Accents?

[DALederle]

For all those members in the UK!
Last Night I watched the movie, on DVD, Shrek Forever. And Mike Myers was doing his now famous voice of Shrek.
Now I've seen and enjoyed all 4 movies.
But I always thought Myers was doing a Scottish accent. I've always wondered why Ogres sounded like Scots. I'm mean, we know, from the movies, that all barbarians sounc like Scots. But Ogres too?
Anyway, watching the special, extras, on the DVD in an interview with Myers, he said it was an English accent based on his childhood. I was surprised, to say the least, since I had thought all this time it was a Scottish accent.
So for our friends in the UK, what does his accent sound like to you? English or Scottish? I'm very curious about this!

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?

[Since1982]

To me, Shrek's accent is pure Shrekarian! IOW a combination of Scottish, English, Druidese, Myersese, donkatese and Irish. OR pure Shrekarian...

[Big and Bashful]

If they show one over christmas I will watch it and let you know what I think!

[Gregg1100]

Scottish Sean Connery was in charge of an American submarine in "Hunt for Red October" , I believe, lol

[Gregg1100]

Good film, no uneccessary F-ing and Blinding--not needed in any film

[Gregg1100]

Or ordinary everyday speech---points to a lack of vocabulary

[crfriend]

Scottish Sean Connery was in charge of an American submarine in "Hunt for Red October" , I believe, lol

It was a Soviet submarine if my memory serves -- and it was a very good film. I greatly enjoyed it. Connery usually puts in a stellar performance.

"One ping only."

Excessive use of profanity does tend to point up a lack of suitable vocabulary to get one's point across, but I also believe that swearing does have its place in the world when things start to get really out of hand. I am not one to let loose under normal circumstances but have been known to turn the air blue when situations get overtly out of control and everybody else is cowering in the corners.

[Big and Bashful]

I'll second what CRFriend has said, there are places in the world where a good curse is the best way to articulate a sentiment.

[Since1982]

Gregg1100 wrote:
Scottish Sean Connery was in charge of an American submarine in "Hunt for Red October" , I believe, lol
It was a Soviet submarine if my memory serves -- and it was a very good film. I greatly enjoyed it. Connery usually puts in a stellar performance.

"One ping only."

Agreeing with Carl, the "Red October" was a Soviet Typhoon class Submarine with a stealth drive captained by Captain Ramius played by Sean Connery. The American Submarine was captained by Capt. Bart Mancuso played by actor Scott Glenn.
One of my all time favorite Russians against the Americans political movies. My fav line in the movie was when our diplomat said to "their" diplomat," Yevgeny, you've lost ANOTHER submarine????" Ain't movies grand? The russian captain played by a Scotsman, the Russian diplomat played by a German...go figger..

[DALederle]

As much as I enjoyed "The Hunt For Red October" (many times now and my wife adores Sean in anything) still, no one is commenting on the voice of Shrek!
Yes, it is Shrekian, because it was created for the character. But I was hoping someone in the UK had an oppinion on the accent how close it sounded to them.
Oh, well!
If wishes were fishes and pigs could fly!

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?

[Gregg1100]

The light has now switched on. Of course it was a Russian sub--thats what the defection was all about. You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going. . Thundering down the Aleution Trench( I think that was what it was called ) blind at a good rate of knots, seems somewhat suicidal . Thanks for the correction Carl- the mistake must have been the end product of a night on the beer.
Greg
Ps. I do swear sometimes, normally in my own company, at some dozy other drivers on the road. I will not cuss in front of women, even if they cuss at me. Not brought up that way.

[crfriend]

As much as I enjoyed "The Hunt For Red October" (many times now and my wife adores Sean in anything) still, no one is commenting on the voice of Shrek!

The accent used for the character of Shrek always struck me as being "British Isles", but I was not able to narrow it down much more than that, save that it did not seem to be Highlands Scottish.

Accents and dialects are a complex matter, and are best left to linguists -- of which I hope we have one or two here, even if they just lurk! Detail scholars can frequently -- or at least they used to be -- able to nail down a dialect to within a county or so. The upshot in the modern world, however, is that dialects are dying out due to the omnipresence of mass-media, and, unless artificially nurtured may well become extinct in another couple of human generations..

My personal suspicion is that Shrek's "accent" was inspired by, and modelled after, someone who Mr. Myers knew in his younger years that he thought would lend the character a bit more ... character. It may not even be a "pure" accent or dialect, and, if so, might be "untraceable" even by the most brilliant of linguists.

If wishes were fishes and pigs could fly!

Pigs fly perfectly well given sufficient thrust. Just, as in the case of Kris Kringle's reindeer, "don't stand underneath when they fly by!

Grok?

Grog? Please?

[crfriend]

You would think that there would be a window in the front of the sub, so they could see where they were going. . Thundering down the Aleution Trench( I think that was what it was called ) blind at a good rate of knots, seems somewhat suicidal .

For "windows in the front of the sub" see the US TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea where the (fictional) "Seaview" did indeed have such fixtures.

In reality, however, submarines are not nearly as "blind" as one would suspect. They "fly" (much like bats) by sound; pretty much the entire bow. and well up and below to near the conning-tower is covered in hydrophones to allow them a form of "vision through sound". Too, the flying analogy is fairly apt as well, as most of the directional control, in yaw, pitch, and roll, takes place through fins on the outside of the craft; pretty much the only time that overt buoyancy-control is exerted is in emergency ascents when the ballast tanks are blown.

Ps. I do swear sometimes, normally in my own company, at some dozy other drivers on the road. I will not cuss in front of women, even if they cuss at me. Not brought up that way.

That's one of the marks of a gentleman.

[Big and Bashful]

Right,just checked out a Shrek trailer on Youtube, he uses a fairly none-descript accent but there are some bits which definitely sound Scottish.
As for submarines and how they 'see' where they are going, Military subs don't use active sonar, it would give their location away to anything listening. They have a lot of sonar for listening to any noises around them, to try and detect other traffic. Other than that, they use a system of navigational fixes using different techniques, some highly classified. Between the fixes they use charts and inertial navigation.
This is why they bump into things. When they are going fast the sonar wouldn't be able to detect anything anyway because of the vessel's own noise.

Glad I don't live on one, they're quite scary!

Check out HMS Tireless, Vangaurd/Redoutable, U.S.S. San Fransisco

[Gregg1100]

The window in the front of a sub was just a bit tongue in cheek. Cant quite work out if the windscreen wipers would work, and it would have to have a better than average sealing strip around some pretty thick glass.