Lyse Doucet: she's an excellent reporter, but what is that weird accent she has?

[BiscuitMillionaire]

I'm always fascinated and a bit distracted by it.

[ngd456]

The further away you are, the less you'll recognize regional accents. As I am from the neighbouring province to Lyse's which is New Brunswick - on first hearing her years ago I pondered "is she an Acadienne from the Moncton or the Bathurst area?" She's the latter but to me that accent is completely un-confusable with Irish or Newfoundland accents. But then many people (I was once one) couldn't tell Australians from Brits. Anyway, it's great that her accent like her reportage -- has now illuminated so many! ;-)

[BakewellSlice]

She was on radio 4 today with a report on women in Afghanistan, well worth catching.

[Mukuma]

I Love her accent. She is very clear. Great when we have reporters who speak other languages and don't conform to the usual BBC presenters accent. She is a breath of fresh air. Hopefully will encourage the average Brit to try and learn another language. Surely her accent is a positive.

[DBreeze]

I grew up in the same town as Lyse in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. It's a small remote place built on forestry and mining. Some of the earliest settlers to North America landed here. French Priests were the first to stay 400 years ago. It was once the seat of power in Acadia. Nicolas Denys, a Governor in the 1600's, when it was known as Nepisquit and St-Pierre.

bit.ly/1zm8gsI

Lyse's father worked at the local pulp and paper mill. They grew up speaking english in their household. Her mother comes from a strong Irish background, which is the other culture that dominates locally. Anglophone locals are, for the most part, of Irish descent, having moved here in the 1800's.

She is, as the old folks might say, half Irish and half Acadian, and trained by BBC.

Bathurst is very winter in winter, and beautiful on the Baie de Chaleur in the summer. Come visit the Acadians...lots of seafood, sun and cool history. bit.ly/Chaleur

[microcosmia]

Agree she's an excellent reporter. I had never heard of Arcadian before.
Orla Guerin is Irish I used see her around in college and a friend knew her to talk to. She was really nice.

[Pagwatch]

She is just brilliant.

[donnie]

Did anyone watch her piece 'children of Syria' on tv the other night? it was really, really excellent. Those children are being militarised - the boys at any rate. There were young boys who were describing how other kids they used to play with were now their enemy .

[Rubypix53]

In the new Radio Times there is a feature by Lyse about Syrian children and a small piece about her; her documentary 'Children of Syria' is on BBC2 Monday night 28 July at 2100 BST.

[Meglet]

ah, I'm glad I know where her accent comes from now. Every time I thought I'd sussed it out it would throw me again.

She's a superb reporter. Didn't she get an OBE recently?

[Diorella]

wow, that link makes sense of it all, funny how a few irish priests and irish fishermen and settlers 300 years ago could influence the formation of an accent even to this day!

[donnie]

For me , Lyse Doucet represents all that is noble and meaningful in journalism.

[donnie]

I remember seeig that on the news a while back. Completely devastating .

[Quangle]

I know. It broke my heart to watch him. You feel so helpless. I guess money to the Red Cross or Red Crescent is the only thing one can do.

[ElephantsAndMiasmas]

Oh Quangle, that video. He's 13 and clearly trying to be strong.

[Rubypix53]

I came to the UK in 1976 from Philadelphia and have lived here uninterrupted most years so have acquired a British-ish (!) accent. But Lyse has travelled abroad for decades hence her retaining her Acadian accent. Here is a piece I thought I would share about world correspondents. www.theamerican.co.uk/pr/ft_Journalists-Who-Risk-All_Carol-Gould.phphas

[ChanelCristalle]

But Orla Guerin was Irish wasnt she? Or was she an Acadien who ended up living in Ireland?

[Quangle]

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p023b426
Found the clip in case anyone wants to see it. It's only a couple of minutes long and it ends abruptly but it will stay with you. His little face.

[SwedishEdith]

She is a great reporter. Sue Lloyd Roberts is another one as well as Orla Guerin, of course

[cjbk1]

Oooh I heard the Newfie accents in Canada (in Ontario actually) and my Dsis who was living and working there mistook it for Irish the first few times (we grew up in Ireland) it's was quite unusual to my ears

[poppyknot]

Very interesting.Also have a notion that Barbara Plett has an accent that makes me listen that bit more..

And agree about LD'Syria reports.

[Quangle]

Came on specifically to post today about Lyse Doucet. Several times in recent months I've had to stop what I'm doing to listen to her reporting. She's brilliant and under the radar compared to others in the same field. I've just watched her pieces on the BBC website about children and this war. Reduced me to tears - can't find it on my phone to link to but it's pretty obvious on the main site. She talks to a boy in Syria about his life - worth a watch.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

Previously I'd thought maybe a bit Lloyd Grossman.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

Oh yes, I watched the Shipping News the other day, and there are similarities in the accent in Newfoundland.

[donnie]

nice link claig . I have a lot of links to PEI, NFL and Quebec and so many people sound more Irish than the Irish!

[claig]

Link didn't work should be

gail25.tripod.com/first.htm