Re: USAGE: English, Masculine, Feminine

Sally Caves/Mark Reed/Philippe wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
>
> > Phillippe> What I meant is that when I listen so some English
> > Phillippe> people (not all of them, clearly), I feel a sheer
> > Phillippe> pleasure . . .
>
> Mark uarlo krespr:
> > Many Americans agree with you; an RP accent is generally considered
> > sexy over here.  Sadly, the reverse does not seem to be true; Americans
> > reportedly just "sound like people from the telly" in the UK.  Ah, well.
A dissenting message, from a Midwesterner who's spent a lifetime sluffing
(??) off the attitudes/stereotypes drummed into him in childhood:

To many older (than me) Americans, particularly of the
Midwestern/isolationist/nativist persuasion, RP-- the only accent they
tended to hear in the 1920-50 period-- sounded snooty, arrogant, and in the
opinion of many, downright queer (i.e. faggy, though that word wasn't in
circulation then).  All English males were utterly suspect.
>
> I suppose you could say the same for some American perception of the
> English: they "sound like the villains in television science fiction
> shows."
> :)
Also, until TV exposed us to non-RP accents, it brought to mind Upper Class
Twits.  (I think Kash has, or will have, a word for them, too*)

At Harvard in the 50s, when it became popular for _some_ to affect a sort of
English accent (mostly picked up from movies), we (yes, I confess) were
accused of speaking "Ealing Oxford", after the studio that produced many of
those movies.

---------------------
*Ah yes, does have: cucifici ~cuci ~fici ["tSutSi'fitSi] 'a silly or inane
person, esp. as applied to the idle rich'.

I forget where the cuci- part comes from, but -fici is a corrupted
diminutive of fitros 'paradise, ecstasy'-- the Spanish word "chuchifrito(s)"
a sort of fried sweet doughnut thing also had something to do with the
coinage; the very sound of it amuses me.

Extra points for identifying the origin of _fitros_.

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