When someone from Britain speaks, Americans hear a "British accent"...

[Tom Anderson]

The cockney accent used to be pretty distinct, but these days it's
pretty much merged into the "Estuary English" accent common throughout
the South East of England.

I grew up in Colchester, in the heart of Essex, the homeland of Estuary
English; i was recently told by a couple of Spanish colleagues that i
sounded just another colleague who has a Cockney accent.

Although, in fact, my parents aren't Essexen, and i left the county seven
years ago, so my accent is weird hybrid of Estuary and RP, and the
colleague isn't a real Cockney - i think he's from east-north-eastern
London - but he does overcompensate pronounciation-wise, so i don't know
what it all means.

It's also complicated by the fact that Essex actually has two completely
different accents - the town accent, which is Estuary and is pretty much
derived from emigrants from East London, and the country accent, which is
indigenous, and very similar to the Suffolk and Norfolk accents. I grew up
in a village and went to school (and went drinking etc) in the nearby
town, so i was exposed to a different accents at different times of day!

Cockney was London's working class accent, pretty much, thought it was
frequently affected by members of the middle classes. Estuary English
has taken over its position as the working class accent these days,
but with a much wider regional distribution.

blimey guvnor you is well dahn on ar muvver tung, innit?

How off topic is this? Marvellous!

Spike Milligan did an excellent sketch in the style of a TV
pop-anthropology documentary visiting the strange and primitive Cockanee
people of East London. It was part of one of his Q series; i'm not sure
which, but if it was Q5, then it would have had a direct impact on the
Monty Python team, since that series basically beat them to the punch with
the format they'd planned to use, forcing them to switch to the
stream-of-consciousness style that became their trademark and which is the
basis for python's indentation-based block structure. Therefore, if it
hadn't been for the quirks of the Cockney accent, we'd all be using curly
brackets and semicolons. FACT.

tom

 

[Tom Anderson]

Yes, i find this insanely irritating.

Strangely enough there are Brits who pronounce "hotel" without an H at
the beginning. And even those who pronounce it with an H sometimes say
"an hotel" rather than "a hotel" because it used to be pronounced
starting with the vowel!

That's an interesting one. In most English accents, and i think in RP,
it's "a hotel"; dropping of the aitch and the accompanying shift to 'an',
as in "an 'otel" is a symptom of Estuary english. However, as you say,
there is some weird historical precedent for pronouncing the 'h' but also
using 'an', as in "an hotel", which is practiced only by the
self-consciously posh (including, often, newsreaders), and sounds
completely absurd.

Similarly, the Brits should note that "idea" does not end in an "r" and that
"Eleanor" does.

How about carrier?

tom

 

[Mark Lawrence]

Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication
and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to
represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an
"American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?

Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change the way we
speak? Are there certain words that sound particularly goofy? Please
help us with your advice on this awkward matter.

I believe that all Americans should learn at least one British accent,
so start with one in Welsh or Gaelic, once they've mastered this then
try English.

Kindest Regards.

Mark Lawrence.

p.s. this is why I love c.l.py.

 

[George Sakkis]

if it hadn't been for the quirks of the Cockney accent, we'd all be using curly
brackets and semicolons.

+1 QOTW

George

 

[Bill]

Frankly, I can't watch Shakespeare or movies like "the full monty" or
"trainspotting" because I can't understand a damn word they say. British talk
sounds like gibberish to me for the most part.

Have you had your hearing checked recently? Seriously. I have a hearing
defect and speakers from the UK give me by far the most difficulty.
People speaking English as a second language are more understandable.

 

[James Stroud]

Well--to take this as far OT as imaginable, yes I do have strange hearing
problems. I have difficulty recognizing speech of any kind with my right ear.
Amazing to think that this would be enhanced for British, but it would be
consistent with my experience, which seems similar to yours.

James

Have you had your hearing checked recently? Seriously. I have a hearing
defect and speakers from the UK give me by far the most difficulty.
People speaking English as a second language are more understandable.

--
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/

 

[Terry Hancock]

Is that a Red Green reference? Man, I didn't think this could get any
more off-topic.

python-needs-more-duct-tape'ly yours,

No silly, it's "duck typing", not duct taping!

 

[Chan.Fonseka]

T can be silent in England too ..

frui'
cricke'

or replaced with D in the US ..

budder
ledder

 

[Stephen Kellett]

T can be silent in England too ..

frui'
cricke'

Both of those words (fruit and cricket) have the letter T sounded.

Stephen (Nationality: English).

 

[Christos TZOTZIOY Georgiou]

Now, what forum would you recommend? Any help would be appreciated.

alt.usage.english?
alt.languages.english?
alt.english.usage?
uk.culture.language.english?

 

[Christos TZOTZIOY Georgiou]

You're in luck: Python 3000 will replace duck typing with duct taping.

I would bet that somewhere in the "Ingliy-spiking werld" both terms
sound exactly the same.

 

[Darkfalz]

Americans consider having a "British accent" a sign of sophistication
and high intelligence. Many companies hire salespersons from Britain to
represent their products,etc. Question: When the British hear an
"American accent," does it sound unsophisticated and dumb?

Be blunt. We Americans need to know. Should we try to change the way we
speak? Are there certain words that sound particularly goofy? Please
help us with your advice on this awkward matter.

I find this amusing even when they have the most cockney, ghetto
English accent, Americans still find it "sophisticated".

And yes, seppos sound like dumb fucks to the entire rest of the world.

 

[Grant Edwards]

I find this amusing even when they have the most cockney, ghetto
English accent, Americans still find it "sophisticated".

No they don't. Americans have pretty much the same stereotypes
about regional English accents that the average Brit does.

 

[Paul Boddie]

Some of those sonorous slow talkers from the South, and majestic bass
African-Americans like James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman, have far
more gravitas than any English accent can: to us, such people sound
monumental.

Yes, get James Earl Jones together with some people speaking in
(Standard) British English accents and the impression you get is
almost Imperial...

Paul

 

[Richie Hindle]

[Chan]

T can be silent in England too ..

frui'
cricke'
[Stephen]
Both of those words (fruit and cricket) have the letter T sounded.

Stephen (Nationality: English).

Not necessarily - in my native accent they'd be replaced with glottal stops.

Richie (Nationality: West Yorkshire

(Having a daughter has improved my speech - I'm much more careful about
enunciating my words properly so that she doesn't pick up my bad habits.)

 

[Nick Efford]

I'm an American who grew up watching plenty of BBC, and I run
into afew native Londoners whom I have hard time understanding.
I don't ever remember having troubly understanding people
outside the city.

But have you encountered regional dialects? - e.g. from the north
of the country, where you get both a strong accent, very different
from London speech, and the use of different words.

For example, folk in parts of the north-east will say "canny"
instead of "careful", "gannin" instead of "going", "bonny lass"
instead of "pretty girl". The question "Do you know what I mean?"
expressed phonetically in Geordie (one of the north-eastern dialects)
becomes "Ya knaa what ah mean, leik?"


Nick

 

[DaveM]

Frankly, I can't watch Shakespeare or movies like "the full monty" or
"trainspotting" because I can't understand a damn word they say. British talk
sounds like gibberish to me for the most part.

Not just you. It always amuses me in trips to the US that British voices
(outside of the movies) are often subtitled, while first-generation
Americans whose English is. um, limited, are not.

Try pretending the British accents are from naturalised US citizens. That
should do the trick.

DaveM

 

[Grant Edwards]

Not just you. It always amuses me in trips to the US that
British voices (outside of the movies) are often subtitled,
while first-generation Americans whose English is. um,
limited, are not.

What?!? I've never seen a British voice (inside or outside of
the movies) subtitled -- with the exception of one of a
nightclub scenes in one movie (I think it was Trainspotting)
where the dialog was inaudible because of the music.

While we're off this topic again topic, I was watching a BBC
series "Space Race" the other night. The British actors did a
passable job with the American accents in the scenes at Fort
Bliss in Texas, but the writers wrote British English lines for
them to speak in their American accents.

For example: In British English one uses a plural verb when the
subject consists of more than one person. Sports teams,
government departments, states, corporations etc. are
grammatically plural. In American, the verb agrees with the
word that is the subject, not how many people are denoted by
that word.

In sports (thats "sport" for you Brits):

American: Minnesota is behind 7-0. The Vikings are behind 7-0.
British: Minnesota are behind 7-0. The Vikings are behind 7-0.

In politics:

American: The war department has decided to cancel the program.
British: The war department have decided to cancel the program.

And so on...

 

[Mike Meyer]

What?!? I've never seen a British voice (inside or outside of
the movies) subtitled -- with the exception of one of a
nightclub scenes in one movie (I think it was Trainspotting)
where the dialog was inaudible because of the music.

Maybe they were dubbed? I know America International dubbed the first
version of "Mad Max" that they imported into the US. Then again,
American International is well-know for their quality.

<mike

 

[Grant Edwards]

Maybe they were dubbed?

I don't think so. Where exactly did you see all these
sub-titled British TV/movies?

In all the British movies and TV shows I've seen in the US, the
British actors sound the same as the do on British TV. I don't
recall ever going to a theater in England, but I've seen plenty
of TV in England. To me the dialog sounds the same as it does
in the US.

I know America International dubbed the first version of "Mad
Max" that they imported into the US. Then again, American
International is well-know for their quality.

That could be.