What phrase should we do next? To me, Cora sounds standard American with a mild touch of New England. Well with your permission let me to grab your I’ve seen films and heard recordings of some women from the same basic period and none of them, I mean none, ever pronounced an “R” the way Cora Crawley does. There’s a certain rhythm and inflection you have to pick up in order to be understood. Her parents were Isidore Levinson, an Jewish self made American millionaire, and Martha Levinson. ”. Note: Out of consideration for viewers in the U.S., please do not post Season 2 spoilers in the comments. Was so sure it would. And WHY?! This is an excellent post and very easy to understand for those of us with only a passing knowledge of accents. RP: “I was sacked. Estuary is now the norm in England in the broadcast media (context: the son of a friend, trained in drama, speaking flawless and unaffected RP, was rejected by the BBC for that precise reason). Basically, in older variants of RP, the sound in ‘off’ was pronounced with the same vowel as ‘thought,’ contrasting with the short-o sound in ‘lot.’ Many American accents still do this, most markedly in New York (hence the jokes about “Cawfee”) and the Mid-Atlantic. I expected her to use Standard American, or “Transatlantic” as you mention, because it was the received pronunciation for the upper classes. I am writing my bachelor thesis on RP English in media, with a particular attention to Downton Abbey, so this right here is a goldmine for me. that could be helpful for me. A result of poor dialect coaching which the director ought not have given his blessing to. * Along with the father/farther one I mentioned above and other similar ones which result from R-dropping. Actually, for the first six months I was there, I didn’t understand a word anybody said. The choices those two actors made are definitely quite interesting. She is also known for her performance as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, in the British drama series Downton Abbey, for which she has been nominated for an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award. I think ultimately it’s worth it, but they’ve got a crew stomping through their ancient and priceless castle, so it’s nerve-wracking for them to a certain extent. I would also love an explanation of Daisy, whose speech seems markedly different from anybody else in the downstairs group — is she supposed to be from even further out into the country, or is it her specific voice, or…? As a Californian American, I didn’t get that pun at all the first time I saw The Pirates of Penzance. I was curious about McGovern, and you’ve answered my question. Pingback: Downton Abbey and the Perils of Preservation | Nick Socrates Contemporary Art, Pingback: The Death of Drama School Accent Enforcement | Dialect Blog. McGovern is beautiful to take in and very appealing visually in an elegant, sensuous way. private) schools the moment they wished to. Along with quite a different wardrobe off set, the actress also has quite a different accent — have a listen. I grew up in England and I think actors there are more respected. Hi John I have just come across this site, whilst looking up on Google the reasons for the divergence of US english & British pronounciation and saw your comment re: Clarkson’s accent. Retrouvez la recette de votre votre folder cora du 09/02/2021. She and Shirley MacLaine had an encounter in a hallway in London during the last episode of Downton Abbey, shown here a couple of weeks ago. Great post. Would be great if you did. Highclere Castle, filming location for 'Downton Abbey' (Photo: Richard Munckton). But having read these comments, I’m guessing that’s how it’s supposed to be??? There’s a different attitude toward it which I really respond to. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Then again, I am hardly an expert on accents, or anything else for that matter. That’s pretty Midwestern, ie rhotic, all classes, all periods. I can think of two great examples of non-rhotic speakers’ use of phonetics that have confused us rhotic speakers (Yanks/Canucks). For the unfamiliar, the show takes place in an English country estate around the time of the First World War. The servant Joseph speaks in the Yorkshire dialect of the time (now changed beyond recognition), whereas the other characters’ speech was written in Standard English. Took us all away from the crassness of modern life. Cockney was replaced with a Berlin accent ;)) Lady Cora Margaret Crawley, formerly Cora Levinson, is an American Heiress that came to London the year of 1888. Retrait rapide aux bornes drive. David Muir of ABC News/New York): “electORal” (vs. the correct eLECtoral) , a partner to the incorrect “mayORal” (vs. the correct MAYoral). However, while in most of Germany, there is not what you’d call a hard “r” sound, the further south you go, and this also extends into Austria, they often tend to “trill” or “roll” the “r”. She looked the part in the early episodes, but the Marcel Wave is very unflattering, indeed, mostly she looks pasty. The Brontes were fairly affluent, so this shows that the upper-classes could still appreciate the local dialect. Elizabeth McGovern’s accent as Cora Crawley drives me up the wall! I admit I’m rather ignorant in this regard: in a country manor a century ago, would the servants have spoken traditional dialects among each other downstairs? I think Fellowes cast an American who had lived in the UK for some years for exactly this reason. What a great find! I don’t know his background, but I’m guessing public school, and what he suggests to me is what seems very common now, which is simply “very sloppy, lazy RP”. Elizabeth McGovern would have done well to prepare for her role both historically and dialectwise. Will there be a Season 5? “I’m sooooo happy to be heeyuh at my deeeyuh home on my buhthday,” and so on. I’m French and I studied English at the university. “President Cli – in” and ” No you di-int “. There is another feature of speech which you don’t hear mentioned so much these days, but which I think more closely defines the Corens and Clarksons, and that is “Mayfair Cockney” (I’ve also heard “Knightsbridge Cockney”) – maybe there are other terms). But it’s hard to resist. My sister, OTOH, is surrounded by everyday middle class Brits, and her sentences tend to end with an "up in pitch" and even her sentence structures have become "Home County". Reminds me of a certain film: “Vito Andolini, from Corleone.”, “Although now that I think about it, would Brits pronounce her name as SHAR-day, as some of them do with China, calling it ‘Chiner’?”. I like that. From this description, it reminds me of the dialogue in Wuthering Heights. There was an emphasis on avoiding “slang” which of itself seems quaint. [2] Cora has a strained relationship with her mother[3]. But! I will have to listen extra hard to him, because to me he sounds just as “English” as Lord Grantham. That’s quite interesting. I thought Estuary was supposed to come from a combination of the influence of “Eastenders” added to the Australian influence of “Neighbours”, “Home and Away”, and others. She also was doing a “turn” on that show in her “folk-rock racket” incarnation. (Sorry, I can’t remember the technical term for what they do, but there are basically two distinct forms of the “r” sound in German (so I believe), and it tends to be fairly regional. Cora by now could certainly have picked up RP, but obviously chose not to. I suspect that inconsistencies on the ‘English’ side of the cast were due to inexperience and basic lack of ability. It had to be worth several hundred thousand if not more. Bates, lui, est déclaré coupable de meurtre et condamné à mort. Casual, sloppy and unclear speech is endemic worldwide. All of this is to say that Downton Abbey is a fascinating show from a linguistic perspective, and I highly recommend it. I think there WAS more formality of speech in the 50s and early 60s. . The actor who plays Carson is actually from Yorkshire, but in many ways, his accent is ‘milder’ than the other staff, suggesting he tries to distance himself from his upbringing (which makes sense: in the episode where it is revealed he was once a music hall performer, it’s made clear how ashamed he is of his past). Unfortunately, his English is rather difficult to understand (for me), but you can get the idea from the German words he says. It is an invasion into their lives, so it’s a mixed blessing for them. Thank you for beginning this conversation. Arrrrrrrghhh!!!! Pingback: Accents, and listening – franceskraft. Mrs. Patmore, the cook? Lady Edith. Those 2 words sound identical for most English people. Another way of saying this is that both “ar” and “ah” sound like “ah” in most English accents. Courtesy of PBS Getty Images. Cora Crawley (née Levinson), Countess of Grantham, Viscountess Downton (b. Cora Crawley est par exemple une américaine, fille d’un richissime homme d’affaire, qui a épousé Robert Crawley, comte de Grantham, pour le titre. They may have explained this somewhere, or else Millicent couldn’t do the Manchester accent (I’d be surprised if she couldn’t), or no one on the production team actually noticed the difference. Lady Grantham’s phony sounding put on accent sounds ingenuine and for me really grates on these sensitive ears – making it quite impossible to like her character. Maybe Fellowes is keeping it in his back pocket for future shock value. And just as an aside, next time you say ” Thank you” to any given shopclerk or waitperson in America under the age of 30, LISTEN for what you get back. Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham. Today, for example, better (clearer, RP-based) English is spoken in Delhi than in London. It was the mark of an educated person, regardless of region. What does “pronouncing ‘off’ as ‘orf’ actually sound like? I have to disagree with your assertion that Clarkson speaks with an Estuary accent. For example, I remember I once thought an Englishman was talking about his career, but I later realized he was talking about Korea. (After all he, not you, is the one who actually moves in this social circles.) Points well taken. Most of the American actors’ voices that you hear in Hollywood films from the 1930’s through the 1950’s are the result of studio coaching. If you want to hear her ‘natural’ Estuaryspeak, watch the excellent new Sundance two-parter “Restless,” in which the grating unpleasantness of her voice comes across strongly. I remember hearing an old recorded interview with Sara Delano Roosevelt once, and to me she had a very strong, well, faux-British sounding accent. But her default accent by choice was an upper-class Dallas drawl. Saved by Olessia Aleksandrovna. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke with an aristocratic blue-blood dialect which prevailed in her day, as did her husband, FDR, and it was genuine. The difference between Mayfair Cockney speakers and true Estuary speakers is (I think) that the latter have basically grown up speaking it, or it developed in them as they were growing up, and they’d have to make a real effort to speak in any other way. Perhaps the most fascinating (and ‘meta’) bit of casting in the show is Elizabeth McGovern as the youthful matriarch of the household. obtain helpful data regarding my study and knowledge. Kathryn Hepburn, and other actors of the period have this invented accent that was created to sound posh by american standards. Branson, of course, Irish. Although I have no formal training in this area, I have always been fascinated by accents and seek to study it more seriously. Shirley McClaine’s character, I feel, at least attempted it, but it bugs me because she sounds like a woman from the late 1900s trying to sound British and I think it does her performance a disservice. Cora Crawley tombe sérieusement malade, mais finit par guérir, tandis que Lavinia, également frappée, est emportée par la maladie. It’s tricky business to pull off an American born aristocratic British hybrid accent because there are so many variables. My friend who has a PhD in English and I have actually discussed this outside the context of Downton. . As an American voice over artist I listen and watch this show with complete fascination. A further comment on the Downton Abbey accents: When the role was originally conceived, actress Gillian Anderson (The X Files) was slated to take the role of Cora, but she declined the role. Maybe her accent is supposed to be a little all over the place. Only Maggie Smith and she have been nominated for Emmys. Opération fidélité . For example, many of the younger actors use some glottal-reinforcement for voiceless plosives like /t/, /p/ and /k/–perfectly normal for modern ‘mainstream’ RP, but probably less so among early-20th-Century aristocrats. But this only happens when the following word begins with a vowel (and the speaker doesn’t pause before it), as in the example I just gave. What has Cora been up to? Oh Gawd, the jazz singer’s accent was AWFUL!!! The Cora character is from Ohio, isn’t she? He’s got his game on, and I thank him for it. Regional dialects are a beautiful thing. A pox on you, Dan Stevens! My grandmother was stationed near Harewood House during the war and knocked about with a lass who came from the village which provided its staff. It’s my understanding that she is supposed to have grown up with great wealth in America, then married an English nobleman in the late 1880s. I cannot comment intelligently about the American-English aspects on which you speculate. Cleverly there’s the end of the series in England and then there’s a break and then you’ll see a lot of the story settle down and find resolution in the Christmas special. (please forgive me if the above example seems offensive in any way). Cora’s accent, as voiced by Liz McGovern. She reminds me of my very sweet great Aunt. The pronunciation of Sade you mention wouldn’t have to come from Yanks or Canucks reading phonetic explanations. Although your explanation of why Americans came to think that “Goebbels” was pronounced that way may well be correct, I’d like to slightly qualify your comment about German not having a hard “r”: Well, if there was an “r” sound in there in German, it would almost certainly be written, as German tends to be much more phonetic that English. McGovern’s accent is awful. It’s historically accurate, emotionally true, and it’s a lot of fun. Thank you for any help! Then I saw season one again as my wife got hooked on it too . Her accent was supposed to be Manchester. Does she have two consonants in the word? Thank you so much to the OP for this useful entry, and thanks to all of you for further discussing on the topic. Educators, even elementary teachers, clergy, lawyers, doctors all took pains to speak correctly. She brings a certain good cheer to Downton Abbey. I have a problem with Elizabeth McGovern’s American accent. And let’s not even talk about what some of these women news people are allowed to wear on the air! 1868) is the American heiress daughter of Martha and Isidore Levinson and sister of Harold Levinson. Compliment accepted! Whereas the Corens, Clarkson’s and friends, could instantly and effortlessly return to the vowels and consonants of their public (i.e. Bentley, It’s hard to think of well-heeled American from that time period who would have shared Cora’s off pronunciations. But German (like UK English) has no hard R. Evidently some British article used “pronounced ‘GER-belz’ ” or the like back in the ’40s, and non-German-speaking Americans have been led astray ever since. The one show that I would LOVE to hear discussions about dialect and accents is Misfits. It was an effort to erase regionalisms and impose a standard that was supposed to be perceived as “classy” by the unwashed moviegoing masses. This is the measure of a voice gone wrong. Cette alliance aura permis de sauver le domaine. And now we even have the great example of The Great Gatsby, which was just released, and I think does a great job of using dialect and regionalisms to differentiate between status in early 20th C. US. After a couple weeks of working in Boston I found myself inadvertantly pronouncing a couple words as my coworkers in that regional office would. Pingback: Dialectblog.com: On language variation | Floating in Dreams, Pingback: This Week’s Language Blog Roundup | Wordnik ~ all the words. I don’t know why they chose a Manchester accent, but it was an interesting choice. Thanks for the article and comments. Elizabeth McGovern : Lady Cora Crawley; Michelle Dockery : ... Qu’il s’agisse de la musique, de la qualité des costumes ou du charmant accent « so British », tout m’a donné envie de continuer cette série, et de la finir très vite. Ridiculous! Feuilletez vos dépliants Imprimez les coupons de réduction et partagez les bonnes affaires avec vos amis ! What, because he’s black and sings jazz, he must be an American? Now where on EARTH is Moseley with that tea??? While her own husband had left her … Although arguably anachronistic, I think this was a wise move. Or look at interviews of Dockery, to be found on YouTube, for further exploration of her ‘natural’ voice. Judy is Film Review Online's regular Los Angeles based reporter. What I find disappointing is the casual, sloppy and unclear speech of so-called ‘professionals’ who are paid hugely, up to eight figures, to abuse the language. In “Restless” the other actors, especially Hayley Atwell, Rufus Sewell and Charlotte Rampling, deliver their RP flawlessly. But one could never accuse Estuaryspeak of being a delightful difference. Whether accurate or not, it shows how our modern era of social mobility has more tradeoffs than one might expect. Maybe it’s a technique I am unaware of, but I feel it distracts from the scenes immensely. Why would he have cast her though if HE was going to be bleedin’ at the ears from it? I think your comments are right on target. e.g. The attitudes of these century-old characters may be hopelessly classist, but there was also a loyalty to employees and employers that is perhaps missing in the contemporary society. For example I knew a colorful woman years ago who came from old (relatively) Texas oil money. Home; Random; Nearby; Log in; Settings; Donate; About Wikipedia; Disclaimers As ‘Lady Mary’ Michelle Dockery does a haphazard job of concealing her ‘natural’ Estuaryspeak but it slips from time to time. Un petit bémol ? I wouldn’t have allowed that for a minute! They all demonstrate what I would have expected to hear from a woman like Cora Crawley. I mean, not only doesn’t she drop her “R”s, she draws them way out. There’s a strange anxiety that comes from being surrounded by a different accent. He left too soon and it was an assault to the soul of the production. They’d go into cascades of laughter at a dinner party and I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. the upper crust adopted this accent… which has all but died out. I think you’re underestimating the producer’s intentions with Cora. But more than that she hasn’t found what her role is. . Les offres de la semaine. I also think McGovern’s acting is often very poor. My friend met Mr. Fellowes at a dinner party quite unexpectedly in London last year. Whether she’s pulling off whatever Fellowes intended, is, yes, an important question. At least there were many mentions of Canada and, being no expert on accents, especially not American/Canadian ones, I thought what he speaks must be a Canadian accent. …..Very good, Molesley. Check it out on Hulu, if you haven’t already. Growing up on an older estate in the Hudson Valley (nowhere near the big house, mind you) I’ve heard a lot of upper crust or “old money” accents over the years, and none of them sounded much like Cora Levinson Crawley or her mother. Originally Answered: What is lady Cora's accent? I am no expert on accents or dialects either, but Cora’s accent is weird to me as well. It was just so odd and eerie almost; with his grotesque burn scars and bandages…along with his sudden mysterious departure. It’s more a giant inconvenience for her, because she’s losing servants and the house is invaded by convalescing soldiers, because she feels that she has to give the house to the hospital. Cora has been derailed by the advent of the war. She married Robert Crawley, Viscount Downton who became Earl of Grantham upon his … But this guy takes it to an extreme and was very hard on the ears. I too watched Series 1 in a weekend marathon recently, and quickly became addicted. A good dialect ought to be so smoothly engrained that one oughtn’t really even take notice of it but rather the words and emotions being expressed by the character should be the focus. You can hear the Transatlantic accent in any old American movie — listen to Joan Crawford or Bette Davis. Oh ye of little faith. Smith’s character is of another time, of course, so the fact that her speech is different from that of her progeny is a justifiable choice.). I felt emotionally manipulated, abused, even! I agree with you, John Joss, about all of those words except ‘Clinton,’ which is pronounced with a glottal stop where the President grew up. Eizabeth McGovern comes off sounding like a babydoll girl trying to act like a grown lady. About 6 months after her husband Isidore died, Martha Levinson decided to take her grieving daughter Cora to London in order to cheer her up and also to see if she could help Cora find a husband. That will be all. “Liminal Accents” as we call them, can be horrible. Isobel/Lady Cora (tie) 3. The same ‘delightful difference’ in regional accents maybe found in the U.S. in the distinctive accents of Brooklyn, or Texas. I think this merger* might play tricks on Yanks’ and Canucks’ minds sometimes, making us think we hear R’s where there aren’t any when we listen to English people speak. Twe the modern successor is the affected accent of a frasier crane…. Of course I am open to correction by other visitors. If chiner were a word, most English people would say it just like China. Retrouvez les 248 critiques et avis pour le film Downton Abbey, réalisé par Michael Engler avec Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith. Most strikingly, the actors who play the wealthy characters eschew older varieties of ‘Upper Crust’ Received Pronunciation for slightly more contemporary varieties of RP. FDR is a great example of the accent. (There is also a competitive snowboarder name Andreas Wiig, who pronounces it the latter way.) If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. So when us (rhotic) Yanks and Canucks hear English people pronounce Sade as “shah-DAY” [ʃɑːˈdeɪ], we don’t know if we’re supposed to pronounce it “shah-DAY” [ʃɑːˈdeɪ] or “shar-DAY” [ʃɑɹˈdeɪ]. What amazes me, is especially in Season 4, is how she pounds the last word of nearly evey sentence.
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