Poll: Do You Think British Accents Are More..."Sophisticated"?

[DrunkPickle]

In my opinion, they are. It seems to me, British people sound much more intelligent than Americans when speaking. What do you think?

Also, this isn't meant as an insult, I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way haha...

 

[Chased]

I agree. From an American perspective, I think it also has to do with the diction that is more common with British English than American English, since I (and maybe other Americans) are not accustomed to that way of speaking.

 

[JayElleBee]

If you're talking about the fancy English accent commonly found in London, then yes.

Personally, I have a Mackem accent. It doesn't sound sophisticated at all.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Define "British accent", though.

An Irish accent isn't the same as a Welsh accent, which isn't the same as a Scottish accent, and they aren't limited to one each.

England, with 50+ million people (though almost no land mass) has any number of accents.

Now, various upper class British accents tend to sound sophisticated to me, doesn't really matter what part of Britain.

 

[Eddie the head]

I think it's easy to be funny with a British accent. But that's about it.

 

[Nickolai77]

If you mean posh English accents commonly found down south then yeah i suppose. I'm kind of torn on wherever i like those accents or not, as on the one hand they can sound quite nice (on a girl) but can also sound slightly snobby.

North English btw, speak with a fairly neutral northern accent with hints of scouse.

 

[Kron_the_mad wants to be deleted]

Go to Chatham, listen to them talk for 5 minutes, weep for the nation and put the place to the torch.

 

[Freechoice]

Sophistication shares a strained border with pretentiousness.

For me, the British accent made Totalbiscuit sound like a pretty cool guy when I first listened to him.
Now it makes him sound like a douche that thinks he's above the people he's appointed himself to represent.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

The kids at school (I now live in Australia, am 17) think I'm sophisticated and I come from north London. I don't have an upper class accent, just you're average London accent and they think I'm sophisticated.

Girls in Australia think British accents are extremely attractive, but they haven't heard some of the terrible, hard to understand ones.

OT (enough about me): Not all British accents are sophisticated, but some such as the Upper class ones certainly to.

 

[omega 616]

In my opinion, they are. It seems to me, British people sound much more intelligent than Americans when speaking. What do you think?

Also, this isn't meant as an insult, I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way haha...

Sorry but unless you hear actual English you can't really say, in films and such that is never an English accent ... unless you want a 40's accent.

This is two of many English accents...


Yeah, really intelligent. The guy in red has a very light version of an accent called scouse, the accent I had, if you heard a thick scouse accent you would think the person had a speech problem.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Define "British accent", though.

An Irish accent isn't the same as a Welsh accent, which isn't the same as a Scottish accent, and they aren't limited to one each.

England, with 50+ million people (though almost no land mass) has any number of accents.

Now, various upper class British accents tend to sound sophisticated to me, doesn't really matter what part of Britain.

Ireland isn't even part of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is, which actually serves to highlight (or accent-uate) the differences there too.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Define "British accent", though.

An Irish accent isn't the same as a Welsh accent, which isn't the same as a Scottish accent, and they aren't limited to one each.

England, with 50+ million people (though almost no land mass) has any number of accents.

Now, various upper class British accents tend to sound sophisticated to me, doesn't really matter what part of Britain.

Ireland isn't even part of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is, which actually serves to highlight (or accent-uate) the differences there too.

True, meant Northern Ireland, though I don't know how seperate their accents are from Republic of Ireland.

Girls in Australia think British accents are extremely attractive, but they haven't heard some of the terrible, hard to understand ones.

Quite the generalisation there.

...

Oh, I can't take French accents seriously anymore. Especially women, I have to stop myself from asking them about their car insurance.

 

[9thRequiem]

Define "British accent", though.

An Irish accent isn't the same as a Welsh accent, which isn't the same as a Scottish accent, and they aren't limited to one each.

England, with 50+ million people (though almost no land mass) has any number of accents.

Now, various upper class British accents tend to sound sophisticated to me, doesn't really matter what part of Britain.

Ireland isn't even part of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is, which actually serves to highlight (or accent-uate) the differences there too.

Slight correction : Even Northern Ireland isn't part of Great Britain, which is made up of England, Scotland and Wales. It is, however, part of the United Kingdom. (Full country name is The United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Would have to echo the "Depends on exactly which British accent" sentiment. The stereotypical "English" accent; Yes. It's sadly in a huge minority though.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

True, meant Northern Ireland, though I don't know how seperate their accents are from Republic of Ireland.

I tend to find them slightly lower and a little more clipped than R.o.I. accents, though I'm probably hearing predominantly Belfast accents.

 

[Puddleknock]

Accents are amusing. When I'm in England many people laugh at how unsophisticated my accent is as I'm from the West Country and I sound like a farmer. However when I'm out of the UK I get comments about wonderful my accent is and non-British people would say it is sophisticated.

Which makes me think that the perception of the British accent as sophisticated could well be related to the stereotypical view of British people more than the actual accent they have. Once a voice is established as British it may be assumed to be sophisticated, even if that is really not the case.

 

[Dimitriov]

Depends on the British accent, and even more so on the American accent if you're going to compare them.

Texans always sound slightly retarded to me (no offense to y'all, but ya talk too slow).


Also there are some pretty uneducated, lower-class sounding British accents...


... strange thing though: American tourists have told me on several occasions that they thought I had either an Irish or a British accent... can't imagine why, I've lived on the West coast of Canada all my life. Relating to your post though, they seemed to think it sounded good.

 

[Mr Somewhere]

In my opinion, they are. It seems to me, British people sound much more intelligent than Americans when speaking. What do you think?

Also, this isn't meant as an insult, I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way haha...

There are many British accents and many of them are unpleasant. Though there are some rather nice accents, it's the same as any other country. I'm sure there are some states in America that have pleasant accents.