Another vote for getting out of the house - Dialect Paradise!.
I wrote last week, and not for the first time, about the importance of getting out and doing things. Like going to a climbing wall (and by the way, yes I did go again, and yes I did try the more challenging route again and this time was successful!). But sometimes it’s far more routine things that turn out to be immensely rewarding.
We’ve gone to my brother’s family home for Easter dinner the last couple of years. This year they got an invitation from friends and those friends were kind enough to extend the invitation to us as well. We were touched and accepted gratefully. But as the day approached, we found ourselves wishing we could spend the day at home rather than make the 2+ hour drive each way. There was no question about not going, of course, and we made the journey. Thank goodness, because a fantastic surprise awaited us.
The other people at the gathering, besides my brother’s family, were terrifically interesting and funny. But that wasn’t the surprise. The astonishing thing was that four of them grew up in the Limerick region of Ireland, 3 were from south London and one was from Yorkshire!! A dialect student’s dream! This was my first opportunity since taking up an academic approach to the study of dialects for voice-over to hear some of this speech “live” rather than listening to recordings on the internet such as at IDEA or The Speech Accent Archive or NPR or films or the enormously valuable series of CDs produced by Gillian Lane-Plescia at The Dialect Resource. I was able to listen for and observe some of the patterns I had noticed in my academic work, along with the facial expressions and body language and all the rest that no mere voice recording can convey. I made no secret of my interest in their speech – I couldn’t if I had tried, and they in turn were fascinated by my voice work. In short, it was a wonderful day and we all parted great friends, with all sorts of plans and schemes for the future. Imagine if we had decided, “oh bother, let’s just laze the day away at home?”
Shudder.
I wrote last week, and not for the first time, about the importance of getting out and doing things. Like going to a climbing wall (and by the way, yes I did go again, and yes I did try the more challenging route again and this time was successful!). But sometimes it’s far more routine things that turn out to be immensely rewarding.
We’ve gone to my brother’s family home for Easter dinner the last couple of years. This year they got an invitation from friends and those friends were kind enough to extend the invitation to us as well. We were touched and accepted gratefully. But as the day approached, we found ourselves wishing we could spend the day at home rather than make the 2+ hour drive each way. There was no question about not going, of course, and we made the journey. Thank goodness, because a fantastic surprise awaited us.
The other people at the gathering, besides my brother’s family, were terrifically interesting and funny. But that wasn’t the surprise. The astonishing thing was that four of them grew up in the Limerick region of Ireland, 3 were from south London and one was from Yorkshire!! A dialect student’s dream! This was my first opportunity since taking up an academic approach to the study of dialects for voice-over to hear some of this speech “live” rather than listening to recordings on the internet such as at IDEA or The Speech Accent Archive or NPR or films or the enormously valuable series of CDs produced by Gillian Lane-Plescia at The Dialect Resource. I was able to listen for and observe some of the patterns I had noticed in my academic work, along with the facial expressions and body language and all the rest that no mere voice recording can convey. I made no secret of my interest in their speech – I couldn’t if I had tried, and they in turn were fascinated by my voice work. In short, it was a wonderful day and we all parted great friends, with all sorts of plans and schemes for the future. Imagine if we had decided, “oh bother, let’s just laze the day away at home?”
Shudder.
Labels: dialects for actors, Gillian Lane-Plescia, Irish accent, voice talent, Yorkshire accent
posted by MCM Voices at
8:34 PM
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