Angel's Accent

[white avenger]

The theory that I have cooked up for myself to explain Angel's sudden American accent is that it was his choice to change it. When Angel came to America on the poor ships, being Irish in America was not something to be sought after. In fact, during that time the slogan "No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish" was being used to full effect. You got off the boat and you moved into a slum or tenement. That was how it was. From what we see of Angel pre-AYNOHYEB he appears to assimilate into American society. He looks after himself, he wears nice clothes, he eats well. An Irish accent would have hindered that. So, dropping the accent was part of how he faded into the background of society. A well to do man with an Irish accent stood out, but an American accent obviously didn't.

But aren't there flashbacks supposed to take place BEFORE Angel came to the United States when he didn't have any noticeable Irish accent? Or was his accent in those flashbacks so terrible as to be totally unrecognizable?

I do agree, however, that Angel most likely lost his Irish accent in an effort to blend in with normal human society, or at least blend in enough that he wouldn't be noticeable on those occasions when he left his dark room just long enough to stock up on blood, then rush back again.

 

[randiann]

The fact that Dru, Spike and Darla all retained their native accents despite centuries of travel show that travel itself doesn't result in the loss of accent and re-enforces that adopting an American persona was a conscious decision by Angel.

#historyexplainseverything!

I'd say this if part of it, but I also think it depends on the person. I know when I moved to NY, I never picked up a hint of an accent (thank goodness, no offense to our new yorkers). My roomie from Boston never lost any of her very very thick accent either. My other roomie from Cali, however, picked up a Boston accent within a week of all of us living together.

I have another friend who went to college in Glasgow; he came home after just one semester (do you guys call them semesters?) and was virtually unintelligible. Probably would have still sounded very American to Kean though 😉.

(last example...s) My best friend's mom is from Korea, and despite being immersed in American culture now for probably close to 30 years, she had never lost her accent. My brother in law (from Columbia) has been in the US for about 8 years or so now too, and still has a super thick accent. He also makes hilarious errors with the english language still from time to time, but thats a different story....

Point: all depends on the person. Even if he could pull off an Irish accent, I don't think I would have wanted to hear it all the time. I think it'd distract from the character overall.

 

[Gum Gnome33]

I like Kean's theory.

Also, as horrible as DB's accent is, has anyone else noticed that every time he says "Darla" there is definitely a hint of an Irish accent--regardless of the century they're in? Seriously, I notice this every time. I don't know if it's a very accurate Irish accent, but I strongly detect something there. Am I crazy?? Listening is kind of a big part of what I do for a living so I'd like to believe that I'm not! LOL 🙂

 

[prophecygrrl]

Accents can be totally different for everyone. My dad has lost almost all of his but my mom's is still relatively strong. I think Angel lost his on purpose. i'm all for Kean's theory...I never thought about it historically lol, I just thought it was Angel distancing himself from his past as Angelus.

 

[Kean]

But aren't there flashbacks supposed to take place BEFORE Angel came to the United States when he didn't have any noticeable Irish accent?

Dammit! There goes my theory! He used an American accent during the Boxer Rebellion flashbacks.

I don't care, I'm clinging to it anyway lol 😛

I'd say this if part of it, but I also think it depends on the person. I know when I moved to NY, I never picked up a hint of an accent (thank goodness, no offense to our new yorkers). My roomie from Boston never lost any of her very very thick accent either. My other roomie from Cali, however, picked up a Boston accent within a week of all of us living together.

I have another friend who went to college in Glasgow; he came home after just one semester (do you guys call them semesters?) and was virtually unintelligible. Probably would have still sounded very American to Kean though 😉.

(last example...s) My best friend's mom is from Korea, and despite being immersed in American culture now for probably close to 30 years, she had never lost her accent. My brother in law (from Columbia) has been in the US for about 8 years or so now too, and still has a super thick accent. He also makes hilarious errors with the english language still from time to time, but thats a different story....

Point: all depends on the person. Even if he could pull off an Irish accent, I don't think I would have wanted to hear it all the time. I think it'd distract from the character overall.

They say that a person's accent is locked in to what it is going to be by the time they are 18. My own mother is from Belfast but moved to Clare when she was a teenager and then married my Dad and moved to Limerick. If you spoke to my mother now she doesn't sound like she's ever been to Belfast, much less is from there. However, my grandparents, aunts and even cousins (who were born in Clare) have the Belfast accent because they all stayed living together or at least close to together. My mother's accent comes out again when she is with them.

I do agree that it is possible for a person's accent to change but I don't think we were shown any evidence that Angel's accent changed naturally. I mean, after a hundred and odd years speaking in that accent I can't imagine it disappearing naturally after a few years in America.

Also, as horrible as DB's accent is, has anyone else noticed that every time he says "Darla" there is definitely a hint of an Irish accent--regardless of the century they're in? Seriously, I notice this every time. I don't know if it's a very accurate Irish accent, but I strongly detect something there. Am I crazy?? Listening is kind of a big part of what I do for a living so I'd like to believe that I'm not! LOL 🙂

I definitely hear a hint of an accent when he says her name but I don't really hear Irish in it. An Irish person saying Darla would pronounce it with a flat "A" sound, kinda like the aaarrrgh sounding. Where as Angel/Angelus said it with a broad "A" sound.

That's how it sounds to my ears anyway. 🙂

Accents can be totally different for everyone. My dad has lost almost all of his but my mom's is still relatively strong. I think Angel lost his on purpose. i'm all for Kean's theory...I never thought about it historically lol, I just thought it was Angel distancing himself from his past as Angelus.

I think he could have been distancing himself from Angelus too. Although, that doesn't explain why Angelus adopted the American accent when he broke out in Buffy and Angel.

 

[white avenger]

(But aren't there flashbacks supposed to take place BEFORE Angel came to the United States when he didn't have any noticeable Irish accent? Or was his accent in those flashbacks so terrible as to be totally unrecognizable?)

Dammit! There goes my theory! He used an American accent during the Boxer Rebellion flashbacks.

I don't care, I'm clinging to it anyway lol 😛

Well, I suppose that it's not impossible that, in anticipation of splitting up with Darla and the others and migrating to America in order to make a sort of fresh start, he was just beginning to practice an American accent.

Then again, maybe he'd just eaten an American and the accent stuck the same way that Spike was affected by eating the interior designer did in Season 6, according to the "We missed the bed again," scene.

 

[VisionGirl]

But aren't there flashbacks supposed to take place BEFORE Angel came to the United States when he didn't have any noticeable Irish accent? Or was his accent in those flashbacks so terrible as to be totally unrecognizable?

Dammit! There goes my theory! He used an American accent during the Boxer Rebellion flashbacks.

Really? Which episode are we talking about? I guess I don't remember that.

I think the age of immigration is important too- my dad was around 16 when he immigrated while my mom was 12. My dad always retained an Italian accent (although interestingly his younger sister's accent is stronger I think), but my mother doesn't have a noticeable accent (her younger brother doesn't either, although her older siblings do- her older sister has lived in Puerto Rico all these years though, so her accent is probably mixed now).

---------- Post added at 09:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:21 AM ----------

Comments on this post
Kean agrees: In the ep "Darla" on Angel.

That's what I was thinking, but I guess I didn't notice the accent/no accent issue, I'll have to go back and watch. Is it the same thing in the identical flashback in Fool For Love?

 

[Himiko]

I don't know, he'd have to make it sound really authentic for it to be passable. I don't really like fake Irish accents much. It made sense for him to not have that accent though, due to all the travelling he did over the years. Infact I'm more confused that after so much time spent away from Britain that Spike has a British accent.

I agree with the first part of this- a bad impression of an Irish accent would just distract from the performance and the show as a whole. If DB was better at it, then I'd see no reason not to have it as Angel's full time accent, had he not been introduced with an American accent.

I'm puzzled as to why Angel gained an American accent prior to arriving in the US :S But, as has been mentioned, there are a few reasons why he might have adopted, and kept, the accent upon arriving. To stand out less, to suffer less discrimination, to distance himself from Angelus. And he's lived in the US for a long time now, unless I'm very mistaken, I imagine the accent has ceased to become put on by now, and that is simply the way he's used to speaking.

The only thing I would query is your last sentence over Spike's accent- Spike and Dru DO spend a lot of time out of the UK, but from what we see of their past, they travel a lot- we don't know how long they stay in each place, but bear in mind, in flashbacks we see them in the UK, China, and the US, possibly more, I forget- when they arrive in Sunnydale, they've come from Prague, and I forget if they leave the country between the events of Becoming Part 2 and Lover's Walk. Even at the end of Angel, Spike had only been in the US "full time" for 5 years, plus whatever time he had spent there before that, I assume he'd not spent much more time in any of they other places they lived/travelled through. Similarly with Angel, until he went to the US. I doubt very much that Spike would have had a chance to "lose" his British accent, not being surrounded by another accent for long enough. Unless you think he should have had some mixture of accents from various places he's been to, I guess...

 

[VisionGirl]

Don't forget about Spike & Dru's stint in Italy: "Ciao."

 

[mayfever]

I agree with everyone who said that DB's "Irish" accent is excruciatingly cringe-worthy. I like Kean's interpretation why the character lost it, but my theory someone must have approached DB and hinted at the awfulness of it.

(And by the way, JM's mockney is also horrible. It's way too stage-y and he doesn't sound English at all to my ears. Interestingly enough though Drusilla always convinced me, but then again I'm not a native. I'll pay more attention in the future.)

I love talking about accents. I'm one of those people who easily pick them up, both in my native language (German) and in English. Last year, everyone thought I was either from Oz or NZ (probably because I was sharing a flat with a bunch of Antipodeans and my favourite pub was the Shep Bush Walkabout), but now my flatmates, everyone at work and most of my friends are English, so my accent has become more European again. For some reason people always feel compelled to comment on it, but that's fine as long as it's not a case of, I say something and they go "Oh, where in Germany are you from?" 😀

When I speak German, I don't have much of an accent as I've lived all over and my parents both have very different accents. My mum is Czech, so she had to work very hard to get rid of hers (she sounds incredibly posh now, lol) and my dad is from up north, so he speaks Standard High German with a Northern twang to it, which I picked up from him. Funnily, my siblings all have a much stronger Westphalian accent than me as they've never lived anywhere else. Although my brother has been picking up a bit of a Berlin twang since he moved there.. I will have to talk about that with him when I next see him 😀

 

[LondonDude]

I think Angel used the american so that he can blend in and not bring any attention to himself. Another reason is Angel was ashamed of his past as Liam and Angelus, so maybe he thought using an american accent would distance himself of his past. (Also DB Irish accent is really bad)

 

[BuffyElevated]

Honestly, I don't care either way. I liked the character of Angel, with or without an accent.