Thursday, January 5, 2012

AMY WALKER'S ACCENTS



Amy Walker's accents are amazing. A natural mimic, the aspiring actress performs a wide range of regional dialects--twenty-one in this video--and she has even fooled "locals." In a recent film, her New Zealand accent was so convincing that the director had no idea she wasn't a kiwi until after the shoot when he learned she was from Seattle. She has quite the ear. Nowadays, regional dialects are not as extreme as they used to be because people move more frequently than they used to, diluting the differences--and due to the homogenizing effect of national television and radio. Most people speak a geographically neutral accent. Still, there are pockets in both big cities and rural areas where people still speak with thick accents. In the deep south, for example, folks write with a "pin." In New York, they still drink "Cwa-fee." In Boston, they still "pawk the caw." Do you have any regional giveaways in your speech?

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