There's no such thing as a British accent!

[unoleian]

What 99.99999% of every respondent in this thread is referring to is a dialect. An "accent" is the sound of an individuals primary language imposed upon another: i.e., a native Madarin-Chinese speaker having trouble with the letter "L" in the word really/re-RRy, etc. So, when someone says that they have a "British accent" or "Texan accent", they are really saying that they have a specific DIALECT.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but doesn't dialect also encompass colloquialisms as well as pronunciation?
Nearest example I can think of is the word "hon." You talk to someone from, say, Texas or Georgia, and they'll use the word "hon" in the most impersonal of manners. Go north, and the only time you'll hear that word may be in reference to a close relation, if at all. That's dialect.

Accent is hearing a person from Maine call a car a "caaaah," while a person from somewhere in Texas would likely say "cawr." But that's not encompassing dialect.

Splitting hairs? Probably, and maybe I'm horribly mistaken, but I did read several definitions of 'dialect' before approaching this to make certain I wasn't making a complete fool of myself. Far as I can tell, I'm fairly certain I'm on the right track here.

 

[Kayner100]

what i really hate is when americans cant tell the difference between an australian accent and a british one,
a british accent does not exist, britain is made up of many accents and to know them all you would have to live in britain for some time, for instance i cant tell the difference between a western american accent or an eastern american accent, hell i dont know if there is a difference, also theres a lot of racism built into the idea of the british accent you know the "tea and crumpets" accent when in fact i dont know a single person who talks like that,
basically the british accent that other countries assume everyone talks like is fictional

 

[wickermole]

l

 

[Valkyira]

Isn't that like saying there is no such thing as an American accent? After all there is Texan, New York, Deep South etc. As a general catch-all term for accents stemming from the British Isles it is a reasonable phrase.

I agree with you to some extent. Although the Texan, New York and Deep South accents are dialects of the USA. Great Britain is actually three separate countries.

no its four different kingdoms

Incorrect. Look Great Britain up on Wikipedia. It's England, Wales and Scotland.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

Don't know the difference between the accents so I just use brittish to generalize.

 

[Valkyira]

Great Britain is an island made up of three countries, England, Scotland and Wales. Each of these countries has their own accent, not to mention countless more dialects depending on the area of the country.
.

you forgot about N. Ireland, Irish accent is also under "British".
Sorry, i just had to say something.

For the third time today. Northern Ireland is NOT part of Great Britain. It is part of the United Kingdom.

 

[pigmypython]

Doesn't matter to me really...for some reason anytime on (American) T.V. they show Canadians as having this mildly retarded accent that a few people sort of have in some of the more remote parts of Canada. Either that or they are very very French lol. For the record we also have the newfies out east and if your Canadian you know for a fact that their accent is unmistakable lol.

 

[ethaninja]

What pissess me off more is when people say English accent. I may be wrong, but isn't English a language? Not an accent?

lolwut?? Italian is a language is it impossible to have an Italian accent?

Touche Lucky for me I put up the whole, "I may be wrong" thing. Just in case That way I wouldn't feel like a complete tool

 

[Kayner100]

i think the reason british people, including myself, care about their accent is because it represents their heritage and since britain has been a country settled and invaded by many different cultures over the last 3000 years, heritage means a lot, while in america heritage means which boat your family took to get there.
Probably the reason americans care less as well

 

[dex-dex]

um... There's a set of acents that come from those islands just like there is a set of accents coming from north america or asia, meaning that it is perfectly acceptable for people who don't hear them everyday to lump them all together.

It's not even a question of growing a thicker skin, it's of realizing that the world doesn't revolve around you so people won't know everything about your region.

Exactly this.

The U.S. is full of people with different accents. Mid-western accenst, New York accents, Rhode Island accents, hell, our own Moviebob occasionally lets loose with his Boston accent. Yet many people around the world lump them all together as an "american accent".

Do you know how annoying it would be to have to learn about the accents for every piece of the British isles? especially when each county/city/town/village seems to have their own unique accent (from what I've gathered people talking about on the internet at least).

i absolutely agree with you

saying it is a British accent it doing a generalization. obviously that is not correct to some people. most of my friends are not familiar with certain dialects like cockney and that jazz, but It is a way for people who are not familiar with certain dialects of Great Britian to be on board and know what a certain person is talking about.
even though i hate it when foreigners say that i have an american accent since i don;t want to be lumped in with that group.

EDIT; although in my mind i think the purest form of a north american accent is a person from Vancouver for some reason.

 

[Akalistos]

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. Each of these countries has their own accent, not to mention countless more dialects depending on the area of the country.

It seems like when people say a 'British accent' they are referring to the English accent. So why not just say the English accent?

It's like saying someone has a South/North American accent or an Asian accent. It just doesn't make sense.

I know making this thread isn't going to change anything in the grand scale of things, but I just hope that some users here on the Escapist realise that there is no such thing as a British accent.

So for discussion value, who here is like me, bothered by people saying 'British accent'? And who here doesn't give a shit?

Thanks for putting up with my rant.

If there isn't a british accent, it will come and i'll be ready for it.

 

[Kayner100]

Great Britain is an island made up of three countries, England, Scotland and Wales. Each of these countries has their own accent, not to mention countless more dialects depending on the area of the country.
.

you forgot about N. Ireland, Irish accent is also under "British".
Sorry, i just had to say something.

For the third time today. Northern Ireland is NOT part of Great Britain. It is part of the United Kingdom.

as an ulster guy i resent that
technically you are right since britain or great britain is the largest isle of the united kingdom
but when people say britain they mean the united kingdom which northern ireland is part of

 

[Valkyira]

Great Britain is an island made up of three countries, England, Scotland and Wales. Each of these countries has their own accent, not to mention countless more dialects depending on the area of the country.
.

you forgot about N. Ireland, Irish accent is also under "British".
Sorry, i just had to say something.

For the third time today. Northern Ireland is NOT part of Great Britain. It is part of the United Kingdom.

as an ulster guy i resent that
technically you are right since britain or great britain is the largest isle of the united kingdom
but when people say britain they mean the united kingdom which northern ireland is part of

You said it yourself. 'Technically' I'm right. Hardly anyone knows the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. But when you say that Northern Ireland is British, I have to correct you because you are wrong. I know most people mean the United Kingdom, but they say Britain. So I'm well within my right to correct them.

 

[Plurralbles]

Yeah, it irritates me. It's ignorance, really. I just sort of screams "I can't be bothered to learn about your country". The thing I REALLY don't get is, when someone says they're Welsh they are refered to as Welsh. When someone says they're Scottish, they are refered to as Scottish. But when you're English, you're British. It just makes no sense.

Plus, a worrying amount of people think England is Britain, oppose to England being in Britain.

...meaning that it is perfectly acceptable for people who don't hear them everyday to lump them all together.

Pff. Apparently you don't know any Americans.

pfft, it's not like I live here or anything >_>

 

[mastermarty]

I think it might be because people tend to see england as british...

 

[Kayner100]

Great Britain is an island made up of three countries, England, Scotland and Wales. Each of these countries has their own accent, not to mention countless more dialects depending on the area of the country.
.

you forgot about N. Ireland, Irish accent is also under "British".
Sorry, i just had to say something.

For the third time today. Northern Ireland is NOT part of Great Britain. It is part of the United Kingdom.

as an ulster guy i resent that
technically you are right since britain or great britain is the largest isle of the united kingdom
but when people say britain they mean the united kingdom which northern ireland is part of

You said it yourself. 'Technically' I'm right. Hardly anyone knows the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain. But when you say that Northern Ireland is British, I have to correct you because you are wrong. I know most people mean the United Kingdom, but they say Britain. So I'm well within my right to correct them.

i said technically because of the definitions of wikipedia, in fact people from northern ireland are british since they are all british citizens and have british passports, same with the falklands

 

[wordsmith]

I always specify that I am English, not just British so yes it could get on my nerves slightly.

I, on the other hand, am British, not English. The Channel Islands are not part of England.

That's interesting actually. What do people from the Channel Islands refer to themselves as?

Depends who you're talking to. To other people from Jersey, I'm a Westie (west of the island). To other islanders, I'm a Bean or a Crapaud (a reference to Jersey Beancrock, a local dish, and a type of toad that isn't found anywhere else. The relationship between us and the "Donkeys" (Guernsey locals) is... sibling rivalry probably describes it best). To the English I'm an Islander, and to the wider world I'm British.

British is still what it says on my passport though.

Okay, this has been bothering me for years. There is no such thing as a British accent!

The terms "British" and "English" have been used pretty much interchangeably for years now. I don't think it's really worth getting upset over.

It's enough to get knocked out in a bar over here -.- We'll put up with the tourists invading once a year, drinking our alcohol, blocking up roads with hire cars and beaches with fat arses, but cross the line into thinking that we're English... That's a whole other story. Same thing with the French, so it's nothing personal.

 

[R4ptur3]

It does get on my nerves quite a bit. I mean, i get annoyed at the fact that apparently all english people are either posh or come from london, but it's a stereotype so i don't really mind, every country has one. The thing that frustrates me is, like you said, is that Britain consists of four different countries so it really should be an english accent or scottish accent etc. It's not the same aurgument as the 'USA accent' because Britain is four different countries, not one country. You could go into the fact that there are so many different dialects and accents, but if you just used the four main ones, which would be English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh, it would at least be ok.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Well, according to someone's accent, as a foreigner, I can tell that someone is from the British isles, and usually what specific country within the isles, but I can't tell local dialects that distinctly just because I don't know them, and sometimes can't tell entirely which country. While it isn't the most specific, I sometimes refer to it as a British accent because I feel its better to be very general and correct than specific and incorrect.

Sort of like, there's no United States accent. People from Texas and New York might have trouble understanding each other if they both had pronounced accents of their area. However, I don't expect people that aren't from the country to know where each of our accents comes from, so saying a US or even, more generally, just American accent makes sense.

 

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

I usually hear people referring to an "Asian" accent, which boggles the mind. What do you mean? Indian? Chinese? Turkish? "British" accent isn't as bad, but it's still pretty bad.