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The author seems to be under the impression British English only has one set of pronunciations - Queens English/RP. Much of Britain (by area, not population) d
by alistairSH 5y ago
The author seems to be under the impression British English only has one set of pronunciations - Queens English/RP. Much of Britain (by area, not population) does pronounce Rs. I can think of at least 5 very distinct dialects/pronunciation patterns from the UK that nobody would ever confuse with each other (RP, Glaswegian, Cockney, Scouse/Liverpool, Yorkshire). There are many more, these are just ones that popped to mind as easily identifiable.
- moogly 5y ago> I want to be clear that of course there are many different accents in both the UK and in the US, and it’s not like there’s only one right pronunciation. But the differences that I’ll be talking about are quite general
- alistairSH 5y agoFair enough. But she continued to use “British English” when describing RP. And the same with “American English” instead of General American. These “generic” accents have names just like the more regional/stronger accents. It would have been proper to at least mention their names.
- tomxor 5y agoWest country accents are where the Rs broadly come back, and are even emphasised (think pirate speak if you are American, this is the accent it was based on). source: I grew up there.
- alistairSH 5y agoI was thinking most of the Scottish accents, since I’m a Scottish expat. I’ve been in the US nearly 40 years and still get asked to say phrases with lots of Rs and WHs whenever I’ve had a few drinks and my accent comes back. Funny aside - Mom was an ESOL teacher in the US and got some funny looks from colleagues because her students had “odd” pronunciation habits. WH was the big one - in the US it’s a much softer sound than most British accents.
- grey_earthling 5y agoMost English accents in England are not rhotic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English), but there are indeed a lot of different accents in Britain. As a famous example, [Wearside Jack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearside_Jack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearside_Jack) was narrowed down to a single suburb based on the dialect in the audio recording.
- sam_bristow 5y ago[hears a European accent] me: he's Welsh, like from Wales? that's in Europe, right? brit: he hails from Northern England, West Yorkshire, obviously. the silent h's point to Leeds, though the scarcity of expletives suggest a flat near the Grand Theatre...294 Vicar Lane? - Someone on twitter (can't remember the exact source)
- wrboyce 5y agohttps://twitter.com/henpeckedhal/status/1229508634389798915 https://twitter.com/henpeckedhal/status/1229508634389798915
- sam_bristow 5y agoYep, that's the one. Thanks.