American English

I definitely don't think Aussies and New Yorkers say it the same way. New Yorkers kind of dipthongize it so it turns into "aw-uff."

<<southern accent isn't pleasant at all to me. sounds very uneducated >>>

What does that have to do with how pleasant sounding it is?

nothing. i just expressed how I feel about it

In case it helps this most interesting discussion we think readers should bear in mind that in this context "Received" means "Standard". RP may be called SP.

This brings us, of course, back to the matter of deciding what is RP/SP English.

The customary definition is "the English spoken and written by the best-educated".

You are now on your own. Write a list of names of your role-models.

The probability is that as you improve your own education in the English Language you will find you will make additions (and some deletions, perhaps!) to your original list.

Hollywood (responsible for the entire output of USA TV and cinema entertainment) seems to like British accents for actors playing cunning villains and insufferable snobs. Why?

We are told that "top line business magnates" in the USA like to have their telephone answered on their behalf by a secretary with what is called "a British accent".
Is this true?

HES

HES: My guess is that Hollywood uses actors with posh, upper class ENGLISH accents to play the bad guys, yeah? Actors with SCOTTISH accents are never snobs...more likely to be playing heroes and patriots like our great Scottish hero William Wallace (called Braveheart) who fought for Scotland against the invading barbaric and cruel English in the 14th century and was eventually murdered by them.

I've no idea about the secretary bit....maybe an American will answer that one. That sounds like some sort of a touch of "class" to me which may be some sort of snobbery anyway. I can understand it if they have secretaries with cool Edinburgh accents though! :-)

I've also heard the bit about it being desirable to have the phone answered by a British-accented secretary. It has to do with Americans being enchanted by seemingly posh-sounding British accents.

This is the same reason Hollywood/TV likes to make them villans (at least in superficial dramas) -- as the good looking, well-to-do, sophisticated Englishman is hardly the one to have committed the crime. Ah, but he did. What a surprise ending.

Some TV comes out of NYC; not much these days though.

Love the royal we. Good device.

Did you know that when, during her Premiership) Margaret Thatcher's daughter gave birth, she announced to the world: "WE are a grandmother!" Sometimes that woman had an identity crisis and believed SHE was the Queen and not Lizzie.