What is your favorite English accent?

[Perhaps]

I'm really curious what British people think of other English accents, like the English people speak in the US, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, etc.

[gregarious_introvert]

Does that mean you're asking about the accents of other Anglophone countries, rather than regional accents within England (or the UK)? I think the only overseas accent I like is the Irish one (the further south the better, it seems to soften as it goes south). Within Britain, I'm most partial to the South West (Cornwall & Devon), South Wales and the North East, or the East Coast of Scotland (particularly Dundee).

[Dougella]

Yes i also like an Irish accent.

From within England I like a Birmingham accent, or a Newcastle accent or a West Country accent.

[Chess&Junkfood]

I can barely speak English myself, so I'm always impressed when someone else can speak the lingo! Idk, I really can't choose! Everyone sounds great! I'm so sugary! And if they can speak more than one language, then I'm like, WOW! Although I suppose if I really put my mind to it, then I might be able to learn another language. Then again, it would probably mean that I would end up feeling anxious in two languages!

That being said, I intend on learning this sentence in multiple languages!

Lo siento mucho señor, mi semental hizo un whoopsie!

[Perhaps]

Originally Posted by gregarious_introvert

Does that mean you're asking about the accents of other Anglophone countries, rather than regional accents within England (or the UK)? I think the only overseas accent I like is the Irish one (the further south the better, it seems to soften as it goes south). Within Britain, I'm most partial to the South West (Cornwall & Devon), South Wales and the North East, or the East Coast of Scotland (particularly Dundee).

Originally Posted by Dougella

From within England I like a Birmingham accent, or a Newcastle accent or a West Country accent.

I didn't expect there would be so many different accents inside the UK, let alone England since it's known among people who learn English, like in courses, etc it's either British English or American English.

I mean I thought there would probably be some differences in pronunciation between the south and north and that's it,, but perhaps it's just me. i suppose I need to educate myself a little bit more. xD

[gregarious_introvert]

^ Doesn't British English or American English refer to spelling (like whether or not there is a "u" in the word "colour") and vocabulary (whether a car has a "boot" or a "trunk", for instance) rather than accent?

I wonder sometimes how much foreigners notice the difference in accent across the regions of England (or the UK); after all, regional accents happen worldwide but I don't notice which part of a country someone comes from by their accent, just that they are German, French, Spanish etc. (in some cases, it's less specific than that - I can't always differentiate between Czech and Polish, for instance). I was speaking to someone from France (raised in the north) recently about the conversations I used to have with my landlady when staying at a homestay in Nice and my friend told me that she doesn't like the southern French accent, whereas to me, it's all French! I can differentiate between accents from different parts of the USA (sometimes, East or West Coast, or the Southern states) but only very broadly - and considering that the US is the size of a continent and has settlers from a multitude of backgrounds, there must be hundreds of regional variations.

Perhaps one becomes attuned to the regional variations within one's own country, but not to the variations within other countries? I can usually tell where someone was raised when I meet them (and locally, one of the first things people say when they meet me is "You're from down south, aren't you?") and to my ears, the regional variations are very obvious, but I wonder how obvious they are to someone who isn't from the UK.

[Appear]

White South African all the way.

We had a teacher at school that had that accent and I'd never heard it before. I was mesmerised the first time I did. It's like Australian but more staccato and with a harsher lilt. It's the one accent I can just speak in unthinkingly and sound pretty convincing, along with my very (unintentionally) camp South Walian.

[biscuits]

^^ Usually you have to be able to speak a language fluently and/or have heard and understood people speaking in one region for a while to then hear the different accents because if you're having to decode and translate as you converse then your brain is quite busy. It's about exposure, fluency, and familiarity.

[gregarious_introvert]

Originally Posted by Appear

White South African all the way.

Unfortunately, this is the one accent which makes me bristle. It's not the accent itself, of course, there are historical reasons. It wasn't just Apartheid, but a couple of very unpleasant encounters in London in the 1980s. In more recent times, I've had better experiences - the landlady of the guest house where I stay when I visit Great Yarmouth is a white South African and she is lovely, I also met a really nice white South African man (ex-rugby player who now coaches rugby in South Wales) and his lovely Welsh wife. I just still have difficulty shaking the assumption that all white South Africans over 50 are racist.

[Perhaps]

@gregarious_introvert
i'm not fluent in English by any means, but i can instantly tell the difference between an American Vs British person speaking, although i have never been to none of them countries.
tone is different and all, but to my ears, it's basically how most of the words are being pronounced.

[Perhaps]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

lol