British Accents: Difference between revisions

 

 

'ello, Guv. You want me to describe [[British Accents]] 'ere, you do?

Recently, scientists have postulated that the further back into the history of Western Civilization you travel, the more likely you are to have spoken with a British Accent.

 

 

Movie Romans in general [[The Queen's Latin|tend to have British accents]]. We can probably [[The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples|blame Shakespeare]]. It is almost impossible to find an example of Jesus Christ being depicted without an English voice too, even though the man was a Palestinian Jew.

(Of course, [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], and performance, casting, and character are more important than accuracy with accents. Nevertheless, any number of people from the UK are such extreme sticklers about this trope as to fly off the handle upon hearing the very words "British accent" without pausing to consider that the user of the words was probably using an umbrella term because specifics were unnecessary in the context of what he/she was saying, instead of claiming or implying that in all of Britain there is only one accent. That does not, however, excuse writers or actors their carelessness if they don't invoke the trope deliberately and for a reason.)

 

 

English people in American movies tend to have one of two accents: Received pronunciation (traditionally associated with the upper-class: "I say, old chap, let's go and have tea and scones. Pip pip!") and Cockney (the accent of East London: "Cor blimey guv'na! Gi' 's a pint!"). Okay, also occasionally pirate ("Aaar! Shiver me timbers!") -- in other words, the "country" accent.

The phrase most likely to give away someone trying to bluff any British accent is "Bloody Hell" and, especially its more gutterspeak variant, "Bloody 'ell". This phrase may be the most flexible in British English and can be used to express a staggering array of emotions, dependant on context, syllable stress, syllable length, volume, whether teeth are gritted or not, the social class of the speaker and so on. Everything from mild surprise to absolute outrage, from slight irritation to a overwhelming sense of awe can be expressed with these two simple words. It is often the first "swear" that children learn, each region has its own subtle variants and there really isn't an "RP" way to use it. Americans seeking to bluff their way in British English should never, ever attempt to use the dropped-H version. They will be busted in a flash (another excellent [[Bluff the Impostor|shibboleth]] is "water", which packs a lot of tricky phonemic differences into a small package). And that's before the ''Australian'' variants come into play.

 

 

One of the big differences between the accents most commonly heard in England and those most common in North America is something called ''rhoticity'': in a nutshell, American and Canadian accents are ''rhotic'' (except New England accents; Southern American accents used to often have this trait but the modern-day Southern United States is almost completely rhotic) and British accents (except Scottish, Northern Irish and the West Country) are ''non-rhotic''.<ref>See [[wikipedia:Rhotic and non-rhotic accents|the Wikipedia article for rhotic and non-rhotic accents]] for more information on rhoticity and which regions of the United States and United Kingdom have rhotic or non-rhotic accents.</ref> People with non-rhotic accents do not pronounce the letter "r" as a consonant when it ends a word or syllable, while those with rhotic accents pronounce it in almost all situations. (Instead, a syllable-final "r" is pronounced as an alteration of the vowel: thus ''bat'', ''Bart'', ''bet'', ''Bert'' etc. all have different vowels. The typical non-rhotic accent has roughly twice as many vowel phonemes as the typical rhotic accent.)

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<ref>from Korean surname ''Pak''/''Bak''</ref>, Parcheesi<ref>from Hindi ''pachisi''</ref>, Burma/Myanmar<ref>from Burmese ''Bama''/''Myanma''</ref> and char siu<ref>from Cantonese ''chaa siu''</ref>. Scottish accents, however, ''are'' rhotic: the Proclaimers song "Throw the R Away" is a protest against Scottish people being advised to adopt English accents and the anti-Scottish prejudice that gave rise to this advice. Though is should be noted that not ''all'' English accents are ''non-rhotic'' and there are some Brits who would find that offensive.

 

 

Oh, and for our non-British friends, the second of the page quotes can be translated as...

 

-----

 

=== [[The Midlands|Black Country (Yam Yam)]] ===

Often confused with the Brummie accent (Black Country residents can be resentful of this). Preserves many traits of Middle English and Early Modern English. Therefore, can be difficult for people who are unfamiliar with it to understand. Doesn't appear on TV much. If you were wondering, the ''Black Country'' is a loosely-defined area in the English West Midlands, to the north and west of Birmingham and to the south and east of Wolverhampton, so-called because the area was heavily polluted during the Industrial Revolution.

* ''Anita and Me'' is probably the best fictional example of a Black Country accent, possibly the TV production of ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'' as well.

* "Doris Day" "No, she didn't" ... only funny if you're familiar with Black Country Dialect.

 

=== [[Sweet Home Midlands|Birmingham (Brummie)]] ===

* [[Ozzy Osbourne]], whose singing in his natural accent was cited as a reason [[Black Sabbath]]'s music sounded much darker than most music at the time. Sometimes practically unintelligible, as [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in a recent phone network ad. Though his (non-singing) [[The Unintelligible|unintelligible voice]] is most likely due to him being so brain-fried.

* Particularly Jeremy Clarkson's take on it, or Barry himself (his actor isn't even from the Midlands, for crying out loud -- it's FAKE Brummie). Neither sound anything more than a shallow mocking of the actual one; typically far too flat/monotone, and the vowels are all off -- nowhere near mangled enough! They manage a reasonably good Midlands accent, but it's probably more off towards Bromsgrove or somewhere (JC's take on it -- and probably Barry too -- is seemingly based on that of British Leyland workers being interviewed while on strike at the Longbridge plant, which is about as close to Bromsgrove as it is to the major urban/innercity areas of Birmingham, with the classier areas of Edgbaston et al in-between). That, or it's actually a Staffs/Stoke/Coventry twang (all of them also on the M6...). Dudley is more "Black Country", fiercely distinct in itself. Real Birmingham-area accents, as found on people such as Carl Chinn or (ugh) Tony Butler, are far more animated, sing-song (though not quite as much as Geoorrwwdie or Liverpoo'ool), and occasionally hard to decipher when the words stray too far from RP either in pronunciation or straight-out dialect. I'll retract that when I hear either of them give a reasonable reading of "I wanted to go home, but they wouldn't let me take my bike on the bus". Also, and my out-of-region friends go to great lengths to point this out, there's an overemphasis on G's when we try to speke proper instead of slurrin' it.

 

=== [[London Town|East London (Cockney)]] ===

{{quote|'''[[Seth MacFarlane]]:''' "Cockney British, back then, really wanted you to make sure that they knew what you were talking about."|''[[Family Guy]]''}}

 

* Strangely, on Canadian television Cockneys tend to be light-hearted, street-smart small businessmen -- fruit vendors, gardeners, and the like. A gangster Cockney would be considered about as likely as a pearls-and-china culture maven hailing from Yellowknife. You do get characters like this in the UK, but they tend to be found in period works.

* There is also "Mockney", putting on the accent for effect.

* In ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', the [[Urban Segregation|proles]] tend to have Cockney accents ([[Funetik Aksent|or an approximation thereof]]) while the Party members tend to speak something closer to RP, in keeping with Orwell's socialist views of [[Elves Versus Dwarves|the hardworking and industrious working people versus the snobby, power-hungry elites.]]

 

=== Estuary ===

RP's crass, vulgar cousin (or if you prefer, Cockney's gentrified, suburban relative). Originally spoken in southeastern England on the estuary of the Thames, but increasingly co-opted by people with higher levels of income and education who view Received Pronunciation as too [[British Stuffiness|stuffy]]. As a result, it (or a slightly more refined variant thereof) has increasingly become the default "newscaster" accent of media based in London. Even the Queen's speech has drifted noticeably in this direction over the past few decades. Sounds somewhat similar to RP, but incorporates a number of elements traditionally associated with Cockney and other southeastern dialects (notably, pronouncing "t" as a glottal stop, fronting "th" to "f" and "v" and pronouncing a hard "g" in "-ing" words). '''Stereotype:''' Originally, stupid and poor, or otherwise middle-class and trying to come across as "earthy"; possibly really annoying. (See half of [[Catherine Tate]]'s characters or the classic "Essex Girl" archetype.) Has risen in profile in recent years, to the point where it's become more-or-less "neutral", though some of its old associations remain.

* Michael Caine approximates this in most of his roles. It was much stronger in his youth: his performance in ''Sleuth'' was one of the first times an actor had used the accent in a film.

* [[David Tennant]], a native Scot, adopted the Estuary accent for his portrayal of [[Doctor Who|the Doctor]].

 

=== [[Oop North|Lancashire]] ===

 

=== [[Oop North|Liverpool (Scouse)]] ===

 

"Scouse" has changed a ''lot'' over the years, adding to the confusion. The word now can refer to a ''whole range'' of accents. What used to be closer to a Midlands accent has gotten higher in pitch, faster in delivery, and a touch more nasal. For example, if the Beatles said "That's not fair," ''fair'' comes out as "''fur''." If a contemporary Liverpudlian said, "She's wearing a fur coat," ''fur'' comes out as "''fair''."

 

* Dave Lister in ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' is a Scouser, as is [[Craig Charles]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaccLMuLa7o&noredirect=1 Cam down, cam down].

** In fact, the Beatle with the strongest Scouse accent was [[The Pete Best|Pete Best]].

* [[Animaniacs|Wakko Warner]] has a Liverpool-ish accent despite being ostensibly American, because Wakko's voice actor, [[Jess Harnell]], modeled the character's voice after Ringo Starr.

* One of the vultures from Disney's ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' had a heavy Liverpudlian accent. Of course, he was ''also'' a send-up of Ringo. The vultures were designed based on the Beatles, and Disney even [[What Could Have Been|wanted the Fab Four to voice them.]]

* Another rather famous Liverpudlian is Anne Robinson of the BBC's consumer affairs show ''Watchdog'' and subsequently (and much more infamously) ''[[The Weakest Link]]'', although her accent is effectively indistinguishable from RP.

 

=== [[Oop North|Manchester (Manchestrians)]] ===

=== [[Home Counties|Received Pronunciation (Posh/Educated/BBC/Queen's English/RP/Oxford)]] ===

Nobles, intellectuals, snobs, the [[Battle Butler]], older people who went to public school or worked for the BBC, and/or foreigners substituting this for their own native accent. Although ironically, in [[Real Life]], there are three variants of RP, two of which are less affected. [[The BBC]] used to insist on everyone speaking RP, but this is no longer the case: some of the old announcers still use the accent, though. The closest thing to an American equivalent is Midwestern (the area around Chicago), which is used in American media as "standard American English".

* On Canadian TV, the male character speaking in RP has at least a 50% chance of being gay.

* This is [[Rowan Atkinson]]'s accent. At least for general usage. Atkinson also does a very good Geordie accent (mostly used on older [[Not the Nine O'Clock News|NTNON]] sketches, on account of being from County Durham.

** For an example, Lyra in [[His Dark Materials|Northern Lights]] associates with people from the Jericho area, and Philip Pullman transcribes some of the way she therefore speaks into her dialogue. Note the use of 'ent' for 'haven't' and 'isn't', particularly: 'That ent right!' or 'I ent got it!'.

* Yeah, it's not just towns that have distinct accents. It's ''areas'' of towns too.

=== [[The West Country|Rural]] ===

Also called "Mummerset". Stock accent for a broadly defined region stretching from Cornwall through to Somerset and old Wessex. Plenty of "oo-ar", while chewing a stalk of hay (stalk, not stack); associated with intellectual challenge, broad ignorance and depthless cunning, and usually used as comic relief.

* The exception being Phil Harding, an archaeologist who appears on the long-running "''[[Time Team]]''" archaeology programme, speaks with a broad Somerset accent, looks like a poacher, has a worrying affection for digging very, very big holes (he's the one most likely to call for the JCB) and knows pretty much all there is to know about ancient pottery. But he * still* gets used as comic relief.

* More accurate programs set in this area will contrast working class Mummerset with upper-middle class RP. Associated with much fearful pointing at planes, shunning of cameras in fear of their soul, etc.

=== [[Oop North|Yorkshire (Tyke)]] ===

Rural with a twist of lime and 256-bit encryption. Noticeably archaic ("thee" and "thou", somewhat altered, are still used in conversation in rural areas) with broadly shifted vowels compared to Received Pronunciation, Yorkshire dialect is heavily influenced in both vocabulary and phonemes by (of all things) Norwegian, thanks to invading Vikings long ago. As a result, it can, at its worst, be absolutely impenetrable to non-Brits, to the point of not sounding like English at all. Americans know this accent best from the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch made famous by [[Monty Python]] (though it actually came from ''At Last The 1948 Show''). For a sample, see the county song, [[wikipedia:On Ilkla Moor Baht %27at|On Ilkla moor Baht'at]], though despite the aforementioned sketch the accent is most often associated with blunt speaking, with hard headed and intractable speakers nonetheless being unfailingly honest.

* If a character uses the word "reight/reet", "owt" or "nowt" (for "right", "anything" and "nothing"--the last two come from "aught" and "naught"), and greets people by deadpanning "Now then", you're in Yorkshire. Unless he's Fred in ''[[Coronation Street]]''. T' is also a good giveaway, although if the Ts are actually pronounced the actor has probably never been farther north than Portsmouth. The Yorkshire T' is actually a glottal stop, sounding more like adding a T sound to the end of the ''preceding'' word: "I've been down t'pit" is pronounced "I've been downt pit".

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTwweLJ78KE Brett Domino] is an example of a Yorkshire (Leeds) accent on [[YouTube]].

** Those Americans who watch old ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]'' episodes will recognize this as the accent of "Compo" Semmonite.

** The alternative greeting is, "'Ey up," as used by certain Essex-born persons who identify as Northern in an attempt to avoid any remaining doubt in their accent. Or your choice of "Ey up pet" or "Ey up duck", if you're being familiar. "Ey up me duck" is also known to be a common greeting from those of Derbyshire and the East Midlands. "Chuck" is nice one too. Which means "chicken". It's not clear what poultry has to do with any of this.

 

== ''Nordunn Oireland'' ==

* Western accents ((London)Derry/Tyrone/Fermanagh) tend to be softer

* [[The Deep South|Irish Sea/North Channel coastal]] accents which are a mix of two with a hint of [[Bonnie Scotland|Scottish]] for good measure

 

One of the most notable sounds in the Northern Irish accent is "ar." People speak into their jaws, again audible when the "ow" sound is used. So when you next meet a Northern Irish person ask them to say "An hour in the power shower", and it comes out as "An arr in the par shar". Also, "ow" is pronounced more like "oi", leading to [[Hilarity Ensues]] when it comes to "how now brown cow". This sound is particularly distinctive because it tends to be retained by Northern Irish people even when otherwise they are toning down their accent (such as newsreaders presenting national news): in the middle of an otherwise RP-sounding sentence we will be told that the Prime Minister has announced that interests rates will come "doyn". Although again, this is not the same all over Northern Ireland. People from (London)Derry do tend to pronounce power - "Pau-yer". Also see "k-yar" for "car", "say-vin" for "seven" and "fill-um" for "film".

* For a [[Real Life]] example look for any recording of interviews or panels with [[Grant Morrison]].

* ''Kelvinside - The posh bit of Glasgow'': A Kelvinside accent is very clipped, and mangles vowels (most notably turning "a" into "e"). Usually only used by female characters and indicates extreme snobbishness. A common gag is for a character to drop her Kelvinside accent when annoyed, implying it's a pure affectation. A similar Edinburgh accent is Morningside.

*** If you are wondering what a "posh" Glasgow accent sounds like then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EGp0tb8g4I listen to presenter Anita Manning].

* And to listen to some East End of Glasgow accents watch some [http://www.youtube.com/misterglasgow Mister Glasgow]. And [http://www.youtube.com/glasgowtelevision Glasgow Television].

 

Often used for comic relief, but more in a Funny Foreigner-style "they have their own ways" manner. In terms of sound, some have compared it to a light Indian accent (of all things). When it comes to ''impersonating'' the accent for comic effect, it's quite common for an attempt at one to slip into the other; this, of course, says more about impersonation than it does about the many (fine, noble, steeped in history etcetera etcetera) qualities of the actual accents in question. Often described as "singsong" or "musical", partly because of the tonal aspect and partly because Wales is associated with singing in the popular imagination.

* As with Irish, the grammar and usage of the Welsh language tends to influence Welsh English, even if its speakers do not speak Welsh itself. This mostly manifests itself through [[Verbal Tic|Verbal Tics]] such as ending sentences with it "is it?" and "look you" (basically the equivalent of "...you know?)

 

* ''Hi-De-Hi'' - Gladys Pugh

* [[Pobol y Cwm]] - Set in Southwest Wales, where they love to mention which characters are "gogs" (from ''gogleddol'', "Northern")

* The redone Dalish Elves in [[Dragon Age 2]] all have Welsh accents.

* "Sketch" (real name: Lucy) in the second season of ''[[Skins]]''.

 

=== Hong Kong ===

 

=== Gibraltar ===

 

----

* In the English translation of the ''[[Excel Saga (manga)|Excel Saga]]'' manga, Sumiyoshi's lines are in the Geordie accent.

* The American dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' has Luna speak Received Pronunciation.

* Anime characters who sound inexplicably British are all over the place in dubs. Like [[Yu-Gi-Oh!|Bakura]]. The idea is to make these characters sound polite and well educated, the stereotypical British accent being the closest the English-speaking world has to "ultra-polite Japanese". It's similar to how the stereotypical Southern Accent is used to portray [[The Idiot From Osaka]] in some English Dubs.

** In the case of Ayeka from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'', it's intended to portray the particularly archaic and upper-class form of Japanese that she uses in the original.

* Of course, England in the English dub of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' has one. It's an exaggerated RP accent to go with his [[Stuffy Brit|British Stuffiness]]. However, when he gets drunk, he will lapse into a Cockney accent and start ranting at the nearest person, who is usually America.

 

* ''[[Trainspotting]]'' delivers a film entirely steeped in various Scottish accents from the relatively "posh" Edinburgh dialect to the angry "Weegie" alcoholic. Justified in that the film takes place in Edinburgh for the most part. The characters even lampshade other Scottish accents such as Sean Connery.

* Johnny Depp's accent in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' is noticeably British; it's difficult to determine ''what kind'' of British, however.

** East Anglia, shading towards Estuary, and based on Kent-born Keith Richards.

* Virtually all of the evil characters in ''[[Star Wars]]'' speak with an [[Evil Brit]] accent -- with the noticeable exception of Darth Vader. And Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is decidedly good but speaks with a British accent anyway.

** A meta-example: The main reasons why David Prowse didn't do Darth Vader's voice was a) he had a tenor speaking voice, and b) he had a West Country accent, which is quite possibly the least intimidating British accent there is.

*** "Ee, the force is [[Bill Bailey|strong in this 'un]]!"

** Natives of the planet Coruscant (the cultural center of the galaxy) tend to speak with a British accent.

** Grand Moff Tarkin's homeworld was Eriadu, which was not a Core World but aspired to be.

*** And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaMso75ddb8 far worse] exist on TV.

** Admiral Motti, the prissy guy who insults Vader's belief in the Force, hasn't got a Bitish accent. He's played by American Richard LeParmentier.

* Speaking of hooligans, Charlie Hunnam's antipodean-leaning cockney accent in ''[[Green Street]]'' is the worst ever English accent by an actual English person.

* ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' takes place in the fictional village of Sandford in [[The West Country]]; naturally, Gloucestershire accents are the norm, some so thick they require translation.

* ''[[The Full Monty]]'' has [[Robert Carlyle]] (a Scot) playing a Sheffielder, requiring a South Yorkshire accent. Both he and the rest of the cast do a pretty good job ([[Mark Addy]], for one, is from Yorkshire). However, as a Barnsley lad, I can tell you that it isn't a ''Sheffield'' South Yorkshire accent. Sounds more like Doncaster, actually.

* ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' features [[Dick Van Dyke]] playing chimney sweep Bert with a notoriously exaggerated cockney accent (occasionally slipping out of it during some lines of dialogue and on the occasional sung verse). Van Dyke's accent is often ranked as one of the worst attempts at a "British" accent by an American actor, a factor acknowledged -- with good humor -- by Van Dyke on recent DVD releases of the film. (It's also why he didn't use one in the later ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'' even though his character's father and children all had proper British accents). One English language coach in the movie industry reported that the one thing practically every director says to her in productions with English accents is "I don't want to anyone to sound like Dick van Dyke".

*** To be fair this is basically [[Truth in Television]]: RP (or at any rate faintly Brummised RP or EE) speakers with full-on comedy Brummie parents are far from unknown. Regional accents tend to be a lot stronger in people's parents these days as RP and EE bulldoze regional accents into nothing, especially with accents generally seen as rather undesirable like Brummie and Yam Yam. Unremitting, terminal Geordies are also rarer than they were.

** And Luna, who lives near the Weasleys, is Irish. Rhys Ifans, who is Welsh, played Xenophilius as a [[Fake Irish]] to match [[Evanna Lynch]]'s accent.

* The 1993 film version of ''[[The Secret Garden]]'' features a wide range of accents, but most notable is Dickon's broad Yorkshire. (Oddly, his sister Martha sounds much closer to Received Pronunciation.)

* In ''[[Mrs. Doubtfire]]'', Robin Williams' character adopts a generic british accent while dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire. Notable in that a British character [[Lampshade Hanging|points out]] that it's a generic sounding accent, and he's unable to tell where in Britain she's from. (It's mainly a form of Lowland Scots.)

** [[Truth in Television]] to a degree that might shock most of the people reading this page.

* ''[[Twin Town]]'' is set in Swansea, and basically works as an introduction to the accents and syntax of English as spoken in South Wales.

* Recall the special mention for Hong Kong? The [[Chuck Norris]] actioner ''Forced Vengeance'' showcases this briefly as Norris is given a physical by a Hong Kong doctor.

 

* Usually the way Americans are exposed to Yorkshire is through ''[[The Secret Garden]]'', as the book transliterates the housemaid Martha's Yorkshire dialect, including "thous" and "thees" ("Canna thy dress thysen?"). Until I was about 12, I thought that's how all British people who weren't rich, on the BBC, or from London spoke.

** There is a free podcasted audio version of the book produced by Librivox and read by primarily American voices. One reader's brave attempt to reproduce this Whitby accent they were most likely completely unfamiliar with has to be heard to be believed. The result sounds closer to [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] impersonating [[Sean Connery]] impersonating a drunken pirate, and is one of the most bafflingly bad accents you will likely ever hear.

* ''[[Redwall]]'' is absolutely packed with [[Funetik Aksent]] dialogue, mostly based on real accents. Burr aye, ee molers iz ee best known. Vermin tend to be generic pseudo-cockney/thug/[[Talk Like a Pirate|piratical]], or with completely fictional accents such as Wraith's [[Trrrilling Rrrs]], though there were two in ''Salamandastron'' who spoke with a noticeable Brummie twang (especially in the audiobook) and the [[Big Bad]] characters tend to use Standard English.

** And in the first book, the extreme accents are [[Lampshaded]] when the sparrow's dialect is treated like a foreign language.

 

** Note also the differences between the "public" and "private" accents of Dames Judi Dench and Helen Mirren in the same show.

** Rose Tyler even questions the Ninth Doctor's accent after he reveals himself to be an alien.

'''The Doctor:''' Lots of planets have a north! }}

** [[Karen Gillan]]'s Amy Pond maintains a distinct Scottish lilt despite having spent most of her life in Gloucestershire - the Doctor notes that if she's kept the accent, she clearly doesn't belong there.

** Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor is an interesting case -- McGann, who's from Liverpool, makes a game attempt at RP, but it [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|fades in and out]]. (McGann, on the [[DVD Commentary]], chalks it up to being tired during the shoot.) In [[Big Finish Doctor Who]], you can clearly tell that when he's being particularly emotional, his accent tends to get more Scouse. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|It doesn't sound so bad...]] at all, in fact.

** In the episode "Smith and Jones", the line "Judoon platoon upon the Moon" was put in to torture David Tennant because it makes him struggle to quelch his Scottish accent.

** But then this is ruined when we are shown his father in season 4, who seems to speak in a mangled west country dialect. This ''could'' be fanwanked from being from elsewhere on the [[Planet of Hats|planet]].

** [[Mark Sheppard]] also uses his native London accent as Romo Lampkin. He's probably from Caprica, as he had been a student of Joseph Adama, but he could have been an immigrant from elsewhere (like Joseph Adama).

** Additionally, Jamie Bamber suppresses his London accent in favor of an [[Fake American|American one]], to match Edward James Olmos (his character's father). Olmos wore blue contact lenses in exchange.

* ''[[Firefly]]'' -- Genuine London-born [[Mark Sheppard]] using a London accent as Badger.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' -- the most famous example is Spike, played by James Marsters with a <s>very fair</s> painful but gradually improving attempt at a Cockney/Estuary accent. During flashbacks he also uses a similarly decent RP accent. This leads to a bit of a shock when you hear him with his natural Californian accent!

** On the other hand there's Giles, played by actual Brit Anthony Stewart Head with an RP accent (in contrast to his natural Estuary accent).

** Drusilla's accent, and those of the British Slayers-in-training, stayed pretty awful throughout.

* ''[[Primeval]]'' being set in London manages to get a wide variety of British accents in there outside of the normal RP such as Abby and Connor. But the fourth and fifth seasons were filmed in Ireland so a lot of the cast are Irish actors trying to do British accents. Ruth Bradley (Emily) and Ruth Kearney (Jess) are Irish and hide their accents very well but you do get the occasional extra failing awfully and one episode (filmed in Wicklow) had a man with a passable accent but his mother had a thick Irish accent.

* In one episode of ''[[Kingdom]]'', northerner Lyle is complaining about the Household Cavalry regiments of the British Army being exclusive to the upper class. We hear another northern accent- it's one of his working-class school mates.

* ''Special 1 TV'' (formerly ''I'm On Setanta Sports'') used a variety of stock British accents. The Wayne Rooney puppet has a generic Scouse accent, caller "Alex in Manchester" (a.k.a. Sir Alex Ferguson) speaks with a generic Glaswegian accent, and caller "Dave in Newcastle" (a generic Newcastle United fan) speaks Geordie.

* ''[[The Thick of It]]'' is a veritable smörgåsbord of [[British Accents]], but by far the most famous is Malcolm Tucker's thick Glaswegian accent. In a nod to the real-life "[[wikipedia:Scottish mafia|Scottish Raj]]" in the Labour government, Olly remarks about how ''everyone'' in the Number 10 press office seems to be from Scotland (the most notable example being Jamie, Malcolm's assistant in the specials).

* ''[[Farscape]]'', the noted science fiction series of the early 2000s, was produced in Australia and, except for American lead actor Ben Browder and the occasional guest star, its cast was made up primarily of Australian actors. While most actors retained their Australian accents, notable exceptions were those playing "Peacekeepers" or "Sebaceans" who often (but not always) adopted some form of "British" accent, in particular the recurring villain Scorpius, played to the hilt in [[Evil Brit]] mode. On several occasions Browder's American character impersonates Peacekeepers and also has his consciousness taken over by Scorpius; in both cases, he adopts a mild RP accent.

* Another [[Real Life]] example: [[John Barrowman]] of ''[[Torchwood]]'' fame has a US accent but was born and raised in Scotland. In a documentary he was shown visiting his parents, whom he speaks to in his original Scottish accent.

** Barrowman made an effort to learn an American accent when his family relocated to America as a child because he was being bullied. He and his sister are what they refer to as "bi-dialectical" and can switch between their American and Scottish accents at will.

* [[The BBC]]'s 1983 adaptation of [[Robert Westall]]'s ''[[The Machine Gunners]]'' provides a sound grounding in Geordie accents and pronunciation. Notable in that virtually everyone in the serial, children and adults alike, speaks with a Geordie accent. Only a few of the Grammar school teachers have RP ones.

 

* Nick Drake's upper class English accent is audible in his singing, and his relaxed delivery is a big part of the exotic feel of his songs.

* [[Arctic Monkeys]] are from Sheffield (well, near Sheffield), and don't let anyone forget it.

* Lena Meyer-Landrut, the German winner of the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] 2010, sings with a Cockney accent. She blames her English teacher.

** I can only assume her English teacher was Dick Van Dyke...

* [[Garbage|Shirley Manson]] has a ''powerfully'' Scottish accent, but sounds practically American when she sings...mostly. Listen to "I Think I'm Paranoid" and pay attention to how she pronounces "paranoid." She sounds like a ''cartoon character.''

* Sophie Ellis-Bextor keeps her strong London accent when singing.

** Biffy Clyro also sing in a slight Scottish accent, though it's not nearly as obvious as the other two examples.

** For this matter, Lily Allen sounds exactly like a typical North Londoner right down to the way she enunciates her lyrics.

* Maxïmo Park's Paul Smith has a very clear North-East England<ref> Don't confuse Newcastle and Middlesborough, they don't take it well</ref> accent he sings with.

* Terrorvision are from Bradford, but for their first album Tony Wright tried to suppress his accent and adopt a fairly neutral transatlantic accent. From the second album onwards he started using more of his [http://youtu.be/7Kf9k9uEkYc natural Yorkshire drawl].

* Many Americans were surprised when [[Adele]] accepted her multiple awards at the 2012 Grammys and she spoke in a Cockney accent. As one person on Twitter commented: "Singing voice of an angel, speaking voice of a chimney sweep."

 

** When attacking the Ork base in ''[[Dawn of War]]: Dark Crusade'', one of the massed Orkish voices is quite clearly shouting "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" in RP.

** Oddly enough, the Eldar seem to have extremely mangled accents from ''Barrow''.

 

* [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s play ''[[Pygmalion]]'' centres around a bet that a guy can pass a Cockney flower girl off as a duchess by among other things poshing up her accent.

 

* ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'' features a wide variety of different British accents. Makes sense, because the developers of this specific game were British, but notable because it contrasts with the other games in the series, which were developed in Japan and in dubbed into English in the US.

* '''''DOSH!''''' Just take a look at the ''[[Killing Floor]]'' article.

* A few are dotted inexplicably around ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''. Especially notable is one, and only one, of the Great Khans, whose father is an NCR citizen and has no accent.

* Yangus from ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' talks exactly like the introductory sentence of this page, with "guv" being used whenever he calls [[The Hero]].

* ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'' was dubbed in Britain rather than America, and all the characters display British accents as a result. Notably, most of them speak with working-class accents (especially Rein), whereas the standard 'received pronunciation' does not appear to exist. {{spoiler|The first speaking Mechon you meet}} speaks in ''very'' distinct Cockney, which [[Narm|may make it somewhat difficult to be menaced by him.]]

 

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'''s "Lara Kroft-Macaroni-And-Cheese" Arc, the titular character character speaks in a Cockney accent. The ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' character who is being spoofed speaks in RP.

* ''[[Turn Signals on a Land Raider]]'' has Corporal Cavendish, a on-and-off character who appears when models have to be proxied due to breakage...

 

* Wakko Warner in ''[[Animaniacs]]'' speaks with a Liverpool-ish accent, despite the fact that his siblings ''don't''. He was [[Word of God|intended]] to sound like Ringo Starr.

** What the heck was Pinky's accent, though?

*** A sort of crap Estuary/Cockney effort.

* Pip from ''[[South Park]]'' speaks with a deliberately muddled cross between Cockney and RP. British guest characters usually use one or the other as well.

 

* This trope falls victim to itself, as many non-Brits (Americans, mostly) [[Britain Versus the UK|confuse "British" with "English"]]. Mention of the other four nationalities (Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish) prevents it from being a complete facepalm. Not to mention actually mistaking a Scotsman, Welshman or Irishman for "English" can lead to... unpleasantness.<ref>In other words, "[[In the Loop|Never call me fucking]] ''[[I Take Offense to That Last One|English]]'' [[Violent Glaswegian|again]]!"</ref>

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Useful Notes/Britain]]

[[Category:Accent Tropes]]

[[Category:British Media Tropes]]