accent chat

I have the rhythm, but not the twang, of American accents. It’s primarily a cultivated NZ English accent, but yes it’s partly mid-Atlantic because I was trained to sing. So I learned the plummy vowels in choir, but I also learned to sing show tunes and standards, which means certain Americanisms. I also like to speak quickly, and it’s not as though I give a shit when speaking whether I ‘sound Kiwi’ or not: in fact, it sucked when I returned from Italy and was told that. I give a shit about being understood, and I’ve flatted with several Americans and Poms. -

As for my little joke about RNZ: it’s genuinely odd that there aren’t any American presenters. There’s Americans in most skilled positions in NZ, particularly medicine and (yes) music. 👍 Which is partly why my accent is the way it is: uni was full of strange accents, plus there's that classical music fetish about pronunciation... -

I think it suggests a somewhat parochial attitude, and all that mother country bullshit that my generation is well and truly over.

I donate to the NZ republican movement (yes, that’s genuinely a good thing! ✔😎), and their polls say it’s the Boomers who are attached to the monarchy.

Generally, the polls suggest that if NZ remains part of the Commonwealth, most people are for an NZ Head of State.