How to speak with a "British" accent

[Oberon]

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?

It depends, sometimes if you're born in one place in Britain and then move somewhere else then you pick up the new places dialect, for example my father was born in Scotland but has spent most of his life in South London and Kent, he does not have a Scottish accent nor does his brother.
I think a lot of it is the influence of the people around you, hearing them speak. It's all English after all (well...in most places) but it's just a different way of saying things.

[Buddahaid]

All I got from her lesson was that that accent was more just pronouncing the words like they're spelled.

[Platapus]

The United States of America and the Kingdom of Great Briton - Two great allies separated by a common language.

[Egan]

Originally Posted by MGR1

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.

Naw naw naw. Those wee guys are pure heroes an that, but. Ah dinnae ken whit yur talkin aboot, yuh mad rocket. You're a pure dafty fur thinking that, by the way; wee Taggart's gallus.

I love broad Glaswegian. It's one of the most descriptive dialects I've ever heard - totally on a par with full bore Italian regional dialects in terms of sheer fun to listen too.

I lived in Aberdeen for a couple of years and found in utterly impenetrable on more than a couple of occasions. Loons and Quines and thats about as far as I ever progressed.

It's funny, my natural accent is Badenoch/Strathspey-Inverness and it usually takes about 30 seconds for it to come flooding back whenever I visit my parents. As soon as I get back to Glasgow it evaporates and I'm back to Weegie again. I love accents. My Manchester, Geordie and Cockney are pretty good, and my northern Irish is ok but not quite there.

As for subtitles, I remember watching some episode of Eastenders years ago and was simply unable to understand what one of the characters said. If they need subtitles they should definitely be two way.

I like the Shetland accent too. Also always found the Orcadian to be very interesting.

[Cohaagen]

Originally Posted by 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.

This is also a pet subject of mine, so it's genuinely great to see someone from the US who is interested in the regional nuances. Most Americans can't tell the difference between an Irish and Scottish accent, as I once uncomfortably found out!

And then you get to Nairn and you have to speak out of your nose

Naaaeeiiirn - the fastest town in Scotland.

I consider myself pretty tuned-in to the differences in US accents from growing up on the Clyde near Site One at the Holy Loch, going to school where 1/3 of the class was American, hanging out at the Px, bowling alley, Dunkin' Donuts, etc., before I went to sea. Most British people have a fairly good ear for American accents due to a sort of involuntary training through movies, but I suspect there are many for whom the difference between a Massachusetts (or "Massive Chew Sets" as we used to call it) and New York accent is as indistinguishable as the disparity between the Liverpool and Manchester dialect is to Americans - obviously, a native British would be able to discern the difference in the latter instantly.

The interesting thing about American accents is how they tend to become more homogenous the further west you go. A lot of this has to do with the rapid expansion of the USA in the 19thC, and the lack of opportunity for isolated communities to develop (with certain exceptions: the sing-song Scandanavian/Canadian inflection you get in people from Minnesota and North Dakota, for example). By contrast, in some of the very old parts of the North East US, particularly the affluent ones, you get enclaves of very old communities who can immediately spot an outsider from their accent - even someone who grew up only 100 miles distant. Yet, there is no real difference between a San Francisco and San Diego accent (I've already thought of the lisping joke, so don't post it) despite being separated by about 500 or 600 or so miles - about the distance from Inverness to London.

And yes, people in Britain do use the "cu..." word far more. It is the verbal weapon we find closest to hand, and (uniquely) is not necessarily an insult. An American will usually say "faggot" or "mother****er" instead.