There's no such thing as a British accent!

[duchaked]

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.

haha I met a guy who was South African (my supervisor), and he had a cool accent
altho it might have been mixed with something from Asia too I think

 

[Sronpop]

When I hear an American person in Ireland, and he talks, regardless of whether I can place his accent to texas or new york etc. I still call his accent American. They can be grouped you see, its not even so much the pronunciation but they way people speak. I can place pretty much all accents in the uk and Ireland to their city or at least area, but regardless of that, they all speak a certain way, like mannerisms of the voice, they may pronounce things differently, but they can be grouped together due to the way they talk, hence the British accent.

Its not derogatory, its accurate to a degree, sure its 'incorrect' in some people eyes, but if I ever heard someone say British accent, correcting them is the last thing I would do, same for American accent.

 

[Valkyira]

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

(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)

I apologise if I gave out the impression that I was upset. I realise this goes on almost everywhere in the world. It just seems like it happens more with the 'British accent'. I already admitted I was over-reacting haha. I just felt like having a little rant. I'm pleased at how people have responded though.

 

[Skinny Razor]

I'm with you on the whole "not knowing the difference between British and English" thing, but I've known a few folks who get upset that I can't tell a Welsh inflection from, say, an Essex accent. I'm sure to a sheep all other sheep seem different but I haven't made a study of furrin talk.

By the way something, there's no such thing as 'proper" pronunciation, only common usage.

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.

What about Old English? Middle English? Or the Norman invasion? Or why it's called "England" in the first place? I was with you until this gem of misinformation.

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

There's no accent in the country you live in, only the minor breakoffs such as Liverpool, London, ect. There is no universal accent.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I agree completely, though I'd add that the "British Accent" isn't English, it's more from the Home Counties. As there are many many accents with England itself, such as the Suffolk Accent, Scouse Accent, Northerner Accent, etc..

 

[etherlance]

first off I belive that scotland has not separated from england yet but thats just me nitpicking

Why does this bother you anyway?
for me whenever someone makes mention of my english accent it's 99% of the time some foul mouthed american who thinks he is big because he noticed my accent and called me a ****** for it.

after many years it all becomes background noise to me to the point that i just phase out whenever it's mentioned.

instead of getting angry about it, instead just laugh to yourself that the idiot in question that said it to you doesn't even realise that he is talking bull and probably doesn't have the IQ required to even notice that Great Britain is made up of a few smaller countries.

 

[ActionDan]

I make sure that I am Welsh, not British. I like to make that apparent, because it's where I was born, and where I would like to die.

 

[Valkyira]

I'm with you on the whole "not knowing the difference between British and English" thing, but I've known a few folks who get upset that I can't tell a Welsh inflection from, say, an Essex accent. I'm sure to a sheep all other sheep seem different but I haven't made a study of furrin talk.

By the way something, there's no such thing as 'proper" pronunciation, only common usage.

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.

What about Old English? Middle English? Or the Norman invasion? Or why it's called "England" in the first place? I was with you until this gem of misinformation.

I stand corrected. Touche' sir/madame.

 

[Clueless Hero]

Because people are ignorant? It's not like they do it to purposely offend (welcome to America).

 

[Valkyira]

first off I belive that scotland has not separated from england yet but thats just me nitpicking

Why does this bother you anyway?
for me whenever someone makes mention of my english accent it's 99% of the time some foul mouthed american who thinks he is big because he noticed my accent and called me a ****** for it.

after many years it all becomes background noise to me to the point that i just phase out whenever it's mentioned.

instead of getting angry about it, instead just laugh to yourself that the idiot in question that said it to you doesn't even realise that he is talking bull and probably doesn't have the IQ required to even notice that Great Britain is made up of a few smaller countries.

I guess you're right. I'm not furious about it, but it does bother me.

 

[Valkyira]

I call it a fish and chips accent.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

My theory is I have a British accent cause I'm from Britain, an English accent cause I'm English, and a Saff-East London accent cause I'm from South-East London. I think they are just umbrella terms.

Technically I've got a Earth accent. Woo!

 

[Daverson]

Don't really give a shit. All the Americans I know have similar accents, and the hell if I could tell them apart... Same goes for French, German, Swedish and pretty much every country that has more than one accent...

Except Russians, I can tell apart their accents. I haven't worked that one out yet.

Now, if you were saying there's no such thing as a British accent because we invented the language and are therefore speaking it as it should be spoken, I could behind that motion.

 

[Valkyira]

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.

Like I said as a response to another person, Great Britain is just England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, just not Great Britain.

 

[duchaked]

When I hear an American person in Ireland, and he talks, regardless of whether I can place his accent to texas or new york etc. I still call his accent American. They can be grouped you see, its not even so much the pronunciation but they way people speak. I can place pretty much all accents in the uk and Ireland to their city or at least area, but regardless of that, they all speak a certain way, like mannerisms of the voice, they may pronounce things differently, but they can be grouped together due to the way they talk, hence the British accent.

Its not derogatory, its accurate to a degree, sure its 'incorrect' in some people eyes, but if I ever heard someone say British accent, correcting them is the last thing I would do, same for American accent.

yeah, that is definitely true, and I don't take it personally when someone generalizes it (I'm closer to having a Southern accent vs Northern)

but maybe this guy's more pissed because it's about national pride?
and it is more regional for the American accents (except for Texas lol)

 

[Phlakes]

After all there is Texan,

Ahem, no such thing as Texan either, it's Southern or Western. We Central/Eastern Texans don't like how we're generalized with those hillbilly, ranch-owning, oil-drilling West Texans.

 

[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]

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.

OOOOh I love that guy.I don't recall this scene.This just made my avatar 10 times better thanks.