History UsefulNotes / BritishAccents

As well as being local, accents are an indicator of [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion social class]]. Until the 1980s the "received pronunciation" aka "BBC English" was the speech of the upper-middle and upper classes, with any regional accent marking the speaker as being working or lower-middle class. This led Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw (an Irishman) to comment in the preface to ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}'' that it "is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him." This led social climbers to hire elocution tutors to [[Main/OohMeAccentsSlipping iron the kinks]] out of their local accents. These days things are more egalitarian and TV companies have consciously tried to hire presenters with accents previously heard only in Main/KitchenSinkDrama. Incidentally the BBC didn't pick Received Pronunciation merely for snobbery, but because at the time it was the only accent that could be reliably understood by the vast majority of the British people.

Nobles, [[SmartPeopleSpeakTheQueensEnglish geniuses]], snobs, the BattleButler, the QuintessentialBritishGentleman, the EvilBrit, and people who studied in UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} or worked for the BBC. The "tapped r" sound (used in a few other British accents) is commonly but inaccurately parodied as "veddy" (for "very"). American media often makes the mistake that [[IAmVeryBritish all Brits speak RP]]. It should be noted that, in simplistic terms, there are two forms of RP in everyday use -- ''Moderate'' and ''Heightened'' (or, as some people tend to call it, ''Trad''). Both follow the same rules of pronunciation, but Moderate is more relaxed and tends to be encountered more amongst the young, whereas Heightened is far more strangulated, plummy, and generally only encountered in older people. UsefulNotes/ElizabethII used Heightened RP, whereas her grandson Harry uses Moderate, for example. It is also important to note that almost ALL upper-class people in the UK, regardless of the region they live in (from UsefulNotes/{{Cornwall}} to Scotland), speak RP -- it is an accent of social class, as opposed to region. There used to be an American equivalent called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent Mid-Atlantic English]] which was entirely affected -- very few people naturally spoke that way -- but it was phased out starting in the mid-20th century.

* James Burke, the BBC's main science reporter in TheSixties and TheSeventies, known across the Pond as "That Guy Who Made ''Series/{{Connections}}''" speaks in what sounds like RP to an American, but upon closer listening is very clearly Derry with English schooling from the age of 11--that habit of dropping into rhoticity gives it away.

* There is also "BBC Scots", used on both sides of the border, which is a sort of cross between a ''very'' toned down Dundonian accent and RP. The BBC's male Announcer talks like this, as does ''Today'' programme presenter Eddie Mair. A similar sort of accent is spoken in Broughty Ferry -- the Dundonian equivalent of Morningside or Kelvinside.

* [[BigBad Tai Lung]] of ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', likely due to the EvilBrit and RuleOfCool appeal. Most of the [[AllStarCast main cast]] are standard American, and only Monkey and Mr. Ping are voiced by Chinese actors. Viper is voiced by Creator/LucyLiu, so speaks with an American accent but with noticeable Chinese influence. Tai Lung was voiced by Creator/IanMcShane, using his normal voice. He is perhaps best known for playing Series/{{Lovejoy}}.

!![[AhPea Received Pronunciation (Posh/Educated/BBC/Queen's English/RP/Oxford)]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' has its characters use appropriate accents for their location -- and station. Sean Bean and the Stark clan use appropriately Grim Northern accents; Wildlings have similar accents, shading towards Scottish (as demonstrated by Ygritte--incidentally also played by Rose Leslie, who again actually speaks RP despite being Scottish on account of how she's actually upper-class). The Baratheons tend more Midlands. Those from the South generally use RP, or at least quasi-[=RPish=] accents suitable to the South of England (e.g.: King's Landing commoners will often speak in an Estuary accent--see Gendry and Hot Pie), with the more precise, posh and clipped the accent also serving as an indicator of status (and/or villainy). Creator/PeterDinklage's slightly more floral and exaggerated take is character-appropriate and serves well (and all in all pretty good for a [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey Jersey boy from Morristown]]--although that accent slips in once in a while).
** Ygritte has a northern English accent.

The biggest difference is probably in vowels. The "short O" sound of words like "lot" is very different; in most British accents it is aid with the lips rounded, whereas in American accents it is said with the lips unrounded, and is in fact [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_open_back_vowels#Father%E2%80%93bother_merger merged into the "ah" sound of "father"]]. This can cause confusion when Americans try to represent the pronunciation of words with this "ah" sound by spelling them as "o", for example claiming that Kamala Harris' first name is pronounced "comma-la".

This can sometimes create confusion in written communication. For instance, an English writer on an online linguistics forum described children's attempts to pronounce letters as sounding like "ar, ber, cer, der", which confused the North Americans on the forum. It turned out that the kids were saying "ah, buh, kuh, duh"; the English writer added an "r" to every syllable because she expected the "uh" sound to end in the letter "r". In addition, this has influenced the spelling of foreign names and words such as Park[[note]]from Korean surname ''Pak''/''Bak''[[/note]], Parcheesi[[note]]from Hindi ''pachisi''[[/note]], Burma/Myanmar[[note]]from Burmese ''Bama''/''Myanma''[[/note]] and char siu[[note]]from Cantonese ''chaa siu''[[/note]]. That being said, it's important to recognize that rhoticity isn't the only difference between British accents and American ones. An old-style North [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey (New) Jersey]] accent[[note]]More recent North Jersey accents are rhotic, and South Jersey's accent is attached to the rhotic UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} accent.[[/note]] and a London accent are both non-rhotic, but they're obviously very different. The biggest difference is probably in vowels. Compare Franchise/HarryPotter saying "car" to [[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]] saying "car." They're both dropping the final R, but the vowel sound is quite different. The "short O" sound is very different; in most British accents it is aid with the lips rounded, whereas in American accents it is said with the lips unrounded, and is in fact [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_open_back_vowels#Father%E2%80%93bother_merger merged into the "ah" sound of "father"]]. These written issues are also a major reason why various proposals to make the spelling of English more phonetic (or at least rational) have never taken off -- it would ignite major regional and class-based conflicts over which pronunciation should be reflected.

This can sometimes create confusion in written communication. For instance, an English writer on an online linguistics forum described children's attempts to pronounce letters as sounding like "ar, ber, cer, der", which confused the North Americans on the forum. It turned out that the kids were saying "ah, buh, kuh, duh"; the English writer added an "r" to every syllable because she expected the "uh" sound to end in the letter "r". In addition, this has influenced the spelling of foreign names and words such as Park[[note]]from Korean surname ''Pak''/''Bak''[[/note]], Parcheesi[[note]]from Hindi ''pachisi''[[/note]], Burma/Myanmar[[note]]from Burmese ''Bama''/''Myanma''[[/note]] and char siu[[note]]from Cantonese ''chaa siu''[[/note]]. That being said, it's important to recognize that rhoticity isn't the only difference between British accents and American ones. An old-style North [[UsefulNotes/NewJersey (New) Jersey]] accent[[note]]More recent North Jersey accents are rhotic, and South Jersey's accent is attached to the rhotic UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} accent.[[/note]] and a London accent are both non-rhotic, but they're obviously very different. The biggest difference is probably in vowels. Compare Franchise/HarryPotter saying "car" to [[Series/TheSopranos Tony Soprano]] saying "car." They're both dropping the final R, but the vowel sound is quite different. The British (and almost every language other than English) are fond of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_back_unrounded_vowel "long A sound"]] that doesn't really exist in North American English. These written issues are also a major reason why various proposals to make the spelling of English more phonetic (or at least rational) have never taken off -- it would ignite major regional and class-based conflicts over which pronunciation should be reflected.

* In the bodice-ripper romance novel ''Whisper to Me of Love'', the hero is both surprised and suspicious to find that despite her slum upbringing, the heroine can speak just as well in the King's English (as it was known back then). She explains that her mother insisted that she and brothers learn to speak properly so as to move in upper-class circles.

** '''Happisburgh''' - pron. ''Whoresborough''

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8mzWkuOxz8 Here is just a small sampling of the diversity of accents used in the British Isles]]. Yet in American-produced media this is usually oversimplified to the point where every English character speaks with one of two accents: [[IAmVeryBritish Received Pronunciation]], aka "Posh" (traditionally associated with the aristocracy and the pretentious: "I say, old chap, let's play croquet, then have tea and scones. Pip pip!" — think [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc9b08J2KrA Jacob Rees-Mogg]]) and Cockney (the accent of East London: "Cor blimey guv'na! Gi' 's a pint!" — think Creator/RayWinstone). Okay, also occasionally [[TalkLikeAPirate pirate]] ("Aaar! Shiver me timbers!") -- in other words, the "West Country" accent. The latter is also the accent stereotypically associated with farmers. However, keep in mind that these are not the only ones that are used in England.

For the closest English-speaking neighbours, compare UsefulNotes/IrishAccents. For English-speakers further afield, compare and contrast UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents and the UsefulNotes/AustralianAccent page. See also FakeBrit, OohMeAccentsSlipping.

** Before getting into the attributes of Trad RP, it's worth noting that Dr Zev Cohen in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' speaks it flawlessly (to a Briton's ears). Strangely (and ''amazingly''), he is played by a Canadian, Creator/DwightSchultz. Listen to him here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n81wThGlxJY).
** Juntao in ''Film/RushHour''. Listen to it here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxZ1ivh8bgs). Likewise, Pendrew in ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs2012'' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIwyNO3JQ4). Both played/voiced by Tom Wilkinson.

** The accent can be listened to here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1M9ipiZfPk) and here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1M9ipiZfPk) (political content alert). Creator/AlanRickman also spoke a variant of RP midway between Standard and Trad.