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Accent Breakdowns Production Materials University of Michigan

Titanic

Actor Accent Resources for the 2025 University of Michigan Production

Hello Cast!

If you’ve never worked in an accent other than your own, please see How to Work on an Accent for some tips on practicing this skill.

I am available for one-on-one coaching during student hours. Please feel free to book time here.

Our Accent World

The passengers on the Titanic were from many places and backgrounds. Broadly, our story is served by grouping characters into groups according to class, with associated speech varieties:

  • First-class British passengers and ship’s officers (Received Pronunciation)
  • First- and second-class American passengers
  • Ship’s crew (Liverpool “Scouse” English)
  • Third-class Irish (Dublin)

If you would like to explore other varieties based on your character research, please feel free to have a conversation with your director and I will be happy to support your process.

Accent Models

This is a YouTube playlist…make sure you check out all the accent model options using the menu in the top right corner of the player!

Accent Features

A great resource for RP pronunciation is available at https://howjsay.com/. Simply look up the word you want to pronounce and the website will say it for you.

The practice phrases below are borrowed from Eric Armstrong’s Lexical Sets for Actors.

Key Vowel Sounds

Words like BATH (vs. TRAP)

RP makes a distinction between BATH and TRAP. Careful not to over-generalize the BATH sound to TRAP words.

Practice:

  1. The cat’s father can’t catch half the mice it will have to.
  2. Patrick sat in the enchanting bathroom in the aftermath of dancing with the daft actor.
  3. The montage of the masked man in the last scene was masterfully performed by the acting class.
  4. Actually, Dad’s Newcastle Brown Ale, served in dirty glasses, tasted rather ghastly.
  5. The soprano jazz singer demanded half of the solos as she claimed to have the best vibrato.

Additionally, there are some “set jumper” words that are included in the TRAP set in RP: marry, Harry, carry, Carolyn, carriage, Marilyn, Paris, arrow, parapet

Words like GOAT

Practice:

  1. For Halloween, we made ghost-shaped meatloaf with mashed potatoes.
  2. Tony went to Rome with Shosh.
  3. Her coach motivated her to go for broke.
  4. Phone ahead to get a quote on the hotel room.
  5. The protestors voted to disrupt the keynote.
Words like LOT

Practice:

  1. The boss botched his toss to the tot.
  2. Scott crossed his hands over his crotch
  3. The hot coffee made Tom cough.
  4. I’m often bothered by the fonts used in Jane Austen novels.
  5. The quality of the odd Australian sausage is off.
Words like THOUGHT

Practice:

  1. My father-in-law is at the audiologist.
  2. I found the nautilus shell in the Caucasus mountains.
  3. Audubon would draw hawks expertly.
  4. Somerset Maugham’s The Hour Before Dawn.
  5. Paulina has autism and an auto-immune disease.

More Vowel Sounds: R-Dropping

RP is a non-rhotic accent, meaning that the R sound is only pronounced when it comes before a vowel sound. In most cases, an R that comes after a vowel will not be pronounced.

Practice:

  • The worst burnt sirloin.
  • Better, stronger, faster.
  • Clearly fearless.
  • Upstairs Downstairs.
  • A large star chart.
  • Play the chord on the organ.
  • Sherlock searched for the murderer.
  • Future conservative leader.
  • They persevered as a volunteer.
  • Swear with flair.
  • Sparklers for the garden party.
  • Norman drove from Yorkshire to Orkney.
  • The early bird catches the worm.
  • Tears for Fears appeared in Tangiers.
  • A square hairline.
  • Skylarks darkened Denmark’s skies.
  • Corgis have short legs and long torsos.
Linking R

When R precedes a vowel sound occurring in the next word, it “links” across the word boundary, as in:

You’re ͜ r.ideally better ͜ r.off drinking ginger ͜ r.ale later ͜ r.on.

Practice:

  • JennifeR‿is a junioR‿in unive(r)sity.
  • My caReeR‿as an enginee(r).
  • The chaiR‿of the libRaRians association.
  • The cashie(r) woRE‿ea(r)plugs.
  • The su(r)fe(r)’s tRaineR‿is fRom ove(r)seas.

Shibboleths

can/can’t
“can”
“can’t”
Mary/merry/marry
“Mary”
“merry”
“marry”

Accent Models

This is a YouTube playlist…make sure you check out all the accent model options using the menu in the top right corner of the player!

Accent Features

The practice phrases below are borrowed from Eric Armstrong’s Lexical Sets for Actors.

Consonant Sounds

Strong Rhoticity (R Coloring)

Irish accents pronounce R in all positions, often with the tongue tip angling upward.

Practice:

  • The worst burnt sirloin.
  • Better, stronger, faster.
  • Clearly fearless.
  • Upstairs Downstairs.
  • A large star chart.
  • Play the chord on the organ.
  • Sherlock searched for the murderer.
  • Future conservative leader.
  • They persevered as a volunteer.
  • Swear with flair.
  • Sparklers for the garden party.
  • Norman drove from Yorkshire to Orkney.
  • The early bird catches the worm.
  • Tears for Fears appeared in Tangiers.
  • A square hairline.
  • Skylarks darkened Denmark’s skies.
  • Corgis have short legs and long torsos.
L-Fronting

Irish accents employ a “light” front L sound in all positions, where the back of the tongue remains low in the mouth. This is different than many American accents, where the back of the tongue raises for L in final syllable position.

Practice:

  • That motel pool has style.
  • Is that a metal kettle on the griddle?
  • They’re always too late to make a deal.
  • Can I help you feel your feelings?
  • Evil people repulse Ursula.

*These phrases are borrowed from Speaking Clearly by Hahner, Sokoloff, and Salisch and American Accent Drills for British and Australian Speakers by Amanda Quaid.

Wine-Whine Split

Words spelled with WH- use a voiceless consonant sound, sometimes transcribed as “hw”.

Practice:

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

Aspirated Plosives

Plosive consonants P, T, and K may include a bit of extra air escaping. Listen for this feature in all the other audio examples!

Vowel Sounds

Words like PRICE

The vowel sound in words like PRICE begins further back in the mouth than in many other varieties of English.

Practice PRICE Vowels

  • High and dry.
  • In spite of myself.
  • The spice of life.
  • Fine Key lime pie.
  • A bright night light.
  • Your guide to Fine Dining .
  • Your final lifeline.
  • Wild Mountain Thyme was on Prime.
Words like STRUT

This sound uses some lip rounding.

Practice the STRUT Sound

  • Fun in the sun
  • Some fun summer lovin’.
  • Percussionists love the drums.
  • Umbrella weather in London.
  • The Hungarian ski-jumper tumbled.
  • A peanut, coconut, and fudge donut.
  • The skunk stunk up the stump.
  • An unlovable fussbudget.
Words like FACE and GOAT

These groups of words tend to use a single steady vowel quality rather than diphthongs (vowel sounds that glide from one quality to another).

Practice the FACE and GOAT Sounds

FACE

  • A great place to stay.
  • The rail at the tail of the sailboat.
  • Today’s the day!
  • No pain, no gain.
  • Don’t cut the main brachial vein!
  • They’ve won the space race.
  • He claims to feel ashamed
  • Why did he call the investigator A Famous Shamus?
  • Drain the rain gauge.

GOAT

  • Don’t go home.
  • Row, row, row your boat.
  • Moan and groan on the phone.
  • Toby’s bespoke smoking jacket.
  • Onyesha loves coconut crab from Mozambique.
  • Moe totaled the Toyota he got in Tokyo.
  • If I sew the rosehips, will they grow?
  • The Edo shogunate lay siege to Osaka.
  • I was thrown by your iPhone’s ringtone.
Words like MOUTH

The vowel in words like MOUTH starts rather close and back, similar to the GOAT vowel in the same accent.

Practice the MOUTH Sound

  • The wallflower hid in the clock-tower.
  • The cowboy planted the sow-bread cyclamen.
  • Get out of town!
  • Somehow they allowed those eyebrows.
  • The rowdy crowd cheered for the driver Niki Lauda.
  • The turnout for the workout was outrageous.
  • Say howdy to the cowgirl on the loudspeaker.

Accent Models

This is a YouTube playlist…make sure you check out all the accent model options using the menu in the top right corner of the player!

Accent Features

The practice phrases below are borrowed from Eric Armstrong’s Lexical Sets for Actors.

Vowel Sounds

Words like STRUT

These words use the same round vowel sound we find in FOOT.

Practice:

  • Some fun summer lovin’.
  • Percussionists love the drums.
  • Umbrella weather in London.
  • The Hungarian ski-jumper tumbled.
  • A peanut, coconut, and fudge donut.
  • The skunk stunk up the stump.
  • An unlovable fussbudget.
  • Dunk your bun in the mushroom soup.
  • Ms. McGovern summed one hundred numbers.
Words like TRAP, BATH, and SPA

Words like these use a bright, forward vowel sound. Note: Northern English accents do not differentiate between BATH and TRAP words as Southern English accents do.

Practice:

  • The cat’s father can’t catch half the mice it will have to.
  • Patrick sat in the enchanting bathroom in the aftermath of dancing with the daft actor.
  • The montage of the masked man in the last scene was masterfully performed by the acting class.
  • Actually, Dad’s Newcastle Brown Ale, served in dirty glasses, tasted rather ghastly.
Words like NURSE

These words use a front vowel, similar to the sound in DRESS (although sometimes with a bit more lip rounding).

Practice:

  • The worst burnt sirloin.
  • Bernie gave Bertha some perfume.
  • Sherlock searched for the murderer.
  • The early bird catches the worm.
  • The nurses in the maternity ward helped with the birth.
  • The surcharges were for alternative medicine.
  • Shirley rehearsed the commercial voice over.
Words like PRICE

These words may have a steady, open vowel quality rather than a diphthong, similar to many Southern American accents.

Practice:

  • High and dry.
  • In spite of myself.
  • The spice of life.
  • Fine Key lime pie.
  • A bright night light.
  • Your guide to Fine Dining.
  • Your final lifeline.

Consonant Sounds

In the sample videos above, note:

  • The non-rhoticity of the accent (“R-Dropping”, similar to RP)
  • The slightly “splashy” quality of plosive sounds like P, T, and K
  • The G sound is present in words ending in “-ing”