Let's Talk About Accents

At the beginning of this semester, I spent a lot of my time watching the new season of Love Island (the UK version of course). The first thing I noticed was that the contestants had different types of British accents. I had no clue that there were so many different types. Growing up, me and my friends always spoke in a British accent to sound "proper", using the accents that we heard on TV. However, we were unaware that this was the British accent that was being broadcasted to us. According to Babbel Magazine, there are actually eight types of British accents: Geordie, Welsh English, Scottish, Scouse, Cockney, West Country, Yorkshire, and "posh" English (https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/royal-family-of-british-accents-7-regional-variants-british-english). Each have their own pronunciation and slang terms. For instance, "Yer off yer head!" means "You're quite mad".

The accent my childhood self used the most was "posh" English. There isn't an actual name for "posh" English, as no specific area of Britain uses this accent. However, it is used by the Queen and media sources , forming the stereotypical accent that my friends and I imitated. Features of "posh" English include emphasizing the letter "H" at the beginning of words, not using your "R's" and expressing long vowels for  words such as "darling" (I bet you read that in a British accent).

One of the contestants on Love Island, Callum, had a Cockney accent which I couldn't understand at all. I had to put on subtitles! What I found interesting is that all the other contestants immediately knew where he was from. In the first episode, everyone differentiated themselves through the accent they spoke. I referred to the article (which I included above) to research these different accents I was hearing. This article reminded me of some of the presentations we heard in class, specifically the one about whether the Connecticut accent exists. In the United States, there's a New York accent and a Boston accent. By saying a word as simple as "coffee", someone can tell if you're from either of those places. Just like the United States, different places in the United Kingdom differentiate themselves through their accents. Do other countries do the same thing? Guess I'll have to research that next!

Comments

  1. AM. DadakApril 1, 2020 at 12:14 PM

    I've been wanting to be able to identify Brit regional accents like I can US accents, but no luck yet. Nice link to Dom's work on the CT accent.

    ReplyDelete

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