What do Yanks think of English English?

mjd   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 07:37 GMT
É bom que tu fales com os dois sotaques (americano e britânico). Se quiseres, podes escolher um, mas é bom para um estudante saber e conhecer os vários sotaques duma língua.
Templar   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 07:44 GMT
I agree! I'll get a microphone and i'll record a sample and send it to you, if you want to. Then you give your opinion on it. Do you have ICQ, MSN or anything like that?
mjd   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 07:45 GMT
Yeah, the Brazilian soap operas (telenovelas) have always been pretty popular in Portugal and have definitely influenced their culture. The Portuguese have finally started to make their own telenovelas too; I suppose they finally learned how to do it from the Brazilians, but last time I was there (3 years ago), there were still a lot of Brazilian ones on too....Eu também não gosto muito, mas são boas para aprender o calão e a fala quotidiana.

Besides hearing it spoken throughout my childhood, I've been studying the language seriously for 5 years now. Language is something that interests me, thus my presence here on good old Antimoon.com.
mjd   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 07:46 GMT
Sure, that'd be cool. I have MSN.
Templar   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 07:56 GMT
Surely! I also love languages and I've found this site today. It's quite interesting. I study computers science and work as a support analyst, but my other passion is definetely the language study. Feel free to add me in your MSN contact list:
fborgesferreira@hotmail.com
Clark   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 08:00 GMT
Sorry Templar, wasn't me who wrote that.

Alors, vous parelz portugais très bien, hein ? :-P

Portuguese is nice. It is so pleasant to read. Spanish is a bit rough around the edges for me, but I love Spanish just the same. All of the Romance languages are beautiful though, and to me, they are the ones that seem to flow the best when speaking. And it seems to me that they are very logical in the grammar.

Oh well, I shall be off now. I have had so much homework it is hard to believe I have had free time here :-P
mjd   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 08:19 GMT
I sent you an email, Templar.
Juan   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 10:25 GMT
a bit rough aroun the edges...what does that mean?
Nick   Tuesday, November 25, 2003, 21:23 GMT
Mike, do you mean RP by "upper class snobs accent"???? To me, BBC English sounds nice...
Back to Mike   Friday, November 28, 2003, 16:43 GMT
Nice one Mike. It is typical for others to think that we English are all posh snobs that do nothing but ride our horses in our country estates and drink tea in the afternoon. We have a wide range of accents that actually differ from one small town to the next. It's what i would call the working class. Normal English tend to drop a lot of the remaining letters on words. I come from Lancashire and definately do not speak the Queens english. I must admit thuogh i do actually like a lot of the American twangs. Not too keen on the local yocal one mind. You know the one, " life is like a boxx o' chaarclates" and all that.
Ash   Sunday, November 30, 2003, 06:57 GMT
I hear the differences in British accents. I couldn't tell you witch were witch specifically( like "hey I can tell your from Birghminham")but on movies and stuff I hear it.I love them all so far of what I've heard. I don't think it's snobbish though it can sound a bit sofisticated.It just sounds so pleasent!
But I think my favorite is probably London. I met a man from there and everytime he spoke made me fell like I was about to melt. It was pure heaven just to listen to hom speak!
zi   Sunday, November 30, 2003, 10:30 GMT

Within the national group, our prejudices tend to be very mixed and, because they operate mainly on un unconscious level, not easily recognisable. We can be native of great cities and still find a town dialect less pleasant than a country one. And yet, hearing prettiness and quaintness in a Dorset or Devon Twang, we can also despise it, because we associate it with rural stupidity or backwardness. The ugly tones of Manchester or Birmingham will, because of their great civic associations, be at the same time somehow admirable. The whole business of ugliness and beauty works strangely. A BBC announcer says 'pay day'; a cockney says 'pie die'. The former is thoughtj to be beatiful, the latter ugly, and yet the announce can use the cockney sounds in a statement like 'Eat the pie and you will die' without anybody's face turning sour.
In fact, terms like 'ugly' and 'beautiful' cannot really apply to languages at all. Poet scan make beatiful patterns out of words, but there are no standards we can use to formulate aesthetic judgements on the words themselves.

*Taken from Language Made Plain by Anthony Burgess
RSS.   Tuesday, December 02, 2003, 06:07 GMT
In term of accent, I think it's sexy. But in term of spelling I think it's difficult.
Jim   Tuesday, December 02, 2003, 07:19 GMT
"Norðurlandamálin eru danska, færeyska, finnska, grænlenska, íslenska, norska, samíska og sænska. Norrænu ríkin eru Danmörk, Finnland, Ísland, Noregur og Svíþjóð."
Alice   Wednesday, December 03, 2003, 05:42 GMT
I can certainly tell the difference between various Brittish accents, but that's because I do theatre and have had to learn how to speak in different brittish accents reasonably well. I also watch a lot of Brittish television. I find almost all non-american accents of native english speakers plesant, simply because its something out of the ordinary. However, I'm not as adept at identifying the differences between the accents I'm not as familiar with. I can't always tell the difference between Australian & New Zeland accents, or between Welsh & Scottish.

I imagine that most non-north american english speakers have difficulty distinguishing between standard american english & standard canadian english, & I've read lots of posts by people who think that all american accents are the same. I think the reason for this, (please correct me if I'm wrong), is that standard american english is spoken by a larger population of the US than standard brittish english is by the population of the UK. If one has a regional american accent in the US, it will be commented upon. For example, I live with three roomates, & of the four of us, only one has a regional accent and we, (playfully), tease her about it.

My perception of England is that this is less true. While certain cultural stereotypes go along with certain accents, there is very little "propper" brittish english being spoken outside of the royal family, actors & broadcastors. Would this be an incorrect assumption?