British Stereotypes

WritersUnleashed wrote:

canislupis wrote:Wait... there's a Tennessee accent? And compared to you Brits and considering the size of our country, I think you people have too many. Seriously--there are only.... five American accents, at least that I can think of.

Lets see:
Californian
Western
Texan
Jersey
New Yorkian
Eastern
Northern
Mexican


Ive got 8

Haha, which one? I'm assuming you mean the boroughs of NY + Long Island, not the entire state. We've got the Bronx accent, the Brooklyn accent, the Long Island accent (I hate this one. Coffee is not pronounced Cawfeeee, thanks.) and then you got the accents of Queens. There's the Corona/Hispanic accent, the Flushing/Chinese accent, the Astoria/Greek accents (Unless your on Steinway, then it's the Arab accent), the Bayside/Kids trying to be ghetto accent, the Long Island City accent/Kids who actually are ghetto accent, the Jackson Heights/Bangali accent and finally the East Elmhurst/WE BE SLUMMIN' accent.

*wipes sweat off forehead* It's amazing I understand anyone around here.

Skins wrote:I can do a killer Tennessee accent though... :P

A Welsh person doing a Tennessee accent? I really want to hear that. xD

I think Britain is definitely more diverse than America accent-wise, but that might just be because I'm more used to hearing American accents. When I think of a "British accent" I think of a BBC announcer (though I know for a fact that American radio announcers have a dialect of their own). My family is kind of wishy-washy when it comes to accents--we pick up a lot of phrases and intonations from things we listen to/watch, so while I've got a pretty standard American accent, I've gotten comments asking me if I have British parents based on how I speak. I also use "y'all" sometimes even though people where I live don't say that, just because I think it's so useful. I mean, English needs a second-person plural, doesn't it?

And because this is mildly related and somewhat interesting: my little brother can sound scarily like Sarah Palin when he feels like making people gag.

Are you kidding? There are tons more American accents than that! For instance, the Midwest, in general, is pretty funny. And then each of the southern states has a different twang. Then, there's ebonics, which is pretty much uniquely American -- and in that category there are tooooooooons of different accents. Plus, the Hispanics have a different accent, and on and on it goes. So, we don't just have regional accents but ethnic accents that are uniquely American. It's awesome.

With that said, British people mostly sound the same to me. Which is really quite sad. In "The King's Speech" I didn't recognize that the Aussie had an Aussie accent until I had it explained to me. Which is highly pathetic, I know. But when I saw the video, I was like, "How are they picking up on these different accents? It's all the same to me!"

xD Same Snoink. THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME.

Then again, all American accents sound the same to me. If I'm honest, as far as I'm aware, there are only, like, two different American accents. I know there are loads and loads, but my ears can't notice the differences at all. When it comes to Britons, I can easily notice the differences in the accents.

I guess it's because I'm used to hearing so many different British accents because I, well, live in Britain... I've never been around Americans for long enough to notice the differences in their accents. I can only pick things up from the TV and such.

The problem is, I'm British but I don't have an identifiable accent. My parents are from the South but I grew around Manchester. So basically to everyone from Manchester I sound a bit posher than them but to everyone from the South I sound like I'm from the North. I use the same dialect as Mancunians but I don't really sound like them. When I meet new people, nobody can really classify me. I've heard pretty much everything.

You're not the only one, Jack. I grew up in Middlesbrough which has a pretty strong accent, and yet people always though that I came from out of town :V when I came to uni nobody could guess where I was from -- I heard all sorts of suggestions though. I get told that I sound Canadian quite often, but then my Dad's been told that too so who knows.

When I went to London though, everybody could tell that I was from the North, haha.

jasminebells wrote:

WritersUnleashed wrote:

canislupis wrote:Wait... there's a Tennessee accent? And compared to you Brits and considering the size of our country, I think you people have too many. Seriously--there are only.... five American accents, at least that I can think of.

Lets see:
Californian
Western
Texan
Jersey
New Yorkian
Eastern
Northern
Mexican


Ive got 8

Haha, which one? I'm assuming you mean the boroughs of NY + Long Island, not the entire state. We've got the Bronx accent, the Brooklyn accent, the Long Island accent (I hate this one. Coffee is not pronounced Cawfeeee, thanks.) and then you got the accents of Queens. There's the Corona/Hispanic accent, the Flushing/Chinese accent, the Astoria/Greek accents (Unless your on Steinway, then it's the Arab accent), the Bayside/Kids trying to be ghetto accent, the Long Island City accent/Kids who actually are ghetto accent, the Jackson Heights/Bangali accent and finally the East Elmhurst/WE BE SLUMMIN' accent.

*wipes sweat off forehead* It's amazing I understand anyone around here.

I thought this was interesting, so I looked up a dialect map:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... 20&bih=414


Wow, that was a loooong link. XD

That map is awesome, Islup! When my brother was taking a course on Englishes of the world, there was one like that for Britain, where you could click on different places on the map and hear clips of different accents. Lemme see if I can find it...

Here it is. Some of the recordings aren't working for my computer right now, but hopefully it will work for some of you.

Skins wrote:Then again, all American accents sound the same to me. If I'm honest, as far as I'm aware, there are only, like, two different American accents. I know there are loads and loads, but my ears can't notice the differences at all. When it comes to Britons, I can easily notice the differences in the accents.

Ditto that. I don't know much about American accents, I pretty much only know the Texan, Hillbilly and well, average American accent you hear in films. But there are loads in Britain, not to mention the current hybrid one people speak where I live. I heard it called Jafaikan once; which is apparently Jamaican, American, a British accent I can't remember, and some others.

Bwahaha. People actually think that? Eh. No probs, I suppose.

...When I think 'person from the UK' I think...Gene Hunt and his personal punching bag, Sam (Life on Mars), Tony Blair (Wire in the Blood), The Dark is Rising series, "The Demon's Lexicon", this lady with a very queen-like accent on a bus at Disney, "Traitor's Game", Blade, and the fact no one can decide what sort of accent I have. "British? No, wait! Australian? No. Southern American? Chicagoan?" .

Oh well.

P.S. Gasp!! You speak like Gene Hunt! Do you own a bronze Cortina and wear a camelhair coat? No? ...Pity, that.

Man, I'm from America and I hardly know the accent differences. Also, since joining YWS, I've gotten rid of a lot of European stereotypes. Not that I can tell differences between different parts of England/UK or anything. I'm just not another stupid American anymore! Woot!

The only stereotype I can think of is that they all think America is stupid. But that's probably reasonable.

Snoink wrote:Plus, the Hispanics have a different accent, and on and on it goes. So, we don't just have regional accents but ethnic accents that are uniquely American. It's awesome.

Very well put Snoink. Yes, this is true. But I really think identifying accents in every which category mostly depends on the accents you're most familiar with. I can decipher a whole load of different Hispanic-American accents. My cousins for instance talk very differently. It's very Hispanic in ways, but they're completely born/raised/bred in the US, and the majority don't even speak Spanish. So I wonder where it came from. Over here accents breed. I think it truly takes on a life of it's own.

America and the US in general is a land of imigrants. I mean there are southern accents, Canadian accents, New Jersey, New York, (highly Italian) Hawaiian, etc. We are probably some of the most distinguishable people around as far as the way we speak goes. It's kind of blaring obvious once you put your foot in on the culture that we're not just all "the same". I almost laugh because I wonder, what are we? At least Britts can classify themselves in a general category then go into dialect. US is everything migrated into one. That makes for endless different ways of speaking. 0_o

I suddenly feel out of breath returning to this topic. It's a big debate I suppose though, either way anyone looks at it. But oh well. Britts talk cool and American's are enigmas. There, simple.

Would you say that you talk like the kids from Misfits, then?

Misfits is a pretty good example actually because there's a variation of accents there. You've got a few different kinds of English accents as well as an Irish one. I don't personally sound like any of them because I'm Welsh (On the other hand, the guy who plays Simon is actually Welsh in real life), but yeah, I'd say Misfits is a good example.