The American Accent

[Methuselah Flint]

When I first heard Andrew Lincoln speak with his natural British accent, sounding nothing like Rick Grimes, I was like.....

But getting back to The Shat, I saw a 1970s Columbo episode with him in it and I didn't notice any obvious difference between his accent on Columbo and his accent on Star Trek

I'm probably misremembering. Nimoy's Columbo was different though.

 

[Mudd]

It has less to do with actors' natural accents - most all the folks in Trek have training - as the way the dialogue is written for most of the Trek shows. They used to describe it as auditioning actors for their comfort with "heightened dialogue" or, as Marina Sirtis memorably put it, "We don't converse in Star Trek, we hit our marks and declaim."

 

[jaime]

It has less to do with actors' natural accents - most all the folks in Trek have training - as the way the dialogue is written for most of the Trek shows. They used to describe it as auditioning actors for their comfort with "heightened dialogue" or, as Marina Sirtis memorably put it, "We don't converse in Star Trek, we hit our marks and declaim."

There were more Shakespearian actors in Trek than there are in Shakespeare now. (Technically untrue, I believe the standard audition still requires a Shakespeare piece over here.)

 

[Forbin]

Kelly who?

Yes.

 

[Forbin]

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.

Shatner is from Montreal, Doohan from Vancouver. At 2295 miles/3693 kilometers apart I assume their 'natural' accents must be somewhat different.

Wait, there are places inside Canada? It's not just... Canada?? :O

 

[Kor]

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.

Also, there is no single "American accent". There are hundreds of them.

As for toning it down: Nimoy was from Boston, so he would have had to tone it down a bit (you wouldn't really want a Vulcan speaking with a thick Boston accent ). But De Kelley kept his Southern accent, and most of the other actors kept theirs as well.

Doohan, OTOH, ran through like a dozen possible accents before he picked Scottish. And who knows how Walter Koenig came up with his (imho, overly broad) Russian accent...

I believe Koenig said he based it on the way his father spoke. His parents have been described as "Lithuanian Russian Jewish" (source).

Kor

 

[USS Triumphant]

Kelly who?

You know, that Doctor lady.

Vahl-cahns are wicked smahrt.

Pahk the stahship in Shikahr Shipyahd.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Captain. Request pahmission to divaht to Jahdan Mahsh."

 

[MGagen]

My first visit to Boston, back in the 80s: We had been driving from Indiana, and our last stop was somewhere in eastern Ohio. Arriving in Framingham, we heard our first native speaker. We had asked him if there was any public transportation into Boston. His reply was:

Well, yah pahk ya cah at tha Jawdahn Mahsh and take tha trahm inta Bahstahn...

I almost cracked up very rudely, but thankfully I kept a straight face. I am sure my flat midwestern sounded like a deep southern drawl to him.

I love that we still hold on to our regional distinctives.

 

[cgervasi]

Shatner is Canadian (as was Doohan). FWIW.

Shatner sounds American to me, a very "neutral" sounding mix of the West coast and the inland north. I don't hear Canadian except in a few words.

 

[T'Bonz]

My daughter and her family have lived in Boston for at least 10 years. I wonder if my grandson will develop a Boston accent.

I've lived away from Pittsburgh for almost 40 years but I still have a (light) Pittsburgh accent.

 

[C57D]

Even removing Trek from it, this thread is quite informative.
As a native West Londoner I am used to the myriad of UK accents. I can even tell West, East and South London accents apart, and the vast number of UK regional accents vary from vastly individual, to only a native can tell them apart.
So I guess my question is to native North Americans - how diverse are your accents?

 

[Phaser Two]

Nimoy uses broad A (ah) vowels early in S1. To sound a bit different from the others and emphasize his otherness, I believe he said.

Good catch. I don't think it's just S1, though. Spock always refers to the transporter as the "TRAHNS-porter" and pronounces "been" as "BEAN," as in DotD, about intraship beaming - "it has rarely BEAN done," etc. I always knew this was affected and assumed it was to do just as you said.

 

[johnnybear]

Shatner has always sounded very American to us over here! Despite him being a Canadian! Almost like he's trying to fit in a bit too much as it were!
JB

 

[Relayer1]

Not hundreds. A couple dozen at most.

In the U.K., on the other hand, the number of distinct regional accents may well be in the triple digits.

I live and was born in the Black Country but work in Birmingham. The two regions have related but very different accents.

Although many pronunciations are similar, Birmingham, or 'Brummie' is rather sing-song, very up and down and rather jocular. Black Country is very flat, verging towards monotone and somewhat deadpan.

I live seven miles from where I work.

 

[Marsden]

Shatner sounds American to me, a very "neutral" sounding mix of the West coast and the inland north. I don't hear Canadian except in a few words.

sabotage. offensive. I thought there was one more, too.

On the topic of accents but not Star Trek, Karl Urban seems to completely change his speaking pattern to the role, he doesn't even sound like himself at all, but when he was Judge Dredd he said 13 as thirdeen. Is that Australian or is it (probably) an American dialect. He also said Americ-er but I think that is normal in parts of New England. I remember JFK said Afric-er.

 

[Phaser Two]

sabotage. offensive. I thought there was one more, too.

On the topic of accents but not Star Trek, Karl Urban seems to completely change his speaking pattern to the role, he doesn't even sound like himself at all, but when he was Judge Dredd he said 13 as thirdeen. Is that Australian or is it (probably) an American dialect. He also said Americ-er but I think that is normal in parts of New England. I remember JFK said Afric-er.

Urban also spoke pretty decent Russian in the second Bourne movie.

 

[1001001]

On the topic of accents but not Star Trek, Karl Urban seems to completely change his speaking pattern to the role, he doesn't even sound like himself at all, but when he was Judge Dredd he said 13 as thirdeen. Is that Australian or is it (probably) an American dialect. He also said Americ-er but I think that is normal in parts of New England. I remember JFK said Afric-er.

We met him in San Francisco last year. His natural accent (NZ) is very thick. He does a great job in different roles, I think.

When I was living in Australia, people thought it was funny (and for the most part, it was) to try an imitate an American accent. They all sounded like a bad John Wayne impression.

Slow, and lots of hard "R's".

 

[Christopher]

when he was Judge Dredd he said 13 as thirdeen. Is that Australian or is it (probably) an American dialect.

I'm not familiar with that pronunciation in American use. It might be an overcorrection based on Americans' tendency to pronounce "thirty" as "thirdy" -- maybe he assumed we did it for "thirteen" too, but we don't.

He also said Americ-er but I think that is normal in parts of New England. I remember JFK said Afric-er.

Perhaps, but it's a pretty common overcorrection by British etc. actors trying to do American accents -- they pronounce "er" and "a" the same way, so since an American accent means pronouncing "er" rhotically at the end of a word, they assume they need to rhoticize an "a" in that position too.

 

[Lance]

I love that we still hold on to our regional distinctives.

Your regional distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistence is futile.