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OT: who has the best "English" accent?

Discussion in 'Tottenham Hotspur' started by Hoddle is a god, Oct 9, 2014.

  1. Usually, I use these OT subjects to have a dig at Mousers, Chavs or Gooners, but not this time.

    Some on-line dating agency carried out an extensive survey to discover which English accent was considered the most friendly, intelligent, honest, and romantic. The Standard accent won hands-down. To quote from an article on the subject:-

    "Relationship site eHarmony.co.uk said its study showed that standard English was regarded as the most intelligent, friendly, interesting, sophisticated and reliable. The only category it failed to top was humour - which was headed by a Geordie accent, followed by Liverpudlian and Irish."

    The top ten English accents were found to be:-

    1: Received pronunciation (ie. Standard)
    2: Edinburgh
    3: Australian
    4: Irish (Republic of Ireland)
    5: Yorkshire
    6: American
    7: Geordie
    8: Mancunian
    9: Glaswegian
    10: Welsh

    Note, that the Geordie accent (coming at No.7 on the list), is perceived to be both intelligent and funny, whereas the Mouser accent is only considered to be funny (not intelligent or honest, and certainly not romantic).

    For those of you who don't know, a "Standard" English accent is the kind of accent that you would hear a professional (such as a doctor or lawyer) use, and it doesn't necessarily denote a toff. This would rule out, for example, anyone who speaks with an overtly "cockney" accent (such as your typical Chav or Gooner). Indeed, it is perhaps pertinent that the "cockney" accent is absent from any part of the survey, with voters considering that even the American accent sounds more honest and trust-worthy than a cockney accent (which I find quite surprising).

    Now, I speak with a very pronounced Standard English accent, and I can, therefore, personally attest to the veracity of this survey. I am forever fighting off hordes of beautiful ladies (in my day, before I was married, I was like the proverbial "rat up a drain pipe"), whereas someone I know who has a very strong 'Pool accent cannot even buy a shag in a brothel. He does, however, have a great ability to make geezers laugh in pubs, although that probably isn't much comfort to him as he lies alone at nights frotting himself raw.

    So, there you have it! This time it isn't me having a pop at Mousers. This survey demonstrates that they are genuinely unintelligent, unfriendly, uninteresting, unsophisticated and unreliable, and that they are considered by most people to be little more than clowns.
     
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  2. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Where does an N18 accent come on their list ?? :D <postcode snobs>
     
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  3. Good question. The simple answer is, it doesn't. Make of that what you will.

    As I say, this isn't me having a pop, it's all been verified by a very reputable survey.

    NB: I would, of course - as I always do on my articles - ask people not to use this as an opportunity for wumming.
     
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  4. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    But 'generic' London must come somewhere ?? :D
     
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  5. That's why I placed cockney in inverted-commas, to denote generic London. To most Northerners, for example, anyone speaking with a generic London (I call it "white van man") accent, is labelled a cockney. In certain parts of Essex (the really chavvy parts, mainly) they are labelled mockneys.

    Clearly, like the Mouser accent, cockney and mockney are not considered to be at all desirable.
     
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  6. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Who the **** voted for intelligent sounding Geordies?! Who did they have in mind? Ant and Dec? Peter Beardsley? Cheryl Tweedy/Cole/Fernandez-Versini/Next?
    The top Google result for 'Intelligent Geordies', and I promise I'm not making this up, is this:
    https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130420071037AAUTCqf

    "Can anyone name ONE intelligent Geordie? Because i'm struggling here folks!!!!" <laugh>

    Slightly inaccurate, of course, but claiming that they sound intelligent is just ridiculous. It's just above Brummie in those stakes.
     
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  7. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    My experience of outsiders has been they think the Geordie accent sounds whiney, and the London
    accent more cheery (I guess the source of the "chirpy Cockney" phrase) .
     
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  8. The cockney's biggest trait is that he is crafty.
     
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  9. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    "The cockney's biggest trait is that he is crafty."

    You mean "resourceful" (or as we might say : a bit werr, a bit waay ... ) . :)
     
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  10. Inda

    Inda Well-Known Member

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    I hide my west country accent, although certain words, like "butter", always retain that bit of oo-ar country farmer twang. It's pronounced "bu-ah" by the way.

    My telephone and customer accent is strictly home counties. Enunciation is the key.

    What amazes me is how the accents in this part of the world have been toned down over the years. Being on the M4 commuter corridor has something to do with it. The BBC is another factor.

    The Geordies in this part of the world - there are tons of them. Too many. They all came down to work the railways... They've all retained their accents even after moving here 50 years ago. I find that strange.
     
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  11. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Regional accents are what make me feel like "being home" in the UK whenever I return from abroad.
    God forbid that "Estuary English" over-runs the land like some verbal Japanese knotweed.
     
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  12. I am, myself, of cockney descent. There was a time when I sounded "proper" London (and make no mistake about it, mister), with banter richer than that of the Artful Dodger, himself. But my education - and especially Cambridge - beat that out of me, and now I speak like an "intelligent, friendly, sophisticated, and romantic" gentleman (eHarmony's words, not mine), instead of some scumbag-lowlife who is up to no good, and probably out to shag your wife and nick your wallet.
     
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  13. SpursDisciple

    SpursDisciple Booking: Mod abuse - overturned on appeal
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    Is that "proper" London in the Dick Van Dyke sense?
     
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  14. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Not being able to speak English properly is no doubt laziness (for which there is no real excuse) .
    However, my accent is also a link to much of what/who I am as a person.
    More so than whatever academic or professional achievements I have.
    So in that respect I am glad I still have it.

    Supporting Spurs is implicitly a similar statement.
     
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  15. totsfan

    totsfan Well-Known Member

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    My mum is welsh,92 years old and lived most of her life in England,but she still has a strong Welsh accent
     
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  16. redwhiteandermblue

    redwhiteandermblue Well-Known Member

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    This thread is a great example of why I really enjoy this board. It contains both interesting information and hilarious misinformation. Reading it, like so many other posts, I leave a little more cheerful and a little wiser.

    Where to begin? I guess I'll wrap myself in the flag (it being the last refuge of scoundrels) and point out that we (my fellow Americans) nosed out the Geordies, although, alas, not quite reaching the nose-bleed heights of social distinction attained by those from Yorkshire.

    Also: American accent? It reminds me of (an American, I hardly need say) who said my advantage traveling in Europe was that "You know the language," making me think he thought there was just one. There are dialects specific to one neighborhood in Pittsburgh, exactly as there are microdialects in England and every other more or less civilized place (besides Australia, I mean.) The bit of random information I'll pass on is that in terms of accents, the US is half like England and half like Australia. Everywhere in the east has its regional accent except for one tiny belt of standard American English. The three big ones are Southern (really Southeastern), Southwestern (really Appalachian), New England and New York City (including suburbs). There are, of course, many smaller divisions within those. There is also a standardization trend in the US. Less common accents are dying fastest. The broad Pittsburgh accent, for example, is far less common among Pittsburghers than it was forty years ago, whereas the Southern accent remains more or less what it was. (Pixburghese, incidentally, seems to be a distant relative of the Northern Irish, or Ulster accent. The two metal products are "arn" and "still." You axe somebody a question, except the one glorious time I heard "aksked.")

    The area which speaks the standard American dialect (broadcaster English) starts as the breadth of the country on the west coast, and narrows steadily as it goes east until it reaches a point around Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where I was born. Tragically, I've lost the standard American accent which was my birthright. First I bent it towards Pixburghese in high school as an unconscious defense mechanism, then I picked up the rather nasal and pretentious sounding East coast educated thing very prevalent in various northern cities, more or less what Hugh Laurie speaks absolutely flawlessly as "House."
     
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  17. littleDinosaurLuke

    littleDinosaurLuke Well-Known Member

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    Cor blimey, guv'nor, stone the crows <yikes> His is an accent found nowhere else on earth.

    Americans speak with different accents. New York and Texan accents are very recognisable. The New York accent is very much a corruption of the Irish accent. Saying "moider" for murder, for example.
     
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  18. Spurf

    Spurf Thread Mover
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    Best English accent?

    Michael Holding without doubt. Very clear, very fine tone, a pleasure to the ear.

    Worst:

    Cilla Black singing or speaking.


    Otherwise Birmingham should be cut lose and floated into the Atlantic, the sooner the better.
     
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  19. redwhiteandermblue

    redwhiteandermblue Well-Known Member

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    Best American accent:

    Hugh Laurie. I'm in awe.

    Any western accent like you may hear in Utah has the potential to be funniest.

    "Whut the hill am Ah lookin' at your ol' lady like that fowar? Whut the f**'s a matter with me, anyways? Have I gut a problem?"

    Worst:

    So many to choose from. Pixburghese sounds the stupidest. North End Boston is the worst on girls.
     
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  20. SpursDisciple

    SpursDisciple Booking: Mod abuse - overturned on appeal
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    I wonder if she was best pleased having Sheridan Smith playing her. She has a better speaking and especially singing voice.
     
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