British accent?

[Szymon Von Zalyn]

I have been hearing or seeing the term "British accent" for the last ten years or more. What does it mean? I am English, have a Hertfordshire accent and live in East Anglia in England that is part of Great Britain and consider myself British too so what does the term "British accent" mean?

Considering that accent is singular I can only think that someone thinks that everyone in GB speaks the same way. I can even learn to speak in a British accent if I want to according to one website.

There are more accents, dialects in GB than I could write about on a piece of A4 paper! Can anyone enlighten an Englishman speaking an English accent living in Great Britain what on Earth people are talking about? I seems to me that its all a load of rubbish!

[betahat]

First, using the word "rubbish" automatically gives you a British Accent.

The accent that people most frequently associate with the generic "British" accent is
(a)the typical BBC accent
(b)the Queen's accent (made to sound even more upper-crusty, lots of intonation)
(c)an old guy at a pub (a lot of "Well I say", mumbling through his beard)
(d)a chimney-sweep from a Charles Dickens novel or other 19th century character, usually a child ("Please sir, could I have some more?" More, you want more?). Made to sound especially cute.

Many regional accents are so incomprehensible to non-Brits that we don't even consider them English, let alone English with a "British accent." Esp. scotland, cockney rhyming slang, etc.

Two other keys to identifying a British accent-
*pronunciation of tomato
*"Oh, hello there" is pronounced "Air, hare lair there"

[milkman's baby]

The Queen's accent and I guess the BBC accent are generally what most Americans hear on TV and think is attractive. I don't though. And the Cockney accent and other regional accents sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. I think the Australian accent developed out of one of the regional accent other than Queen's, if I'm correct? May be why I can't stand Aussie voices either.

But I'm just a xenophobic listener, I'll admit. My own mother has an accent of course since she's from Asia, and I feel like I would get along with her better if she was American without a foreign accent. I also think my mom is the reason why I'm hostile with foreigners (of any kind) so much. I had a Spanish roommate in Prague and I got into an argument with her over something stupid once. Her nagging was 10x more annoying with the Latin accent. I know she can't help it, and her English was actually perfect in grammar and what not. But I couldn't get along with her every time she opened her mouth.

[palavore]

Aug 11, 2010 14:40:08 GMT -5 betahat said:

Two other keys to identifying a British accent-
*pronunciation of tomato
*"Oh, hello there" is pronounced "Air, hare lair there"

If you keep your aitches (h's) silent, you'd have a passable cockney accent.

"Wot 'ill you 'ave, sir?"

[nealtse]

My friend is half Chinese and has a heavy Yorkshire accent, and it's hilarious to listen to.

[FreckleFoot]

I'm British, but don't see the problem. Everyone refers to foreign accents in a general manner even if there are regional accents within that country. e.g. American accent when it is such a huge country there are big differences between one American accent and another. Same with French, German, Chinese, Brazilian, Indian, Russian accents and any other you can think of. I think it is a bit excessive to expect everyone in the rest of the world to know all the regional accents of Britain or any other country and to refer to those specifically as opposed to a more general accent.

[catgirl]

Hmmm. Im just 1/4 British. But many people comment that I have a strong British accent, especially americans and also other english speaking. They say I speak without a dialect and kind of "posh" like. So maybe thats what they are referring to? The posh accent?