Why do Americans like 'British' accent

[belamyi]

Actually one silly thing about the brits which comes across in their accents is people still paying attention to "class," which by the magic of group-think turns into "mustn't try to sound too posh!"

I don't think there's anything wrong with a British accent that comes to someone naturally, even a posh one! But when people change their own accent because it is naturally a little too close to the gentry, it makes my eyes roll. And apparently that's been the trend of the last 30 years. The proletariat can stuff it up their arses.

Signed: Angry Posh Man

 

[unloadonme]

Actually one silly thing about the brits which comes across in their accents is people still paying attention to "class," which by the magic of group-think turns into "mustn't try to sound too posh!"

I don't think there's anything wrong with a British accent that comes to someone naturally, even a posh one! But when people change their own accent because it is naturally a little too close to the gentry, it makes my eyes roll. And apparently that's been the trend of the last 30 years. The proletariat can stuff it up their arses.

There are two types of person who sometimes try to sound commoner than they are. The first are public school and Oxbridge educated Labour politicians. Tony Blair is a good example of that with his fake Estuary English which transforms into a mid-Atlantic version when he's been talking to too many Americans. The second are TV and Radio announcers who are part of the trend to dumb everything in this country down to the lowest common denominator.

I'm happy to say that nobody has ever accused me of trying to proletarianise (is that a word?) my accent.

 

[belamyi]

This whole mess about accent gaps, social classes, etc. is all English to me.
Maybe if the British Empire had never been so flourishing, and had been more like the semiabortive wreck that was the Spanish Empire, now it would not be still rotting even in the linguistic remains of the old social Establishment.

 

[Knucklehead]

Oh dear I am enjoying this discussion ahaha I had no idea people liked our "Accents"

Yep Mister,you guys have accents too..I can usually peg a Canadian trucker on the CB..There are certain words that give them away..

Unlike some British Isles accents that have me looking for sub titles,I've never had a hard time understanding you guys though..

See you at Tim Hortons!

 

[Knucklehead]

Like if the bold Kenneth had joined......?

Call me Kenny..''Kenneth The Bold'' just seems a little pushy..Besides,only my Grandma would call me that..

 

[belamyi]

Well, you are all native and your speech can remain fairly constant, and you can even afford playing with "takes" on others' accents, but for those who have English as a second language, one day you will be said that you have no foreign accent, that you are a native English-speaker, and the second day, the same perspicacious listenerS will consider that you... well...

 

[belamyi]

This trend in the UK is interesting, because we have rather the opposite trend here in the US—many people with regional accents try to cover up them, and endeavor to speak in General American English.

You can even go to special schools for it.

The acme of snobism goes hand-in-hand with the peaking of well-developed, urban Empires.

 

[Latimer]

There's a group of Italian guys at my gym whose accent when speaking Italian is gruff and gutteral (they all sound like Umberto Bossi at a Lega Nord rally), really harsh and ugly, and yet when speaking English, their Italian-accented English is quite pleasing. I don't understand this at all.

I was recently in Zurich and thought that the sound of English spoken there by the Schwitzerdeutch locals was very beautiful. To my American ear it sounded like a soft and mellifluous standard American with the slightest hint of cultivated Brit. I mentioned this to a German friend who was amused to hear my comment, saying that Germans think the German-speaking Swiss sound like ignorant provincials.

 

[JOHN B]

British accents are sexy.....and so are some of the British guys behind those accents......

 

[belamyi]

There's a group of Italian guys at my gym whose accent when speaking Italian is gruff and gutteral (they all sound like Umberto Bossi at a Lega Nord rally), really harsh and ugly, and yet when speaking English, their Italian-accented English is quite pleasing. I don't understand this at all.

I was recently in Zurich and thought that the sound of English spoken there by the Schwitzerdeutch locals was very beautiful. To my American ear it sounded like a soft and mellifluous standard American with the slightest hint of cultivated Brit. I mentioned this to a German friend who was amused to hear my comment, saying that Germans think the German-speaking Swiss sound like ignorant provincials.

Think of people's speech, specially in the cases you mentioned (Swiss German and French are proverbially awful mutations of the reak thing) not as languages but as personal bad habits: mother languages are learned as the straightforward, unreflective transmission and imitation of "speech impediments" and bad habits generation afer generation, while second languages can be more like skills consciously studied, mastered and even polished.

 

[EwanSF]

Call me Kenny..''Kenneth The Bold'' just seems a little pushy..Besides,only my Grandma would call me that..

Was talking about Kenneth Williams hen

 

[bripatrick]

For me, I think most accents in general are attractive because I'm a bit envious. Linguists can jump all over me about this, but I don't really have an accent. A strong accent, I mean. I don't think someone could pick up on where I'm from in the US like you could with someone from Texas, or New York, Philadelphia area, South Carolina, North Dakota/Minnesota (though I'm from there...I don't have that accent like the rest of my family has).

 

[ShihTzuTylenol]

because it sounds cool when we're out on the deck by the pool smoking cigarettes

"I say o'chap, is that a menthol you're puffing on, my good man?"

 

[belamyi]

Any opinion on this accent?

(My elder brother was a huge fan of anything musical related to Vangelis.)

 

[freefall]

My relationship with British accents is between love and hate. I take British accents eloquent for some reasons. Especially when men talks with them. But when it's very dense, it can be annoying because sometimes it doesn't sound English at all.

The quickest example is Robert Carlyle's Scottish accent. It's cute (like himself) but when he's really into it, I feel like listening to an alien speaking

 

[chrisw87]

I don't mind a posh british accent on someone, to be honest I adore black british guys with that accent, like Ainsley Harriot.

That or my straighter side goes a bit weaker at the knees for tall skinny blondes with that accent.

I can't listen to Italian people with heavy accents speaking english anymore after watching that damn episode of family guy! Bippidy-bappidy-boo!

 

[rjmrjm21]

I'm very curious to know why Americans seem to love or get turned on by the so called 'british' accent when hardly anybody in UK speaks the queens english really.Does northern british accents turn you on in the same way. And would anybody sleep with a brit if they you spoke at a nightclub or something because of an accent you like.Sorry for rambling just it's always had me curious with me being from Northern England.

In my opinion, it's the original English. I'm sure it has evolved but still close enough. There's an authenticity to it that is rather pleasant and smart. I also love New York and Southern accents. Southern being the absolute hottest on a man--I melt.

 

[belamyi]

I had this favorited to my youtube account when I discovered it in an old thread of this sort...
What does "you got a single line you can have two hooks" mean, particularly in the context of the ad?

 

[unloadonme]

I don't mind a posh british accent on someone ... like Ainsley Harriot.

You think Ainsley Harriot's posh. Nonsense! This is posh:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3G618-hxgA[/ame]