Accents - think anew

[Stokie_Musket]

hi y'all

I'm experimenting with a new slower more drawl accent when reenactment begins again.

Any tips on perfecting a good alround Northern accent for my role?

I've been watching plenty of TV over Christmas and think a David Schwimmer voice is manageable.

Anybody else use a new / different accent

 

[captaindrew]

hi y'all

I'm experimenting with a new slower more drawl accent when reenactment begins again.

Any tips on perfecting a good alround Northern accent for my role?

I've been watching plenty of TV over Christmas and think a David Schwimmer voice is manageable.

Anybody else use a new / different accent

Welcome to the forum from South Florida. I would say just be yourself, heard some pretty bad fake accents over the years which added nothing to the impression, actually detracted from it. Where do you reenact?

 

[JOHN42768]

Welcome, enjoy. I wouldn't worry about accent, but if you change the cadence of your speech that would make it different

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

Howdy and Welcome!

I do not mean to be rude, but please to not attempt an accent.....
"Fake" accents can be detected a mile away. When "performing" for the public, as reenactors do, there will be people in the crowd who will know that you are attempting their accent, and it will offend them as a form of mockery.
In all my years of reenacting, I never heard a good "fake" accent and "fake" accents, in my opinion, will ruin an otherwise good impression.
I wish you well!

 

[jackt62]

Tips on practicing a good Northern accent?
Fuhgeddaboudit!

(Brooklynese for 1. Forget about it - the issue is not worth the time, energy, mental effort, or emotional resources or 2. Definitively "no.")

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Hello @Stokie_Musket. Welcome to CivilWarTalk.

I've got to agree with @captaindrew & @Albert Sailhorst . . . don't attempt any fake accent.
North or South.

 

[Patrick H]

Are you secretly funnin' with us? Just be yourself.

 

[AnnaLee]

Hello and welcome to Appomattox, Va. Be yourself. I am bilingual--I speak North and South. My family and I are from the South but I was raised up north. My teachers would not let me speak with a southern accent so I learned to speak with a northern accent in school and around my northern friends but I definitely speak with a southern accent when at home and around relatives (including my northern husband.) When I'm angry I revert back to my southern accent. I can pick out a fake southern drawl easily.

 

[1867crete]

Don't forget about the fugawie indians from. "f troop" as in where the fag are we!? Lol (I watched the show on nick at nite) lol

 

[1867crete]

First person was always so hard... nah impossible for me.... I tried so hard at one event all weekend getting shot down and shut down! Then as we marched to battle a cadince of yellow submarine broke out..... ok I'm done! so I agree to be your self and be confident in your story/script and have fun!

 

[7thWisconsin]

I wouldn't do accents as much as begin to work period expressions into your everyday speech. Really good firper, IMHO, isn't. about becoming someone else, but putting yourself in the historical situation. Most reenactors, myself included, are pretty bad actors, but if you can express yourself in a period fashion comfortably, it goes a long way toward enhancing the experience. And you wags out there who can't resist cracking a one-liner: learn some period ones. Nothing messes up a great firper like someone else's quips.