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

[Terminal Blue]

I think we need some audio samples, as I'd have to hear it to know which exactly you're talking about, but if it's the one you usually hear in movies and televisions, then I find it incredibly sexy. I could listen to a girl reading from a phonebook all day in that accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNz-P5WMQ8w

This is a joke so it's not entirely accurate. But the 'rah rah' public school thing is very distinctive when you hear it.

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.

Incidentally, that is my old university in the top clip.

 

[AwesomeNinjaPowers]

I raise my hand as one of thoese people who speak with an Upper (urgh hate this phrase) accent. But then my Mum's a speech therapist who used to work for BBC world services when everyone had to speak like that so I didn't really have a choice. Saying that I do think it sounds very pleasant

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

A lot of people that don't know/haven't spoken to a lot of British people wouldn't really know the differences except for the glaring difference in word usage, they might sound the same.

I like the way any high class accent sounds from just about any culture. The word usage is generally much more precise and I don't feel like I'm speaking to a child. Of course, some accents really are a turn on.

 

[FallenRainbows]

Judging by the poll results I'm sorted

 

[Bebus]

As a geordie (kind of, I have lived further south for about 3 years so have lost the worst of the accent!) I have always found them a bit annoying. They always seem to me to be hugely exaggerated, even when they are natural. I like southern accents, but not too much!

That said, I have an incredibly weird fetish for accents from the east midlands...

 

[Leadfinger]

Most movie villains have an upper-class English accent.

 

[michael87cn]

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.

 

[Terminal Blue]

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 .

We don't just 'sound different from each other' though, we sound very different from each other to the point where we often can't understand each other.

Also, accents are keyed to social positions which still have weight. If you speak with an actual upper class accent it will help you get jobs in the City (by which I mean the City of London, the financial district) but makes you sound like a dick anywhere else. If you speak with a middle class accent you have an advantage in most professional careers or in situations where you have to appear trustworthy. If you speak with a regional accent you will generally be looked down on and considered uneducated in professional jobs because it's assumed education would have bred that out of you, but you might be seen to have more credibility 'on the street'.

Our accents still have meaning. You can't just shrug and walk away, the manner in which you speak will influence how people will see you. You have this in America too, it's just that your class system is very different. Still, look at the treatment of 'ebonics' or other 'black' ways of speaking in your society as an example.

 

[monkey jesus]

As a Glaswegian I hate the English for almost anything, and Tory-sounding people most of all; its a fascinating combination of envy, deep-bred hatred and general bitterness.

Although, being Scottish, I hate a lot of things anyway.

Shortly after writing this he burst into flames.

I went from a soft Welsh accent to a more upper class English one after living down south for a while. It goes a long way in some countries.

In related news speaking to a girl in an English accent at night and in a Welsh accent the morning after is as funny as hell.

 

[michael87cn]

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 .

We don't just 'sound different from each other' though, we sound very different from each other to the point where we often can't understand each other.

Also, accents are keyed to social positions which still have weight. If you speak with an actual upper class accent it will help you get jobs in the City (by which I mean the City of London, the financial district) but makes you sound like a dick anywhere else. If you speak with a middle class accent you have an advantage in most professional careers or in situations where you have to appear trustworthy. If you speak with a regional accent you will generally be looked down on and considered uneducated in professional jobs because it's assumed education would have bred that out of you, but you might be seen to have more credibility 'on the street'.

Our accents still have meaning. You can't just shrug and walk away, the manner in which you speak will influence how people will see you. You have this in America too, it's just that your class system is highly racialized.

Very interesting, I never knew that. In the states hiring someone or refusing to hire someone because of their voice would be considered discrimination - basically taboo behavior. I feel sorry for you guys now.

Well, actually america doesn't really have a class system based on voice, more on money. There are rich, there are middle class and there are poor people. We don't really judge people based on how they talk (those that do are considered racist). Sure, there are different accents in North America, but for the most part we get along fine, or so I'd like to believe.

 

[Mr.Petey]

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.

Couldn't agree more! I tend to speak a little more enunciated than a lot of people in my area of Shropshire and I have worked with those who are owners of a proper posh upper class English accents. There are a few who'll look down on you but there are also a good portion of them who are there to be friendly, warm and it is a pleasure to have a conversation with them.

My mother can't stand anything "posh sounding" on principle alone which winds me up a tad. But I never mind a persons accent wherever they come from as, just so long as they are easy to understand. As a matter of fact, I find some of them very melodic and pleasant to listen to

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Someone brought up Stephen Fry, I wouldn't even put him down as having the really upper class accent, he's just well spoken.

The whole fox hunting privileged, mansion owning Eton types drive me nuts, but even then, it might not be the accent, it's probably that they're fox hunting, mansion owning Eton types, and they go on and on about how scum are claiming benefits when they inherited their home, land, and probably the company they're director of, from Daddy.

There's a british stand up, who when in America likes to open his set with 'I'll go slowly as some of you I hear have trouble with my accent. It's not actually my accent, this how English sounds when spoken properly.'

However I've been told I sound posh, when I live on a council estate and have done for 5 years, and (maybe because I don't use Xbox Live), whenever I've been on voice chat, I've had positive responses from Americans, not the 'lol britfag - get off our vent' that seems to be the stereotype.

I did however, when speaking to an american friend for the first time, put on the most outrageously posh voice I could, full on Baron Poshington stuff, just to see if they'd go with it...and they did...I had to drop it after about a minute cos I kept nearly laughing.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Very interesting, I never knew that. In the states hiring someone or refusing to hire someone because of their voice would be considered discrimination - basically taboo behavior. I feel sorry for you guys now.

It would be here as well, but it doesn't work at that level..

There's been some very good sociological work into the way different modes of speaking are valued in different situations.

A good example just off the top of my head. It's very common for working class British people to say things like 'you know what I mean'. In most professional situations saying things like that sounds like you don't know what you're talking about, and will again make people see you as uneducated.

It's not that people will not be hired because they don't have the right accent, but that they will be seen to possess attributes (education, trustworthiness, straighforwardness, precise knowledge) or otherwise depending on their accents.

 

[natural20]

There's a great older LRR video called Xavier that deals with this question quite well indeed.

http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/199/Xavier

It makes me laugh every time.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

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.

I feel the exact same way man.


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

 

[michael87cn]

Very interesting, I never knew that. In the states hiring someone or refusing to hire someone because of their voice would be considered discrimination - basically taboo behavior. I feel sorry for you guys now.

It would be here as well, but it doesn't work at that level..

There's been some very good sociological work into the way different modes of speaking are valued in different situations.

A good example just off the top of my head. It's very common for working class British people to say things like 'you know what I mean'. In most professional situations saying things like that sounds like you don't know what you're talking about, and will again make people see you as uneducated.

It's not that people will not be hired because they don't have the right accent, but that they will be seen to possess attributes (education, trustworthiness, straighforwardness, precise knowledge) or otherwise depending on their accents.

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.

 

[Mr Companion]

I have that voice and people really like me for it, for some reason. I guess you have a less appealing variation.

 

[Jackalb]

There's nothing wrong with being well-spoken just makes it easier for everyone to understand you.

 

[Terminal Blue]

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.

The definition of 'upper class' is that you come from an aristocratic landowning family. Those of us whose ancestors were/are professionals or business owners are not upper class. We are middle class or at best bourgeois. You could argue that middle class people who subscribe to upper class culture are also 'upper class', but in a strict sense the 'upper class' refers to the aristocracy, whose ancestors made money by owning land.

 

[Sand Engineer]

More real examples:

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

I absolutely love that posh brittish accent. I just have to go get a top hat and a cane.

Pip pip cheerio!