[Magdalen] Irish Eyes.

[Jay Weigel]

It's been said that accents disappear when singing, which is pretty much
not true, except with classically trained singers. For instance, when Enya,
the Irish singer, sings in English, her Irish accent comes through loud and
clear, especially her complete inability to manage a "th" sound. In some of
her songs, "the" sounds almost like "dey". Scandinavian singers like Sissel
seem to do much better although occasionally something might slip through.
However, if a singer is multilingual, as in the case of a favorite of mine,
the Israeli Achinoam Nini (a.k.a. "Noa"), there doesn't seem to be much
accent showing anywhere. Noa is of  Yemenite Jewish descent, born in
Israel, but spent her early life in New York, and is fluent not only in
Hebrew and English but also Spanish and French as well as Yemeni. I think
she also speaks some Italian and Arabic.

On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 3:25 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 8/29/2015 2:07:26 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> michaudme at gmail.com writes:
>
> If you  lived in Boston, you'd be amazed at the number of Irish
> people who live  here part-time or for part of their lives. Some
> of this has to do with  higher education, some with economic
> opportunity. But it's not uncommon for  people to stay a few
> years and then go back, or to go back when they  retire.
> Several friends and colleagues have done this.
>
> May explain  why they start sounding like North Americans.
>
> Then there's  television.>>>>>>>
>
>
>
> Yes, I've encountered this return situation in Pennsylvania, too.
>
> A puzzling phenomenon about the Irish in Boston is that Boston is
> strongly non-rhotic, so if the Irish immigrants are sounding like
> North Americans, you'd think it would be the Boston Accent where
> "r's" (terminal and internal) are not pronounced.
>
> There was a fair amount of this vacillating by earlier  immigrants
> from Europe, too.  The Scandinavians returned to the Old Country
> with great frequency.  There was also the business of going back
> to find a suitable bride.
>
> Although television shows enhance Irish understanding of North
> American English, I don't think there is much influence (other
> than slang) on the Irish Accent.  An example of this is the USA
> Southern accent which seems unfazed by national broadcasts
> which are overwhelmingly with more general North American speech.
>
>
>
> David Strang.
>
>