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Kevin Spacey grew up in California, but in House of Cards, he plays a politician from South Carolina.
凯文·史派西成长于加州，在《纸牌屋》中饰演一名来自南卡罗来纳州的政客
"As we used to say in Gaffney..."
“在加夫尼的时候我们就说过……”
The first thing you'll notice about Spacey's accent when he's playing Frank Underwood is what happens to a lot of his Rs.
关于史派西饰演弗兰克·安德伍德时的口音，大家首先就会注意到的是他发的“R”这个音。
"Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power..."
“金钱犹如萨拉索塔的巨无霸豪宅，保质期就只有十年，权力则是……”
This is called r-dropping, and it's a feature of several well-known dialects.
这就是所谓的“去儿化音”，这是好几种著名方言的特征。
"He would rather the poor were poorer."
“他宁愿穷人更穷”。
"The greatest wilderness on Earth."
“地球上最大的荒原。”
"In the tradition of bipartisanship."
"按照两党制的传统。"
"Metropolitan Museum of Art."
“大都会艺术博物馆”
But it's also associated with the upper class of the plantation South.
这也是美国南方上流社会的发音特点。
"This war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring."
“这个春天，哪里有聚会，哪里就在讨论战争，一点儿乐趣也没了。”
R-dropping emerged as kind of an affectation among posh people in southern Britain in the 18th century --
18世纪，去儿化音首先在爱矫揉造作的英国南部富贵阶层中流传开来--
the English didn't always talk that way.
英国人并非一直都是这么说话的。
And then it spread to elites on the East Coast of the US.
后来这种发音传播到了美国东岸的精英阶层。
At the same time, r-dropping was a feature of the creole and West African languages spoken by some of the slaves in the South and their descendants.
这一时期，克里奥尔语以及美国南方部分奴隶及其后代使用的西非语言也有这一发音特征。
But after World War II, new generations of white Southerners essentially abandoned r-dropping,
然而，二战结束后，美国南部的新一代白人大都抛弃了这种发音方式，
so today you'll see it mostly in the very oldest generation, or more frequently with African-American speakers from the South.
所以，现在只有老一辈的白人才会这么发音，但主要还是自南方的非裔美国人。
Take Lindsey Graham as an example.
就拿议员林赛·格雷厄姆来说。
Like Kevin Spacey's character, Graham is from the northern part of South Carolina, and his Rs are largely intact.
和凯文·史派西饰演的角色一样，格雷厄姆也来自南卡罗来纳州的北部，他基本上都保留了R的发音。
"going to sell the oil to another customer."
“准备把石油卖给另一个客户。”
And that may be because language in the Southern Appalachian areas was influenced by settlers from Ireland, where people aren't exactly shy with their Rs.
这可能是因为阿巴拉契亚山以南的南卡罗来纳人的发音受到了不会羞于发R音的爱尔兰殖民者的影响。
"Seriously. Serious. How close does that sound to the Kentucky accent where they talk like that and I'm talking like this? You know what I mean?"
“说真的，说真的，肯塔基州的人就会这么发音，而我则是这么发音的，听上去很像吗？你懂我的意思了吗”
Regardless R-dropping probably can't be the shortcut that white actors use to sound Southern in the future.
尽管去儿化音这个技巧可能无法成为未来白人演员拿来模拟南方人口音的捷径，
Instead, the main feature that unites Southern dialects is something called /ay/-ungliding.
相反地，美国南方方言的主要特征是去滑音/ay/
For people outside the South, this vowel has two parts.
在南方之外的美国人看来，这个元音可以分为两部分。
You can probably feel your tongue shifting as you say the word "buy."
说“buy”这个单词的时候你可能明显会感觉到舌头位置的变动。
But in Southern speech, /ay/ is a one-part vowel in many cases, sounding more like ah than ay.
然而，在南方方言里，/ay/很多时候都是单元音，听起来也更像是/ah/而不是/ay/。
But there's an important distinction here that Northerners might not be aware of.
然而，这里面有一个北方人可能没有注意到的重要区别。
Most Southerners only do ay-ungliding before what's called voiced consonants, or at the end of a word.
大多数南方人都只会在所谓的“浊辅音”前或者词尾才会把/ay/发成/ah/。
The difference between voiced and voiceless consonants is whether your vocal chords vibrate when you say them,
清辅音和浊辅音的区别就在于发音时声带是否振动，
and ay-ungliding before voiceless consonants is stereotyped in the South as a less-educated way of speaking.
而把清辅音前的/ay/发成/ah/一直被南方人视为受教育程度低的人的口音特点。
"But I don't want your life."
“但我不稀罕过你那样的生活。”
Ay-ungliding triggers a shift in the vowels, or in the space in the mouth where the vowels are formed.
把/ay/发成/ah/会导致元音发生变化，或者发元音时空间口腔空间大小的变化。
The ey-sound shifts lower in the mouth.
/ey/这个音发音位置较低。
"And then blame somebody else."
“怪别人去吧。”
The eh-sound moves forward to the front of the mouth.
/eh/的发音较为靠前。
"Just as strong and opinionated as men."
“就跟男人一样坚强，一样有主见。”
As do the vowels pronounced in the back of the mouth like go and boot.
而"go"和“boot”的元音发音位置则较靠后。
"Thank you."
“谢谢你们。”
These vowel shifts occur to different degrees in different parts of the South,
在美国南部，不同地方，这些元音变化的程度不同，
and they're certainly fading in cities where there's a lot of migration and generational change.
显然，城市由于移民众多，加上世代的变迁，这些特征正在逐渐消失。
But if you're an actor from the North or the West, the vowels are really the key to sounding Southern.
但是，如果你是来自北方或者西方的演员，元音绝对是用来模仿南方口音的利器。
