Mainstream RP is the most common version heard today, and is used, for example, by many presenters on the BBC. Contemporary RP is used by younger upper-middle-class speakers, and shares certain similarities with Estuary English.
Which British accent is best?
Cockney. Perhaps the most famous British accent other than R.P. is Cockney. It developed as the dialect of the poorer working classes in the East End of London, and it’s still regarded as a marker of ‘true’ East London heritage.
What is the hardest UK accent?
Which UK accents are harder to transcribe than others? This is our list of the top ten areas of difficult regional UK accents:
- Glaswegian.
- Geordie (Newcastle and Tyneside)
- Scouse (Merseyside)
- Black Country (Wolverhampton, Dudley and Walsall areas)
- West and South Yorkshire.
- Leicestershire.
- Cockney (Greater London)
- Essex.
What is the most pure English accent?
Some people believe that RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most standard or general accent in British English. Many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools teach it because it is supposed to be the most “polished” pronunciation. It is typically referred to as “Queen’s English” or “BBC English”.
What is the least attractive UK accent?
A survey of 2,000 Brits gave us insight into what accents are considered the sexiest from across the UK. While Scottish has been ranked as the sexiest, Scouse has officially been named the least attractive accent.
Which is the easiest British accent?
- England has an extraordinary variety of accents for such a small kingdom.
- The generic southern English accent is probably the easiest.
- I’d be cautious of strong regional dialects, you’ll sound okay to those who don’t know any better but a local will spot you a mile off.
What is the least liked accent?
The British, Australian, and French accents were deemed Americans’ favorite, as well as the accents they find sexiest. The Welsh, Korean, and South African accents are the least sexually appealing for respondents, rounding out the bottom in that category.
What accent is closest to British?
Which American accents sound British? The Newfoundland accent is the closest, but sounds like an Irish accent rather than British. Newfinese sounds like someone from Tipperary/ West of Ireland who has lived in America for a short time, with a slight hint of West Country English accent.
Why do Brits pronounce TH as F?
Short answer: It’s a dialectal variant. Different dialects have different sounds. Longer answer: The interdental fricatives, which we represent as “th,” are relatively uncommon; most of the world’s languages do not have them. The “f” sound is much more common (though still not as common as something like “s”).
Who has the nicest accent?
The French accent, previously considered the sexiest in the world, has been dethroned by the British accent, aka the Queen’s English, in a global study carried out by Time Out in over 30 countries.
Which accent is the toughest?
The British Accent
The Great British accent proved to be the most difficult of all the accents to imitate – along with the regional Yorkshire and Cockney pronunciations, in particular.
Who speaks the clearest English?
The Netherlands has emerged as the nation with the highest English language proficiency, according to the EF English Proficiency Index, with a score of 72.
What is the sexist accent in the UK?
Irish voices – however vague that admittedly is – were considered sexy by 28 percent of those polled, followed by Northern Irish, with 26 percent saying it’s hot. The third sexiest was Geordie, and fourth was Welsh.
What is the prettiest accent?
The French accent has been considered for many years as being the sexiest accent in the world. Known as soft and sensual, many once voted for it however its’ popularity is decreasing.
What is the most neutral British accent?
Received Pronunciation (RP)
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the proper term to describe the regionally neutral accent used by many middle-class speakers in the UK, particularly in England.
What is a lazy accent?
The Australian accent is often described as a ‘lazy’ form of English.
Why did we lose our British accent?
The first is isolation; early colonists had only sporadic contact with the mother country. The second is exposure to other languages, and the colonists came into contact with Native American languages, mariners’ Indian English pidgin and other settlers, who spoke Dutch, Swedish, French and Spanish.
What is the oldest accent in England?
Geordie
Geordie. As the oldest English dialect still spoken, Geordie normally refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in Northeast England.
What accent does the Queen have?
Anyone who has heard the Queen’s speeches will recognise her distinctive British accent. This is RP – ‘Received Pronunciation’.
Why do Brits say free instead of three?
Blaxter says that the influence of London and the South East has spread southern pronunciations over the rest of the country — which is why a large minority of people in Hull and Plymouth now say “FREE” even though their parents grew up saying “THREE.”
Why do British people say H weird?
In Britain, H owes its name to the Normans, who brought their letter “hache” with them in 1066. Hache is the source of our word “hatchet”: probably because a lower-case H looks a lot like an axe. It has certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years.