The British Accent - A lesson on ignorance.

[Cmwissy]

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With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

There's more than one Britsih accent and let's leave it at that. Otherwise we're just going to confuse the tourists.

Apart from when they go to Scotland expecting everyone to speak with a surrey accent and get lynched.


I'm not so uptight to expect the exact county (I couldn't) but damn, at-least get the country right.

How pissed off are Canadians when they're called American?

 

[zf6hellion]

I'm from America...I have an incurably Californian accent...now...how do you think that sounds? Which stereotype do you think I fit? That, and I'm from a much larger country than my state, which is extremely varied..to which I state again, you have a British accent. We all have variations in speech, which can vary minimally or incredibly. I have an accent, you have an accent... is it so necessary to really distinguish? Isn't that what kind of leads to the useless class-based prejudice anyway?

'Sides, I had a neighbor who had an cock-sparrow accent and had better figures than the rest of us. We all slurred the same at the end of the night...so it's really all just vanity.

I wouldn't make a fool of myself by trying to copy your accent or stereotype it, if I had to guess, I would say a teenage OC accent (That being the only reliable Californian source I have)

But, Instead of thinking about it that way; Pick any four countries in the world that are close to each-other, I pick America, Cuba, Mexico and Canada; Call them all one thing so that they have back-up in a war - Auxada, then say 'You have an Auxadian accent'.

Just because these countries (British countries) are small, doesn't mean they do not have more accents than yours (Which they do 3 to 1)


Honestly, I would settle for 'English accent' - 'British accent' is just a piss take

Same here, except Scottish not English.

 

[El Poncho]

I agree with this and when I meet english folk I ask where they are from, in England. However, you all have "british" accents because that's your nation of origin. However, you also have regional dialects that differentiate you further from other englishmen.

But people wouldn't call a Scottish accent British, or a scouse accent British, only the BBC accent would be labeled as British and I think that's the problem. If people called every accent in Britain British we wouldn't bother, but they don't.

 

[BonsaiK]

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With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

Hey, I can't. It's not my fault that I don't live in your country and can't detect these regional differences. That doesn't make me an 'idiot', it just means that I don't have certain trained cultural perceptions. I've been seeing a girl recently who comes from the northwest of England. She could have fooled me and told me she was a Scot very easily (although I'm certain that you would not have been fooled). What to you seems like an obvious difference, to me is a fine line. You really shouldn't be so insulting.

 

[Sparrow]

I always have a story on stuff like this, and would you believe it, I have one now.

I'm English, which I rant about all the time, I know, and I live in the south-east of Kent. Basically, I don't sound very "British". However, the other week when I was helping out a couple of friends at a English language course, an Australian pointed at me and went; "He's not Brtish, is he? Why is he here?"

I found it quite funny at the time.

 

[Cmwissy]

SNIP

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With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

Hey, I can't. It's not my fault that I don't live in your country and can't detect these regional differences.

Scotland is a whole different country, it's not a 'regional difference' pal.


It's like calling Mexico in relation to America a 'regional difference'

What to you seems like an obvious difference, to me is a fine line.

It's an entirely different country.

Please don't say you thought Scotland was in England.

For the love of god.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I'm still going to say British accent.

Because I'm lazy, and I take the easy way out.

What he said.

 

[Cmwissy]

Is it really hard to change that 'British' to an 'English/Scottish/welsh/Irish'?

The accent I think you're talking about is called Received Pronunciation, and it's taught to people of the upper British class anywhere they're from, isn't it?

It's called Received Pronunciation - although most of us call it 'BBC' (because the BBC would only hire people who spoke like this; however, only upper-class English people talk like it.

 

[BonsaiK]

SNIP

SNIP

With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

Hey, I can't. It's not my fault that I don't live in your country and can't detect these regional differences.

Scotland is a whole different country, it's not a 'regional difference' pal.


It's like calling Mexico in relation to America a 'regional difference'

Yes but you can't expect foreigners to know that stuff. I thought the UK was the country and Scotland was still technically a part of that country as it doesn't have complete self-government. What do I know anyway. The point is, if in doubt keep it general, play it safe. And you know what... I pretty much never need to refer to people's accents in conversation anyway, and if I do I just ask "hey what accent is that of yours?", saves me all the trouble. I don't even see what the issue is here.

 

[Firenz]

Ah you're from right down south, no wonder you'd find it so funny he he.

The joys of the SOuth Dorset accent (the real one that is, not the Bournemouth/Poole one!)only go as far pronouncing Chimney as "chimley" and a less potent "mummer-set"/west-country tinge.

That and the fact that we actually all talk in Hardy's English (150yrs of linguistic development has just passed us all by)!

 

[Cmwissy]

SNIP

SNIP

With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

Hey, I can't. It's not my fault that I don't live in your country and can't detect these regional differences.

Scotland is a whole different country, it's not a 'regional difference' pal.


It's like calling Mexico in relation to America a 'regional difference'

Yes but you can't expect foreigners to know that stuff. I thought the UK was the country and Scotland was still technically a part of that country as it doesn't have complete self-government. What do I know anyway. The point is, if in doubt keep it general, play it safe. And you know what... I pretty much never need to refer to people's accents in conversation anyway, and if I do I just ask "hey what accent is that of yours?", saves me all the trouble. I don't even see what the issue is here.

There isn't a problem here - I would hate to see the Escapist go down the bung hole because of petty arguments .

The UK isn't a country - It's a kind of group of countries, such as the Americas.

Yes but you can't expect foreigners to know that stuff

You can't go to a travel agent - ask to go to 'Northern England' and expect Scotland - It's a different country.

Just, do yourself a favour, for your own good; Never, ever, ever, ever ad infintum call the UK a country and Scotland a part of it to a Scotsman.

They will kill you - I've seen it.

Snip

I wouldn't expect people to know the differences between counties - that's both unreasonable and mad.

I do at-least expect them to know the differences in country.

 

[Rafe]

I'm still going to say British accent.

Because I'm lazy, and I take the easy way out.

Alright - my German friend.

He's Swedish...oh I get it.

I only have to travel ten minutes down the road and bang, new accent. Also, I hate the geordie accent with a passion.

How could you hate this?

Get in, I haven't seen this in ages!

OT: Yeah Accents in Britain are hugely varied, from Liverpool, Sunderland, London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and Middlesbrough; generalising isn't good.

But maybe they just seem different because we're British. I'm sure I couldn't recognise different accents in China or some states of the USA.

 

[BonsaiK]

SNIP

SNIP

With the risk of offending people - If you speak fluent English and come from a Caucasian background; and can't tell the difference between a heavy Scottish or Heavy English accent, You're an idiot.

And by pointing that out by using the term 'British accent', you're more of an idiot.

Hey, I can't. It's not my fault that I don't live in your country and can't detect these regional differences.

Scotland is a whole different country, it's not a 'regional difference' pal.


It's like calling Mexico in relation to America a 'regional difference'

Yes but you can't expect foreigners to know that stuff. I thought the UK was the country and Scotland was still technically a part of that country as it doesn't have complete self-government. What do I know anyway. The point is, if in doubt keep it general, play it safe. And you know what... I pretty much never need to refer to people's accents in conversation anyway, and if I do I just ask "hey what accent is that of yours?", saves me all the trouble. I don't even see what the issue is here.

There isn't a problem here - I would hate to see the Escapist go down the bung hole because of petty arguments .

The UK isn't a country - It's a kind of group of countries, such as the Americas.

Yes but you can't expect foreigners to know that stuff

You can't go to a travel agent - ask to go to 'Northern England' and expect Scotland - It's a different country.

Just, do yourself a favour, for your own good; Never, ever, ever, ever ad infintum call the UK a country and Scotland a part of it to a Scotsman.

They will kill you - I've seen it.

Yeah but the USA doesn't have Mexican representatives in their parliament. Or do they?

If Scots will kill you for that I think some Scottish people are just very insecure. I'll take your advice though, but to be honest I probably wasn't ever going to mention it to a Scot anyway as talking about this type of stuff isn't something I do a lot (does it show?).

 

[That's Funny]

Well techinically there is no such thing as a 'British' accent since Britain is not techinically a country, more rather a collection of 3 countries and some islands that surround them (it's called the British isles), Americans get confused with England and Britain.

Of course if I'm incorrect about my statement feel free to point out my mistakes.

 

[Cmwissy]

Yeah but the USA doesn't have Mexican representatives in their parliament. Or do they?

If Scots will kill you for that I think some Scottish people are just very insecure. I'll take your advice though, but to be honest I probably wasn't ever going to mention it to a Scot anyway as talking about this type of stuff isn't something I do a lot (does it show?).

Scotland has It's own Government.

Doesn't America have people from different countries as Reps?

That's odd.

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/

 

[funguy2121]

OP - I made the same assertion regarding Texan accents only moments ago.

 

[ntw3001]

I don't get why people complain about things like this. I doubt anybody (well, anybody of any intelligence) thinks that one accent actually represents all of Britain. It's just what people call BBC English because that's the most readily identifiable 'British accent'. In the same way, I'm entirely content to say 'an Australian accent'. Not because I imagine that single accent is identical across all of Australia, but because you know the accent I mean when I say that.