Do you wish you had a different accent?

lut   Sunday, July 06, 2003, 22:06 GMT
Long live the BBC!
Also broadcasted on SW Radios all around the world!
Jay   Monday, July 07, 2003, 02:48 GMT

Well, I'm from the south side/south suburbs of Chicago, and would have never realized that I do, indeed, speak differently than the "standard" Northern U.S. accent had I never moved away. But even people who grew up in south Chicago bristle at the suggestion that they have an accent, even though when I listen to them I (now) hear "Godda go ov'r to d'bar on 'hunnert 'n thirdy-fift streed t'watch d'Bearsssssss game" or some such.
But, lest I sound uppity, this is how I talk in casual conversations as well.

I've tried to get rid of it, and the best I can do is to carefully monitor my speech in formal situations, such as when talking to professors or speaking up in class.
queen   Monday, July 07, 2003, 13:42 GMT
I love the accent of Tony Blaire. It's got the class of its own.
Miguel   Monday, July 07, 2003, 17:10 GMT
To me it is the one I hate most.
shana   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 20:16 GMT
I like Tony Blair's one too.
Ryan to athena   Friday, July 11, 2003, 01:08 GMT
English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles by Arthur Hughes and Peter Trudgill gives you a basic sense of the major accents in Great Britain. It by no means lists all the accents, though. For instance, people in Leeds and Bradford say they can tell each other's accents apart, but to everyone else, it just sounds like two Yorkshire accents. I don't know about any book that details the "origins" of accents. You might need to look up some scholarly studies for this one.

I don't think most British hate Americans at all. They do like to laugh at us a little, though. I hear more English people saying negative things about their neighbors the Welsh than I do about Americans.

Ryan
Guofei Ma   Friday, July 11, 2003, 01:11 GMT
In general, the British don't hate Americans. Never were two nations as chummy as the UK and US now are. Of course, there are always people of a certain nationality who hate people of another nationality.
Guofei Ma   Friday, July 11, 2003, 01:12 GMT
Jay wrote that some people bristle at the suggestion that they have an accent. Why do so few people know what the word "accent" actually means?