How to speak with a "British" accent

[UnderseaLcpl]

One of my favorite subjects! I love accents, words and everything linguistic. One of my personal weird hobbies is to imitate foreign dialects, syntax, sentence structure, and any verbal peculiarities. I can do pretty much any accent in the world, but my American accent comes out by making the vowels sound a little flat when pronouncing a word I haven't heard spoken before.

British accents are among my favorites because of the tremendous variety within a comparitively small space. Cockney English is probably the most fun to do, but I also love many Scottish accents for the way they flow. And then you get to Nairn and you have to speak out of your nose

My all-time favorite is Caucus Russian. For some reason, just speaking it makes you feel like you have a glass of vodka, especially when you use the syntax in English. I also like German, but I don't know all the regional accents that well. I mostly just imitate German war vets on documentaries.

Oddly enough, the accents I have the most trouble with are American accents, probably because of my own slight drawl. I'll often slip in an exaggerated vowel or a ya'll or fixin' to when I try to emulate Yankee accents.

[Jimbuna]

The linguistic contest

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The linguistic contest

I'm not laughing just because that was funny, but also because I didn't even know Hugh Laurie was British. His accent on House is almost perfect.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

I'm not laughing just because that was funny, but also because I didn't even know Hugh Laurie was British. His accent on House is almost perfect.

He was born in Oxford in 1959 which makes him 'almost' English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

He was born in Oxford in 1959 which makes him 'almost' English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie

He's not the only thing that is "almost" English, my heavily accented friend Speaking of which, whatever happened with that goalie of yours? Did he turn out to actually be an American or what?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

I'm not laughing just because that was funny, but also because I didn't even know Hugh Laurie was British. His accent on House is almost perfect.

You've never seen Blackadder???





[edit] One of my all-time favorites:

[Egan]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

British accents are among my favorites because of the tremendous variety within a comparitively small space. Cockney English is probably the most fun to do, but I also love many Scottish accents for the way they flow. And then you get to Nairn and you have to speak out of your nose

The Nairn accent is, of course, a variant of the 'Inversnecky' (Inverness,) accent which is found in several areas of the highland, although it has been watered down a lot by Aberdonian over the years. Interestingly, The Inverness accent has been shown by several studies to be just about the most precise usage of English in Britain.

My favourite has always been the accent of the Scottish Northwest coast and the islands which has a very soft, lilting sing song quality. Elements of it can sound like a very soft Irish brogue.

As to the number of accents in Britain, I was always intrigued by the fact that in Aberdeen, a city of about 250 000 people, Aberdonians could tell what part of the city other Aberdonian's came from by the difference in their accents.

Accents are one of the things I love the most about Britain. The sheer number of them make the place feel much larger than it is.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Ever since I spent a few weeks with my cousins in London, I've always thought British accents were awesome. And Russian. And Jamaican.

[MGR1]

Originally Posted by Egan

As to the number of accents in Britain, I was always intrigued by the fact that in Aberdeen, a city of about 250 000 people, Aberdonians could tell what part of the city other Aberdonian's came from by the difference in their accents.

You can always tell if someone's fae Torry! There's a few others as well.

But you can aye tell a weegie when ye hear one - "There's been a murrderrr!"

Taggert and Rab C have a lot to answer for. Though I did find it funny that they put subtitles on the latter when they screened it south of the border!

Shetlanders have an interesting accent as well - fower, not four, for example.

Mike.

[Oberon]

This scene always makes me laugh.
Contains strong language and cockney rhyming slang.

[nikimcbee]

American tourists:

[nikimcbee]

Then there's Northerners.....
(Mr Buna in his younger years, when there was hair.)

[papa_smurf]

This shows a few of our native accents (done brilliantly by Jonathan pryce)

[Happy Times]

In Finland there are several dialects but almost everyone can speak Finnish as it is taught in school.
Sometimes it seems some Brits can speak only their dialect, am i wrong?

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

In Finland there are several dialects but almost everyone can speak Finnish as it is taught in school.
Sometimes it seems some Brits can speak only their dialect, am i wrong?

In the Netherlands, historically it was not hard to hear from what village someone was coming, let alone from which part of the country. These differences are slowly disappearing, but our provinces still have quite differing dialects.
Though I've grown up in Arnhem I never really got the hang of the "Èrnems" dialect (Èrnem (IPA: "ɛr-nəm") as opposed to Arnhem ("ɑːrn-hɛm")). Now that I live in Eindhoven however, I do slowly adopt a certain Brabandish tongue

"Hedde wel es Broabants geheurd?" instead of "Heb je wel eens Brabants gehoord?"