"The" British Accent

[Kyrisch]

I am British.

 

Oh.... I'm sorry You didn't have a viewable location and I just assumed. That's not good then... Any idea as to what makes it sound Australian?

[bascule]

I'll just admit Americans speak English really weird, especially me. Other Americans can understand me but if I talk to someone from outside the United States they typically have a terrible time with my accent.

[Severian]

That's not good then... Any idea as to what makes it sound Australian?

 

It wasn't a bad attempt. I am fairly sure you would fool anyone who wasn't British and you would probably fool a British person if you only said one sentence. It is just with a long text, things occasionally slip.

 

In particular a few times your vowels were a bit long. The British accent tends to keep them shorter. Also, there were a few times when you mumbled a bit. In general that is fine, since the British do mumble sometimes, but your accent slipped a bit during the mumbles.

[Tsuyoiko]

I think your accent's really convincing. You sound like a middle class university student who's trying to sound less posh

 

I have one of the most difficult British accents: Potteries. We have our own dialect that is almost impossible even for many locals to understand. And our accent is difficult even for Brits from other areas. I grew up in a small village where most of the older people spoke in dialect, my grandad included.

 

This video has a mix of the accent and the dialect:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06nbSiv1ZN0

[Ophiolite]

Very good effort. There were traces of Australian, but also of East London. If I had met you and you asked me to say where you were from I would confidently declare that you had travelled much in your childhood, picking up a bastard accent. I would have theorised that you left Australia when you were six, lived in Limehouse, east London till you were ten, then moved around the Midlands, before attending one of the better universities.

I would not have thought you were American, so excellent job.

[the guy]

yes that was very good, although you did slip into australian near the beginning, most of the time you were a very convincing middle class/sometimes upper class london accent. very impressive for a non-british person.

[Klaynos]

It does sound a bit Australian, and there is a bit of cockney on some of the words as well... You can tell it's an amalgamation of accents you've heard, but if I hadn't known that I'd just have thought it was an odd Australian accent.

[Kyrisch]

Thank you all for the input. I apologize if I was mumbling, or quiet, it was late at night and I didn't want to wake anyone up.

[John Cuthber]

On the whole, not a bad effort. You managed not to soumd like an American.

Now for the real challenge; try to sound like a Geordie, Brummie, or Scouser.

[Glider]

I just listened to it. It is very good (sounds a bit like Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow), but not quite convincing (to a British ear) because, although there is no Australian (I don't know where the others are getting that), there is a subtle but unnatural mix of dialectic influence and inflection. By unnatural, I mean a mix that is internally inconsistent (i.e. contradicts itself) and wouldn't naturally occur.

 

I'll give you a breakdown from the perspective of somebody who was raised from birth with three different languages (and so has a very sensitive ear, never having lost the ability to percieve phonemes, that is extinguished in the first year in people who are are raised only with their native language and local dialect).

 

NB. This is not criticism, it is critique. I hope you find it useful (as it is intended).

 

Here's what I mean:

 

"Boy hurt in park Lightning strike"

 

This is very good. It sounds North London (Well spoken Muswell Hill/Highgate areas)

 

"A sixteen year old boy suffered a cardiac arrest and five others were hurt in a lightning strike in a Birmingham park"

 

This sounds a little slurred. Like the same person, but after three or four tequilas (Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow does this too). The word 'others' came out with a Liverpool influence. In the South-east (inc London) it's more: 'Uthers'.

 

"The teenager is in critical but stable condition following the incident in Spaldheath Park at sixteen fifty BST, said West Midlands Ambulance Service"

 

Like phrase 2 except the word 'Stable' which contains a strong West Midlands/Birmingham influence (Staayble). There was a little Kiwi in the the words 'said' and 'service' too. In SE England it's 'Sed' and 'Servis' in NZ it's more 'Sid' and 'Servus'.

 

"Five other teenagers were also taken to hospital. It is believed three are still in hospital, under observation"

 

The dropping of the aitches in 'Hospital' is inconsistant with the well spoken tone and stick out a bit for that reason.

 

"A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said it received several 999 calls followinng the incident. She said five ambulances were sent to the scene as well as a rapid responce motorcyle and an incident support officer and a senior paramedic manager"

 

Again, the dropping of the 't' (and use of glottal stop) in 'motorcycle', whilst common in so-called 'Estuary English', is inconsistant with the overall well spoken tone and stands out for that reason.

 

"Crews arrives at the park to find a teenage boy recieving CPR from a member of the public, she said. The sixteen year old boy suffered serious burns after being struck by lightninng and was in cardiac arrest."

 

Here, the most notable inconsitency is the Liverpool influence in the words 'Public' 'sixteen' and 'struck'.

 

"Crews continued emergency medical treatment on the boy and transferred him by land ambulance to Heartlands hospital. A second teenage boy suffered convulsions consistent with an electric shock and was treated at the scene before he was also taken to Heartlands hospital."

 

The word 'taken' has a fairly srong West Midlands/Birmingham influence (i.e. 'taayken'). The second use of 'Heartlands' also has this 'Brummmy' sound, but what makes it stick out is that it is inconsistant with the first.

 

"The four other teenagers suffered minor injuries and were assessed at the scene before three were taken to City hospital, and one to Heartlands."

 

In this section, the word 'Heartlands' is very good, but the glottal stop in the word 'City' is inconsistant with the overall well spoken tone.

 

Overall, it's really very good. I think the thing to aim for is internal consistency, where any one word used sounds identical in subsequent uses. It is this inconsistency that people will detect. As long as it's consistant, any overall innacuracy is likeley to be attributed to accent/dialectic influence (Maybe he lived abroad for a while?). If it's inconsistant, then it's obviously fake.

 

A good example is Renée Zellweger, who can do an almost flawless 'Home Counties' British accent. It's generic and can't really be placed, but its so internally consistent that a listener never gets the urge to try to place it anyway, which is a major part of its success.

[DrP]

although there is no Australian (I don't know where the others are getting that),

 

Example - at the begining where he says "the boy is in a stable condition" Listen to the word condition again. Particularly the I. There is more emphesis on the I in CondItion. Definately sounds a little Aussie there. And in other places. On the whole sounds fairly good. As said thaough -- there are LOTS of differing accents accross the country.

[John Cuthber]

Glider,

Did it occur to you before you wrote " not quite convincing (to a British ear) because, although there is no Australian (I don't know where the others are getting that)..." that you seem to be in a minority of one here?

 

Incidentally, are there lots of accents in Australia?

[Glider]

Example - at the begining where he says "the boy is in a stable condition" Listen to the word condition again. Particularly the I. There is more emphesis on the I in CondItion. Definately sounds a little Aussie there. And in other places. On the whole sounds fairly good. As said thaough -- there are LOTS of differing accents accross the country.

The perception of the word 'condition' is primed by the pronunciation of the word 'stable', which has a West Midlands/Birmingham inflection so that the whole phrase 'Stable condition' sounds like it was spoken by someone from around Birmingham. Not as strong as say, Walsall or Dudley, but more like wolverhampton or Nuneaton. Most British accents emphasise the second syllable in that word.

 

Glider,

Did it occur to you before you wrote " not quite convincing (to a British ear) because, although there is no Australian (I don't know where the others are getting that)..." that you seem to be in a minority of one here?

Does it matter?

 

Incidentally, are there lots of accents in Australia?

Yes. I've been there and it's quite discernable, but I was only there for a month, so I couldn't tell who was from where. The person I was with could though. She could identify people's origin by ear; 'aha! he's from Brisbane!' which, by Australian standards is only up the road from Sydney, in Queensland.

[Kyrisch]

Thanks of course for the praise but also for the criticism. This has been the most thorough and by far the best assessment of this 'pet project' of mine I have received. It seems like internal consistency is the main problem. But, if I didn't 'sound American', that should be within the realm of the fixable, since it's obvious I can make the correct sounds, I just need to refine it a bit.

 

So, at this point, I'm wondering if anyone would be cool enough to perhaps supply a file of their own accent, with a description of where they are from, reading some sample text so I can hear the differences across dialects and attempt to compartmentalize the different variations?

 

I googled "sample reading texts" and this is what came up. It should work well enough.

 

From the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the turn of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travellers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. She represented the pinnacle of technological advance at the time. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.

 

The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres than many of the tallest buildings of the day. And with nine decks, she was as high as an eleven storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first class, 285 second class and 710 third class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very experienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried enough food to feed a small town, including 40,000 fresh eggs, 36,000 apples, 111,000 lbs of fresh meat and 2,200 lbs of coffee for the five day journey.

 

Thank you much.