Differentiating between English Accents is a very complex thing. We may be a very small country but the range of accents is very wide. And that's just in England, I am not including Scottish, Welsh and Irish accents in this because they too have an equal number of differences within them.
Now, I have not infrequently heard the term 'English' used to mean all residents of the UK and I would like to take this opportunity to point out that this is wrong. We are 4 different countries combined to make a United Kingdom, hence 'UK'. The residents of Scotland are Scottish, the residents of Wales are Welsh, the residents of Ireland are Irish and the residents of England are English. It is of course complicated by the fact that the Irish cannot get along and so therefore have divided themselves in two, increasing the total number of countries to 5.
However the number of countries in the UK remains at 4 due to ROI being an independent country (or Republic). But though they are technically two different countries, they are all Irish. If you want to use an all-encompassing term for UKians, please use 'British' rather then 'English' as that is quite offensive to the Scots, Irish and Welsh.
Anyway, enough of that educational point. I am purely talking about English accents as I am from England. I am from the a county called West Sussex in the south of England (see map)
The main differences between English accents can be roughly divided between North and South. Though there is also a distinct West Country accent. However, due to people moving about the country and breeding in varying places it is not that simple to class one's accent. Since I am from Sussex, one would tend to assume that I have a Sussex accent, but though there is a Sussex accent it has become almost extinct over the last 100 years or so.
Although I have lived in Sussex for all 23 years of my life, neither of my parents are from Sussex. My father lived in or just outside London for most of his life and my mother lived in Luton which is... somewhere... but my fathers father was actually from Lancashire which is much further north. He ran away from home when he was 15ish and never went back. He never told us anything about his life before he arrived in London and we would still know nothing if it weren't for the wonders of myself and of the internet. But that's another story.
I am sure most of you have heard Kate Winslet talk, if you haven't, Google her. I suppose my accent is somewhere along those lines although not quite so posh. Though it can be, depending on who I am around. It can also slip slightly towards chavyness. I am finding it very difficult to find celebrities everyone will have heard of that are either very similar to my accent or the complete opposite, so I have resorted to recording my own voice despite my aversion to it. So here is me reading a small amount of Winnie the Pooh. Seeing as they are the most awesomest of childrens books.
I would have filmed me reading it, but then I really would have had a panic attack, and I don't have a microphone in order just to record a sound clip. So it is a video of the page I am reading from. And there is background music because part of my fear stems from someone hearing me recording my voice and asking why I am talking to myself. Why, I don't know, since I actually do frequently and quite happily talk to myself.
Enjoy!
Can you tell the difference between certain accents? What are the hardest accents to understand?
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Comments (33)
I think British accent is a real turn on. I especially like the English, Scot and Irish accents.
I have a yorkshire accent. I really dislike it... I hope one day if I live in a different area or country completely I can get rid of it!
In case anyone was wondering, there is supposed to be a video attached to this. So if you want to actually see that video you will have to go and find my original post here: http://happyworld-ofharibo.xanga.com/700505077/my-english-accent/
Those with Gaelic accents are difficult to understand. Manchester accent is amazing, Irish accent is amusing and English is so posh.
@happyworld_ofharibo@xanga - Thanks for the info. Will check it.
I live in England (but am a New Zealander) and omg the accents can be so hard to understand sometimes! They don't get me either though, so its okay.
West Midlands accents suck. -__- Luckily, I haven't got it, which is a rather big shock. One of the 6th Former's at school asked me if I was even from the school, because my accent isn't "from there". My accent is too posh for the WM, sadly. :/
I think, as an English person, we've got some kind of ability that lets us roughly know where someone's from in the Country. Quite a useful skill.
Northern accents are hardest to understand...than cockney isnt that easily decipherable. :)
It annoys me when people say "Britain" to mean just England, not sure why.
But anyway, I find it easy to understand most accents from around the UK, fast speaking Irish and Scots are a bit hard though.
I like all English accents because they all sound cool. :)
I figured there were probably many different accents in the UK, but I haven't travelled there with the exception of London for a few days when I was 15. I didn't pay horribly much attention to the accents though. I could understand them just fine.
You or someone who responded said something about it being neat that you can tell where someone is from based on their accent. It's similar in the states. There are different accents based on where you are from. Southern accents are pretty distinct, though you may not be able to pinpoint an exact state. Chicagoan's have a strong accent as well. Though, with a lot of mixing going on, it does get difficult to really tell who is from where. I live in the south, but I have a pretty boring "accent". I'm termed "no accent". Most don't guess Texas right off the bat if asked where they think I'm from...
*shrugs*
I wish I had a cool English accent! I just have a plain American accent! I think Scottish accents can be soo hard to understand sometimes, though they're so cool to listen to, if you're not actually trying to understand them :p
You speak quite standard English. I would consider your English as standard English. I have heard Americans who do not speak American English. American English is easy to comprehend. They speak English with a heavy accent of a certain place of America (Boston? I don't know). I have also heard Australians speak English with a heavy Australian accent. People of New Zealand speak with yet another accent. I am Chinese. I of course speak with a Chinese accent. But even among Chinese accents there are differences. My accent is that of Cantonese. People in Shanghai speak English with a Shanghai accent. So do people in Beijing.
I love accents!
in the acting classroom, we differentiate british accents between RP (which is the really proper, royal-ish speech), estuary (common speech), and cockney (lower class lilt). but when you're studying for a specific part, you can narrow down the different english accents to the county of the town. it's crazy.
but the same effect occurs in all countries? the U.S. has tons of accents. And Chinese people from one town can't understand some one from another town, even if they're both speaking mandarin.
Thanks for posting this! The same sort of thing occurs in the US, but I don't think many of us are aware that it's true in the UK, as well. Linguistics are really interesting to me--it's funny that the smallest of countries sometimes have different accents (or even dialects) in different areas. Even when I visited the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, I learned from the tour guide that the southern part of the island had an accent/dialect that was different from the central part of the island that was different from the northern part of the island...
In regards to the US, there are many accents--which makes sense when you consider how spread out the country is. Certain areas around New York City have a very strong accent (such as the Bronx, Long Island, and Staten Island). The city of Boston is also well known for its unique way of speaking, which can be explained stereotypically by this sentence: "Park the car in Harvard Yard" would be pronounced as "Pahk da cah in Hahvid Yahd." Or at least that's how my husband claims it is, haha. Chicago also has a bit of an accent--you can see sketches of "Super Fans" from Saturday Night Live on YouTube for an idea. I'm from the Chicago suburbs, but since I did not live in the actual city, I never picked it up. Other accents or inflections of speaking include the drawl (prevalent in the Southern states), the twang (found in other Southern states), and even people in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas have an accent due to the Norwegian heritage in the area.
I now live in North Carolina and have yet to pick up their Southern drawl. It makes for some interesting moments, that's for sure.
hahahaha n__n;;;;; i um, i really can't understand uk accents or any australian accents.. i have a really hard time trying to figure out what you guys are trying to say. ya'll talk too fast. i'm an american born and raised here too O____o lol. i think there's a "standard" american accent that's just like.... some people from CA say dude and you guys more, texans say ya'll, stuff like that, but for the most part, if they dont have an EXTREME accent they all talk the same. most suburban kids don't have any accent.. as the above poster mentioned :)
I was aware there were various British accents and dialects, but I couldn't tell which accents were from where if my life depended on it. I can't even identify by location all the accents existing in North America. Even in my own country I sometimes need people to repeat things :O
I have very Standard American English :)
@IrishCream41@xanga - Chi-town suburbs are for the win! :D
@kumudgens@xanga - That's kind of funny, haha. When I meet people from Beijing they add "-er" to the end of so many words, and in general their words are just more round. Taiwanese have tended to string their words together in recent years, and speak without enunciating syllables. My own accent is a bit of Taiwanese, but a lot slower because of having grown up in the American Midwest :)
People need to talk slower in general, because the beauty of language is in the vowels, at least in my opinion :)
@Unfettered_Mind@xanga - yessss Chicago Accent!
Many people in the UK call all American accents just American, so it's kind of the same deal.
@happyworld_ofharibo@xanga - Your accent is so cute! Since I lived with my southern relatives for a bit, I picked up my southern bumpkin accent again ugghh. I hate it since it sticks out like a sore thumb here and everyone assumes I just emerged from a time capsule that was buried during the American Civil War.
The only accents I've had a hard time really understanding have been Filipino.
Also, Haribo gummy bears are awesome.
I'm from West Yorkshire in England and when I went travelling I met people from the US, Canada, Austrailia, New Zealand Holland and other people from England and the only people who understood me when I said my name was Katie-Rae were some lads from Leicestershire, people from further south in England didn't understand me! Most people regardless of where in the world they were from thought I was called Carteh-Rae or Kayhta-Rae!
Also, Non-English people (and some English people for that matter) had trouble with my dialect, like I say nowt instead of nothing, and owt, instead of anything and tah instead of thanks (do you want owt from shop? Nah nowt ta) or I say mek instead of make (mek us a brew will ya?- Please will you make me a hot drink?)
To signify that someone is in your family or a close friend people say our before the persons name like Our James is int army now (int-in the)
By the end of my trip I was talking like Hugh Grant just so I could get understood!!