You must log in or register to comment.
You’re kidding, but the “posh” accent of the British upper classes is to a greater or lesser extent trained rather than merely acquired when one is learning the language as a child.
Also people with regional accents often actively make an effort to change their accent to RP (aka the BBC accent) when they move to places like London, though I supposed that’s pretty common the World over when people whose regional accents are from places deemed “provincial” move to the big cities in more prosperous regions.
Oh, and immigrants, I almost forgot immigrants: many people with foreign accents do make a lot of effort to speak the local language with the local accent. In fact, for many immigrants in Britain this joke is pretty close to reality.
So there’s actually a drop of truth in the joke.
Bloody hell!
Provided they’ve got their “relaxing” licence, of course
U wot m8??
Tosser. :P
Wankah!
Funny thing is, there are thousands of UK accents that are as different from each other as they are from the generic American accent. Granted, there’s variety in the US as well, but the concentration is higher in the UK, as we’ve had towns and villages for thousands of years within 20 miles of each other that had their own unique way of speaking that often only locals can understand without effort.
So yeah, when you say ‘British accent’ that means basically nothing to anyone in the UK.
UK having 1,000 accents to sound inbred in instead of America’s 5ish is pretty neat!
when you say ‘British accent’ that means basically nothing to anyone in the UK.
Yeah, you have to say “Bri’ish” or they won’t understand you.
My British accent hits a very hard and accentuated T.
It’s the same with Scottish accents - the English think there’s just one, but there’s an big range. Living here for 30+ years I can identify Orkney, Highlands, Western Isles, Weegie, Reekie (posh and non-posh), Aberdeen and Galloway. That last one is odd, it sounds almost Geordie and the locals call it “Galloway Irish”.
Tell me about it - i live in Shetland, which is wildy different from our closest neighbours in Orkney, which to my ears sounds like Welsh!
Saying “generic American accent” is about as valuable as someone doing a cockney accent and saying it’s generic British.
I take your point, which was why I added the next sentence acknowledging the variety of US accents. I’d argue that the Mid-Atlantic accent that most (but certainly not all) movie stars use is the closest thing to said generic accent.
I remember seeing some claim they did a study of English accents around the world and when they tried to average them all they got something similar to how people talk in Boston. Which I must say that’s hard to believe, but fuck do I know
I mean, how do you “average out” accents?
Yesterday at my flight with British Airways there was a stewardess with a heavy Liverpool accent. It sounded so nice.
UK accents that are as different from each other as they are the generic American accent.
So yeah, when you say ‘British accent’ that means basically nothing to anyone in the UK.
It’s akin to saying “the generic American accent,” Which means absolutely nothing to anyone in the US.
There is a generic American accent though. News anchors began using it heavily in the 80s because focus groups said it sounded the most neutral and hard to place. It’s basically a NoCal accent.
Nah, the San Jose local accent is distinctive and it’s not on any national news.
The newscaster accent from the '80s was a real thing but it was upper-midwest. Tom Brokaw is the canonical example.
Go tell that to any linguist and get laughed at.
The precise definition and usefulness of the term continue to be debated,[8][9][10] and the scholars who use it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness
Thank you for agreeing with me, and providing sources to back up my point.
To repeat my point,
Stating that there exists a generic UK accent is as useless as suggesting there exists a generic US accent. The wikipedia article suggests that linguists by and large agree with me. So again, thanks.
There are more varieties of accents inside London than across the entire US. You understood their point, no need to be pedantic.
Their point is equally pedantic.
You guys are all shallow and pedantic.
also people judge you for your accent a lot more there than in the USA
americans are really only mostly familiar with the posh accent or cockney anyway.
Familiar? Yes. Do we care? Not in the slightest.
If anyone doubts this, keep in your head what your idea of a British accent is, then go and find some vids of people talking in the Black Country accent. The old black and white videos are the best - its thought to be the nearest surviving accent from ‘Old’ English.
I had a friend who worked at a wine shop. He was also 1/4 french, though with no accent at all.
Some other friends went in to see him at work. They found it hilarious that he had this excessive french accent. It turned out he did it as a joke 6 months before, and got a good reaction from customers. His subconscious apparently ran with this, without his notice. The more he racked it up, the better the customers respected his opinions on wine. He was, however, completely unaware he was doing it!
No accent doesn’t exist. Still a fun story :)
If you want to get extremely pedantic, “Queens English” was defined as the reference. The rich toffs of the British empire got annoyed at their servants having various accents, and either being hard to understand, or mishearing them.
In this case however, it was meant as a local accent, so none noticeable.
I just tought it meant no french accent.
sacrebleu !
Mon touche.
Omelette du fromage!
What if her husband/spouse (or his husband/spouse) actually had a customer-service-voice fetish?
I used to fuck with my mom every time she answered the landline, she’d get all high pitch and neutral and business like.
Now that I know better, I was just one more fucker lol
Hell of a way to start a sentence
Could be spicier, mom wasn’t into me like that unfortunately
unfortunately
Love is love
My gen-z coworker always laughs at me for how my voice changes when I answer a call. It’s just how it was back in the 1900s okay?
Do they really think we all speak RP?
I’m from the North East, if I go to see my lass down in Manchester there are numerous different accents and the name of bread buns changes five times
Nope. We know some of you do that cockney thing instead, govna!
Sounds like very convoluted roleplay then
Personally, it’s just the fact that nobody is shooting anybody over here and healthcare is free.
We do have maga in the form of Nige, but it’s a huge stigma over here so that’s good.
Meanwhile I got into the emergency room in under a minute recently and paid a $25 copay last time I had a health crisis. And my eye specialist for my rare eye condition sees me whenever I’d like. How are the stabbings going btw?
Australians only do the accent when foreigners are around. With each other, the accent goes away and the Quokkas can be carnivorous again.
As a kiwi, I only do the accent so aussies can tell jokes about the number six
or… seven?
Funnily enough, that’s how Americans are, too. When we come home, we speak with an English accent.
Australians secretly changing back to British as soon as they step back in their homes just to fuck with Americans even more.
Jolly good. I mean, uh, that’s sick mate.
Jokes on you, most Americans can’t even tell the difference.
Don’t ruin the secret!
They say the word water differently but that’s it really
bo’ol av wo’er
You’re annunciating too much on your ending consonants
O i didn’t know, so they’re just like Nigerians when they come home?
“Fucking hell mate that was bloody exhausting, oh wait.”
As a British person I do basically have two accents I primarily use.
I totally drop my southern accent at home. I only use when I’m out just in case a tourist hears me. Don’t want them to be disappointed.
London or Cornwall? Northerners will have wild views on both.
