A comforting thought

Post by **Windwalker** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:37 pm

In my wanderings I bumped into the story of an Irish musician who plays what is loosely called "world music" (the kind made popular by Peter Gabriel). His name is Ross Daly, and he is an virtuoso in bowed string instruments.

After meandering around the world for a while, he settled on Crete and has become an expert in the Cretan lyre -- in its history, and in the instrument itself. You can hear him in many albums and film soundtracks.

This is the detail that captured my attention and my heartstrings: Daly now speaks fluent Greek, but with a heavy Cretan accent (which is very distinct, and instantly recognizable to other Greeks). For some reason, I found this almost unbearably moving. Somehow, it made me feel hopeful.

rocketscientist · Post by **rocketscientist** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:31 pm

An Irishman who speaks Greek with a Cretan accent. I like it.

intrigued_scribe · Post by **intrigued_scribe** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:03 pm

I also like it, and the hopeful aspect of this definitely comes across.

Heather

sanscardinality · Post by **sanscardinality** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 5:16 pm

This is a diversion, but since the subject was touched on...

My all-time favorite accent was a Chinese computer programmer who learned most of his English somewhere in a primarily Spanish-speaking country. It is the one accent I've heard that I cannot imitate at all, nor could I describe. Something about how the R sounds made it through that set of muscle memory was hard not to chuckle about...

SC