Is there no such thing as a british accent?

Question

I have always been interested in accents and now I'm working on the british accent. I have a british friend and she said that there is no such thing as a brtitish accent, it depends on which part of England are you living in. Can someone explain to me about this whole british accent thing? Thanks.

Answer 1

A British accent does exist for many people, I assume that it is a blanket statement to identify people from Britain. However accent depends upon which part of the UK a persons from up north, down south etc...The same applies outside UK in example USA accents differ from state to state. I often correct people when they say oh you have a British accent actually I dont. My accent is reflective of the UK city I am from. Be careful with this subject it ruffles feather.........LOL!!!

Answer 2

OK.... Is there a difference between a Brooklyn accent and a Texas accent? Yep.

Same applies in Britain.

Britain covers England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland.

Each of these has a distinctive regional accent and within that there are many variations. A Scot can tell the difference between a Lowlander and a Highlander, between a Glasgow and an Edinburgh accent.

Londoners can differentiate between East End and Sarf (sorry, South) of the River.

I've had an American tell me he can do an English accent and then produce a passable piece of Glaswegian patois.

Whatever you do though, please, please, please don't take any notice of d**k Van d**e in Mary Poppins. That was just plain dreadful.

Answer 3

There is no such thing as a 'British accent'.   There are a lot of different accents in Scotland, and a lot more in Wales.  There are dozens of regional accents in England, and several of the major cities have distinct accents too.

Answer 4

It is fairly easy to explain. You must remember that Britain is a much older country than the US. At the time, there were not many roads and most trade was done with neighboring villages and towns in a region. As a result, people in those regions started to use the same speech inflections. This lack of easy transportation caused the patchwork of different accents. You may have confused this with the "accent" used by BBC newsreaders, which is called (humorously) "BBC English," which is a riff on the "Received Pronunciation" (RP) British dialect/accent.

This is true for most countries, including the US. France has regional dialects, as do Germany and Italy (both of which formed out of smaller city-states). Look at the United States. Texas does not sound like New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Montana, or California. It doesn't even sound like neighboring Louisiana. Houston (where I live) people sound nothing like say, people in West Texas (or, as they pronounce it, "Wayyyst Teyksus").

Answer 5

there is no British accent

there are literally hundreds if not thousands of different accents within the UK ... near enough each town has there own distinct accent.

i speak with my Oldham/ Lancashire accent, then only 5 miles down the road in one direction, you have broad Manc accents and then a few miles in the other direction you start moving into the many different Yorkshire accents

Answer 6

Theres no such thing as a British accent theres not even a London accent theres many.

Here some of what I know

Scouser- Midlands http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-cPNiCST1I...

Jordey- North England  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oChizeNbVi...

Posh- Wealthy people http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=psg9tpKOgc...

London accents

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kg5WYYAI7i...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFvez82pU...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jlIUsVnoue...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zn4qvaTu8o...

Cockney- East London http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o3DspvH1qj...

Others

Brummy- Birmingham

Welsh- Wales

Scottish- Scotland

Northern Ireland

South West England

Theres hundreds

Answer 7

It's just like it is all over the world.  Different areas of the same country have their own dialects.  You'll find a different accent in Liverpool than you would in Manchester or in Aberdeen or in Dublin, etc.

I am an American and I know there is no "American" accent.  In Texas, there is a different accent than there is in New York or Los Angeles or my hometown, Chicago!

Answer 8

I definately think there is a distinctive British Accent, It just varies from county to county. And, as someone else said, dont go by Mary Poppins lol - time have changed since then. Maybe check out a few other british films, and if you compare them to any other English-Speaking country, there is a distinct diference.

=)