British Accents

Londonfields

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I have a prissy southern accent, which i hate! It sounds unbelievably wet and unsexy but my parents sent me to a boarding school for years where I picked it up, so they are to blame. I think Geordie accents are incredibly sexy and macho. Just hearing it gives me hard-on. Whereas West Country sounds the opposite - makes me think of farmers and cows! As for Brummie.. yerchhh!
On the subject of yanks learning to sound English, it doesn't sound any more stupd than Brits attempting to sound American - which they do on BBC Radio 4 all the time. They constantly broadcast afternoon radio plays set in the states - the Deep South, usually, - played by Brit actors who sound so comically lame, it makes me cry with laughter. I don't know why they don't import a few REAL Americans for the parts - probably union rules, or a money-saving device... ever heard Emma Thompson trying to do Hillary Clinton in that film about the Clintons... was it Primary Colors? Laughable! So unbelievably bad!
 

Caliman

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Its nothing like any British accent. Its just some pathetic attempt to sound like someone from the UK. Just bad acting. Give her a drink and stick a hidden mic somewhere near her and you'll hear what she really sounds like. Not even a good American english accent.
 

DaveyR

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Well I'm from Newcastle :rolleyes:

I just sound nothing like a person from Newcastle :biggrin1:

it is a bad accent though, instantly makes a person sound less intelligent

Don't be so fucking stereotypical as it makes you come across as a thick twat.

Same here :biggrin1:

I would hate to have a geordie accents, mine is pretty posh

If you were that posh you'd at least be able to use basic grammar.

I'm from the North East and proud of my accent although it is very watered down with travelling. When I do venture back home to Newcastle the accents sound very strong to me. They are warm, hard working friendly people.
 

Principessa

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Birth nameMadonna Louise CicconeAlso known asMadonna Louise Veronica Ciccone RitchieBornAugust 16, 1958 (1958-08-16) (age 48)
Bay City, Michigan, United States

I too tend to pick up accents easily. Don't know why I guess I just have a sensitive ear. It's not meant to mock my associates, it happens naturally.

I've noticed Mrs. Ritchie's new British accent as have many. It sounds horribly fake to me; but what do I know I'm from New Jersey. :tongue:
 

Yorkie

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On the subject of yanks learning to sound English, it doesn't sound any more stupd than Brits attempting to sound American!
Some get it right.A lot of people in the U.S didn't realise that Hugh Laurie is British.
 

dong20

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Gwyneth Paltrow can pull off a good Brit accent in my opinion.

In Sliding Doors (or something) she kept up a pretty convincing, quite likeable if rather 'indeterminate' accent. Being able to maintain it when cursing was what made made it more notably impressive.

I can't recall noticing her accent in other 'English' roles since then which I suspect is to her credit. Many in movie land thought she was British....:rolleyes:
 

earllogjam

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I think precisely because it is such a small country there hasn't been as much incentive to uproot, business areas tend to be localised so it's easy to find a similar job, your family stayed in one place so that was a reason to stay there too. Probably loads of reasons I can't think of too.

because it's an older nation.

accents evolve. in times when ordinary people didn't travel, they evolved away from each other.

america has only existed since people travelled.

Yes, that may explain why so many dialects came about but you no longer live in Old England. People travel now don't they? Listen to national broadcasts, no? People from different towns marry, right? I would imagine dialects changing or converging as a result. Are you saying that there is no trend for a "standardized" British dialect?

Could it also be because no one dialect is percieved better than another? There is no advantage of being from a distinct accent group in Britan? There is no pressure to standardize.

The funny thing about British accents is that I can understand some, like the Queen's, but others are competely incomprehensible. I wonder if Brits have the same problem in parts of Britan and Ireland themselves.

I worked with a person from the South that consciously changed his speech pattern in NYC because he would have been judged poorly in the corporation speaking with a hick accent. He promply reverted his speech when he returned to the South and quickly lost it at work in NYC. I think the same can be said about African Americans. You are judged by the way you talk here in the US which forces some to adopt another dialect. The power to conform and be accepted is great. Why not so in Britan?
 

D_golden parachute

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Don't be so fucking stereotypical as it makes you come across as a thick twat.



If you were that posh you'd at least be able to use basic grammar.

I'm from the North East and proud of my accent although it is very watered down with travelling. When I do venture back home to Newcastle the accents sound very strong to me. They are warm, hard working friendly people.

I wasn't being stereotypical, it makes you SOUND, like you have little intelligence, I am in no way saying that people from Newcastle are not clever, it just isn't an accent that sounds intelligent.
 

DaveyR

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I wasn't being stereotypical, it makes you SOUND, like you have little intelligence, I am in no way saying that people from Newcastle are not clever, it just isn't an accent that sounds intelligent.

That is a matter of opinion. Your's that is which is of no importance to me whatsoever. I hate people to be judged on their accent alone. It tends to be done by unintelligent shallow people.
 

ManlyBanisters

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Good link MB! It looks like they haven't heard of your explanation of the origin of "naff".
naph = bad (quite possibly the origin of the current British English slang term naff)
I sometimes hear repeats of 'Round The Horne' on BBC7,it's surprising what they got away with considering homosexuality was illegal until 1967.BBC bosses probably didn't have a clue what they were talking about. :biggrin1:
I remember "Naff off!" used to be one of Princess Anne's favourite phrases.

Yeah - said "NAFF ORF!"

Hey if you ever fancy a dolly troll in France and maybe a bona bevvy with a dona - you've a fantabulosa leucoddy, charper me out. :wink: :biggrin1:
 

dong20

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Yes, that may explain why so many dialects came about but you no longer live in Old England. People travel now don't they? Listen to national broadcasts, no? People from different towns marry, right? I would imagine dialects changing or converging as a result. Are you saying that there is no trend for a "standardized" British dialect?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Old England' but as I said I don't believe a very few decades of post war TV and an influx of Hollywood won't undo centuries of entrenchment. Regional accents are heard in all the media, they're not suppressed. I see no clear trend toward 'standardisation'. If anything quite the reverse may be true. Sometimes I have no idea what kids are saying, sadly quite often neither do they it seems.

The funny thing about British accents is that I can understand some, like the Queen's, but others are competely incomprehensible. I wonder if Brits have the same problem in parts of Britan and Ireland themselves.

Sometimes, but I doubt it's more difficult than you may experience in the US. Certainly I have had difficulties with some US accents, but one attunes quite quickly...usually.

The power to conform and be accepted is great. Why not so in Britain?

It is here too, well sort of but I don't think we're so easily led, not deep down any way. Cultural maturity and a sense of heritage probably play a part. Remember Britain is in effect four nations, each with it's own entensive and turbulent history and each has a distinctive sense of self.

Part of that is individuality is linguistic and it's unlikely we'd give that up easily, and certainly not for the mere sake of 'standardising' our accents.
 

yngjock20

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I spoke to a british person in New York with a british accent (cockney) and she asked me if I was from Brixton. When I didn't know what the fuck she was talking about, she figured out that I wasn't really british. She said it ws the most convincing feigned accent she'd ever heard.

Yay me!
 

earllogjam

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It is here too, well sort of but I don't think we're so easily led, not deep down any way. Cultural maturity and a sense of heritage probably play a part. Remember Britain is in effect four nations, each with it's own entensive and turbulent history and each has a distinctive sense of self.

Part of that is individuality is linguistic and it's unlikely we'd give that up easily, and certainly not for the mere sake of 'standardising' our accents.

The four nations each have their distinct speech patterns but are there not distinctive accents within each nation as well? Even in London you find a great many different speech patterns. Would you say these not likely to change because they are entrenched in history and a distinct sense of self? Are the Cockney speakers proud of being Cockney? How does all this play in with social mobility in the UK?