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"British" accents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| COF Senior Member United States Joined 5822 days ago 262 posts - 354 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 22 18 April 2012 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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In America, the stereotype of a British accent is Hugh Grant and Colin Firth types, if "British" accent is mentioned, that is what the average person imagines.
However, if you listen to a UK radio station like BBC Radio 1, you hear accents which frankly don't even sound very British to someone who assumes that British accents are all "stiff upper lip". My question is, is a contempary British accent, like those you would typically hear on Radio 1 identifiable as a "British" accent to non-Brits? Do people recognise those as British accents, or to most people, is a British accent basically how Hugh Grant, etc, speak? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 22 18 April 2012 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Everyone who says British really thinks some form of RP, when of course hearing a true Manc accent or a Geordie would confuse people. It's up to the people themselves to educate themselves about this type of accent change. For what it's worth, when British is said I usually ask "which part of Britain? Do you mean standard RP/London?"
For the record, the coolest English accent is and will always be Scottish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4613 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 3 of 22 18 April 2012 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is a huge variety of regional accents across the UK. But for many years, BBC television and radio presenters tended to sound like Hugh Grant. Nowadays, you hear the full range of accents in the national media.
I remember as a very young boy, being on holiday in the northeast of England. I started kicking a ball about with 2 lads on the campsite but genuinely had no idea what they were saying to me. I found their thick Geordie accent totally impenetrable as I had simply never heard anyone speak like this before. They probably found my Scots equally baffling. Edited by beano on 18 April 2012 at 4:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5556 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 22 18 April 2012 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I should add that RP is not the same accent as the London accent and Scottish is not an
English accent. Edited by Elexi on 18 April 2012 at 6:50pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| KimG Diglot Groupie Norway Joined 4968 days ago 88 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Portuguese, Swahili | Message 5 of 22 18 April 2012 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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As long as it's a non rhotic accent, I think i could possibly recognize it. Unknown rhotic accents I'd possibly not understand immediately is British.
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6900 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 22 18 April 2012 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||
"Some people I know" tend to judge accents in movies according to this: *non-rhotic accent - British *non-rhotic + glottal stops - Cockney *rhotic tap - Scottish *non-rhotic + high-rising terminal - Australian *rhotic tap/alveolar + high rising terminal - Irish *rhotic - American/Canadian *"rural" British English (for lack of better description) - usually Irish/Scottish Oh, the humanity. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4698 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 7 of 22 19 April 2012 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | ||
Scottish English definitely exists, it's English spoken with a Scottish accent. There is also Scots the dialect and then Scots Gaelic the Gaelic language, but Scottish English is merely English pronounced with Scottish intonation :) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4690 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 8 of 22 19 April 2012 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hugh Grant? Certainly not. For me, a stereotypical British accent sounds something like this. Edited by LaughingChimp on 19 April 2012 at 3:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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