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American or British accent more popular?

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tarvos
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 Message 65 of 70
11 June 2012 at 1:45pm | IP Logged 
Good luck with your crusade. We'll be here waiting to see how you'll do. Watching from the sidelines.
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COF
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 Message 66 of 70
11 June 2012 at 4:14pm | IP Logged 
Medulin wrote:
As a European, I find the American accents more beautiful and easier to imitate.
Blame it on Hollywood. (We don't get many British tv shows here).


Many Europeans do indeed claim they find American English a lot easier to pronounce than British English.

However, I think what they really mean is American English is more wide spread, not actually easier to pronounce.

Logically speaking, I would assume the clear sounds of RP are easier to learn to speak than the more slurred sounds of American English.
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lingua nova
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 Message 67 of 70
11 June 2012 at 6:22pm | IP Logged 
COF wrote:
Medulin wrote:
As a European, I find the American accents more beautiful
and easier to imitate.
Blame it on Hollywood. (We don't get many British tv shows here).


Many Europeans do indeed claim they find American English a lot easier to pronounce
than British English.

However, I think what they really mean is American English is more wide spread, not
actually easier to pronounce.

Logically speaking, I would assume the clear sounds of RP are easier to learn to speak
than the more slurred sounds of American English.


What "slurred sounds"? American English, like British English, is not monolithic. A
Brooklynite sounds very different from a New Orleanian, as does a Yorkshireman from an
East Ender.
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Pisces
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 Message 68 of 70
11 June 2012 at 7:07pm | IP Logged 
To many people, the greatest single difference between a "typical" English accent and a "typical" American accent is the dropping of r's in the English accent. This gives American English an "advantage" as far as foreign learners are concerned, because it's easier for most people to speak as they spell. It's easier to pronounce the r's than to know when and how to drop them. (Conversely, often pronouncing t's as d's is a kind of disadvantage for an American accent, so many people pronounce the t's as t's and pronounce the r's, so they have a mid-Atlantic accent of a sort. But I think the r's are a bigger factor.)


COF wrote:

Logically speaking, I would assume the clear sounds of RP are easier to learn to speak than the more slurred sounds of American English.


I would guess that most ESL learners find American pronunciation easier, or more logical, based on the spelling than RP, so in this respect I don't agree with you.

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nway
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 Message 69 of 70
11 June 2012 at 8:26pm | IP Logged 
Am I the only one who kind of just wants this thread to die?
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ReQuest
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 Message 70 of 70
11 June 2012 at 10:42pm | IP Logged 
Not many Dutch people would attribute the adjective "beloved" to Geert Wilders though.


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