Armitage nescit
So, here’s a very short clip collection for Friday evening. I’m not sure what motivated this, exactly. I’d like to claim that it was some sort of musing on Socratic wisdom, but really, I suspect that it’s the sequence of two long “o” vowels in a row. Mr. Armitage’s “o” vowels are so different from mine and from most of the ones I hear that I pause every time I hear them. To me his “don’t know” sounds more like “dayent nayo.” Mmmmm.
And I admit: it brings me SO MUCH PLEASURE to create a title frame that says “starring RICHARD ARMITAGE.” Serious pleasure. If Servetus ran the zoo…
Me + Richard Armitage 
I take fiendish pleasure in some of the ways Richard Armitage pronounces words. Every time he says “Chapter Four” in The Lords of the North audiobook, I actually giggle with delight. 😀
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isn’t it interesting how these pronunciations get us?
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Great! I loved your video 🙂
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Thanks!
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As Australians, our “don’t know” often becomes “duh-NO”, written “dunno”. Harry at 0:36 comes closest to that. If I HAD to choose a favourite RA sound, it would be his “k”, especially the final.
@bccmee, I’m impatiently waiting for my Lords of the North cds to arrive, currently reading the lead-in books. I’ll listen out for “Chapter Four.” !
I’m looking forward to hearing his pronunciation of the Anglo-Saxon English place names, which I find difficult myself when I’m reading them. I have a feeling they will sound particularly divine rolling off his tongue 😛
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A lot of German fans like that “k” sound in Auslaut, too, for some reason.
He’s great at all those names, and I can’t imagine it was easy for him.
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I am from Poland and I like that “k”-especially the final.For me it sounds soft and tasty….I don’t know…
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Interesting. May be time for a “k” vid.
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I am guilty of that ‘k’ ;o)
I love the way he playes with language through his pronunciation. How creative and adorable ;o)))
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Great video sequence! Very much gnostic)
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Thanks, glad to be a gnostic this time 🙂
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I love his voice but I don’t really get the fascination with his accent. I suppose this is because I am English too.
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would you be embarrassed if I admitted that when your voice appeared at Frenz’s, I listened to it several times out of fascination with your accent? 🙂
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Very.
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OK, then I didn’t do it 🙂 And you can’t make me admit that I did 🙂
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Love this little vid! As an Aussie his pronunciations sound perfectly normal to me 🙂
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If you recorded yourself speaking I’d probably listen in fascination, too.
I admit that when I listen to the BBC World Report in the morning that’s one of the things I pay attention to — the accent of the newscaster.
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Skully, we don’t seem to have the regional variations in language here in Australia like they do in England and the States, which I find strange, considering what a vast country it is. A linguist would probably tell me I am completely wrong, but I can’t hear any.
I love the English accent in all its variations and I’m partial to the Irish accent as well. But for some strange reason the English Midlands accent is my absolute favourite! 😉
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I would agree we don’t have the extreme variation that UK and US do, but we definitely have regional accents. I can distinguish a South Australian accent, from a Sydney accent, from a North Qld accent for instance.
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Thanks for that tigerfilly, I obviously don’t listen carefully enough. Shame on me!! Apart from Cairns once, I haven’t been north of Noosa. Can you explain the differences for me?
When my husband and I have been in England, we are picked as Australians every time, but in Hawaii, we are usually mistaken for English or New Zealanders.
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I have a very hard time telling the difference between Bristol and Australian of any kind.
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Bristol in Britain?
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yeah.
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I was going to ask “Bristol, England?”, too, Karen, because it sounded a strange thing to say. Hmmmm, can’t imagine where you’ve heard a real Australian speak like that, Servetus. Don’t take any notice of anyone you see portrayed as an Australian on television or in the movies – at least 90% of them aren’t! Even Hugh Jackman exaggerated his accent in the movie “Australia” because that’s how Americans and English people expect us to speak! I saw an episode of the English show “My Family” last night and heard the most atrocitious fake “Australian” accent ever! Maybe you should Skype me or “skully” (who, unfortunately, spells like an American!!) or “mezz” or “tigerlily” or Karen sometime? LOL. Actually I would love to hear your accent – especially if it occasionally has some Germanico oovertones!
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As someone who can’t even pick up on variations in her own country’s regional accents, I wasn’t going to comment on the Bristol/Aussie comparison!
@kathryngaul, I think servetus’ voice is recorded somewhere on this blog, but I can’t remember where. If you ask her, I’m sure she’ll point you in the right direction!
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Also meant to say I absolutely agree with you about fake Aussie accents. They grate on our ears in no doubt the same way a fake American accent does on people in the States. Angie always said GOR’s accent in Spooks 8 made her ears bleed!! 🙂
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well, keep in mind that I may also not have a very accurate idea of what Bristol is 🙂 I’m not a professional student of this, I just get interested when confronted with it.
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I can definitely tell a South Australian accent too. The Australian accent is also much broader in many country/regional areas (like northern QLD) but I wouldn’t know if there are distinctions between these particular regions. If there a Tassie accent? It’s not overt but I think it has some similarities to S.A.
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Priceless! Cheers! ;->
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Thanks.
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Hi Servetus, For some reason, there’s no video when I open your post. Do you have any idea why this is so and how I can rectify it, please? I’ll obviously have to listen to LOTN yet again to hear “Chapter 4”! That will make it 5 times – such a hardship!
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This is a loading issue on your end — sometimes you just need to refresh the page.
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Thank you – the video’s working now.
I have the problem that most people think I sound more English than some English people do – and that’s a bit insulting when I think I sound as any educated Australian does! Blame it on those elocution lessons in high school.
One of the reasons I love listening to Richard is that he has a rather non-descript/non-regional accent – partly London with an odd tiny bit of northern/midland English thrown in now and again, along with some “Queen’s English”. Very easy to understand and a joy to hear.
A friend is from Yorkshire and, even after 35 years here, her accent is so strong that she’s hard to understand on the phone.
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One thing that fascinates me is that it seems to vary based on where he is at the time. I find this sweet because I always get closer to my native accent when I’m living in Germany — less US tv to watch and speaking German enhances certain long vowels that I have natively. When I get back to the places I actually live then I reassimilate.
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Hi Servetus…where do I go to hear your voice? Mezz said you have it somewhere on this blog. I’m dieing to hear your accent! Mine’s a bit of a conglomeration of our slightly different regional accents, I guess, because i’ve moved around a lot, too. I just love the way my son-in-law speaks – he was born in Ohio but has spent a lot of his life in Kentucky and Indiana.
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Here I am reading three sonnets in the languages I can speak well: https://meandrichard.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/me-gusta-bloguear-cuando-estoy-un-poco-borracha/
You won’t really hear my “native accent,” how I sound when I’ve been at home for a month talking to my folks. You can hear little twinges of it here or there in the long vowels. I’ll be home again at Christmastime, maybe I’ll make a recording there of myself or my brother, who’s still got the native Wisconsin accent. But I worked very consciously on losing my regional accent when I got to university and people made fun of me for it.
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I should add to this that I made those recordings in the Spring. Listening to them now, I hear a distinct twinge of Texas in the long “a” vowel (“bear”).
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Here I am, imitating him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5zENwfGmTk
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This is the recording I was thinking of. Thankyou for the link, servetus. I had a giggle with you at the end! It also meant I had the chance to again listen to RA’s voice pronouncing “thrust.” And again. 🙂
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we should have a contest 🙂
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Sorry, contest?
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We can record ourselves imitating him, and then there’ll be a poll about who’s best, and the best imitator gets a prize 🙂
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LOL that would be a lot of fun! It would mean I’d have to learn a new skill – record/upload my voice. Oh goody!
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I keep hearing that faint more northerly inflection in the voice, too, Kathryn. It’s very pleasing!
There is some regional variation in Canada; the Newfoundland voices still reflect the Irish of their ancestry; Albertans have always sounded more American to the ear; the Ottawa Valley was also influenced by the strong Irish settlement. And of course, Franco-Canadians have an accent in English, which is completely different from the European. In general, though, with TV etc, we’ve absorbed increasingly American inflection and intonation. Too, the bulk of the population is not far from the U.S. border, from Ontario to B.C.
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And the stereotypical Canadian accent we often hear in US tv is really a central Canadian thing — not Toronto or West Coast.
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I love the way he pronounces too, I guess some of us non-british like very much their accent. I found so pleasing to hear not only his pronounciation, his deep voice too.
I actually find very fun to hear (and sometimes try to imitate) his accent as JS and I too pay more attention when I know the speaker is british :P.
OML 🙂
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I try to imitate his accent all the time, OML. And then ask myself what the heck I am doing!!
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Hi Servetus,
Thanks for providing the link to your voice recordings – I’ll listen once I’ve posted this comment.
I’m having a quiet little giggle here, imagining people practicing RA’s accent!
I’m one of those weird people who unintentionally (or do I mean “unconscientiously”?) seems to momentarily absorb other people’s accents. My mother used to say “You’ve been speaking to Monica McNally (my Irish schoolfriend) today, haven’t you?” and I’d be blissfully unaware that I’d spoke differently at all!
Rather than change my accent when I left Queensland 41 years ago, I decided that I would never again use the word “port” (short form of “portmanteau”) to indicate a suitcase, so people wouldn’t know my State of Origin! [That little aside was for Australians who follow Rugby League football!]. My brothers and sisters (who’ve remained in QLD) say I have a Canberra accent – whatever that is!
Isn’t it amazing how our darling RA inspires all these different comments about speech?
And isn’t it wonderful that we’re all different? Wouldn’t it be a boring old world if we were all the same?
Keep up the inspirational postings, dear Servetus, we appreciate them immensely. Kathryn
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[…] in a single syllable, created by a tongue movement during the pronunciation of the vowel, and explains my fascination with the long “o” vowel, which Armitage frequently pronounces as…, especially when he’s not paying much attention to his pronunciation, as at the press […]
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OT: Gaudete! « Me + Richard Armitage said this on December 12, 2011 at 1:23 am |