-titles.

 

[Longinus]

Also, many French people do not have "french accent" when they speak English, and having a British accent makes more sense than having an American accent.

 

[captcalhoun]

PS is quoted in the TNG companion saying that they tried him with ze, 'ow you say, french accent, non? and it was crap.

 

[votd]

^ I suppose it's a case of taking a really good actor and then negating his talent by making him sound like a complete tit, i.e. French ;-)

 

[Roshi]

A lot of French people speak English with an English accent. It's not surprising since they learn their English in the UK. I'm surprised you think it's surprising.

Bingo! We're taught by teachers who have learned English in England. We're very few with American accent (or what we think is the American accent )!
And besides, Britain is not that far away!

 

[Cali]

I think we need more British-accented characters in Star Trek, it was great to have Patrick Stewart.

 

[WillsBabe]

^ I think until Picard the only British accent we'd ever heard on Trek was the guy on the Reliant (at least if memory serves it was the Reliant).