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I like to think that, by definition, the only person who speaks English properly and without an accent is The Queen. Edit: I am only joking.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
That definition seems difficult to project into the past, when the King of England might not speak English at all.
- BitwiseFool 5y ago
  The joke I tried to make was an allusion to how the Metric System's units like the meter and the kilogram were all based on reference objects before they were truly modernized. So despite the reference objects losing tiny amounts of mass over the years, they were, by definition, what a kilogram should be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Prototype_of_the_Kilogram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Prototype_of_the... Admittedly, I now realize that I in no way made that allusion clear!
  - engineer_22 5y ago
    The Queen's English.... Pretty clear.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    It doesn't come off as a joke because that is in fact how a language standard is usually defined. What made Parisian better than Provençal? What made Castilian better than Catalan? What didn't make Parisian better than Catalan?
    - gerdesj 5y ago
      Is this thread written by contestants in a Turing test? 8) I'm an expert in English humour. If you say "four candles" in my hearing, I will spontaneously wet myself. It's an unfortunate consequence of being 50 years old and very English. I've consulted the video referee. We all agree it's a fair riff on the term - "The Queen's English" (formally King) and henceforth it can be safely categorised in section 3.3.2.II.b in the canonical JbMF (Joke book of Monster Fun) version 5 (five.) I pronounce the joke tendered as valid as formerly described. Judgement in favour of the plaintiff. Soz 8)
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  The queen and her family (and by extension, many of the aristocracy) speak a dialect of English that is not any kind of regional dialect. It is not the form spoken by BBC announcers (who are often nowadays speakers of northern dialects, or even foreign pronunciations). Their vowels are strangled, and they just sound weird to most native English speakers.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

That definition seems difficult to project into the past, when the King of England might not speak English at all.

BitwiseFool 5y ago
The joke I tried to make was an allusion to how the Metric System's units like the meter and the kilogram were all based on reference objects before they were truly modernized. So despite the reference objects losing tiny amounts of mass over the years, they were, by definition, what a kilogram should be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Prototype_of_the_Kilogram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Prototype_of_the... Admittedly, I now realize that I in no way made that allusion clear!
- engineer_22 5y ago
  The Queen's English.... Pretty clear.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  It doesn't come off as a joke because that is in fact how a language standard is usually defined. What made Parisian better than Provençal? What made Castilian better than Catalan? What didn't make Parisian better than Catalan?
  - gerdesj 5y ago
    Is this thread written by contestants in a Turing test? 8) I'm an expert in English humour. If you say "four candles" in my hearing, I will spontaneously wet myself. It's an unfortunate consequence of being 50 years old and very English. I've consulted the video referee. We all agree it's a fair riff on the term - "The Queen's English" (formally King) and henceforth it can be safely categorised in section 3.3.2.II.b in the canonical JbMF (Joke book of Monster Fun) version 5 (five.) I pronounce the joke tendered as valid as formerly described. Judgement in favour of the plaintiff. Soz 8)
denton-scratch 5y ago
The queen and her family (and by extension, many of the aristocracy) speak a dialect of English that is not any kind of regional dialect. It is not the form spoken by BBC announcers (who are often nowadays speakers of northern dialects, or even foreign pronunciations). Their vowels are strangled, and they just sound weird to most native English speakers.