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I think it sounds snobbish.
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Do you think English people have a superior attitude?
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Yes, I do.They think they are better b/c they speak proper.
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Do you mean normal English people.
Have you been to England and spoken to them.
There are lots of different accents most of which do not sound posh to us.
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Why do I get the feeling we've had this conversation before...
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I've been to england and their accent sound horrible to me, I prefer american accent,
maybe because I'm used to watching american movies.
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The only accent that can sound "snobbish" is the RP accent. It tends to give off
the feeling that one is educated and upper-class, but not always in a good way (I
think this depends on the speaker).
I'm certainly not an expert on the wide variety of British accents. I have no problem
with them. A wide variety of accents enriches the language.
It'd be interesting to hear some accent samples from some of the Britons on this
forum.
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Just as a follow-up.....what I said isn't true for all RP speakers. One of my professors
speaks with an RP accent (he said it's RP Manchester) and he's one of the nicest
guys I know (he's also very smart, so the accent just reinforces it).
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I find them enjoyable, mostly, some regionalisms are a bit annoying. I'm a mathematician,
and anyone who starts out the Greek alphabet "alpher, beater, gammer, ..." sets my
teeth on edge a bit.
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Why do all Yanks think that all British people know each other? The last time I was
stateside I was asked where I came from. When I told the bloke that I come from the
English Midlands, he asked me if I knew his brother who lives in London. This also
applies to accents. All Yanks appear to think that all English accents sound the
same. This is probably a good thing, though, because I have a Birmingham accent.
In England, the Birmingham accent is the most heavily stigmatised variant, but when
I go to the States I get treated like royalty. This proves that there is nothing
inherently ugly about the Brummie accent, by the way. In my experience, the Yanks
appear to think that anyone with an English accent is cultured, intelligent and well-mannered.
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I think british english is awesome and american accent absolutely sucks.. Bush's
accent is pittyful
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British accents sound like they make more of an effort to pronounce words than in
American accents. Speaking seems more precise. A lot of the vowels in British accents
are drawn out more than they are in American accents. I like British accents for
the most part, but I agree with Jacob in that the only thing that annoys me about
them is when they add "r's" to the ends of words that shouldn't have "r's." Glottal
stops can be slightly annoying as well when used excessively.
Bush's Texas drawl annoys me as well. As a resident of the midwestern US, I find
that southern and New York/Boston accents annoy me more than do British accents by
far.
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The one word where I always notice the "added r" on some British speakers is the
word "idea" (they often pronounce it "idear").
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You are all referring to the intrusive r. I think that it applies to every word
that ends with the schwa vowel. Non-rhotic (most standards) English introduces
an r at the end of a word if the one after it starts with a vowel. Because in non-rhotic
English they replace the "er" at the end of words with the "schwa" this is crept
into words that don't end with "er" but with the "schwa" itself. They claim it's
something to do with sounding "better" and I have to admit they have a point. I've
listened how Americans pronounce "I SAW IT". Now, im my opinion when Americans say
"SAW IT" it sound like one word sort of like SOIT. Non-rhotic forms reinforce that
they are two separate words by introducing an r so it sounds like "SORE IT". I agree
that is is strange but there is logic in madness sometimes.
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