What's the story with Saoirse Ronan's accent?

beks101 · 16-01-2016 06:36PM

I'd say having an Irish accent is a big plus in Hollywood, she's probably been encouraged to keep it and maybe even ham it up when she's doing interviews. It makes her likeable to the yanks.

Regardless I think it's far more pleasant to listen to than your usual 'went to America for five minutes and brought back this accent" you see among celebrities and Irish people alike. Bono or Nadine Coyle for example, who sounds like a clown.

Sam Kade · 16-01-2016 08:31PM

Azalea wrote: »

You appear very angry about others finding her pretty when you don't fancy her.

Not the slightest bit angry, you can eat the arse off her for all I care but to say that she is a beauty is nonsense.

Sam Kade · 16-01-2016 08:33PM

Rezident wrote: »

"unpleasant and grating'? Oh dear, how terrible of her to offend you by the way she speaks. She should probably just stop speaking altogether.

Is there anything people on the internet are not offended by nowadays? Anything!?

Well you are offended by other posters comments so I suppose no is the answer.

LordSutch · 16-01-2016 08:44PM

Ninap wrote: »

According to Wikipedia she was born in New York, 'raised briefly' in Carlow, and then moved to Howth. But she's ended up with a particularly unpleasant and grating Dublin accent. Where did she get it? She sounds like a mixture of Joan Burton's monotone drone, and Mary Lou McDonald's fake working-class Dub accent............

Crumlin?

Canadel · 16-01-2016 08:45PM

Sam Kade wrote: »

Not the slightest bit angry, you can eat the arse off her for all I care but say that she is a beauty is nonsense.

It's not nonsense in the sense that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and attractiveness is subjective. However, I agree with you that there is nothing incredibly striking or sexy about her, at least not compared to thousands of other women walking around Ireland everyday. But who cares? She's a damn fine actress apparently and very successful in her career.

RDM_83 again · 16-01-2016 09:02PM

cml387 wrote: »

I couldn't believe it today when I heard that her accent was suddenly a "thing".

I've heard Saoirse interviewed for years and she's always had exactly the same accent.

Nothing wrong with it. Compare it to Nadine Coyle's "Derry City Crashed Into LA And There Were No Survivors" accent.

Nadines accent is rotten but IMO its probably actually a lot more genuine than Ronans accent, its a mix of where she was brought up (Derry city) and where she lives.
Its probably weird but I think begrudgery is one of the Irish's best traits, the English with their cap tipping to "their betters" is sickening and the yanks hero worship is just annoying. Famous people are still people at the end of the day.

Figbiscuithead · 16-01-2016 09:25PM

RDM_83 again wrote: »

Its probably weird but I think begrudgery is one of the Irish's best traits, the English with their cap tipping to "their betters" is sickening and the yanks hero worship is just annoying. Famous people are still people at the end of the day.

Down-to-earth-ness and lack of tolerance for pretension are traits that I love about Ireland and their existence might in some way be explained by people's fear of "getting above their station" for fear of being at the receiving end of begrudgery. I think it can be funny with the right delivery i.e. a little bit tongue in cheek but it often comes across as bitter, mean-spirited and to be honest, a bit desperate when people are trying find fault where there is none as is the case with the harmless and very young actress, Saoirse Ronan. Relentless finding fault in everything drives me nutty.

Mars Bar · 16-01-2016 09:28PM

riffmongous wrote: »

I knew someone with the name Sorcha,pronounced like the above, which is a different name

Ah that was it now that you've jogged my memory!

PC Lackey · 16-01-2016 10:31PM

Sam Kade wrote: »

Well you are offended by other posters comments so I suppose no is the answer.

Nobody should ever be offended. Ever.
Its their right.

This comment doesn't offend you because.

Azalea · 17-01-2016 01:17AM

Sam Kade wrote: »

Not the slightest bit angry, you can eat the arse off her for all I care but to say that she is a beauty is nonsense.

People might find her beautiful - that is their opinion, get over it. I think she is much more beautiful than Emma Watson or Carey Mulligan (whose "hotness" I cannot understand, but I don't get annoyed about it and I remember people have different tastes).
She is very young anyway - a lot of women's beauty does not blossom until later on. That is the case with Scarlett Johansson IMO - could not understand the hype when she was in Lost In Translation and other movies that time, but she is absolutely stunning now I think. I'd say Saoirse Ronan will blossom into a stunner.

Figbiscuithead wrote: »

Down-to-earth-ness and lack of tolerance for pretension are traits that I love about Ireland and their existence might in some way be explained by people's fear of "getting above their station" for fear of being at the receiving end of begrudgery. I think it can be funny with the right delivery i.e. a little bit tongue in cheek but it often comes across as bitter, mean-spirited and to be honest, a bit desperate when people are trying find fault where there is none as is the case with the harmless and very young actress, Saoirse Ronan. Relentless finding fault in everything drives me nutty.

Nail on the head.

17-01-2016 01:36AM

Feels like people are getting far too riled up about this. Enough internet for you for today, methinks.

17-01-2016 01:37AM

Anyone know why President Michael Higgins speaks with an upper-class sounding accent which he didn't possess when he was younger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PY-Jzdujj0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFm2R7uEZGc

BoJack Horseman · 17-01-2016 02:16AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Anyone know why President Michael Higgins speaks with an upper-class sounding accent which he didn't possess when he was younger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PY-Jzdujj0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFm2R7uEZGc

Younger?

I assume Prez Higgo was born aged because he's old in both videos.

PandaPoo · 17-01-2016 02:17AM

Lia_lia wrote: »

I like her. But why does she pronounce her name like that? She pronounces it "sursha". I have never in my life heard anyone else pronounce it that way. It's "seersha". Maybe it's a Dublin thing?

I would say Sursha too...I'm a Dub so maybe that's it.

riclad · 17-01-2016 02:24AM

Many irish female presenters have a gereric middle class accent ,its not rural,
its not english, its maybe irish / mid atlantic ,
It does not seem to be from any particular area .

Read any book about english actors ,
when they go to drama school ,they usually adopt a bland english middle class accent,
easy to understand by americans or anyone .
A very posh english accent is out of fashion ,
for the purposes of acting, if you want to play the hero or heroine in films .
They lose their regional accent,s on purpose ,
a strong northern english accent is not good if you want to get a wide range of acting parts .
Americans may not understand people who talk in a strong irish accent .
eg cork,kerry,dublin.
Maybe she moved around a bit and picked up a mix of dublin accents ,
without trying .
When you are making international big movies ,
part of the job is to be easily understood by american and english audiences .
I dont think she is faking it .
Once you start making films you have to stick to one accent ,
for modern films, unless the character is american or french or german etc
theres a least 4 dublin accents, working class, middle class, dart posh accent ,generic middle class accent used by dj,s ,
tv presenters .

17-01-2016 02:28AM

The fact is a lot of people in Ireland,mostly female for some reason,seem to adopt this crazy accent.its like they are ashamed of their irisn accent.party becomes paardy,cork becomes coirk,roundabout becomes roundaboush, dot becomes dosh. The list is endless.everyone has idiosyncrasies about how they speak,but this is a conceited and controlled language now.it used to crack me up but now I just feel sorry for the people that use that put on accent, sad.

riclad · 17-01-2016 02:37AM

Do some women do it on purpose, adopt a middle class south side accent,when they move to dublin .
as they may see a rural accent as a drawback,
they want to blend in ,an accent from cork,kerry,limerick,mayo etc stands out ,

BoJack Horseman · 17-01-2016 02:46AM

riclad wrote: »

Do some women do it on purpose, adopt a middle class south side accent,when they move to dublin .
as they may see a rural accent as a drawback,
they want to blend in ,an accent from cork,kerry,limerick,mayo etc stands out ,

Some people are accent sponges....
Their environment will make an impact on their voice over time.

feargale · 17-01-2016 02:52AM

Rhys Essien wrote: »

A thing I noticed with a few Irish women who work on TV abroad,Liz Bonin,Amanda Byram,Dr Pixie McKenna,Sharon Horgan is that they are all putting on stupid English accents.Whats that all about?

Paddy goes to America, comes home after 10 years with an American accent: He has notions about himself.

Chuck, an American, comes to Ireland. After 12 months he's speaking with an Irish accent: Sure he's a grand lad, like one of ourselves.

17-01-2016 02:59AM

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Some people are accent sponges....
Their environment will make an impact on their voice over time.

I agree with that to a certain extent.but most British people living in say,america, or indeed Ireland never lose an ounce of their accent,same goes for an American living for years in britian or Ireland or wherever,they don't lose their accent.an irish person living in britain or America for a few years most certainly will speak ( weather it's put on or not) with a British of American accent.

Rhea Rose · 17-01-2016 03:08AM

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Some people are accent sponges....
Their environment will make an impact on their voice over time.

I'd agree with this. An ex of mine was American and it definitely rubbed off on me. I remember talking to a man on a plane to the US before and he asked if I was on my way home! I still get it the odd time from taxi drivers (i.e. where in the US are you from), but it's an odd one because plenty other people say I've a strong Irish accent.

Point is, it can easily happen if you're not minding it. I see nothing strange about her accent though.

con___manx1 · 17-01-2016 03:50AM

Didn't saoisre grow up in Carlow ? Maybe she puts on that Dublin accent to hide her true Carlow accent. it has to be one of the worst accents in Ireland .

LordSutch · 17-01-2016 08:22AM

She is a great actress though, and very good with accents. So good in fact, that I expected her to either have a very straight American accent, (with a hint of D4 thrown in)? or maybe a sophisticated stage school mid atlantic twang? But then I heard her on the TV recently, with this very strong 'grating' Dublin type accent. Which is fine I guess!

... but like many, it took me by surprise too.

Wibbs · 17-01-2016 10:55AM

droidman123 wrote: »

The fact is a lot of people in Ireland,mostly female for some reason,seem to adopt this crazy accent.

It's been observed in other accents too. One theory has it that because women were/are more socially mobile(and actually mobile) than men, they're the first to drive a new exclusive accent(not just "posh" either, it's been observed in US inner city gang culture among women). Fitting in was more important for women in our history as a species, as they were more physically vulnerable and for much of our history women were effectively traded as mates between groups, so acclimatising more quickly would be an advantage. You see it among surviving tribal societies. It's rare that men move into another group, it's almost always the women. It's also a theory to explain why women in general are better at picking up languages.

Even in modern Ireland you can observe this mobility in women. Go to a small town/village in Ireland and you'll often see after a certain age a demographic shift towards the men as more women have left for bigger cities. Picking up this mid atlantic drawl(or whatever the local generic middle class accent is) would help with fitting in.

Rhys Essien wrote:

A thing I noticed with a few Irish women who work on TV abroad,Liz Bonin,Amanda Byram,Dr Pixie McKenna,Sharon Horgan is that they are all putting on stupid English accents.Whats that all about?

*scratches head* I'm really starting to wonder about some people's ear for accents, or how many people they know from different parts of Dublin, as none of the above have English accents, never mind "stupid" ones. Bonin's is pure Dublin D4 for a start, the rest are in and around that type of accent, but no way would you mistake any of their accents for an English one.

riclad · 17-01-2016 07:36PM

Some people get confused , a bland middle class accent is not an english accent.
It,s an irish accent that has no specific origin,

it says i,m middle class respectable ,non offensive .
its does,nt use dublin slang or words like my moth , etc
listen to presenters on rte 1 tv,
eg its not a cork,kerry,dublin accent ,
it might sound english middle class to an american .
Like the irish version of the bbc radio 4 accent .

saoirse could have just adopted a bland middle class but not a posh accent ,
if she wanted to make it easy on herself .

IF theres an irish version of siri it will have a bland middle class accent ,
non regional, not based in any county or place in ireland,
but very easy to understand .

listen to some irish dj,s , they do not sound posh,
they sound middel class irish .
but i have no idea where they live, where the come from,
are they from clare, carlow ,dublin ,
they have no trace of any regional accent
but they do not have an english accent .

Brendan Bendar · 19-01-2016 06:23AM

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Yeah some people have to alter their accent in the States. I heard Conor McGregor speaking about this recently, when he first went over they couldn't understand a word he said.

No surprise there, surely.

Sam Kade · 21-01-2016 11:33AM

droidman123 wrote: »

The fact is a lot of people in Ireland,mostly female for some reason,seem to adopt this crazy accent.its like they are ashamed of their irisn accent.party becomes paardy,cork becomes coirk,roundabout becomes roundaboush, dot becomes dosh. The list is endless.everyone has idiosyncrasies about how they speak,but this is a conceited and controlled language now.it used to crack me up but now I just feel sorry for the people that use that put on accent, sad.

You'd think when they go to the trouble of changing their accents that they would make an effort to pronounce words properly. If they want to sound important just use a posh UK accent. Mispronouncing words like they do only makes them sound more stupid.

damemcd · 21-01-2016 12:57PM

Then theres lads going to Oz for the Summer coming home with dreadful nasal aussie drones...

riclad · 21-01-2016 01:08PM

Listen to irish radio djs, some have a middle class accent slightly irish .
Its not posh, its not working class , its bland ,it
says i ,m not common or working class,
its an irish version of the middle class bbc accent used by tv presenters in the south of england .
A Posh accent is not really in fashion ,if you want to be a dj or tv presenter .
And appeal to a wide audience .
Some people think a middle class southside dublin accent is english ,its not .
it s a accent of no specific origin ,
not a dublin or an accent from any specific county.
Maybe some women adopt it when they come to work in dublin as they want to blend in at work or ar college .
As a strong rural accent is not exactly in fashion in most parts of dublin.
i came to dublin from athlone age 18 ,i now have a north dublin accent .
i did not try and pick it up or adopt it or change my accent at all .
I lived mostly in north dublin from the age of 19,
lived in rathmines for about 8 months .

Paramite Pie · 21-01-2016 01:26PM

BoJack Horseman wrote: »

Some people are accent sponges....
Their environment will make an impact on their voice over time.

I'm one of those sponges. I can also 'sound' quite fluent in French as my pronunciation is quite spot on -- only when i run out of vocab do i reveal myself as a tourist.
I also pick up my housemates accents.

droidman123 wrote: »

I agree with that to a certain extent.but most British people living in say,america, or indeed Ireland never lose an ounce of their accent,same goes for an American living for years in britian or Ireland or wherever,they don't lose their accent.an irish person living in britain or America for a few years most certainly will speak ( weather it's put on or not) with a British of American accent.

Well at a young age, we're far more exposed to BBC and US tv. In rural Ireland, many of us speak with far thicker accents among ourselves but streamline it a bit when in cities -- i'd rather be understood first time thanks very much!
We might think an Irish person has adopted a British accent but I doubt the British hear it the same way -- they'll likely still think it's Irish. An English lad in my school --always thought he had a strong english accent -- had an accent that would get very 'English' when he spoke to his mum on the phone. It came out so much stronger for the next hour whenever he made a phonecall home. It's only then I realised that his accent had adapted but i still wasn't Irish to my ears.

What's the story with Saoirse Ronan's accent?

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