You Talk Funny

I spoke to Mecca Lewis from AAE for the SLP, about her work as a speech language pathologist, an unintentional spokesperson for African American English, and why the way she talks definitely isn’t “slang.”

Why do we care as much about Elizabeth Holmes’ voice as we do about all the fraud and deception? What is it about her voice, and the idea of “authenticity,” and exactly how does Amanda Seyfried manage to sound like her in the new Hulu series The Dropout?

In the new Shonda Rhimes/Netflix true crime melodrama: “Inventing Anna,” Julia Garner plays real life fraudster-cum-socialite Anna Sorokin, and attempts her hodgepodge of an accent.

So, what IS this accent, exactly? Where did it come from, and did Garner manage to pull it off?

Have you ever wondered why so many villains in American movies speak with British accents? Is it just a coincidence, or is there something more going on?

If you have a dialect question you can write to me at [email protected]

Where did we get the term “Quarantine?” Is that different from “Lockdown” or “isolation?” Will I ever be allowed to leave my house again?

Everyone loves a good story, but it seems like all the best ones are made up. That’s where Folk Etymologies come in, or the fake stories of how these words didn’t actually originate.

Whether it’s a coming-of-age story or a monster movie, there are lots of reasons to want to create a sense of “otherness” in your character. Accents are one way to do this, and while making an Impossible Accent from Nowhere can be fun, using a real life language as a shorthand for “other” can perpetuate harmful stereotypes. So —how do we responsibly tell these stories about being “other?”

Have a question? Send it to [email protected]

Find us at Patreon.com/youtalkfunny

Why do singers sometimes lose their accents once the music starts playing?

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Fargo introduced much of the world to the charms of the Upper Midwest, but where do these flattened, nasalize vowels come from? And why is this accent used in so many dark comedies?

Howard Mohr’s How to Talk Minnesotan:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSzwoJr4-0

And if you have a question, go to carriehardintalksfunny.com, patreon.com/youtalkfunny, or on Instagram @carriehardintalksfunny