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British accents that sound American? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5338 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 1 of 27 07 July 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the Introduction to Peter Roach's "English Phonetics and Phonology" I recently noticed the following:
"The pronunciation of English in North America is different from most accents found in Britain. There are exceptions to this -you can find accents in parts of Britain that sound American, and accents in North America that sound English. But the pronunciation that you are likely to hear from most Americans does sound noticeably different from BBC pronunciation." I was thinking of the second sentence here and wondering exactly which accents in North America might sound English and which British accents might sound American. For example, I imagine that the non-rhotic forms of Bostonian speech might sound somewhat British to many people. But I was wondering: which British accents might Roach be referring to as sounding American? EDIT: cut erroneous detail Edited by etracher on 07 July 2011 at 7:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6913 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 27 07 July 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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The only I can think of (as a non-native English speaker) is non-rhotic American (e.g. Bostonian, like you said), and correspondingly rhotic British (wherever that is spoken).
Now, I don't think that either sounds particularly "British"/"American", no more than non-rhotic Asian English sounds British (or Irish sounds American). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5338 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 3 of 27 07 July 2011 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think that rhotic or non-rhotic is the whole answer. For example, I believe the Bostonian accent has some vowel qualities in common with English Received Pronunciation that are not typical of other varieties of American English. Thus, non-rhotic Bostonian speech might sound somewhat British to some ears, but non-rhotic New York speech might sound more typically American - perhaps. This is what struck me about the claim that there are varieties of British speech that sound American- I can understand the rhoticity question and it is relevant, but there are enough other differences that I can't think of an accent from Britain that might be interpreted as sounding American.
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| Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5119 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French | Message 4 of 27 07 July 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are areas of Canada, particularly Newfoundland, where some people's accents sound kind of Irish. That's all I can think of.
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| pj1991 Newbie United States Joined 4957 days ago 29 posts - 49 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 27 07 July 2011 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's definitely some slight similarities with the non-rhotic forms of Enlish spoken in New York and Boston with those in the UK, but I'd say they're still very distinct. I live 20 minutes outside of Boston and whenever I travel people know where I'm from as soon as I open my mouth. On one or two rare occasions I've been mistook as being from New York (In the middle of nowhere, North Carolina, where they probably assume everyone who doesn't have a southern accent is from New York), but I've never been mistaken for British. I can also hear a New York/New Jersey accent from a mile away and know it's not Boston and certainly not English. I think the wording is just a little vague, it probably should have stressed the point a bit more that you can find similarities, not necessarily accents that can be totally mistaken (though considering this is just a minor note in the intro it appears, it really doesn't matter).
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| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5232 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 6 of 27 07 July 2011 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've had people assume I'm British, though I've lived my entire life on the US eastern seaboard. But those are fellow Americans--I presume the British themselves wouldn't be fooled.
AS to why people make the assumption--apparently I've unwittingly developed some kind of snobbish means of talking, perhaps derived from my singing lessons, which bred a habit of precisely pronouncing letters, where most people would use more elision and assimilation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5119 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French | Message 7 of 27 07 July 2011 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
I live on the Canadian prairies, and therefore have an accent similar to that of the American northwest, but I've had Americans think I sound British just because I pronounce my vowels less nasally than them. Edit: Fixed broken quote tag. Edited by Lianne on 08 July 2011 at 3:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Logie100 Diglot Newbie New Zealand Joined 5321 days ago 35 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 8 of 27 08 July 2011 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've always thought that Niles Crane of Frasier, played by David Hyde Pierce, had a very British accent , though he is American. I don't know if its an accent he puts on...
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