5 ms·

Ask HN: Is there a pan-English accent?

On networks like Univision, anchors like to speak neutral Spanish, or otherwise "pan-Latino" is this possible in English? I started wondering this after reading the profile on Jorge Ramos in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/05/the-man-who-wouldnt-sit-down

bootload 11y ago
"His English is fluent, if strongly accented. His Spanish, particularly on-air, is carefully neutral—pan-Latino, not noticeably Mexican." Yes. From a migrant country like Australia, if you flick on SBS TV News, you get the same phenomena. Fluent English, accented but neutral foreign tongue. You can hear the English equivalent on BBC World News with the announcers speaking RP. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation
notahacker 11y ago
As a Brit, I'd say "General American" would be regarded by most English speakers as the most neutral accent, being the most widely spoken and most influential in media. Us Brits might have conceived the idea of "received pronunciation" as a location-free English accent and exported it via international schools (though South Africa is the only place I can think of with non-trivial numbers of people whose accent is defined more by RP-norms than local norms), but in practice, very few people speak anything resembling the traditional RP, an accent most Britons would see as glaringly indicative of some combination of the speaker's private-schooling, age and pretentiousness. The southern (or subtly southern-ised) English accents that are most predominant in British run media are quite starkly different from traditional "RP" or "Oxford English" in terms of pronunciation and perceived social prestige.
AnimalMuppet 11y ago
I would say there are two, and they are not too far apart: BBC English and Hollywood/US network news English. (That is, I would say that notahacker and bootload are both right.)
kasey_junk 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American Is not pan english in that it is mostly attached to the US. But given the vast scope of the US media penetration its probably as close as you get.
networked 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent was once considered that but its usage declined after WWII.
- mcnamaratw 11y ago
  Yeah, there are a lot of elderly folks in NYC who use something like the Mid-Atlantic accent. Today it sounds made up, as if they learned English from old movies.
  - osullivj 11y ago
    I imagine it sounds impossibly plummy to younger Americans, much like the 1930's aristo RP English spoken by, for instance, Deborah Devonshire (see youtube interview) sounds to younger British people. I like the sound of that mid-Atlantic though. It was always a pleasure to hear Gore Vidal interviewed - so articulate, insightful and witty, all the time in those rolling candences...
    - mcnamaratw 11y ago
      Right, Gore Vidal is a perfect example of the elderly-NYC mid-Atlantic accent. Except for me it works better on TV than sitting across a coffee table. It just sounds fake to me--some part of my brain can't believe that these people really grew up talking like that.
zhte415 11y ago
"I have a very standard accent" said a new colleague, as I and also new Australian and New England colleagues looked on in disbelief at these overly extrudely nasal West Coast tones. "At least Keanu Reeves sounds cool" I thought to myself. There is no pan-English accent. There are plenty of projects to document this. Perhaps try something like Forvo: Type your word, and hear the different pronunciation via via speakers from different places in the world: http://forvo.com/languages/en/ http://forvo.com/languages/en/ for example the word 'English' http://forvo.com/word/english/#en http://forvo.com/word/english/#en
drmarkrbaker 11y ago
It's worth noting that the concept of "all accents being equally valid" is not true in informational terms. Google "vowel degeneration" if you want to know why some people speak in what appears to be an over formal, over enunciated accent. Rather than showing off education or age, often they are simply distinguishing key sounds in the language.
osullivj 11y ago
Any Americans care to comment on JFK's accent? Was it mid-Atlantic? Or New Englandish?

bootload 11y ago

"His English is fluent, if strongly accented. His Spanish, particularly on-air, is carefully neutral—pan-Latino, not noticeably Mexican." Yes. From a migrant country like Australia, if you flick on SBS TV News, you get the same phenomena. Fluent English, accented but neutral foreign tongue. You can hear the English equivalent on BBC World News with the announcers speaking RP. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

notahacker 11y ago

As a Brit, I'd say "General American" would be regarded by most English speakers as the most neutral accent, being the most widely spoken and most influential in media. Us Brits might have conceived the idea of "received pronunciation" as a location-free English accent and exported it via international schools (though South Africa is the only place I can think of with non-trivial numbers of people whose accent is defined more by RP-norms than local norms), but in practice, very few people speak anything resembling the traditional RP, an accent most Britons would see as glaringly indicative of some combination of the speaker's private-schooling, age and pretentiousness. The southern (or subtly southern-ised) English accents that are most predominant in British run media are quite starkly different from traditional "RP" or "Oxford English" in terms of pronunciation and perceived social prestige.

AnimalMuppet 11y ago

I would say there are two, and they are not too far apart: BBC English and Hollywood/US network news English. (That is, I would say that notahacker and bootload are both right.)

kasey_junk 11y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American Is not pan english in that it is mostly attached to the US. But given the vast scope of the US media penetration its probably as close as you get.

networked 11y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent was once considered that but its usage declined after WWII.

mcnamaratw 11y ago
Yeah, there are a lot of elderly folks in NYC who use something like the Mid-Atlantic accent. Today it sounds made up, as if they learned English from old movies.
- osullivj 11y ago
  I imagine it sounds impossibly plummy to younger Americans, much like the 1930's aristo RP English spoken by, for instance, Deborah Devonshire (see youtube interview) sounds to younger British people. I like the sound of that mid-Atlantic though. It was always a pleasure to hear Gore Vidal interviewed - so articulate, insightful and witty, all the time in those rolling candences...
  - mcnamaratw 11y ago
    Right, Gore Vidal is a perfect example of the elderly-NYC mid-Atlantic accent. Except for me it works better on TV than sitting across a coffee table. It just sounds fake to me--some part of my brain can't believe that these people really grew up talking like that.

zhte415 11y ago

"I have a very standard accent" said a new colleague, as I and also new Australian and New England colleagues looked on in disbelief at these overly extrudely nasal West Coast tones. "At least Keanu Reeves sounds cool" I thought to myself. There is no pan-English accent. There are plenty of projects to document this. Perhaps try something like Forvo: Type your word, and hear the different pronunciation via via speakers from different places in the world: http://forvo.com/languages/en/ http://forvo.com/languages/en/ for example the word 'English' http://forvo.com/word/english/#en http://forvo.com/word/english/#en

drmarkrbaker 11y ago

It's worth noting that the concept of "all accents being equally valid" is not true in informational terms. Google "vowel degeneration" if you want to know why some people speak in what appears to be an over formal, over enunciated accent. Rather than showing off education or age, often they are simply distinguishing key sounds in the language.

osullivj 11y ago

Any Americans care to comment on JFK's accent? Was it mid-Atlantic? Or New Englandish?