Poll: Upper-class English accents... your views, please

[Hoplon]

My fellow Escapists...

I'm British, and naturally speak English with quite a high-class accent, but for some reason, it doesn't really sit well with a lot of people I come across. So, over time, I've developed a knack for speaking with an East London/deep-Essex accent. But was that the right thing to do?

So, I ask you: what is your opinion of people who speak 'Queen's English' or like George Osborne (for non-Brits, he's the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is due to inherit a Barony or Baronetcy along with a massive amount of money, so he's a popular hate figure over here).

And then, what do you think of the stereotypical Stephen Fry accent?

A penny for your thoughts and I'd rather there was no change.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! public school boy mockney! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

I'm joking by the way. You should always kill them with water.

It's an accent, usually associated with twits in England, personally I don't have an issue with it since it's no worse than Geordie, Manc or god forbid brummie.

 

[Amnesiac Pigeon]

I speak like that but I'm not sure where I got it from.

My mums a cockney and my dads an Essex boy.

I blame Kent.

 

[cantgetno197]

Wow, can't believe how many brits there are here, and although I'm perfectly aware of the enormous number of accent across the British (and Irish) isles it completely blows my mind that people can CHOOSE an accent associated with a slightly different region. That's crazy to me.

Anyways, as a person with a boring old Canadian/American accent I'd say any of the upper classish and London accents sound sexy to us, however, with the REALLY posh ones (like the Queen's English/Received Pronunciation) it can be interpreted as somewhat effeminate, so you'll probably get more mileage as a woman then a man over here. I'd also expect people to have no idea what you're talking about in terms of differing accents. I just saw on some other comment thread a guy who just shrugged off the fact that he couldn't tell the difference between a British and an AUSTRALIAN accent so east vs. london vs. north won't really mean anything to most people here.

P.S. it's amazing how one accent can span like 350 million people and 20 million square kilometers (unless you're like Cajun or from Northern Ontario or some such) but over like 200,000 km^2 and 60 million people you can get dozens and dozens

 

[michael87cn]

Could you give us a video clip of a high upper class english accent? I don't think i've heard it before

More real examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSAbSRcsUcY&feature=related

and of course..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heNuI0iQKl0&feature=related

..or indeed any member of the royal family.

That lady Deborah Devonshire has a really beautiful voice.

 

[Klepa]

When a woman has it, it turns me on. As for guys.. it still kind of turns me on

 

[Xojins]

I think it's a very unattractive accent, probably because it's marked as "upper-class" English accent which suggests that it's better in some way. It's not. It's just a different acccent.

 

[Lucifer dern]

Yeah I have one, I'm not even upper class, I just spend alot of time around people who are :/

 

[imnot]

Im trying to change my accent to it!

 

[cantgetno197]

I'm not sure how it works in other countries, but I wanted to post something that bothers me about how our system works in the US. For most of the well paying jobs, you need to have a college degree of some kind. Which I find to be unfair for the poorer citizens who could perform the jobs just fine with the proper instruction, but will never be given the chance to try because they couldn't afford the cost of college education. You need the good-job to afford the good-job. Basically keeping the poor people out of the loop of things.

Sure, you can try to take out a lot of loans and get student benefits but you'll end up in a lot of debt doing that, and basically paying more than the average person. Not to mention not everyone gets accepted for loans because you need to have money for those, too.

*shrug* I guess the entire world is messed up in areas. If you're being discriminated because of your voice or skin color in one place, its how rich you are in another.

Here in Canada, university (what you'd call College) is extremely subsidized such that going to uni and community college (what you'd call Junior College I suppose) cost about the same (uni's still a bit more expensive). Yep, we're pretty socialist, and it hasn't killed us yet. So it works out to about $4000-$7000 a year for tuition (I know that's not pocket change but it's certainly much more manageable then what I hear it is in the states). Anyways, what you'll find is that you get the exact same arguments here (a lot of jobs require "any uni degree" and community college won't cut it). However, here the argument seems less genuine since the main difference between a community college and uni education is marks and desired career (if you want to be an animator or a welder or something that's associated with community college for example). Thus, in a way this system is more justified (but still complained about). If you really can't afford to go to either community college or uni then ya, the system is keeping you down. Otherwise it's somewhat perceived that if you don't have like a uni sociology degree you probably just didn't have the "right stuff". I'm not defending it just telling how it is.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

The one which sounds like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDfghW1ETk

..is a middle class accent. You wouldn't get into certain exclusive social circles with that accent.

The second one is very nearly accentless. Many people in the US actually don't sound much different.

 

[Xcelsior]

I couldn't care less about it to be honest, the only thing I don't like about it is that it can sometimes sound as if you're being talked down to. I myself don't have an accent, so I think anyway I live in South London. You said combined an Essex accent with an East London one that must sound really strange as those 2 accents are distinctly different on their own.

 

[DSK-]

I think my accent is London-ish, but it's hardly posh. Any woman with a posh/upper-class-like accent would sound very hawt indeed.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Meh. After doing a few video projects with people I know, I realised I sound somewhat like that kind of accent too.

Honestly, I wish I didn't, but it seems to win over some people. It just makes people more likely to hit me in the face too.

I would kill for an accent like that. ANY accent, in fact. I've heard myself, and it makes me want to tear out my vocal chords.

What accent is it that you have?

I have no accent whatsoever. Well, I have been told that it's slightly Scottish, but I can't hear it.

Everyone has an accent. It's impossible not to have one, it's just the way you speak. You said it yourself, slightly Scottish.

Eh idk about that...my area has been acclaimed for having near zero accent at all, thats why most spanish immigrants come to our area because we speak (american) english exactly as it is to be spoken, with zero accent of it all. I'm sure to southerners/northerners we sound odd, but we speak the most clear basic english out there (i really wish i could find the source but it was in a couple of magazines a couple years back)

OT: eh..we have some english students here for the year, and a couple of them have some heavy accents, but it doesn't bug me..well besides one guy, but he's a cocky douchebag, nothing to do with his accent.

so overall, its fine (to me at least)

 

[Little Duck]

I think most Brits have this built in. more often than not it's off. I flick mine on sometimes for teh lols.

Personally I think it sounds good, but I wouldn't want to be surrounded by it.

 

[Natdaprat]

The most annoying people I know speak like that. Needless to say, they are also total snobs.

 

[Zizzousa]

You guys from Europe seem to put a little too much thought into the importance of the sound of your voices.. just because you sound different from each other doesn't mean you are .

Personally I like the sound of all accents, except when people talk too fast (though that happens everywhere in the world). As long as you can be understood, you're good to go in my book.

That's nice I like the idea. But the reason we make such a fuss over accents is they all come from different places and it's usually (not always) easy to tell if they sound forced or not. Someone with an upper-class English accent didn't just get that accent by accident - it requires cultivation in exclusive private schools, and very rich social circles. 70% of our government (inc. PM, Dep. PM, Chancellor) went to schools like these - ones ordinary or working class people just cannot afford - while only 7% of the country actually go to these schools. See the disparity? Politics, and the biggest jobs in finance and so on, are about who you know - and they're usually the kind of people you can only meet in the likes of an exclusive, private, English school.

So when you hear an accent like that, the first inference you draw from it is that this priveleged asshole had or has opportunities that you can never dream of, not because they're supercool or smart, but because their parent or grandparents got rich. I know it's not the fault of the younger people who have accents and backgrounds like these - I mean, good on their parents/grandparents for making it big - but every time they speak with that smug accent it reminds We Plebs of how upside down the system is.

And also they tend to swan about with a sense of self importance that makes me want to SCREAM. I've waitressed at dozens of their fucking 'balls' and 'midnight breakfasts' since I started studying, and the upper-class are like no other customers - a regular customer might irritate or antagonise you, but the rich kids and their parents? They don't even notice you. No eye contact at all. You are a bit of furniture there to hand them wine, while they swan about in dresses worth more than you'll make in the next year. I wonder if this is straight jealousy, or an inferiority complex?

 

[imnot]

Meh. After doing a few video projects with people I know, I realised I sound somewhat like that kind of accent too.

Honestly, I wish I didn't, but it seems to win over some people. It just makes people more likely to hit me in the face too.

I would kill for an accent like that. ANY accent, in fact. I've heard myself, and it makes me want to tear out my vocal chords.

What accent is it that you have?

I have no accent whatsoever. Well, I have been told that it's slightly Scottish, but I can't hear it.

Everyone has an accent. It's impossible not to have one, it's just the way you speak. You said it yourself, slightly Scottish.

But it's not, I tell you!

Its martian is'nt it?

 

[KaiRai]

I have no accent. Least I don't think so. It's probably closer to Queen's English anyway, too many people tell me I sound 'posh'.

 

[geier]

I'm german, and i can only say, the british english is my favourite.
Everytime yathzee falls back into his native english, i laugh even more.

And a real upper class english, spoken by a sexy librarian with glasses, pale skin and red hair..... for that kind a women i would become a traitor of my country.

 

[Death-of-Penguins]

I have more of a mixed accent, depending on the words. Generally it's an upper-class-English accent (thanks to my mum), but I've lived in Scotland all my life (credit to dad here), so some words come across in a Glaswegian accent. Just particularly Scottish ones- Aye, Nae... and swear words, generally.