[peony_foxburr]

"An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him / The moment he talks, he makes some other Englishman despise him!" <BR>("Why Can't The English?" from <I>My Fair Lady</I>)<BR>One of the most enjoyable qualities of the Downs is the worldwide perspective; Lyra, the best most of us can do on this side of the pond is distinguish "BBC" or "upper class" accents from "rural" or "urban working class!" So I applaud your distinguishing regional differences between Boromir and Faramir's "English" accents. On the other hand, I can <I>almost</I> always tell when a British actor is "doing" an American accent. They'll slip up and pronounce something a little too "clipped," or sound <I>too</I>"twangy." Now, I had never heard of Elijah Wood before LOTR, and saw FOTR before I knew anything about him. His English accent was convincing enough, to my American ears, that I was mildly surprised to find out he was American. (Whereas I could tell right away that Sean Astin and Viggo Mortensen weren't British) But then I think a generic English accent is a bit easier for most Americans to imitate, than a specific dialect. <P>"There even are places where English completely disappears--/ In America, they haven't spoken it for years!"<BR>(also from "Why Can't The English?")<BR> Peony, who has an "Eastern" American accent, but starts to pick up the accent of whomever she is speaking with--