American voices

[oddoneout]

Often tempted to do this sort of thing myself.... but sadly it spoils the music here. "no-one" tails off too much. Weaker semantically too very commonplace.
It's not perfect, but I think "no soul" works better in context.

Well yes, souls don't always come with bodies, as we see too often in everyday life, but a bit unfair on those bodies which do? I used to wonder why it wasn't "nobody".

[jayne lee wilson]

Well yes, souls don't always come with bodies, as we see too often in everyday life, but a bit unfair on those bodies which do? I used to wonder why it wasn't "nobody".

As with "no-one", "nobody" is simply too mundane and completely ruins the melody....the line stumbles across it and sounds terribly trite. "In context" is the key phrase here: in Sci-fi a soul indicates sentience; thought; emotion. In 60s/70s Sci-fi, an implication of humanity. So this could have been enough....but perhaps religious sensitivities were considered.

"No Man" is all too obviously gender-constrained, but it is of course a very resonant phrase with many occurrences in literature, poetry and history...I think that is another reason why it feels hard to replace.

[french frank]

Just to say I moved the US news posts to the USA thread as it was resuscitated for comments.

[Beresford]

Back to R4 - yes I have noticed more American accents over the last two years, and it is slightly annoying.

More annoying is the less/fewer confusion - it's just plain incorrect. Otherwise "Less MP's in parliament talking fewer sense" would be correct.

But most annoying is the mispronunciation of six as sic, which creeps in occasionally, as in "Sic Singers Singing". Might be something to do with sibilance on microphones, or just lazy tongues.

[Serial_Apologist]

Back to R4 - yes I have noticed more American accents over the last two years, and it is slightly annoying.

More annoying is the less/fewer confusion - it's just plain incorrect. Otherwise "Less MP's in parliament talking fewer sense" would be correct.

But most annoying is the mispronunciation of six as sic, which creeps in occasionally, as in "Sic Singers Singing". Might be something to do with sibilance on microphones, or just lazy tongues.

Well to me it is normal to run words together when one ends and the next starts with a similar consonant - otherwise English would be spoken like German, with each word clearly separated from its successor.

[jayne lee wilson]

Back to R4 - yes I have noticed more American accents over the last two years, and it is slightly annoying.

More annoying is the less/fewer confusion - it's just plain incorrect. Otherwise "Less MP's in parliament talking fewer sense" would be correct.

But most annoying is the mispronunciation of six as sic, which creeps in occasionally, as in "Sic Singers Singing". Might be something to do with sibilance on microphones, or just lazy tongues.

But why should Amercian Accents be annoying per se? Is it the State of the Union since 2016?

As I said above, I became familiar with them early on through TV (you can hardly avoid them now if you watch films or TV series), but I still can't see why they might be more annoying than Scots, Irish, French, Estuary-South or.....?

[Leinster Lass]

But why should Amercian Accents be annoying[I] per se[/I]? Is it the State of the Union since 2016?

As I said above, I became familiar with them early on through TV (you can hardly avoid them now if you watch films or TV series), but I still can't see why they might be more annoying than Scots, Irish, French, Estuary-South or.....?

Search me!
There are certain UK regional accents that annoy me ('Scouse' isn't one of them) that I really don't like listening to, but that's hardly the most important issue facing us, is it?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Back to R4 - yes I have noticed more American accents over the last two years, and it is slightly annoying.

More annoying is the less/fewer confusion - it's just plain incorrect. Otherwise "Less MP's in parliament talking fewer sense" would be correct.

But most annoying is the mispronunciation of six as sic, which creeps in occasionally, as in "Sic Singers Singing". Might be something to do with sibilance on microphones, or just lazy tongues.

The less/fewer distinction is one invented by Victorian grammarians who had little better to do and has no basis in historic English usage....
I spent decades correcting copy thinking there was a distinction and only discovered the truth when idly googling during the March lockdown.

[vinteuil]

The less/fewer distinction is one invented by Victorian grammarians who had little better to do and has no basis in historic English usage....
I spent decades correcting copy thinking there was a distinction and only discovered the truth when idly googling during the March lockdown.

.. I agree that it shouldn't be a shibboleth - but it can make for useful distinctions - "fewer intelligent people" isn't quite the same as "less intelligent people"

.

[french frank]

But why should Amercian Accents be annoying per se? Is it the State of the Union since 2016?

Would they be less annoying if they were all Aussie accents? Or all German accents? Would it be just as annoying or less annoying if there were the same number of overseas accents, each one different?

[Serial_Apologist]

.. I agree that it shouldn't be a shibboleth - but it can make for useful distinctions - "fewer intelligent people" isn't quite the same as "less intelligent people"

.

As MrGG would tell us, it's all a matter of context!

[Pulcinella]

.. I agree that it shouldn't be a shibboleth - but it can make for useful distinctions - "fewer intelligent people" isn't quite the same as "less intelligent people"

.

Solved by using a hyphen, in the less-intelligent case?
(But shouldn't we really be in Pedants' Paradise?)

[jayne lee wilson]

Would they be less annoying if they were all Aussie accents? Or all German accents? Would it be just as annoying or less annoying if there were the same number of overseas accents, each one different?

My very simple point is - I don't find any of these annoying in any context really, not at all....

I still remain mystified at why others seem to, yet seem unable to explain....

[french frank]

My very simple point is - I don't find any of these annoying in any context really, not at all....

My query was a follow-up to yours: "But why should Amercian Accents be annoying per se?" So I asked whether it was that they were American, or whether those who do get annoyed would be just as annoyed if they were all Aussie accents.

I conjecture that if there are a number of American or Aussie or Birmingham accents, the fact becomes noticeable and distracting to the extent that one gets to wonder why so many with the same accent (vide the thread title). I concede that some people may not even register that there are, say, 25 different American voices on Radio 4 one week. Not everyone even listens to speech radio very often these days. So for many it is unlikely to be perceived as a problem.

[DracoM]

Or is that these days so many BBC speech progs have to be sold or promulgated globally eg via World Service etc and an American style suits that?
Maybe RP etc etc or whatever in UK goes down abroad as 'empire', no matter how much-admired the standard of journalism associated with BBC?