[SOC] Talking Brit

[Jan]

Chris - I was eagerly awaiting a response to that one and I commend you for
your self-control (Jerry Springer IS a low blow, however... although he IS
ours.... blush). I'm trying to remember the name of the little guy whose
show I've seen a couple of times who wears women's clothes and obsesses 
about sex a lot (it'll come to me just after I send this) who disabused
me of the notion that British television was consistently staid and
dignified (the very measure of what documentary television often is over
here... which is to say, boring). I have a grandmother who was born in
Sheffield but who died before I was born. My father was the only kid in
his grade school in northern California who sounded particularly different,
and he sounded VERY different, because of this. With our long, noble tradiition
of tolerance and acceptance for others, the other kids beat the crap out of
him for this at every opportunity (we are a melting pot because it is
   At any rate, there was a British actor on National Public Radio talking
about this and telling some stories about dialects and the British/American
differences, sliding back and forth between dialects as he was talking which
was impressive and hilarious. He voiced the privately-held conviction of
many Americans that surely it is more trouble than it is worth to speak in
a British dialect, and who suspect that they put it on for our benefit...
upon which he changed to a crass, nasal, LOUD American accent and said
"Thank GAWD he's gone and we don't have to talk like that anymore!" It was
a hoot. You'd have loved it. 73 Jan KF0Z #389