Burnistoun - Voice Recognition Elevator in Scotland

[Liutauras Vilda]

[Knute Snortum]

My experience is that people from the UK can do an American accent better than Americans can do any English or Scottish accents.  Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins, as they mentioned.  On the other hand, take Hugh Laurie on House, MD.  I never would have suspected that he wasn't born in America, his accent was so good.  

[Campbell Ritchie]

Knute Snortum wrote:. . . Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins . . .

No, thank you. . . .
Part of the problem here is that accents vary. I have never been to the States, only to LA. The people were surprised when I said that Jamie Bell , Billy Elliott in the film of that name, couldn't talk Pityacker and hadn't been taught it as the rest of the cast had. “Well, he's from Billingham, and that's ten miles from where the film was made.” They were surprised by the notion that people could talk differently ten miles away.

Pityacker or Pitmatic is an informal name round here for the way they talk in the [former] coalmining areas of County Durham.

I think I have seen that film before. The problem probably started when the people described the ascending and descending device as a lift. That totally confused the voice recognition system.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:. . . Billingham . . ..

Pronounced Bill′ing'm.

When I first came here from the Midlands I saw all sorts of requests with Bham/B'ham in the address and spent several weeks thinking it was a long way for them to come for investigations, all the way from Birmingham.

[Knute Snortum]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

Knute Snortum wrote:. . . Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins . . .

No, thank you. . . .

Do you know of any Americans who have done as well as Hugh Laurie or Bob Hoskins in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

[Campbell Ritchie]

It's so long since I saw Roger Rabbit that I have forgotten all about it.

[Tim Moores]

Funny, but it goes on a bit too long I think. Cutting the last minute (while keeping the final scene) would have made it a better video.

[Peter Rooke]

Many years back I worked in speech technology; around 1990 Dragon had just launched their new product "dragon dictate" which was a major improvement on their previous products.
Apricot  Computers where trying to market this product within the UK, and accepted an invite to appear on the BBC program Tomorrows World.  Problem was that it took a few hours the "train" the product, and the programme producers insisted that their presenter would demo the product.  The presenter spent a few hours doing the training, however a camera man managed to trip the power and all the training data was lost.  So they went ahead and the product just completely failed to recognise the presenters words.  Sadly Apricot pulled out of the market a few weeks later.  

Oddly the software never struggled to recognise words spoken in a Geordie accent, which is more than most non Newcastle natives can say.

[Zach Rode]

Knute Snortum wrote:My experience is that people from the UK can do an American accent better than Americans can do any English or Scottish accents.  Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins, as they mentioned.  On the other hand, take Hugh Laurie on House, MD.  I never would have suspected that he wasn't born in America, his accent was so good.  

I think for a general american accent yes, but American accents are regonalized just as English accents are. Most Americans can't do a proper Southern accent of any kind, just as a Southerner would struggle a proper New York or Midwest accent.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Tim Moores wrote:. . . a bit too long . . . . Cutting the last minute . . . would have made it a better video.

Depends how much material you have to fill up your programme; if you have 28 minutes' worth for a 30‑minute programme, you won't want to cut anything.

[Tim Holloway]

Knute Snortum wrote:My experience is that people from the UK can do an American accent better than Americans can do any English or Scottish accents.  Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins, as they mentioned.  On the other hand, take Hugh Laurie on House, MD.  I never would have suspected that he wasn't born in America, his accent was so good.  

Well, according to Willard, the book that launched the rat movies of the 1970s, the way to sound American while making a telephone call is to pinch your nose. (nasally) "''ello, luv, I'm an amArican, only I wanted to know if anyone just got et up buy rats".

Reputedly, David Tennant did an awful accent in the American version of Broadchurch, though his normal speaking and Doctor accents are decidedly different kettles of fish.

Dick van Dyke has taken a lot of flack for the Mary Poppins gig, although I've never heard exactly what sets people off so, Reputedly his accent coach was Australian, and I suppose that he is a pretty nasal. And the fact that he's intelligible at all would probably disqualify him from being mistaken for Cockney by a lot of folks...

[Campbell Ritchie]

Tim Holloway wrote:. . . the fact that he's intelligible at all would probably disqualify him from being mistaken for Cockney by a lot of folks...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

No, that's Geordie you are thinking of. Or Brummie. Or Scouse. But if you really want unintelligible, you need to go full circle to Glasgow.

[Campbell Ritchie]

A few years ago my daughter wanted to go to Tate Modern, in the former Bankside Power Station. so I told her to ask at the tube station how to get there. Consternation: “He told me to go to Suffolk, Daddy!”
A few seconds' thought brought me to a conclusion: “Not Suffolk, Suvvark,” and off to Suvvark Stition we went.

[Randy Maddocks]

Knute Snortum wrote:Take for example Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins

When I was a kid that was one of my favorite movies (and still consider it a classic), but I have to agree that Dick did not do well with the English accent. Really liked his character in that movie, but you cringed when his "accent" went off the rails. Didn't notice it when I was younger, but every now and then when I watch it I still wince when his "English" voice slips (and yes, I have it on DVD, which, for a guy in his mid-fifties, could understandably be considered a little weird...or creepy)...  

[Piet Souris]

Randy! That is almost as weird as having big tears when Tony's head gets blown off in the WSS, or when Julie Andrews sings that she must have done something good in her miserable past.

But most funny was when Lennart Burnstein rerecorded the music of the WSS, letting Jose Carreras doing Tony. So there you have a Polish rooted person singing with a heavy Spanish accent.

[Randy Maddocks]

Piet Souris wrote:...So there you have a Polish rooted person singing with a heavy Spanish accent.

Ah, but it's that kind of thing that keeps us entertained, doesn't it?    

[Piet Souris]

It sure does!

[salvin francis]

India has the second largest number of languages (780) in the world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
North Indians and South Indians have a completely different and distinguishable accents due to the variety of languages spoken.
Even with the same language, there are several dialects.

Despite all this .. we strive to have a neutral accent

[Knute Snortum]

Dick van Dyke claims that he would have worked on his accent more if he knew how bad it was.  He'd ask how he was doing and the director would say, "It's fine, don't worry about it."  This was probably because he was the "big star" and no one wanted to tell him that his accent was terrible.