The British Accent - A lesson on ignorance.

[Berethond]

All right.
Now all you British people have to learn to tell the difference between Denver and Colorado Springs and Alamosa and Santa Fe and Albuqurque and Fresno and Bakersfield and Provo and Salt Lake City and Sacramento and San Francisco and Oakland and west & east Los Angeles and San Diego and Imperial Valley. To name a few American accents I've heard.

And then there are all the East Coast and Southern Accents.

And the northern accents, and the northeastern accents, Hawaiian accents, the Alaskan accents, all the Native American accents, and the Mid-west accents.

 

[Shynobee]

Its like this all over the world.

Take New York City for example. It has a very definitive accent from the rest of the US. There are even multiple accents within NYC itself. For those who aren't aware, NYC is divided up into 5 boroughs, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, and The Bronx.

Brooklyn, in my opinion has the most noticeable accent, but some people think that The Bronx's accent is pretty big as well.

Also, a short distance from New York City is the state of New Jersey, which also has it's own accent. And, a few hours drive from NYC is Boston, which also has a (to some) ridiculous accent.

 

[mokes310]

For the last time, it's not an accent, it's a dialect. Accents are completly different.

Well, you're right in a sense but also mistaken. We're talking about the sounds of things here, which is purely accent. Were we talking about vocabulary or grammar, you'd be perfectly correct to swoop in and correct...

"...An accent is the sound of one language imposed on another. For example, some Asian speakers have difficulty producing the 'r' and 'v' sounds in English. Dialects differ from accents in that they represent regional and cultural differences within the same language. What people call a southern accent is really a southern dialect..."

Let me know if you'd like more...

-Isa Engleberg and John Daly, Presentations in Everyday Life: Strategies for Effective Speaking (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), pp. 347-349; William O'Grady et al., Contemporary Linguistics, 5th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005) pp. 627, 635.

 

[Connosaurus Rex]

So you all the same gotcha, right. heheheehe.
I kid but I will not change. NEVER!

 

[Apostropartheid]

For the last time, it's not an accent, it's a dialect. Accents are completly different.

Well, you're right in a sense but also mistaken. We're talking about the sounds of things here, which is purely accent. Were we talking about vocabulary or grammar, you'd be perfectly correct to swoop in and correct...

"...An accent is the sound of one language imposed on another. For example, some Asian speakers have difficulty producing the 'r' and 'v' sounds in English. Dialects differ from accents in that they represent regional and cultural differences within the same language. What people call a southern accent is really a southern dialect..."

Let me know if you'd like more...

-Isa Engleberg and John Daly, Presentations in Everyday Life: Strategies for Effective Speaking (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), pp. 347-349; William O'Grady et al., Contemporary Linguistics, 5th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005) pp. 627, 635.

This is an interesting way of looking at it, but what I have learnt differs. I've been taught that one's accent is the manner of pronunciation whilst dialect is vocabulary, grammar, all those odd quirks which encompass one's regional identity, including accent. Therefore, accent is in a dialect, but it's a subset of a much wider and beautiful range of differences.

 

[Apostropartheid]

Also @this heated argument about countries:
The United Kingdom is a sovereign state and may be called a country as it is a geographical region. It is on the ISO list of countries.
The UK is made up of three former states and the northern provinces of Ireland. These don't appear on the ISO list and are not formally recognized as subdivisions of the UK. These are also frequently referred to as countries by the British Government itself, and have discrete capitals. So one could argue both ways, but there's really no point to it.

 

[ealaiontoir]

I've come late to this lengthy debate so I don't think I'll contribute, but feel the need to correct one thing on America.
The so-called "gun amendment" is the 2nd- not the 4th, which relates to search and seizure.

 

[Jake the Snake]

As an American (where we seriously have a ridiculous amount of accents here) i can kind of get what you're trying to accomplish here. If you took someone from Minnesota and someone from say Brooklyn New York you'd immediately see the difference. Minnesotans have long Os and People from brooklyn have that whole italian-esc thing going on. Yet even if you had a business man from northern california and some hick from louisianna, you'd still identify it as an American Accent. So...am i going to keep calling accents from the UK british or english...yeah. Sorry. Its just easier.

And what about Scottish, Irish or Welsh people?

Are they all English?

1) Ireland is a different country

and Yes i still consider Scottish and Welsh to be their own accents but again their like states in the U.S. different but still considered a part of the big conglomerated country. If you're British or whatever and you heard me talk you'd think: oh! you have an American accent! not: oh! you have a Minnesotan accent!

 

[acturisme]

USA = 50 States = LOTS of accents. Just listen to some of our recent Presidents. You've a Chicago accent (which is not an Illinois accent BTW), several Texas examples, one from Arkansas. Carter was from Georgia I think. Most American media try to sound mid-westernish. Which is a shortcut for saying a St. Louis, Missouri accent.

 

[Cmwissy]

Who the hell dug up this dinosaur?


Shouldn't this be thread necro'ing?


Dude; we're both probably suspended/banned for this.

1) Ireland is a different country

Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales are all different countries within the United Kingdom which itself is somewhat a country ; We came to this conclusion weeks ago.

and Yes i still consider Scottish and Welsh to be their own accents but again their like states in the U.S.

No; They are separate countries within the sovereign state that is the United Kingdom.

If you're British or whatever and you heard me talk you'd think: oh! you have an American accent! not: oh! you have a Minnesotan accent!

Correct.

Just as if I heard a Canadian I would say 'Oh, that's a Canadian accent'

Just if I heard a Scotsman I would say 'Oh, that's a Scottish accent'



For quick citation of these facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland - a country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland - a country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales - a country
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England - a country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_United_Kingdom - A sovereign state/Island country

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

I usually talk in the classic "cockney" accent when trying to sound British, as it is what I think of. Where is that from?

 

[Yuri Huitron]

I live near a Blockbuster and it's at the other side of a big avenue, at the other side, they use other accent !