It's been brought up that people in New Orleans have a different dialect than those in the Bayou Country. THIS is FACT. New Orleanians have more of the "yat" dialect - like "where y'at ??" whereas the "Cajuns" further south use the French dialect that includes the "cher"(prnounced sha -short a). I truly wish Hollywod could learn to be less stereotypical of Louisianians and more true to our dialects and ways ... But then, this IS Hollywood I'm talkin''bout ...!!!
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You all have to remember that accents are overemphasised by Hollywood to give the film more of what they feel is a "local feel" i'm sure many of you have seen Fargo the movie, well I can tell you Fargo does not have the accent that they had in the film, well not to that extent. You all remember the yah's and oh ya betcha. We do say those words but not in every sentance. We generally use Oh Yah as a conversation filler when we are listening to a story. For instance someone will be talking about their child in baseball and we contiounly say Oh Yah just to let them know that we are still listening to the conversation. When there child begins to talk about those 20 homeruns he hit in one game the Oh Yah transforms into OH YAH *beep* We know the different. But, the more north in North Dakota you go the worse the accent gets. I can say with most certainty that many North Dakoteans do not say EH until you begin to get very close to the Canadian Border..
EH
Hope this helps. Remember hollywood ALWAYS messes up an accent for film effect!
I'm from Massachusetts, and even I knew Quaid's accent was over the top.
We don't all speak like the Kennedy's (in fact, very few of us do). But that's how our accent is usually portrayed by Hollywood.
(And I don't paak my caa in Haavaad Yaad, either).
Still liked the movie, though.
"You all have to remember that accents are overemphasised by Hollywood to give the film more of what they feel is a "local feel" i'm sure many of you have seen Fargo the movie, well I can tell you Fargo does not have the accent that they had in the film, well not to that extent. You all remember the yah's and oh ya betcha. We do say those words but not in every sentance. We generally use Oh Yah as a conversation filler when we are listening to a story. For instance someone will be talking about their child in baseball and we contiounly say Oh Yah just to let them know that we are still listening to the conversation. When there child begins to talk about those 20 homeruns he hit in one game the Oh Yah transforms into OH YAH *beep* We know the different. But, the more north in North Dakota you go the worse the accent gets. I can say with most certainty that many North Dakoteans do not say EH until you begin to get very close to the Canadian Border.."
'Fargo' isn't set in the town of Fargo other than a few minutes in a local bar at the start of the film and none of the characters are from Fargo. Most of the film takes place around Brainerd and the Twin Cities and most of the central characters are from Brainerd. Brainerd is in Minnesota.
It isn't a good thing that most of Minnesota and North Dakota don't sound like they do in 'Fargo' now by the way as it just shows the decline of regional dialects due mostly to TV et cetera. Folk did sound like they do in 'Fargo' years back for the simple reason that the majority where of Norwegian and/or Swedish descent and the dialect is caused by speakers of North Germanic languages (Swedish and Norwegian, as well a Danish, Icelandic, Norn and Faroese) switching to a West Germanic language (specifically an Anglo-Frisian one, in this case English) but still retaining features of their communities ancestral language...which were spoken in parts of the Mid West into the 1920s.
"Nothings gonna change my world!"
This may have been already covered, but I feel compelled to rant:
1) NOBODY FROM NEW ORLEANS SAYS N'AWLINS!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody from New Orleans says New OrLEENZ, either. It's pronounced N'WORlinz.
2) People from New Orleans do not speak with either Southern or Cajun accents. I'm from Mid City, and even when I was at LSU people thought I was from Brooklyn. You don't have to go all that far to find Cajun accents (about 10 miles west on I-10 and across the river), but you do have to get out of the immediate area. I don't know how far you have to go to find Southern accents (probably to Mississippi).
3) There are no swamps or bayous within walking distance of the French Quarter/CBD. Even though the whole place is below sea level, it's not of the swampy variety. There are canals all over the place, but no bayous with wood shacks lining them. 99% of the place looks like any suburb.
4) I never, not a single time in all my life heard New Orleans referred to as "The Big Easy" until this movie came out. Never. Not once. Zero times.
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I've visited New Orleans and never heard anyone speak like Quaid did, he was almost indecipherable at times. But them's the breaks. I'm from NJ and our accents are misrepresented in TV and film all the time, it's no big deal.
shareI love The Big Easy, over the top accents, cliches and all. I don't think he did that bad trying to imitate a cajun accent. It was WAY exagerrated, but he tried.
How far from New Orleans do you have to go to find southern accents? Not far. Just drive across Lake Pontchartrain to places like Loranger or Bogalusa to name a couple. You'll hear them.
Oh, and I'm from New Orleans and also had never heard it called The Big Easy before the movie. But what do we know? Day do tings a liddle difrend dawn here yeah cher, doncha know? lol
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Whenever I've been to New Orleans, I found that the locals didn't have much of an accent at all. Since I'm from the NY Metro area, I suppose that means they sound a bit like New Yorkers.
To my ears the New Orleans dialect, overall, sounds like Brooklyn, NY + Southern (Houston, Tx.)
I think Quaid did a fine job mimicking the dialect, whilst not mocking it.
The more Ken Loach films I try to see, the more I think they need subtitles!
Quaid's character, Remy McSwain, was both born and raised in New Orleans, and also has some "Cajun" or Acadian in him. Hence, his use of "cher" + y'at speech
The character came from two different worlds - that of Cajun country (his mama's side of the fam) and also New Orleans proper. His accent, to my mind anyway, naturally reflected that amalgam, that mixture of elements.
The more Ken Loach films I try to see, the more I think they need subtitles!
Yep, the Cajun dialect is more prevalent west of New Orleans, in and around Lafayette and its surrounding parishes.
In fact , the only authentic Cajun accent that I remember from the movie was Dave Petitjean, who played Uncle Sos. He was a local Cajun comedian, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. He was from Crowley, west of Lafayette.
Another movie with accurate Cajun accents is "Belizaire the Cajun". A lot of the extras were locals, and Armand Assante spent some time learning the dialect, and did a really good job with it.
Thank you for this reply of yours.
I appreciate anyone else's perspective on accents, and the speaking of them.
Dennis Quaid got a lot of DUE praise, from film critics such as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, for his ability to adopt the "9th Ward" accent and dialect of N'Awlins.
Ellen Barkin, whose character was from The Big Easy but who also chose not to speak in accent, later remarked how much she had working with Dennis Quaid on that film, and let me veer off topic for just a moment and tell you all that she loved doing those "love" scenes as much as anyone enjoyed watching them.
Oh, and speaking of using authentic actors, whose accents were from the region in this film, the dude who played the Judge who "threw the book" at Quaid's errant cop-character was also a native of N'Awlins, or so I read.
Petitjean was great wasn't he? Really sleezy and brilliant I can recall going back to see this film and again when it hit the cinemas.
** There MUST be more than one way to skin this Cat! **
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