I’m listening to an audiobook series at the moment, and the lady who is narrating has an affectation that is really starting to annoy me. She has quite a posh English accent, and frequently says her ‘s’es as if through clenched teeth, so they come out as ‘sh’. So ‘sex’ becomes ‘sheksh’, ‘sparrow’ ‘shparrow’ etc. I realise that I’ve only ever heard women with this affectation, including my mother on occasion, and this narrator only does this when narrating or describing female characters.
What is it called? Where did it come from? Is it meant to indicate steely resolve? Is it because the posh classes try to talk without moving their jaws? This narrator also has a wheezy Keith Richardesque quality to her voice that makes all the characters sound like 75 year old chain smokers. For the first couple of books I kept getting startled whenever their was any physical activity (including the aforementioned ‘sheksh’) and would have to remind myself that the main character was meant to be in his 30s.
Ishn’t thish known as the Connery Lishp?
Sibilance?
AKA Shhhhteve McClare Shhhhhyndrome
No idea but around the time of the ‘Brentford Trilogy’ Nick Lowe shtarted shinging like that shometimesh and itsh a bit irritating.
False teeth
Surely “Falssssssh teeeeffff” accompanied by a whistle between certain words and phrases
More ‘Gnasher’ than ‘Basher’ then…
This ⬆️ is funny!
Sounds like the rather annoying South Dublin accent aka “West Brit”, that north Dubliners like me are bred to dislike. So a simple sentence like “That was a great night last night”., becomes “dash was a graysh noish last noish”. Often heard in Leinster rugby circles and in RTE our national broadcaster. Cringe…
I should add that I’ve long lost the proper Dublin accent I grew up with having lived in London for 12 years. Think Roddy Doyle adaptations for my original brogue.
I noticed recently that the lead singer in the Arctic Monkeys started to sound like that. I hope it was a short-lived thing.
Who is the narrator who ‘has a wheezy Keith Richardesque quality to her voice that makes all the characters sound like 75 year old chain smokers’? That description made me think immediately of Charlotte Rampling but I doubt she is doing narration work.
I won’t list her name, but she’s not a well known actress. She’s very good otherwise.
Is she fae Fife?
Three can be pronounced sree there.
What the singer from from The Rezillos?
Richard Jobson, shurely?
Or Jobbie as he was known during his school days
“Self styled Aryan-Olympian-Dunfermlian post punk poet, fashion model, ubiquitous tv star etcetera etcetera” – Brookmyre.
Boy, man and soldier.
What a wonderfully enjoyable and very wittily phrased question @Podicle.
I am really enjoying the answers.
Pronunciation is not my strong point! When I speak Swedish, I am often mistaken for a Dane who has been out on the lash.
These days I get a similar reaction when I speak English in the UK. They think I’m Prince Hamlet out on the razzle!
I’m fascinated by representations of accents in different languages. I’d love to hear a Swedish version of Australian (in Swedish, of course!). I once spent a frustrating half hour explaining this concept to a German friend, trying to get him to speak in German, but with various accents. I framed it as “If you were watching a German TV show and a character appeared who was American, how would they speak?”. He seemed to indicate that it would be more through choice of words and phrasing than accent, which seemed odd to me.
I also enjoy those YouTube clips where people speak in English but using the grammar of another language. Fascinating!
I used to work with a girl who had a thick Glasgow accent & she’d do market research interviews with French business clients. However, she’d studied French in Canada, so there were some very bemused interviewees.
That German grammar clip is great fun @Podicle.
I will try and find some examples of Swedes imitating accents for you.
One thing that fascinates me is that, thanks to YouTube and a larger number of English language shows on Tv, these days you will rarely meet a Swede who has a Muppet show, Swedish chef intonation. A few years back I did meet a middle-aged guy who spoke in that melodic way. A magnificent linguistic dinosaur!
Here is our Muppet pal for old times’ sake!
Somehow it’s a bit dull when everyone has perfect pronunciation!
I love it when appearance and accent are an incongruous match. I remember meeting a very Finnish looking girl who spoke English with a strong Texan accent complete with appropriate expressions, y’all!!
Watching the Rugby League here, both Sharon and I have noticed that there is an ‘accent’, and we’re not sure if it’s a class thing or regional thing.
Rogbee Loig, in the style of Michael Ennis and Corey Parker. Any insights?
Here’s Peter Stormare who has carved out a successful career playing baddies with different foreign accents.
And a witty Icelandic guy.
Off at a slight tangent, Aussie Al Pitcher has done very well from poking fun at the Swedes. Hilarious!