British vs American Accents

I have been studying the wide and varying local accents from both sides of the pond.

It still amazes me that in the UK one can travel just 12 miles or less and you will hear people speak with a totally different accent. While in the US I find that accents change more subtlety over a much larger area but hey, you may know different.

Anyhooo following my studies on the internet and via the usual video site suspect sites, I came accross some howlers in peoples perception of accents.

Some of you may know Tracy Goodwin bless her. She is a dialect coach of sorts and one of her roles on YouTube
is to teach Americans how to speak with a British Accent.

I'm sorry but she had me howling with laughter at some of her teachings
I have never heard any British person speak in the way she teaches some of her words.

God bless America but God help America if Tracy is your tutor.

Check out this video at around 50 seconds. And Catch that Dawg and a cup of CUffee while your at it!



Here's a reply from a Brit, to the video



I found another rather funny generalized video from a couple of American Girls that made me smile.
They cover a lot of British words in a very stereotypical way.

Check it out, it's a bit wacky but good fun. (have they been drinking?)




This last video for now is one of my favourite, simply by the reaction of the Young ladies.
This is superb!



Heres a great Comedy sketch that just makes me smile.



Heres British comedian, Eddie Izzard taking a pop at the way the British and American pronounciations vary

BEWARE SOME BAD LANGUAGE You only really need to see the first two minutes.




Check out little Pepper in this video short.





All posted just for fun and I'm sure there are plenty more out there....Enjoy

I'm American and I LOVE the British accent. When I was there in December/January at the airport. I LOVED how they spoke... It just sounds proper.

We get the Royal Navy here where I live and run into them at work all the time and well it's HOT. I like how they speak to ladies too, so different than the American way.


I have noticed that if I go inland here in FL the accent changes from one coast to the other. lol Its odd!


I love almost all accents but my tops would be Scottish, Australian, British, French, Italian and German Yes I like German accents, but I'm half German wish I could speak it though

Nice thread.

Oh gee, I got a flash back to being in America with one of those videos.
Everything I said got repeated to me.
I have a bit of an odd mix.
My family are geordie/southern and I was born in Scotland.
Still mess up with some words but I can say 'loch' haha.
I have a bit of a soft spot for the London accents and there's not much more amusing than hearing an excited/drunk Glaswegian!

Heres a set up sketch that I just love, check out the Interpreter at around 1.40 mins



It reminds me of my visit to Santa Barbara and an older guy kept on saying to me .."What!"..."What did you say?"
lol

I have to agree that I love the Scottish accent also and the way that it rolls off the tongue.

Heres a Scottish lass with a great accent replying to the earlier Tracy Goodwin video.

I remeber once watching a movie, not sure if it was the Matrix or a similar film, but in that there was a guy who spoke with a really frightening Southern US accent.

Does anyone have any idea what type of accent I'm talking about? I'm sure the guy was an agent or something like that but his accent sent chills down my spine.

I have to say in general I really love the Southern accents as they remind me of an old timer speaking

Here a few examples of the more frendly sounding southerners.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
I'm American and I LOVE the British accent. When I was there in December/January at the airport. I LOVED how they spoke... It just sounds proper.

We get the Royal Navy here where I live and run into them at work all the time and well it's HOT. I like how they speak to ladies too, so different than the American way.


I have noticed that if I go inland here in FL the accent changes from one coast to the other. lol Its odd!


I love almost all accents but my tops would be Scottish, Australian, British, French, Italian and German

Yes I like German accents, but I'm half German

wish I could speak it though

Nice thread.

Innit love.

There is no such thing as a british accent anymore, there are too many languages spoken here, most white english kids in london speak with a part jamaican accent.

reply to post by RS2011


I have to agree to a degree Many of the younger generation have adopted the jamaican twang.

Check out this young guy taking off some local British accents but Warning Bad Language Throughout!!!!

reply to post by studio500


Alot of Brits do have a heavy accent that makes it hard for people to understand them. Some of you guys almost sound Irish. Being that your from a small nation you are used to hearing the different accents. Here in the US which is about ten times the size of your nation people will go their whole lives without ever hearing the different accents we have here.

Originally posted by buster2010
reply to post by studio500

 

Alot of Brits do have a heavy accent that makes it hard for people to understand them. Some of you guys almost sound Irish. Being that your from a small nation you are used to hearing the different accents. Here in the US which is about ten times the size of your nation people will go their whole lives without ever hearing the different accents we have here.

I think you're on the money there Buster.
Whilst in San Francisco I met a great canadian Guy with a fantastic accent but when we first started talking he had no idea where I was from other than somewhere in Europe lol, I was so shocked.
Once we had chatted for a few hours he was able to understand me a lot better but I was amazed at first that he couldn't understand me too well and thought I may have even been Russian!

reply to post by studio500


there are 4 different accents found in Boston alone. Americans can really mangle a language. aside from accent it is also fun to research the odd phrase use found in different areas of America.

many people use habit phrases, for example, instead of saying 'Thank You': no problem, sure thing, you got it, etcetera. my Dad was big on observing this trait and taught himself to locate where people were from by their choice of phrases.

I admire students of the subtle; their sharp observations, in my opinion, are the mark of healthy curiosity and high intellect.

Originally posted by studio500
I have to say in general I really love the Southern accents as they remind me of an old timer speaking

Here a few examples of the more frendly sounding southerners.

Honey, that's not a southern accent that's a hillbilly / appalachian accent... THIS is a southern accent. Although most of us southerners have lost some of it, I have a good friend that talks just like this and lots of older relatives that still do too. I find that when I'm around these people my southern dialect starts coming out. The longer I'm around them, the more I sound like them.

I'm Scottish and live in NY. I am forever being mistaken for being Irish. Most Americans cant seem to tell the difference between the two accents although they sound very different to us.

This may be a factor of how the Irish way outnumber the Scots here, and every other Scot I meet here always seems to be from Glasgow (I'm not) I've also more than once been mistaken for being Australian! no idea what thats about !

reply to post by LargeFries


Four different accents in Boston alone!

Wow, now that shows my level of ingnorance, I had no idea you had such differences in a small geographical area. Most of the studies I have read only list a handful of Dialect accents accross the US.

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman

Originally posted by studio500
I have to say in general I really love the Southern accents as they remind me of an old timer speaking

Here a few examples of the more frendly sounding southerners.

Honey, that's not a southern accent

that's a hillbilly / appalachian accent... THIS is a southern accent. Although most of us southerners have lost some of it, I have a good friend that talks just like this and lots of older relatives that still do too.

edit on 3/9/2011 by Iamonlyhuman because: (no reason given)

She sounds awesome from my British perspective and kinda hot too lol

You know that's pretty close to the more frightening accent I mentioned earlier when spoken in a more severe male tone.

But that is an awesome twang as we say in the UK :0), I'm loving it!

Originally posted by angus1745
I'm Scottish and live in NY. I am forever being mistaken for being Irish. Most Americans cant seem to tell the difference between the two accents although they sound very different to us.

This may be a factor of how the Irish way outnumber the Scots here, and every other Scot I meet here always seems to be from Glasgow (I'm not) I've also more than once been mistaken for being Australian! no idea what thats about !

Hey Angus, Lucky man I wondered if you had adopted any American tones in your accent yet?
When you speak to people in the UK do they think you sound American?
Much would depend on how long you have lived there of course.

How would you say your accent is received in general?

reply to post by studio500


She seems (to me at least) to do the British accent pretty good too. What do you authentic British think? This is what i think of when I think of a British accent:

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


From my perspective her English accent is spot on albeit slightly upper class sounding compared to many local dialects.
If I hadn't heard her in the earlier video, I would have said she was British

She's a talented lady.

I'd say posh Edinburgh and Glaswegian are probably the most understandable of the Scots' accents. If you heard me you'd need a translator.

But I don't understand how anyone can mix up an Irish accent with Scots, sometimes I get Irish mixed up with American. That's how close they are.

If I ever get around to taking up movie making, something I fancy trying, I'm gonna have my actors use their own accents and I intend using subtitles instead of putting on fake voices.

Did sumb'dy menshin a drunk Glaswegian.