History: The Roadmap to the Future: Review of "How not to do an American accent"

This blog post is a review about the BBC article linked to here. It seems that there is some demand in the world to be able to create and use an American accent. How interesting and flattering--though it should not be flattering. Somewhat ironically, the expert in the article helps people, such as Americans, form a British accent, not an American one. Reverse engineering?

Anyway, apparently, compared to Britons, Americans speak with wide mouths and smiles, with the tongue high in the mouth. Guessing that translates into Britons, compared to Americans, speaking with narrow and slack mouths, and the article suggests that Britons' standard tongue placement is on the aveolar ridge behind the teeth.

Many Americans would want to be able to use a British accent. The BBC should make an article for them.

While it's interesting that some people would want to pick up an American accent, it is not all that surprising, given the impact of American films, television, and the power the United States wields in the world. Still, from an American point of view, an American accent is just plain ol' normal, while the 'typical' British accent has a connotation of being cultured and sophisticated. For the Britons out there angry that the 'bad guys' in a lot of American movies have British accents, it is--at least partially--because Americans tend to associate British accents with acculturation. If you'll notice, oftentimes those bad guys are quite upper crust and part of high society.

You'll also notice that sophisticated 'good guys' also frequently have a British accent--or an attempt at one. Meanwhile, the 'ordinary' characters, usually including the the protagonist, tend to have American accents because: a) the film is American, and b) the American accent is taken to be the accent of the 'common people.'

Take Star Wars, for instance. The Imperial officials tend to have British accents, but so does Obi-Wan Kenobi, Threepio, Crix Madine, and Mon Mothma. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker have American accents. Leia does a 180. In A New Hope, the accent is British. In the following film, the accent turns American. A similar thing occurs with Amidala. When stately, they have a British accent. When just ordinary folk, they have an American accent.

Figure this is just another manifestation of the mutual love fest many Americans and Britons have with each others' cultures.