British vs. American accents

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it would be a more euphonic world, if everybody spoke in dulcet scotch burr like evelyn glennie.

Let me ask a question.
What does an English speaker sound like when he learns another language?

A Frenchman speaking English sounds "romantic".
A German or Russian sounds commanding.
A Swedish, or Indian or Chinese accent makes the speaker sound like a fool even when he isn't.

So when we English speakers learn a foreign language how do we sound to the natives?

I know, but it's really hard to explain if the other person doesn't really have any experience speaking another language around that language's natives. I tend to have a very slight accent when speaking the languages I know other than English (German and Japanese.) They usually think of us as just having an "American" accent, or a "British/Irish/Scottish/I don't even care anymore" accent. In my case, traces of an American accent.

By the way, Swedish accents are awesome.



There are ones that are more universally accepted as more "proper" or "correct" than others. I doubt anyone here has never thought that an English/American accent made the person sound kind of stupid...

Indeed. Or parochial.

I would agree.

I find american accents quite irritating for the most part.

The Alabama/Georgia accent is like scratching nails on a blackboard for me.
Texan accent becomes annoying after a few sentences. Great for one liners though. (its how the Bushs got themselves in office anyways lol).

Virginian accent is perhaps the only one I tend to find pleasing to the ear.

New York/Jersey accents is like German accent... you feel the hostility XD


British/Irish accents are awesome no matter what. Scottish accent in men are terrible. Never heard a woman with a Scottish accent before though so I couldn't say. We need Emlion to post a few words of wisdom someday

I don't like American or British accents.

You've rather contradicted yourself there.

Plus, Scotland is in Britain. See my avatar. It's roughly the northernmost third of the island of Great Britain and is also the most sparsely populated UK constituent country.

How could someone miss that?

We actually have a wide variety of accents in Scotland.I'd concede that the Glasgow accent can sound harsh (even when someone is being friendly ! ) however the Edinburgh and Inverness accents,much softer and lilting,are often voted among the most likeable in Britain. Evelyn Glennie,whose voice been praised in this thread,hails from the Aberdeen area,not far from Inverness in the accent atlas.

The rest of Britain also has a large variety of accents.When speaking of Ireland,there is quite a distinction between a Dublin accent,which I find very mellifluous and soothing,compared to Belfast/northern Irish,which can compete with Glasgow for sounding deceptively harsh if you're not accustomed to it.

I'm a Londoner and I love American accents, always have for some reason.

I quite like Scottish accents too, though mostly in music Mancunian accents are nice as well.

WHERE… ARE… ARE… BAAGS?! !! !!

you know what i mean

Scottish accents for the win

I am from Aberdeen but would love a Glaswegian accent.

there are so many 100s of them
and
i have had at least 15 in my life

i admit that some of them do bug me
but
i am aware that this is a chauvinistic foible

people learn to speak the way others speak around them
usually not by choice

for me to judge someone by their accent
must be incorrect
even if the sound of it irks me

i keep trying to lose judgement
keep trying to see clarity

-mh

Aht's pure dead brilliant so'iz ! Gaun yersel' pal