The Most Important Question in World History

[foxfire]

Why is it that so many Australian actors and actresses are able to produce flawless American accents, yet almost no American performers can maintain a convincing Aussie accent for more than 30 seconds? This really bothers me for some damn reason.

Comments

[penguin2]

~puts hand up~ Sir, sir, I know the answer to this one! It's twofold: one, Aussie accents are so fecking ugly that they sound fake even when they're authentic, and two, USA audiences are so used to bad fake Aussie accents that directors have come to insist on 'em, to the point where real Aussies speaking like themselves sound like fake Aussies.

I used to think that the most horrendous accent in the English-speaking world belonged to East London she-creatures. Then I moved to Australia and discovered that bogan*** she-creatures are even scarier-sounding. Eww!

*** I think the closest USA translation of 'bogan 'would be 'trailer trash'

[tfcocs]

I suspect, and this only a gut feeling and not based on empirical evidence, that happens as a result of both American cultural imperialism, and the strain of Scottish and Irish emigration that led to the adoption of English in both countries. The schism, I would bet, might be the influx of Germans after the first wave of immigrants altered the US language in ways that likely did not touch Australia to the same degree. Add that to the influence of Hollywood overseas film distribution versus that of the Aussie counterpart and, viola, there you have it. I could be full of ****, of course.

[foxfire]

You may have something there. Hugh Laurie, a Brit of course, said that he was able to speak in a perfect Midwestern American accent as Gregory House because he grew up watching so many American films.