Dialects in film

[Jonathan Lighter]

Re: Mel Brooks, Al Pacino:  Both of these guys are native New Yorkers with genuine accents, but to me they sound somewhat different.  It's not so much that Brooks grew up in Brooklyn and Pacino in the South Bronx (the idea of a "Brooklyn" vs. a "Bronx" or other borough-rooted accent is vastly overcredited), but second- or third-generation Jewish and Italian New Yorkers do frequently sound different - though maybe not to tourists.

Naturally I'm talking about "core" subdialects here. In a city of 7,000,000+  in the midst of an even huger "Tri-State Area," there is plenty of room for variation.

JL



James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James Smith
Subject: Re: Dialects in film
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's not forget Cary Elwes in Mel Brooks' "Robin
Hood, Men in Tights". Elwes says he's the Robin Hood
with the "English " accent, distinguishing himself
from Kevin Costner in "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".


--- Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> I was joking, obviously! (Or maybe not--I've gotta
> learn to use those
> smiley/winky faces.)
>
> At 11:37 AM 2/22/2005, you wrote:
> > >>> flanigan at OHIOU.EDU 02/21/05 03:56PM >>>
> >
> >And was Brad Pitt supposed to sound Greek or
> Trojan?! (I never saw the
> >movie, thankfully!)
> >
> >How would anyone know? --What does (did) a Trojan
> sound like?
>


=====
James D. SMITH |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com |whether we act quickly and decisively
|or slowly and cautiously.

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