Poll: Do You Think British Accents Are More..."Sophisticated"?
- Thread starter DrunkPickle
- Start date
Umm just so you know there are 4 different British accents that would be the Welsh ,Irish ,Scottish and English accent and as a English man living in London I must say no I meet people on a regular basis who sound monumentally stupid. Yet I have to agree on some scale as people who speak "Queens English" which most if not all presenters of BBC shows use. Queens English is speaking English without the use of common slang that is how I talk and well people assume that I?m upper class the 1% if you will just from the way I talk but in fact I?m just about middle class. It does seem that mostly Americans find the British accent to be more intelligent I only say this because a girl from America fell for me and it was partly at the start due to my accent. (she says it made me stand out from the rest)DrunkPickle said:
More sophisticated than... what? Ultimately, judging sophistication by accent is going to boil down to stereotypes facing off against each other. It's a hard call between the stereotypical snobbish Frenchman and the stereotypical snobbish Englishman. Heck, the word 'sophisticated' itself carries stereotypical connotations.
What I find so interesting about British accents is something that the question you're posing manages to avoid - that there are SO MANY VARIATIONS OF IT. I mean, for a small region, there are so many distinct accents that it boggles the mind. Some day I'm going to have to look into the ethnohistorical explanation for that.
I've always been interested in accents, as I grew up with a Scottish (Edinburgh) accent that eventually naturalized into... well, whatever it is we have in Toronto (I'm reluctant to call it Canadian, as that calls to mind the stereotypical Canadian accent, which is... not what we have. At all.). Over the years, I've taken to mimicking interesting accents and idiosyncracies I've been exposed to, and I try to keep them polished. There's a few I've been meaning to get around to (South African, Australian, etc. - yes I know that's a generalization, but you have to start somewhere).
You know what would be funny? If everyone in Britain had the same 'sophisticated' accent and mannerisms that I imagine you're referring to. It would be hilariously surreal.
What I find so interesting about British accents is something that the question you're posing manages to avoid - that there are SO MANY VARIATIONS OF IT. I mean, for a small region, there are so many distinct accents that it boggles the mind. Some day I'm going to have to look into the ethnohistorical explanation for that.
I've always been interested in accents, as I grew up with a Scottish (Edinburgh) accent that eventually naturalized into... well, whatever it is we have in Toronto (I'm reluctant to call it Canadian, as that calls to mind the stereotypical Canadian accent, which is... not what we have. At all.). Over the years, I've taken to mimicking interesting accents and idiosyncracies I've been exposed to, and I try to keep them polished. There's a few I've been meaning to get around to (South African, Australian, etc. - yes I know that's a generalization, but you have to start somewhere).
You know what would be funny? If everyone in Britain had the same 'sophisticated' accent and mannerisms that I imagine you're referring to. It would be hilariously surreal.
You're wrong then and you've only ever heard a Home Counties accent. Listen to a Cockney, Geordie, West Country, Yorkshire or any other accent that isn't a Home Counties accent and you'll consider us inbred retards.
I was under the impression that pirates shouting 'yarr' was absolute bullshit. Pirates had no one accent and the only meaning I can think of for yarr is you, which makes it just seem stupid to be shouting you every so often in conversation.Rastien said:
The only thing I find hard about having that stereotypical British (English) accent, and I do, is that I seem to spend more time saying what I need too, and people get bored and talk over me and say it in less time by not pronouncing every syllabal like I do.
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First world problems I know, but when talking to Americans online it gets hard to say everything without being talked over, and somedays I just throw up my hands and just blurb it all out in a terrible American style mock up.
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First world problems I know, but when talking to Americans online it gets hard to say everything without being talked over, and somedays I just throw up my hands and just blurb it all out in a terrible American style mock up.
What how dare you sir that is slander and on the internet as well I will not stand for this outrage. The midland people are among the finest,intelligentist,handsome,brilliant most sophisticated people on the planet and are more better than anyone else so guess that showed you.ToTaL LoLiGe said:
(I may be joking here)If you cant guess I am from the Midlands originally generally though I find people near Brum think I am from Devon and people from Devon usually think I am from Brum (im from neither BTW), I would say my accent does not sound very sophisticated but I can put it on if I really wanted to I suppose.(I dont have a strong accent probably because I move around a fair bit)
There are a heck of a lot of different accents in Britain seriously if you walk for a day in one direction by the end of it odds are you will be hearing a different accent even if only slightly. Some are sophisticated some are bloody snobby and some are almost indecipherable.
I agree that "British" needs defining. There are a wide range of accents, many of which do not sound at all sophisticated. I am from the North of England and have quite a strong regional accent which I have spent years masking as I think it sounds horrible. It's a personal preference with accents. As a British person, I hear the range of British accents all the time and from some very unsophisticated people so, to me, it's just a noise...
What's that accent people with monocles talk in? That's the one I wanna talk in not the common tongue
I think that's more to do with how Americans approach even friendly or flirtatious interaction with a seemingly sociopathic aggression.Charli said:
Do people honestly not realize that there is more than one British accent? People with Cockney accents don't exactly sound sophisticated, for example.
Didn't think so, then moved to Canada and got swarmed by people who love my accent. Mine does come across as 'sophisticated' I suppose, but that also has something to do with my manner of speaking, which is generally quite formal. I'm not sure, say, my father, or half the people I went to school with, would exactly come across as intellectuals.
Ahh, this old chesnut again. The "sophisticated" English accent - referred to as the Queen's English (King's if we have a king on the throne and vice versa)is just one of a plethora of accents here. Every region has one or two at the very least and some regional accents vary between cities/places within the region. And yes, the Queen's English accent sounds sophisticated because it's meant to. It's a clean, clear accent in which all words are pronounced correctly. It's the accent of the middle/upper classes.
I'm british (living in Canada) and it has been commented that i sound sophisticated it really does depend on what part of england you're from. I'm from Suffolk (east anglia, two hours north of London) and I have a strong accent but not of a country living suffolk person (if you know the accent you probably know what I mean).
On topic:
Yes I think british accents do sound more sophisticated but obviously each country has its own negative end of the spectrum; chavs (from England) and rednecks (America), both of which sound truly awful. :/ (just my opinion)
it really does depend on what part of england you're from. I'm from Suffolk (east anglia, two hours north of London) and I have a strong accent but not of a country living suffolk person (if you know the accent you probably know what I mean).On topic:
Yes I think british accents do sound more sophisticated but obviously each country has its own negative end of the spectrum; chavs (from England) and rednecks (America), both of which sound truly awful. :/ (just my opinion)
Define British accents. There is hundreds of British accents.
If you're referring to the stereotypical hometown accent, then yes. That accent is sophisticated. Because it's only spoken by highly educated, upper class citizens. So I guess the very rule of that accent is that it must be spoken by a sophisticated person.
But a cockney accent... Well, The person speaking cockney is probably less sophisticated than the inner tubing of a bike tyre.
But I can't speak, I have a Swindonian accent. We can't pronounce our 'T's.
So it's all like "Wha' are you doing? Ge' off that sea' you ti'!" Not considered sophisticated at all.
But yeah, Hometown accent is sophisticated. Edinburgh accent is sophisticated. Lots of British accents are sophisticated.
If you're referring to the stereotypical hometown accent, then yes. That accent is sophisticated. Because it's only spoken by highly educated, upper class citizens. So I guess the very rule of that accent is that it must be spoken by a sophisticated person.
But a cockney accent... Well, The person speaking cockney is probably less sophisticated than the inner tubing of a bike tyre.
But I can't speak, I have a Swindonian accent. We can't pronounce our 'T's.
So it's all like "Wha' are you doing? Ge' off that sea' you ti'!" Not considered sophisticated at all.
But yeah, Hometown accent is sophisticated. Edinburgh accent is sophisticated. Lots of British accents are sophisticated.
Indeed, they have gravitas in a low voiced person such as Hopkins, Burton, Tom Jones, even Brydon but are curiously whining in higher pitched voices like Secombe.Zhukov said:
OP Too much variation in accent. For every Richard Griffith and Miriam Margolyes there a two dozen Scousers, Brummies, Lancastrians and Yorkies.