Neo speaks
Many years ago I used to do weekly podcasts for PJ Media with three other bloggers (“The Sanity Squad”), and most of my readers were familiar with the sound of my voice. Although at first doing the podcasts made me very nervous, I soon became accustomed to that sort of format and to trying to sound coherent while speaking extemporaneously and without preparation. But it’s been so long since then that probably most people here have never heard my speaking voice.
I was reminded of this by a discussion here yesterday about, of all people, Michael Savage, which caused me to point out to “The Other Chuck” that about three and a half years ago I was a guest on the Savage show, and that you can still listen to the audio here.
Chuck” responded by pointing out that he was surprised at my lack of a New York accent. Which in turn reminded me that most of you probably have never read this old essay of mine on how it is that I don’t tawk like a New Yawkah.
Which in turn reminds me of one of the many oddities of this 2016 election, which is that this is the all-NY election—which would be strange in and of itself, even without all this election’s many other, far more important, strangenesses.
All-NY, maybe, though Mrs. Clinton’s fallback accent is altogether a thing of Chicago.
Okay, I did miss that one (it was during my Lyme disease period).
And …Michael Savage??? Oh. My.
…the result of the audio being that I’m now reading your words differently too LOL.
Should we call it the “subway series / election”?
All-NY, maybe, though Mrs. Clinton’s fallback accent is altogether a thing of Chicago.
She ain’t no ways from Noo Yawk.
My late in-laws lived in Minnesota their entire lives. Not a trace of the Minnesota accent. Mostly true for their kids.
It is uncanny to have a near-perfect soundalike, yet I do. Voice + accent. I was alerted by friends who heard him on the radio, and sure enough my wife agrees. She is uncanny with this sort of identifying voices thing, so if she think so, it must be true. None of us really knows what we sound like unless we work in an industry that forces us to listen to ourselves recorded and played back.
If you want to hear my double, he’s made himself into his own industry. Quite a guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfdNvJc7nqI
I listened to your voice on the audio with you and savage.
I’ve never lived in New York, and the last time I lived anywhere in New England I was in grade school. So I had no expectations on an accent or lack of one.
What did surprise me was that the voice, not necessarily the words, seemed like that of a woman in her mid/late thirties.
And I seem to recall that some your posts indicated that you were (ahem) a little older than that.
But fun to hear you.
I miss the sanity squad
I read your older post.
My good friend from HS had the opposite problem: she went back East to music school, and people would gather round and ask her to say something in Texan, marveling that anyone could speak so slooowwww.
I lost my Texas accent by dint of many years in school and amateur theatrical productions; however, if I’m on the phone to the kinfolk for a while, it comes back.
@Neo – would like to see you do more interviews.
My wife had a beautiful southern drawl when we met. My first duty station was in Sandy Eggo. We lived next door to a couple from California. They were good natured, but teased her a bit about her accent. It was gone in six months. Her family felt she had betrayed up her southern heritage by speaking like a Yankee.
Most people who learn where she’s from say, “You don’t talk lime you’re from the South.” Her answer is, “No I don’t. I’m a spy for the Confederacy and quite a good one at that.”
J.J. Says:
November 5th, 2016 at 1:18 pm
LOL – the best spies are the ones you don’t believe when they tell you they are spies.
Another assist to losing accents is singing: training in precise diction and “classical” vowels in most school choirs with decent directors, plus a reasonably large repertoire of Latin works, will wipe out any regional twang.
I lost my Texas accent by dint of many years in school and amateur theatrical productions; however, if I’m on the phone to the kinfolk for a while, it comes back.
Part of psychological infiltration and interviewing skills involve taking on an audience’s speech patterns in order to emulate or bypass the stranger danger signs. Even politicians do so. As a New Yorker, who doesn’t understand nor wishes to the Southern Appalachian white culture, or as an Arkansas politician like Hillary that went to NY for a seat in DC.
No matter what language or inflection a group uses, I can mimick it with time. Sort of like how spies like to be the Everyman, that way nobody notices them out of a crowd. It’s all part of the human mask of civilization.
Another assist to losing accents is singing: training in precise diction and “classical” vowels in most school choirs with decent directors, plus a reasonably large repertoire of Latin works, will wipe out any regional twang.
I’ve done some singing, mostly to enhance internal breathing controls, but it has had other benefits.
When the Japanese try to pronounce British/American English words, the accent and pronunciation is still Niponese. When they sing the line, however, there is no accent, since it is set to melody and pitch.