Learn various accents/dialects

Question

So hey people, I am new to this forums, and I hope to learn a lot during my time here. I wonder if I could get some help on accents. Recently my interest in them has grown, but I also suck at it! I can't hear the difference between accents, may it be someone from Wales, UK, Scotland or Australia who speaks. I would also like to revise my own pronunciation, and learn to keep myself to ONE accent, and not mix, lets say Am english / Brit English.

I'd love to get some tips on how to achieve what I wish. Maybe some links to sites where audio is available? Anything that could help

Furthermore I have a few questions,

- what's the difference between accent and dialects?
- How many "British" accents are there? And what's the difference? I have only heard of cockney, but I don't know how it sounds like. And what the heck is "RP"?
- I find "Scotish" (not even sure if you say scotish) very charming. Are there any specific traits that is characteristic for a scotish accent? All I know is that they often do not pronounce the letter "h", so here becomes 'ere, and my becomes 'me', fuck sounds like fock, up like op and so on. That's pretty much all I know. Also, is there any place online where I can listen to this accent? I don't care what I listen to, may it be a podcast, or an audio book, I really don't care, I just want to grasp the accent.
- What kind of US accent are there? I really can't hear the difference. I recognize a southern US accent but that's all.
- How can I distinguish various accents from oneother?

THANK YOU in advance!
EDIT: I also want to point out that atm I want to focuse on British English, as well as the australian accent, and also Scotish

Bldudas · Accepted Answer

Hello, here are two websites I found dealing with different English dialects. http://web.ku.edu/idea/index.htm , http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/dialectsofenglish.html

Since I am a native speaker, I can definitely tell when people speak a different dialect than myself.

You cannot recognise US accents? Where are the people from you hear? You should be able to recognise New York and Boston. Maybe not Philadelphia.

Sorry, but I do not really understand most of what someone with a Scottish accent is saying. I know they roll r's, which is one reason why I cannot understand them.

RP stands for Received Pronounciation. It is the standard English dialect that all other dialects are based upon.

Nona the brit · Answer

accent: a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region

dialect: a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language

Dialects need a greater variation from the 'standard' or other varieties, whereas accent is more about pronounciation.

You should find this wiki article on British English accents and dialects useful:

I'd disagree that RP is the standard English accent - only about 2% of us speak it. And certainly the other dialects did not develop from RP - they developed over hundreds if not thousands of years for a variety of reasons. For example, there is still a language difference between the areas that were ruled by the Vikings and the rest of the country. The history of English as spoken in England is a very interesting one due to the constant influence of other languages.

I don't know how many different English accents there are. Some areas have their own accent and even some cities/towns have their own accent. 'Lots' would be my best answer, although many of them can be loosely grouped together. I know someone who reckons you can tell which side of her village-street people were born on, as the accents are slightly different! She could be pulling my leg though...

Scottish (two t's) - again there isn't a single Scottish accent. Someone from Glasgow sounds different to someone from Edinburgh, for example, but there are some overall similarities. All I know is that they often do not pronounce the letter "h", so here becomes 'ere - I haven't noticed my Scottish friends doing this?,

and my becomes 'me', *** sounds like fock, up like op and so on. That's pretty much all I know. Also, is there any place online where I can listen to this accent? I don't care what I listen to, may it be a podcast, or an audio book, I really don't care, I just want to grasp the accent. To be honest, what you are saying here sounds more like an Irish accent to me than Scottish?

Also, with British accents you have to factor in class as well as geography. That makes a difference to how people speak. My Scottish friends are two sisters with quite different accents, even though they grew up together. One went to a local private school and has a posher accent than the one who went to the local state school.

Anonymous · Answer

You should find this wiki article on British English accents and dialects useful
Yep, already finished that one yesterday.

I don't know how many different English accents there are. Some areas have their own accent and even some cities/towns have their own accent.
I thought you only had a few. Like I said I suck at accents. I don't even know what accents we have here where I live! So what are the major accents? And how can I distinguish them from eachother?

Scottish (two t's) - again there isn't a single Scottish accent.
Well you learn something new every day. I honestly though that in Scotland, there was one accent and it was Scottish. Proved me wrong, which I noticed when browsing this site for 3 hours during my all nighters, http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland . There are indeed several scottish accents.

I haven't noticed my Scottish friends doing this?
Like I said I know basicly nothing about accents but this,I am positive about. I've heard it a few times before. I don't know from where in Scotland the people were from but I'm positive they had those traits when speaking.

To be honest, what you are saying here sounds more like an Irish accent to me than Scottish?
I have no idea how Irish sounds.

Anywhere I can listen to it?

Thank you nona the brit for your reply.

Bldudas: thanks so much. I'll def. check them out. I've been staying up all night browsing the web for sites that can help me.

You cannot recognise US accents? Where are the people from you hear? You should be able to recognise New York and Boston. Maybe not Philadelphia.
Well, I might recognize that the accent is a US one, but not anything more specific than that. The american accent is the easiest to recognize. I'm having a hard time telling the difference between for example Australian Eng and Brit Eng. I can't even tell the difference. And Scottish, I don't even understand what they're saying. I watched "Green Street Hooligans" (lovely lovely film) but I didn't understand half of what they were saying, same goes with "This is England". No idea what accent they had in that film, but it must have been a scottish one (?) cause I did not understand much.

I can guarantee you that I do not recognize New York/Boston/Philly accents.

I only know of the "regular" american accent and the southern one. That are all american accents that exists for me, unfortunately.

I know they roll r's, which is one reason why I cannot understand them.
I just LOVE the scottish accent, but I can't understand a dime. What does "rolling" something means? Rolling r's?

You are from Philly? Do you know of West Chester? How does a Philadelphian accent sound like?

Thank you for the reply!

EDIT: I also wanted to ask if there is any way of finding out what accent I have? I have absolutely no idea and I feel like it's a mixture between several accents. Is there anything I can do in order to find out what accent I have? I spotted this website but it doesnt make much sense to me: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland/selkirk/

Bldudas · Answer

Bldudas: thanks so much. I'll def. check them out. I've been staying up all night browsing the web for sites that can help me.

You cannot recognise US accents? Where are the people from you hear? You should be able to recognise New York and Boston. Maybe not Philadelphia.
Well, I might recognize that the accent is a US one, but not anything more specific than that. The american accent is the easiest to recognize. I'm having a hard time telling the difference between for example Australian Eng and Brit Eng. I can't even tell the difference. And Scottish, I don't even understand what they're saying. I watched "Green Street Hooligans" (lovely lovely film) but I didn't understand half of what they were saying, same goes with "This is England". No idea what accent they had in that film, but it must have been a scottish one (?) cause I did not understand much.

I can guarantee you that I do not recognize New York/Boston/Philly accents. I only know of the "regular" american accent and the southern one. That are all american accents that exists for me, unfortunately.

I know they roll r's, which is one reason why I cannot understand them.
I just LOVE the scottish accent, but I can't understand a dime. What does "rolling" something means? Rolling r's?

You are from Philly? Do you know of West Chester? How does a Philadelphian accent sound like?

Thank you for the reply!

Too bad you cannot tell the difference. The southern accent sounds horrible to me.

A rolled r is when the tongue vibrates against the front of the pallet. Hard to do. For me anyway.

West Chester is near where I live. I live in the Philly suburbs. I cannot completely describe the Philly accent, here is a website. Right now I can tell you a few things.

Here are some things I know:

are and our are pronounced the same (appearantly they are pronounced differently)

tore and tour are pronounced the same (again pronounced differently)

poor, pore and pour are pronounced the same (pronounced differently? again)

glottal stop is used after vowels, l, n ,and r at the end of a syllable

Mary and merry are pronounced the same

Very few outsiders can recognize it!

Sushi* · Answer

Thanks a lot.. it helped me really well

SPECIALLY, if your teacher needs a teacher himself

i'm a student only, so i need this help

thanx again

Anonymous · Answer

Does anyone know of an internet resource that will help with a Liverpool accent?  I can add scouser to my speech as much as I want and refer to anything I possess as me whatever I but my accent keeps on coming out as more of an Irish lilt instead of the more melodic Liverpudlian drawl.

Learn various accents/dialects

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