Class Teaches Appalachian Kids How To Lose Accents

[matcom]

<snip>

PIKESVILLE, Ky. -- A theater group in eastern Kentucky is teaching middle and high school students how to lose their Appalachian accents.

The class has set off an age-old debate -- should mountain natives drop their drawl or hold on to their twang.

Martin Childers with the Jenny Wiley Theatre said they don't want people to be held back because they have an accent. He said a strong accent can prevent actors from being able to fill some roles.

Dee Davis from the Center for Rural Strategies has no problem with the classes. But she wants teachers to make sure kids understand their drawl is beautiful and it's not something to be embarrassed about.

http://www.wftv.com/education/4140822/detail.html

[Ezlivin]

1. Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys

Else they may get elected and fuck us all over.

[TroubleMan]

19. Chipmunks!

Sorry, I had that Chimpmunks album as a kid, and everytime I hear that, "Chipmunks!" pops into my head.

[McKenzie]

2. Nooooooho. Accents are part of our heritage

trying to get people to lose them is like the McDonaldisation of the world. I feel very strongly about this issue. Accents are richly expressive, part of community identity and a pointer as to geographical area. Fair enough, people need to be able to comprehend one another but trying to stamp out accents? No way. Leave them alone.

I speak what's rudely called "BBC-Scottish English" even though I'm Scottish. However, I'd get really pissed off if the fascists tried to stop people using their native tongue. Fascists try to homogenise every facet of life.

In Scotland, we even have a section on our government website in the vernacular lingo>>>

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/language/scots/

ps: Ah sez tae them ligislators, awa an' bile yir heids ye boolie moothed nyaffs

[Zuni]

6. I love accents myself

What would the world be like without regional dialects and accent.

I went to Scotland when I was a wee lad and I had such a good time. When I was a kid I found scottish accents very amusing and I would try to talk to the locals everywhere I went.

Another thing I thought was great about Scotland was the Highland Cattle, with the thick coat of fur. I still have a 'Highlin Coo' stuffed animal somewhere.

[davidinalameda]

3. I knew people from Pikeville

I can understand why they have this class

but I still have my accent and I've been in California for over 6 years now

[Blue-Jay]

16. I hear ya. I went to CC in Williamsburg.

I'm still recovering from the accent.

[BikeWriter]

4. Hmm, I have a hell of a country accent, and I haven't done too badly...

I've never been in a movie, though.

[LDS Jock]

17. hmmm

[BikeWriter]

18. Oh?

[LDS Jock]

20. just color me surprised

[libnnc]

5. There are scholars

who argue that what we know as the Appalachian accent is actually the remnants of old Shakespearian English--very close to Elizabethian English.

Keep the twang, kids.

[underpants]

7. Much like Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay

They still speak in an Olde English accent.

[Zuni]

11. Where is that Island, Maryland or Virginia?

Perhaps they are descendants of the lost colony? spooooooky

[underpants]

13. Virginia about mid way up the bay

http://www.tangierisland-va.com/
History is at the bottom.

[Sequoia]

14. You're right!

Welcome, fellow NC'er. I live in California now. I had an accent and still do sometimes. Remember in history how those missionaries from the late 1800s would beat the Native American children (Lakota, to name one nation) who dared to speak in their native tounge.

[libnnc]

15. Thanks

I remember hearing a story about a Theater professor at UNC (I think) many years ago had a class of his perform Shakespeare. He had some "native" Western North Carolinians in his class and he coached them in proper English diction. He couldn't figure out why the dialogue sounded funny. He heard them clowning around with the play one day before class in their native Appalachain accents and it sounded really right. The meter and rhymes were perfectly in sync. He concluded that their accents must have been what the English sounded like during Shakespeare's time.


Now ain't that sumthin'? :bounce:

[jswordy]

8. BOO! HISS!

It is akin to losing genetic diversity, or species of plants and animals.

I VOTE NO!

Also of interest, EVERYONE HAS AN ACCENT! Perhaps we would be better off under this type of thinking to teach Yankees how to talk proper Southern, the genteel dialect.

Nuff said.

[Zuni]

12. I kinda talk like this

Here in Maryland we kinda sound like this

Merlin: Ah herd sarns at sod the hass a bat hunnert toms lass not. Itsem Ann Earl Canny farn gins.
Standard: I heard sirens outside the house about a hundred times last night. It's those Anne Arundel County fire engines.

Merlin: She raider boskle from Droodle Pork to dantan Ballmer wither oz clazed.
Standard: She rode her bicycle from Druid Hill Park to downtown Baltimore with her eyes closed.

Merlin: The Hard Canny Toms sayz the canny cancel pace pained bon ambalances.
Standard: The Howard County Times says the County Council postponed buying ambulances.

Merlin: Pitcher bane seat owen. Weer goon danny ayshun.
Standard: Put your bathing suit on. We're going down to the ocean.

Merlin: Ah sawn ambalance good dan Rosters Tan Raid a bat a huunert molls an air, nit was porn dan rain.
Standard: I saw an ambulance going down Reisterstown Road about a hundred miles an hour, and it was pouring down rain.

Merlin: It spaced a snaid mora. Better pitcher snay tars owen.
Standard: It's supposed to snow tomorrow. Better put your snow tires on.

My whole father's side of the family sounds JUST like this. They are all from baltimore, and they really sound like this. I do to a lesser extent.

[candy]

9. Nothing new here-----actors have been doing this for years.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

10. Well... if they are going to be actors...

they need to learn different accents anyhow. I don't see anything wrong with this.