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What's the deal with the Irish accent?

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  • 19-05-2007 11:35pm
    #1
    Binomate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,783 ✭✭✭


    Why is it sexy? One thing I've noticed when I'm talking to foreign people, whether it's in real life or over the interweb, one of the first things they'll usually say to you when they find out that you're from Ireland is that they like the accent or that they find it sexy. Thinking about it, the vast majority of people from different countries I've spoken to really love the Irish accent.

    I took it to youtube. Searched for "Irish Accent" and watched the first couple of videos which were imitations of the Irish accent. From watching the videos, it seems as if people who aren't used to the Irish accent seem to have trouble distinguishing between the differences in the Irish accents from place to place. In most of them, they seemed to be immitating the accent you'd often hear in the Simpsons that sounds like a leprechaun. I'd have thought this accent would be the LEAST sexy of all the accents. Has anyone any ideas as to why people who aren't from Ireland find a leprechaun accent sexy?


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    #2
    eamoss
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,080 ✭✭✭eamoss


    because its different?

    1st post since march :eek: sorry iv just been busy with college!


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    #3
    danger mouse
    Registered Users Posts: 559 ✭✭✭danger mouse


    Because it's so flat. hmm D4 accents are so hawt roysh now.


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    #4
    Time Magazine
    Registered Users Posts: 8,452 ✭✭✭Time Magazine


    In that stupid "Did ye miss d'boat?" Dairygold ad, the accent of the girl who says "Is that all ye French fellas think about?" is hot.


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    #5
    danger mouse
    Registered Users Posts: 559 ✭✭✭danger mouse


    Hardly. that ****ing add wrecks my head..Can i shoot the person who made it?


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    #6
    patrickolee
    Closed Accounts Posts: 890 ✭✭✭patrickolee


    it's no different than for us trying to tell the difference between accents from other countries. Would you be able to tell the difference between Manchester and Liverpool accents? I wouldn't. As for the sexy part, maybe they are been polite?


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    #7
    Garret
    Closed Accounts Posts: 622 ✭✭✭Garret


    patrickolee wrote:
    it's no different than for us trying to tell the difference between accents from other countries. Would you be able to tell the difference between Manchester and Liverpool accents? I wouldn't. As for the sexy part, maybe they are been polite?

    despite the close proximity of the cities i would find the scouse and manc accents quite distinguishable from each other


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    #8
    palaver
    Closed Accounts Posts: 216 ✭✭palaver


    because it sounds innocent. Has the intonation of toddler speak, like, mooom can i have crisps? Or more bertie-like: can have this property? Who can resist... :rolleyes:

    not to mention the cork accent or even more - sigh :o -the northern accent. Gosh, aren't they sexy with that tough guy attitude and then the soft spoken insecure tongue?

    and even when angry they still smile with their eyes - and throw insults in toddler speak at you ... :D

    Yes, the Irish accent is definitely sexy.


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    #9
    Call Me Jimmy
    Registered Users Posts: 8,449 ✭✭✭Call Me Jimmy


    patrickolee wrote:
    it's no different than for us trying to tell the difference between accents from other countries. Would you be able to tell the difference between Manchester and Liverpool accents? I wouldn't. As for the sexy part, maybe they are been polite?

    Yeah not a great example. How about southern and northern french accents.


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    #10
    Binomate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,783 ✭✭✭Binomate


    patrickolee wrote:
    it's no different than for us trying to tell the difference between accents from other countries. Would you be able to tell the difference between Manchester and Liverpool accents? I wouldn't. As for the sexy part, maybe they are been polite?
    Well, I find it quite easy to distinguish between British accents. American too, there's a huge difference between a southern American accent and a New york accent for example. It only gets harder to distinguish between accents when there's a language barrier imo.


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    #11
    Exit
    Registered Users Posts: 2,267 ✭✭✭Exit


    Binomate wrote:
    Well, I find it quite easy to distinguish between British accents. American too, there's a huge difference between a southern American accent and a New york accent for example. It only gets harder to distinguish between accents when there's a language barrier imo.

    Well, you picked two hugely distinctive accents there. Could you tell the difference between a Chicago and a Philadelphia accent, for instance?

    EDIT: Don't forget too that we get an awful lot of British and American TV. The rest of the world obviously doesn't get a varied amount of Irish programming, so they would rarely, if ever, hear different Irish accents.


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    #12
    Mossy Monk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 28,128 ✭✭✭✭Mossy Monk


    danger mouse wrote:
    Hardly. that ****ing add wrecks my head..Can i shoot the person who made it?
    Sure, why not.


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    #13
    Chinafoot
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,894 ✭✭✭Chinafoot


    I'd never say I have an Irish accent.
    With so many differences between the counties there is no blanket Irish accent.

    Would you describe someone from Liverpool and someone from Yorkshire as having an English accent?

    If I had to chose an accent within Ireland that is sexy I'd say Galway. There's a lovely soft, lilting quality to it.

    :)


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    #14
    Binomate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,783 ✭✭✭Binomate


    Exit wrote:
    Well, you picked two hugely distinctive accents there. Could you tell the difference between a Chicago and a Philadelphia accent, for instance?
    Well it could be argued that the Dublin accent is completely different to the Cork or Limerick accent, yet I've had Canadian friends of mine unuable to distinguish any difference between the two, even when both accents were slightly exadurated.
    Exit wrote:
    EDIT: Don't forget too that we get an awful lot of British and American TV. The rest of the world obviously doesn't get a varied amount of Irish programming, so they would rarely, if ever, hear different Irish accents.
    That's a very good point actually.


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    #15
    iguana
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 12,915 Mod ✭✭✭✭iguana


    Binomate wrote:
    Well it could be argued that the Dublin accent is completely different to the Cork or Limerick accent, yet I've had Canadian friends of mine unuable to distinguish any difference between the two, even when both accents were slightly exadurated.

    Different Irish accents have more in common with each other than they do with other accents. But as we are so familiar with our own accents we hear the differences rather than the similarities. But to someone who isn't familiar with our accents the similarities are more obvious. It's similar to how I see that my dogs have completely different personalities whereas people who barely know them think they are just alike. Or how the first time you ever had Thai food it just tasted spicy but once you've eaten it a lot you can pick out the coriander, lemongrass and lime.

    To answer the original question I think there is a musical quality to the Irish accent, or a lilt, which is quite sensuous if you aren't overly familiar with it that people find sexy.


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    #16
    WindSock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 18,239 ✭✭✭✭WindSock


    And it isn't nasally like yanks or aussies. Butsh in shaying dashh...


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    #17
    NeMiSiS
    Registered Users Posts: 1,306 ✭✭✭NeMiSiS


    Hit the States, go talk to some women, you won't be so worried about why.. you will just use it to your own advantage...
    TK


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    #18
    IzzyWizzy
    Registered Users Posts: 6,645 ✭✭✭IzzyWizzy


    Like any accent, you don't hear the difference until you're familiar with it. I only came here (to the north) when I was 12 and the most I could distinguish was between the Northern accents and those from the republic, and I have an ear for accents and languages. It took me a while to be able to tell the difference between Dublin and Galway for example, and I didn't distinguish the 'D4' accent until I lived in Dublin. It seems incredible now but they really aren't that different. How many Dubliners can really distinguish the different northern accents, let alone those from other countries? Can you really tell the difference between the Ottawa, Canada accent and the Chicago one? I was shocked that someone would not know the difference between Manchester and Liverpool since to me they couldn't be more different, but then I lived around there. It's all a question of what you're familiar with. Think how often the average American hears an Irish accent. Very rarely, and when they do it's usually in a film about travellers or something.


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    #19
    Firetrap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,442 ✭✭✭Firetrap


    IzzyWizzy wrote:
    Like any accent, you don't hear the difference until you're familiar with it. I only came here (to the north) when I was 12 and the most I could distinguish was between the Northern accents and those from the republic, and I have an ear for accents and languages. It took me a while to be able to tell the difference between Dublin and Galway for example, and I didn't distinguish the 'D4' accent until I lived in Dublin. It seems incredible now but they really aren't that different. How many Dubliners can really distinguish the different northern accents, let alone those from other countries? Can you really tell the difference between the Ottawa, Canada accent and the Chicago one? I was shocked that someone would not know the difference between Manchester and Liverpool since to me they couldn't be more different, but then I lived around there. It's all a question of what you're familiar with. Think how often the average American hears an Irish accent. Very rarely, and when they do it's usually in a film about travellers or something.

    Most of the time when Americans hear Irish accents, it's when American or British actors do a very bad impersonation of an Oirish accent. The real thing has got to sound better after that.


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    #20
    tallus
    Registered Users Posts: 6,324 ✭✭✭tallus


    Call Me Jimmy wrote:
    Yeah not a great example. How about southern and northern french accents.
    Non english speakers usually speak with the accent of the person who taught them. So it's not really a valid point.


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    #21
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    ...
    uh
    i can't find any post by call me jimmy in this thread, wtf?


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    #22
    [Jackass]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,193 ✭✭✭[Jackass]


    You know we have Colin Farrell to thank for this!!He went over to america and stepped into the Bradd Pitt role, and made Irish men sex on legs to american women.

    Thank you Colin, Thank you for about 4 of the notches on my bed post. :p

    (^^ Morderth, it's post #9)


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    #23
    Sir Digby Chicken Caesar
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    uh
    americans, and most foreign wimminz have loved the irish accent for a long time
    it has nothing to do with that scummer bastard

    --edit

    wow.. how did I miss that


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    #24
    spanner
    Closed Accounts Posts: 620 ✭✭✭spanner


    the sexiest accents in the english speaking world I think are northern ireland and the Edinburgh accent

    I could never get the difference between New Zealand and Australia, can anyone


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    #25
    bluto63
    Registered Users Posts: 2,228 ✭✭✭bluto63


    It's only if you've heard the accents for a while that you can tell the difference. That's why we can so easily tell apart the Irish accents and possibly some English accents.

    On that note I love the London accent. Never got what was so good about the Australian accent.


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    #26
    Blush_01
    Registered Users Posts: 5,016 ✭✭✭Blush_01


    Binomate wrote:
    Well it could be argued that the Dublin accent is completely different to the Cork or Limerick accent, yet I've had Canadian friends of mine unuable to distinguish any difference between the two, even when both accents were slightly exadurated.

    That's a very good point actually.

    The proper Cork accents are a lot different to the proper Limerick accents, you don't have to go as far as Dublin to find differences. The place where Cork and Limerick accents differ least is probably at the border. I went to school on the Tipperary/Limerick border and there was a notable difference in the accents of people from Boher, Murroe, Cappamore, Doon etc. when compared with Dundrum, Hollyford, Cappawhite et al. Even vocabulary differed. (Takkies, anybody? The only other people I know of who say takkies are S. Africans.)


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    #27
    Nehpets
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,504 ✭✭✭Nehpets


    From this thread, I conclude that accents sound different.


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    #28
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 16,720 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Ibid wrote:
    In that stupid "Did ye miss d'boat?" Dairygold ad, the accent of the girl who says "Is that all ye French fellas think about?" is hot.

    Who's bringing the horse to France?


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    #29
    shane86
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,584 ✭✭✭shane86


    Binomate wrote:
    Why is it sexy? One thing I've noticed when I'm talking to foreign people, whether it's in real life or over the interweb, one of the first things they'll usually say to you when they find out that you're from Ireland is that they like the accent or that they find it sexy. Thinking about it, the vast majority of people from different countries I've spoken to really love the Irish accent.


    By foreign do you mean worldwide or just the English? Its true, the Irish spiel makes English birds wetter than an otters pocket as oul Mel B would say, but I dunno about other countries. When working a depressing call centre job the only laugh you got was when occasionally one of the English birds would say "oh my god are you Irish? Oh my god I love that accent!". If they sounded like they were in their 50s I just joked along, if they sounded young I had a bit of a banter :) One girl, sounded young, nice posh south England accent must have repeated the accent compliments 5 times during the call, I was up like the spire :D

    Alot of foreigners I talk to have difficulty with our style of speaking. Unless we are in something like a job interview, we dont speak regular English. We speak our own version, much like Jamaicans do. My foreign workmates wont have a clue whats happening if me and another Irish guy are talking about having been locked outta the bin at the weekend, and that we wanted to pure slaughteritourra this young one with bleedin savage baps on her (sometimes I talk like this purely to confuse the girl who sits beside me, shes flawless in English yet the look she gives to this incomprehensible waffle is hilarious :D ). re what Nick said, I never found that American women here were crazy about the accent (and I knew a few as my mates apt block was full of them.). However, in America itself they're apparently crazy about it.
    Dont generally like yank birds myself anyway, at least the ones I met here, they all seem to be really goody two shoes types, not a bit of adventure or general madness about them. As for Irish accent, posh, hot, D4 and stuck up for me all the way :D I dunno, I find the southside accent kinda cool.


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    #30
    Mossy Monk
    Closed Accounts Posts: 28,128 ✭✭✭✭Mossy Monk


    spanner wrote:
    I could never get the difference between New Zealand and Australia, can anyone

    Quite distinctive I would have thought.


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    #31
    eirebhoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,013 ✭✭✭✭eirebhoy


    patrickolee wrote:
    it's no different than for us trying to tell the difference between accents from other countries. Would you be able to tell the difference between Manchester and Liverpool accents? I wouldn't.
    Seriously? Differentiating between London and Essex accents would probably be tough but I would find Liverpool and Manchester accents to be very different.


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