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[Enkidu]

Huh, I've been reading Baby as having a really thick southern accent.  I read the whole archives a couple months ago when a link got posted here on the forums - I don't remember reading anything that pointed to her having an English heritage.

[Drygioni]

approximate Baby's English accent

Surely it's Southern States American? I can't relate 'ya' and 'ehn't' to an English accent at all.

[Cynicar]

*delurks*

It could be either southern or cockney.  I just kind of read it as general base-ness, as it doesn't really fit any actual accent I've ever heard.

I really wish I had any conception of what a Welsh accent sounds like.  Maybe the internets will help me here...

[linnea]

Huh, I've been reading Baby as having a really thick southern accent.  I read the whole archives a couple months ago when a link got posted here on the forums - I don't remember reading anything that pointed to her having an English heritage.

There was a strip where her accent was mentioned, and it was revealed that she was English. I'll have to dig around to find it.

**EDIT it's here: http://www.wigu.com/overcompensating/2005/02/green-trash-fantasies.html below the comic Jeff says that she's British.

[Arachno-capitalist]

*delurks*

It could be either southern or cockney.  I just kind of read it as general base-ness, as it doesn't really fit any actual accent I've ever heard.

I really wish I had any conception of what a Welsh accent sounds like.  Maybe the internets will help me here...

Welsh is disgusting on paper but the odd combination of letters and sounds and lengthening of vowels gives a sing-song accent in the south and west. North welsh accents are harsh with a lot of throat noises and muffled vowels. I didn't understand those folks. Listen to Charlotte Church or Catherine Zeta Jones for the real West welsh deal. 

[RMJ12345]

As Molly died 400 years ago, wouldn't the Welsh accent today be way different from her Welsh accent? You know, how apparently an English accent in the 17th/18th century would be like a Southern accent today (or so I've heard). And after 400 years, wouldn't it have standardized a bit?

[Ruta Bagas]

I'm pretty sure that particular example is guff, but yeah, the accent would've changed. That said, her language is modern, so there's no real reason here accent couldn't have shifted too (though there's no particular reason it should've shifted in the direction of any modern Welsh accent if so. Perhaps she has an accent unique to the part of Heaven she inhabited for so long. Or, you know, would have if she had an accent in any meaningful sense.

[theinevitable]

my understanding is that the british accent of that time period is what we think of as a kind of general hick accent. "Vittles," "varmint," etc.

[Ruta Bagas]

Particularities aside, I sincerely doubt that "British" accents then were any more homogeneous then than they are now. In fact, I'd put excellent money on them being substantially less so.

(The few things I've read and heard regarding early sixteenth century London accents, on a just about related note, had it pegged nearer the modern Cornish accent. But I'm not sure how reliable they were.)

[Lister]

Accents decay as they come into contact with other accents, and national/international media only hasten the effect. 

It's kind of odd to listen to my family -- My parents both have pronounced southern accents.  My oldest sister has one, too, mostly in the way she enunciates her O's, but it's markedly different from my parents'.  My middle and youngest sisters have so little accent that I didn't even notice it until I had been away for a while.  I dropped mine on purpose, but it wasn't a long trip.  My nieces (oldest sister's kids) have a sort of Midwestern accent with a few southern vowels thrown in.

This isn't to say that Alabamians as a whole don't have accents, but the volume seems to drop on them as time goes by, especially if the people in question hear other accents early in life.  I'd bet that schools in suburban Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, or Houston are filled with kids who don't sound so much like their parents.

[theinevitable]

I can vouch for Charlotte-- plenty. But more than you'd think have accents.

I want one. At this point, basically the only thing that makes me sound southern is occasionally saying "y'all"-- this automatically turns the rest of the sentence into a big mess of accent. which is... strange."d'y'all have sweet tea?" "how're y'all doin' today?" etc.

[smick]

I'm from the Pacific Northwest.  We don't have accents.

Though, occasionally in a QFC, you'll see a sign that says "Can Food" instead of "Canned Food".  They also say "Soda".   My parents are from the eastern US.  Specifically Ohio (Dad) and my Mom is a Yooper.  They both say "Pop".

My mom is an attorney, so she's fairly well educated.   Her Yooper blood still dictates that when she's on vacation, she takes "Pitchers" of things to remember them later.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Why did I lose 2 cans for explaining welsh accents?

[smick]

No idea, A-CAP, but the lady from Torchwood is hot.

Also, I can embrace a culture who would name someone Myfanwy.

Now: My professional story about Wales.

I work for a phone company.  I may have mentioned this.   Every morning I have to make a bunch of test calls to make sure my switch is not acting in an untoward manner.   Every morning I call a Pizza Hut in Cardiff, Cymru (Wales).  I don't have any kind of family tie to the Welsh.   I just like the fact that I'm calling a Pizza Hut that's across the street from a castle.  I like that the phone makes the ringback tones of the English phone system.  Boop Boop....Boop Boop... I like that they answer with a Welsh accent and say "Pizza Hut, High Street." 

I, like clockwork at 8:30am my time, 5:30pm their time, say "Good morning, just checking in." I always wait a beat before I hang up.  I usually get a response of "What?", "Pardon?", or "Eh?"  I explain that to coworkers as me testing for two-way audio.  I know, however, that I'm really just hoping someone connects this string of phone calls togther.  I hope that they're talking about it amongst themselves.  I hope that one day the response will be "Wait!" instead of the usual questions.  I hope I'm a mystery in someone's life.   I've been on nights for a few months, so I haven't been making the morning test calls.   Do they miss me?  I don't know.

I work for a phone company, I make mild prank phone calls for a living.

[V-Adore]

I still want to know what constitutes an "Alaskan accent," which I got told I had for months after I moved from Fairbanks to Nebraska. Wherever I go, people tell me I have the accent of the last place I lived; I'm starting to think I just have a funny voice.