(no subject)

[doyle]

Fic question: I'm terrible with accents (American accents. Gimme Irish or English folks and I'm golden, but, ah, I can just barely tell an American accent from a Canadian one. And then only if the person says 'about') Anyway. Does Tara (or one of the family members we saw in Family) have any kind of identifiable accent that places her/them from a certain state?

Comments

[pontius.livejournal.com]

Her Dad sounds kinda redneck-ish. Like he was from Texas, or Kentucky or something.
Trailer park country.

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

But trailer parks are all over the US, so you can't really call it a Southern accent.

It's definitely redneck-y, but it's not Southern. I always assumed they came from up north -- Northern California, Oregon, Washington, logging country, that sort of thing.

[pontius.livejournal.com]

[Homer voice] The important thing is I didn't imagine it. [/Homer voice]

[luvs-phoenix.livejournal.com]

I always thought that family came from Arkansas. Don't ask me why....just do.

[gloss]

I always thought it was logging country - Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion" kind of territory. And they *talk*, too, about having come "down" to Sunnydale and wanting to take her back "up there" in "Family".

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Ah, good point!

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

She didn't have a Southern accent. She sounded like your basic Californian to me. ::shrug::

[fallingfortruth.livejournal.com]

Being from prime trailer park country, her family could be from anywhere around here, (Northeastern Oklahoma/Northwestern Arkansas/Southern Missouri) for what it's worth.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

If you go with Oregon or Washington, they'd be living east of the Cascade Mountains. If you want to talk details about the area, I'm your girl considering that's where I grew up.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Think I'm going to go with Oregon - any idea if there's a particular area that would be rustic but a little run-down, maybe near forests?

[slackerace.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with this assessment. Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming would all be good choices, I think, if not Northern California...

[http://users.livejournal.com/automatedalice_/]

texas is 1200 miles from kentucky. southern ≠ redneck.

i got the distinct impression that tara's family was from the deep south (mississippi/alabama), rather than texas. fred's natural voice is a texas accent. the fake accent her family uses is stereotypical arkansas/louisiana/east texas, but isn't what you get.

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I had this conversation with someone else about this fic, and we opted for Northern California because someone without family support would want to pay in-state fees or tuition.

[slackerace.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a great assessment! I just assumed that Tara was wicked smart and was in college on scholarship...

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

Keswindhover wrote a whole story about how Tara got to college, here:

http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=keswindhover

[slackerace.livejournal.com]

Now wait just a minute. I grew up in Mississippi and Alabama, and they're not from there!!!! Pawn them off on some other unsuspecting state. Oh, I know... West Virginia!!!

[slackerace.livejournal.com]

This was great! Thanks!

[http://users.livejournal.com/automatedalice_/]

i think the problem is that it's a californian interpretation of a backwater accent, which is a mishmash--designed to be "redneck"--of perfectly acceptable regional american accents that is so convoluted that it really doesn't belong anywhere. but then again, fooey on sociolinguistics.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

AB is from Alabama. AH, BTW, is from Georgia. I wouldn't have pegged it from her accent, but I'm assuming, beyond a general lessening of regional accents due to mass communication, actors often visit voice coaches to rid themselves of accents.

Between the high costs of California tuition and the huge distances involved in travelling in the American West, I'd say Tara's from the Central Valley or eastern California, but that's just a guess.

[evemac.livejournal.com]

No one in Northern California, Oregon, or Washington sounds like that. I'd always imagined Midwest, or something. :)

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Depends how strange you want it. :)

Here are some towns that I thought of:

La Pine - Not really a town. As in the people are scared of the government and won't incorporate. Mostly trailer type homes. Average age of populace is around 45 years old. Logging town. People who live there can't afford to live in Bend, my hometown (which used to be a logging town and turned into a tourist destination for skiing and such about 30-40 min drive). Lots of scary people holed up with their shotguns and not at all tolerate toward diversity. And they hate environmentalists. Basically all loggers blame environmentalists for the logging industries collapse. Population 5,800.

Gilcrest - Population under 1,000. Old logging town. Most the people gone. I believe there's one school and a state police station. Most people live in trailers or small homes. About 45 mins up the road from La Pine and about an hour from Crater Lake. Densely forested.

Crooked River Ranch - Population under 1,000. A lot like La Pine. Mostly old ranchers who have a few cattle or horses and don't like all these Californians moving to Oregon. Madras is the nearest town (20 mins away), which is mostly farming. There's a lot of tension between the migrant Mexican workers who work on the farms, the white farmers (who are also poor), and the Native Americans who live a little further up the road.

Klamath Falls - Population 20,000. While bigger than the rest was a logging community and also farming. There was a big drought a few years ago and major environmentalist vs farmers on water usage - basically save the fish or the crops. K Falls and the area around it is a hot bed for KKK and Aryan Nation activity (and you thought it was only in the south). Klamath Falls is near the Oregon/California border, where as the rest are in the middle of Oregon.

Basic attitude: People dislike expanding government, expanding cities, new people (which often includes diversity), lack of privacy, and recall the 'good ole days.' Most basic Christian, everyone else is going to hell attitude.

Geographic stuff: High desert, which means pine and juniper trees. There's snow in the winter, and it's wicked hot in the summer. Lots of sage brush and dirt. It's always sunny even when it snows and it doesn't rain very much. The Cascade Mountains are very close, and from where I live I can see about 9 mountain peaks. Mt. Bachelor is the closet mountain to Bend (20 mins from downtown). Other geographical things: Crater Lake, lots of rivers, streams, and lakes, all volcanic mountains, and Smith Rock. Lots of outdoor sports - rafting, skiing, rock climbing. If you've ever seen the movie, Swordfish, John Travolta shoots the senator near Smith Rock. Wildlife: birds (including hawks and once in a while an eagle), lots of deer (people tend to feed them and they'll come right up to your front pouch and eat your flowers), cougars, bob cats, quail, jack rabbits, raccoons, chipmunks, and squirrels.

Here's some landscape pics that Chris took: http://www.trejbal.net/pix

[caille.livejournal.com]

I think she's from California - maybe Modoc, Placer, or Plumas County (California Quick Facts (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/california_map.html) lists counties with info like median income and ethnicity and stuff). You have to remember that lots of Californians are from somewhere else. A family like Tara's, which is clearly insular, very guarded, is not going to pick up new customs or habits easily.

I remember in Michigan, we sometimes used a term, "Ypsitucky", which was a combination of Ypsilanti, Michigan (where Michigan State University is) and Kentucky, which is where a whole heck of a lot of local residents came from originally. There was a huge influx of workers from the mid-south and south during the Second World War coming to work in wartime factories. Of course, lots of them stayed.

The same thing happened out here where I live, in Marin County, California. During the war, the shipyards were booming, and there was a massive migration of workers from the deep South.

I suspect that Tara's family originally came from Oklahoma, maybe Missouri, maybe North Dakota, but that Tara was born here. That's what I imagine, anyway.

Oh, there's this cool site, American Dialect Links (http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/AmDialLnx.html), that's lots of fun to wander through. A lot of the links are broken, but there's some interesting stuff about regional dialects. For example, here's a selection from the site "You Must Be From North Dakota..."

• If you can't make it through a phone conversation without mentioning the weather . . .


• If you think a bison is a buffalo . . .


• If you think skis are "Norwegian timber" . . .


• If you understand that "Yah y'betch yah" means either "I agree" or "You're full of it" and you know the difference . . .


• If you never confuse "Yah," "Yep," and "Yah y'betch yah" . . .


• If you think everyone from a different state has an accent . . .


• If your answer to "How are you?", "How's the weather?", "How was your crop?", or "How's the ranchin' goin'?" is the same--"Not so bad."


• If you know there are two definitions for the word "bucks"--a male deer, and what your German uncle calls insects . . .


• If you can identify a Minnesota accent . . .


• If you bake with soda and drink pop . . .


• If you "manure the barn" . . .


• If you hear "Yah, sure" not "Yes, sir" . . .


• If you say, "Outside, zero is below" . . .


• If you go to Arkansas for a visit and everyone tells you you have an accent . . .


• If you go to the post office to mail a paggitch . . .

Hee.

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

Dude, this kicks so much ass. Thanks!

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

I had cousins living in Bakersfield who had accents like that -- and they had been living there all their lives. That's mid-California, yeah, but it's enough for me.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

You rock so much! You ever need fic details about Ireland, let me know...

[drewsilla.livejournal.com]

Maybe Tara tried to distance herself by speaking better than her family. Anyway, I always thought of her being from the South, like Tennessee or Georgia.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Always glad to be useful. :) You're welcome.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

*blushes*

I'll be sure to keep that in mind. :)

[evemac.livejournal.com]

Oh well. Shows how much I now about my own state. And I think I just haven't watched 'Family' in a long time. ;)