There's no such thing as a British accent!

[socialmenace42]

Okay, this has been bothering me for years. There is no such thing as a British accent!

Great Britain is an island made up of three countries, England, Scotland and Wales.

Dude, you forgot Northern Ireland. Mistake.

though you have a point, even to give the Label of 'English' accent is woefully inaccurate, there are regions of the British Isles (Yes, all of them) where they practically speak their own dialect. We even have a few dead Languages kicking about...

But i think we return to the worryingly dangerous topic of 'Stereotypes' here and we all know how that ends up (thank you RDR) so I'll just say that i think it's alright to consider someone as having an 'English' or 'Scottish' or 'Welsh' accent, you just have to assume that even though they have this label you might have no idea what they sound like.

 

[Plurralbles]

um... There's a set of acents that come from those islands just like there is a set of accents coming from north america or asia, meaning that it is perfectly acceptable for people who don't hear them everyday to lump them all together.

It's not even a question of growing a thicker skin, it's of realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you so people won't know everything about your region.

 

[xdgt]

Isn't that like saying there is no such thing as an American accent? After all there is Texan, New York, Deep South etc. As a general catch-all term for accents stemming from the British Isles it is a reasonable phrase.

I agree with you to some extent. Although the Texan, New York and Deep South accents are dialects of the USA. Great Britain is actually three separate countries.

Well its better than european accent and that's a friggin continent. Yet people use it all the time. You are just taking it too close to heart. People just need to give what they heard a name without going too much into details.

 

[maninahat]

Because it doesn't matter. You know what they're talking about, right?

That's not the point. The point is that they're incorrect. I'm pissed off about it, but some people are downright offended at other people's ignorance.

It is safe to assume most people do it all the time with every other country. Oh, you say someone has a Spanish Accent? As opposed to Catalonian? Or Aragonian?

 

[Valkyira]

Well, if we are splitting hairs, why not point out that there is no such thing as "the English Language". Seeing as how English is spoken by Americans, Australians, the British etc. It seems in accurate to label it all as "English".

Either that, or we can agree that there is such thing as a British accent: an accent that originates from Britain. It could be Cockney, Brummy or Scouse, but it is still a British accent.

Yeah but the English language originated from England and it has been virtually unchanged since it was made. So in a way, it's right to call it the 'English language'. It's like how people in Mexico speak Spanish. Just because they speak it, it doesn't mean it's not the 'Spanish' language. It still originated from Spain.

 

[ethaninja]

What pissess me off more is when people say English accent. I may be wrong, but isn't English a language? Not an accent?

 

[Valkyira]

Isn't that like saying there is no such thing as an American accent? After all there is Texan, New York, Deep South etc. As a general catch-all term for accents stemming from the British Isles it is a reasonable phrase.

I agree with you to some extent. Although the Texan, New York and Deep South accents are dialects of the USA. Great Britain is actually three separate countries.

Well its better than european accent and that's a friggin continent. Yet people use it all the time. You are just taking it too close to heart. People just need to give what they heard a name without going too much into details.

I'll admit that I am over-reacting to this and for that, I apologise. It just bothers me how most people would label me 'British', rather than 'English'. And you're right about people saying the 'European accent', but surely at least some people from European countries are pissed off by that.

 

[wolf thing]

you have forgotten northan irland. but yeh your right. also each city has there own acsent and frasses

 

[llew]

im welsh and it irritates me because a scottish accent and welsh accent sound about as alike as bread and chocolate and the same goes for an english and welsh/english and scottish accent, they all sound completely different

 

[Continuity]

Its not even an English accent, take someone from the north, someone from the south and someone from central England and you have three distinct accents.
However there is a tonal difference between English accents and American accents, Americans tend to speak an octave higher with the end of words trailing up as opposed to English which is flatter and lower.

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

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Actually I'm going to call you out on that. Do you really know what I mean? I mean there is too many accents of America it would be hard to tell which one I mean, but you would think of the one accent that you assossciate with that. When I hear "American Accent" I picture a voice similar to Miss Teen South Carolina. You might think of that Rich Texan from the Simpsons, or Cletus, or anything. You might even think Brazillian because it's South America!

Calumon: This is why no-one should ever go into detail, about anything.

Generally, what people mean by "American" accent is what they see on TV. Shows like 30 Rock and Arrested Development are generic American accent. When I think "British" accent, I think of what I know from watching British movies like Hot Fuzz. I think of the Simon Pegg/Ricky Gervais. I know they're kind of different accents but that's just what I think of. If you want to get specific, you go specific (cockney, New England, etc.) but for a general accent, people often talk about what the media shows them if you get what I'm saying.

 

[Valkyira]

you have forgotten northan irland. but yeh your right. also each city has there own acsent and frasses

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but not Great Britain. Great Britain is just England, Wales and Scotland.

 

[Irridium]

um... There's a set of acents that come from those islands just like there is a set of accents coming from north america or asia, meaning that it is perfectly acceptable for people who don't hear them everyday to lump them all together.

It's not even a question of growing a thicker skin, it's of realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you so people won't know everything about your region.

Exactly this.

The U.S. is full of people with different accents. Mid-western accenst, New York accents, Rhode Island accents, hell, our own Moviebob occasionally lets loose with his Boston accent. Yet many people around the world lump them all together as an "american accent".

Do you know how annoying it would be to have to learn about the accents for every piece of the British isles? especially when each county/city/town/village seems to have their own unique accent (from what I've gathered people talking about on the internet at least).

 

[Sun Flash]

I'll just leave this here...

On a related note, I actually hate it when an American (for example) tells me when I have an English accent, when I don't, I'm Scottish and have a (relatively) noticable Glaswegian tint in my voice. I'd prefer to be called British than English, Nothing to do with racism(?) it's just more accurate because I am British but not English.

 

[wolf thing]

you have forgotten northan irland. but yeh your right. also each city has there own acsent and frasses

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but not Great Britain. Great Britain is just England, Wales and Scotland.

my misstake

 

[xdgt]

Isn't that like saying there is no such thing as an American accent? After all there is Texan, New York, Deep South etc. As a general catch-all term for accents stemming from the British Isles it is a reasonable phrase.

I agree with you to some extent. Although the Texan, New York and Deep South accents are dialects of the USA. Great Britain is actually three separate countries.

Well its better than european accent and that's a friggin continent. Yet people use it all the time. You are just taking it too close to heart. People just need to give what they heard a name without going too much into details.

I'll admit that I am over-reacting to this and for that, I apologise. It just bothers me how most people would label me 'British', rather than 'English'. And you're right about people saying the 'European accent', but surely at least some people from European countries are pissed off by that.

People like to refer to anything english as british because England is the dominant power in Great Britain but saying english could mean something that isn't associated with England but rather the english language and it makes it a bit unclear as to what you might mean by english accent. But I guess it is somewhat irritating that people use the more general term instead of the more fitting/detailed one.

 

[PurpleSky]

And knowing is half the battle.

Your avatar pleases me

OT: Yeah, I know how people feel about this. People seem to think that all South Africans speak like Wikus Van De Merwe, which is very annoying.

[sub] DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT'S FROM? I HAVE NO CLUE [/sub]

 

[duchaked]

Because it doesn't matter. You know what they're talking about, right?

That's not the point. The point is that they're incorrect. I'm pissed off about it, but some people are downright offended at other people's ignorance.

hey hey don't get upset or anything, it's a generalization for convenience, not purposeful ignorance

in America, there are distinctive accents for northerners and southerners
I guess the big difference between north and south is that they both stem from very different cultures
there are differences within each region's accents, mainly in the north since the southerners don't seem to notice or care lol, but I guess it'd be like how there are differences between a Liverpool and Yorkshire accent

another one I know from experience is an Asian accent, although this one's strange to generalize seeing how Asia's even HUGE compared to the U.S., so for this one I would just say that since pretty much all Asian languages stem from Chinese, the common theme is that native speakers would have the same difficulty with speaking the English r's and th's (and if you reallyy wanna get complicated, there's a Beijing/mainland China accent vs Taiwan accent...oh good grief)

(again, all this is from personal experience so no scientific research/studies shown)

personally, I just find it fascinating when someone from the UK describes an "American accent"
makes me wonder where I would lie on its variations
(I know I can effectively imitate the southern accent tho haha)

 

[reg42]

And knowing is half the battle.

Your avatar pleases me

OT: Yeah, I know how people feel about this. People seem to think that all South Africans speak like Wikus Van De Merwe, which is very annoying.

[sub] DO YOU KNOW WHERE IT'S FROM? I HAVE NO CLUE [/sub]

It's only from my favourite movie, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It's the scene where Hunter S. goes out to a bike race to write something for a magazine.