Any tips on talking with a northern english accent?

Question

Any tips on talking with a northern english accent?

Answer 1

The vowels are very Broad...

Try watching the movies Billy Elliot, The Full Monty... or look up clips of the British soap opera "Coronation Street" on YouTube.

Answer 2

I can't remember what Northern English sounds like, but the most common theatrical English accents seem to fall into:

- Cockney (think "My Fair Lady", or Michael Caine)

- BBC / high class English (see below).  A lot of the accents in the Harry Potter movies, especially the snooty ones, are like this.

- Sussex / Cornish -- thick, almost soupy, lots of weird phrases... think about the Redwall novels.

- Scottish -- a thing unto itself.  Think Craig Ferguson or Sean Connery.

- Irish -- also a thing unto itself.  Think Cranberries, and to a lesser degree, Bono.

Liverpool area -- think Beatles.

For BBC English

1.  Soft R's.  Any word with an "er" sound should have the "er" replaced with "eh".  First --> Fust.  There--> Theuh.

2.  Pronounce your consonants clearly.

3.  A lot of it is mannerisms.  Collective nouns are plural in British English, singular in American English.  The Brits sometimes say "one does such-and-such" rather than "you do such-and-such".  And so on.

I know I have probably sold short an entire country with this summary... sorry, I'm a bloody Yank and can't help myself.

Hope this helps.