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I'm quite a fan of British comedies, but one thing has always puzzled me:  With some shows like "Keeping Up Appearances" and "Are You Being Served?" I can understand the actors perfectly.  They've obviously got British accents, but other than the occasional slang term, I have no problem.  But with other shows like "Last of the Summer Wine" the accents are so heavy that I can barely follow what they're saying.  The same with movies like "The Descent", I missed almost all the dialog in that whole movie. 

My question:  What's up with that?   :teddyr:  Are these accents from different regions? 

I'm certainly not a Brit, but yes they do have regional dialects just like we here in  the US do.

I lived in Scotland for two years and I can tell you that some people had such thick brogues, you couldn't tell they were speaking English.

I guess it must be exposure, but I don't really have a problem understanding British tv, I watch BBC America all the time.

I love British regional accents. When I was first listening to Monty Python I just thought the same as you, "how come sometimes I can understand these guys and sometimes I can't". It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized they would put on different accents for different skits. There's an upper-class accent, the one we think of as "proper British". John Cleese often used that. But I think there's actually more than one upper-class accent. There's one I've heard sometimes that almost sounds like a lisp: "Vewy nice". Then there's Cockney of course (East Enders, or the musical number "Always Look on the Bright Side" from Life of Brian).

There's the Beatles' accent (Ringo especially), which is the city of Liverpool.

There's the Yorkshire accent, which Monty Python used in the "Four Yorkshiremen" skit of course. "Chicken Run" is Yorkshire (the Tweedys) but the chickens have various accents. So are all those James Herriott "All Things" series. "Full Monty" and "Calendar Girls" were also Yorkshire I believe.

We think Michael Caine sounds proper, but in interviews he says that's a working class accent.

If you've ever seen "Notting Hill" the character Spike (Rhys Ifans) is Welsh.

I'm sure there are many many more that I don't know about, even just in England. I just had a conversation with a Scottish friend about that Taysiders in Space (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLxLmFhROqY) skit that was posted in another thread here. He says he can't understand it either.

I always enjoy women with British accent.  If her voice it's annoying she could sound quite sexy.    We used to have this lady call into the help desk that I worked at who lived was British.  If she didn't sound so annoying her voice would be some what sexy.  Of course she herself was quite ugly so that didn't help at all. 

I'm used to hear various accents from all over the world at my job so I don't have many problems understanding people with accents.  The accents that I have trouble with are people who come from Eastern Africa like around Kenya and Uganda.  Heavy accents are tough but People from Kenya and that region I have had the most trouble with.

NO! NO! NO! I'm sick of the rest of the world thinking we all talk really posh, like it's 18th century london and we're all royalty. All those shows are from the 70's when most actors were well educated and well mannered, with shows focusing on spoofing the upper class and well to do. Britain is mostly down to earth folk, who language is quite relaxed most times and quite abrasive other times. We're not all rich, happy people that drink tea all the time.

Yes there are many regional accents, Mancunian (mine), Yorkshire, Lancashire, Midlands, Cockney, sort of posh southern, Devonshire...so on and so on....It depends on the county you're from, just like in the USA with all you guys' seperate states. My mom's boyfriend is from Liverpool, so he has a scouse accent, but it is very mild. I do understand that some thick accents are impossible to figure words out from, but they are mostly stupid drunken idiots that are really old and stuck in their ways.

I'm from Manchester, but I don't really have much of an accent, just a pretty plain speaking voice and decent pronunciation. I live in Preston in Lancashire though, where the accents are quite thick and most people sound very stupid (because they are) and miss out letters when sounding simple words. Luckily I haven't picked anything up from these parts, even though it's only 30 mins from where I used to live by car.

Oh well  :lookingup:

I agree, but can't blame foreigners for thinking that we all talk posh. I think all Americans have a Californian accent as all the US telly shows and movies are made in LA.
Britain's a small island but there are over 100 accents here, apparently.
In my entire life I've never lived anywhere longer than 3/4 years, I moved a lot gowing up and have people consider me having a posh accent and it really isn't. It's a bland voice.

I wouldn't say that everyone thinks that people from Britain talk posh.  I certainly don't think that way since I've talk to many people from Britain over the last few years.  I think other may just because of what they may hear in a TV show or a movie and think well they all talk that way.

When I watch American telly with a Brit character in, it's nearly always played by a American with a silly false accent. Which is odd when you consider all the Brits in LA at the moment. And they're always played as pompous idiots.

Here's a genuine pompous Brit...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=u3G618-hxgA

Only he has that accent. I've never met anyone who sounds like him. Ever.

I don't actually speak with much of an accent, in fact some local people still ask me if I come from another part of the country. The famous Glaswegian/West Of Scotland accent revolves around missing out the letter 'T' in words. However, a lot of people in the Village area of Cumbernauld are descended from farmers and speak with a somewhat different, lilting accent and talk at a slightly slower rate.

With the casual use of the word 'posh' I now suspect you both of being in fact, veddy, veddy 'posh'.

 :teddyr:

I say, steady on there Old chap!

This is one of my favourite comedic pieces, by Michael McIntyre (southern), poking fun at the north of england.  :teddyr:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=znW7Anwrmd0&feature=related

What does a californian accent sound like just out of curiosity? :bouncegiggle:

Funny, I remember reading a while ago that "the Queen's English" used to be the standard in broadcasting for many years, in spite of being relatively rare among the population of Britain as a whole. Apparently, one of the reasons this has changed is that regional accents are more appealing to the average consumer.

It's actually quite dramatic to compare the original Doctor Who to the new series. After a long line of posh-sounding doctors, along comes Christopher Eccleston from Salford, followed by David Tennant doing Mockney. I have yet to hear what the new guy sounds like.

I have been told that is the key to acquiring the 'posh' British accent: take all the regional peculiarities out, and the bland, average result that is left is BBC 'upper class'.  Do the same with Americans and you get (what used to be) the typical bland 'newscaster' accent (which was once called 'Mid-Western').

What makes me laugh out loud is when subtitles are present when people are speaking accented English!  Most of the time, the accent involved is not all *that* strong - not incomprehensible.  Perhaps the 'ear' of the general public is becoming less versatile or less adaptable?  Seems odd, given that we are all likely to encounter *more* variety in the people we meet (and presumably their accents) these days.

Linguistics is cool.  'Isoglosses' are an interesting phenomenon.  There are regional accents everywhere.  Some approach the level of dialects.  I grew up in an area where the older local farmers could be very hard to understand.   And a  good few of my classmates in high school were Francophones, but even they found it well nigh impossible to understand the tapes our French teacher brought in of people speaking 'joual' in backwoods Quebec.

My brother had a prof in university who, after hearing my brother speak, was able to tell him exactly where he had spent time growing up.  All the places.  Accurately.   :buggedout:  That was way cool!

I "collect" dialects. I love the regional variations in speech patterns/idioms. I agree with Newt's remark about the "newscaster" accent; that's what I've ended up with after years of playing with different dialects. I'm from Texas, but people that I meet from elsewhere rarely believe it at first because I don't have the typical Texas drawl (even though that, too, varies pretty widely by region).

A story more on topic: In a grad school linguistics class, we were discussing accents, in particular British accents (the one being called "posh" here), and I was easily answering all the questions about pronunciation. A classmate turned to me (he was getting a bit frustrated with the questions) and asked me, "How do you know this stuff?" I just answered, "I watch Monty Python."

I'm just beginning to be able to identify British dialects by region; I just don't know the geography well enough yet. I can at least identify most American dialects by state, if not all by more specific areas. As for the man in doggett's clip, he sounds like England's version of a very bored William Shatner: odd inflections, delivery, etc.

One last stupid story: My family was having a picture made. The guy that was going over the digital proofs with us was obviously from Brooklyn: He had the typical Brooklyn accent, and a very heavy one, too. As we were talking, I had to stop myself several times from breaking into the same accent (I didn't want to seem like I was making fun of him or anything). It was hard, as that is one of my favorites to use in certain situations. And no, there's no real point to the story; it was just funny to me. :teddyr:

I guess, I do sound posh then.
Sorry.
I hope my posh voice doesn't offend people. If it's any consolation, I'm broke at the moment.

I don't hear it.   :wink:

MY turn to apologise, doggett: had no idea that being called 'posh' was such a bad thing.  It's not like you are putting on airs.

Posh isn't a bad thing.
It's just posh people have a tendancy (not all of them)to be stuck up and snobbish. And I'm not those. Or rich. I'm from a working class backround but because of my voice no one believes me. :bluesad:

For a posh-sounding British voice, it's hard to beat Tom Baker. I love this video of Baker being interviewed by himself, as played by impressionist Jon Culshaw. Culshaw does an amazing job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9zWuklil8g

I had to go to Scotland for work several years ago and I was embarrassed because I had to keep asking people to repeat themselves . . . I couldn't understand half of what they were saying.  They seemed to add about 4 extra syllables to every word.

Please note the rest of the world (contrary to old TV programs, movies and the like) does not think all the English speak "posh" (port over starboard home) and wonderfully diverse characters are represented in 1990s shows like "Keeping Up Appearances" and 1970s shows like "Are You Being Served?". 
:thumbup: ... Tell me about the Cornish. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khrpy4V0-U4

"Set Phasers to malky!" has become a stock phrase among my friends. 

I remember renting a movie a few years ago (Sweet Sixteen, I believe it was called) where the Scottish accents and regional slang were fairly heavy. I laughed at the tape having English subtitles on English dialogue, but there were a couple of spots where it saved me winding the tape back and listening again. Still, I caught virtually all of what was said without any trouble. It wasn't quite as difficult as the Taysiders in Space.

UK has a ridiculous amount of different regional accents considering we're not exactly a massive country. there's even a slight difference between a Sunderland accent and a Newcastle accent, although you probably have to live there a while to detect it...most people would just label them both 'Geordie'

this is for any US people who may not know the 'Geordie' accent:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7syCAPOSPKQ&feature=related

Similarly, in the New York area there are supposed to be distinct accents among the five boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island), or at least among four of them. I don't know if anyone not from Staten Island has ever claimed to have met a human being from there. And these accents in turn are distinct from the surrounding suburbs of Long Island and New Jersey.

That's a very small geographic area, but there's a lot less cross-travel than you might think, despite the excellent public transportation.

I think I can tell Brooklyn from Manhattan, and possibly Long Island from the others, but other than that they all sound pretty much the same to me. Except that New York Jewish (think Woody Allen) is pretty distinct from New York Italian (think stereotypical Mafioso).

New York only has 5 boroughs ????
London's got 32 !

New Yorkers are a bunch of light weights.  :teddyr:

You know, linguistics is pretty cool. :thumbup: This is interesting stuff and now I feel a little like Professor Henry Hill. But I have a sub-question for our U.K. friends: Did Madonna really speak with a British accent when she lived there? How did that sound? Nails on a chalkboard?

Yes, a bit weird at first, but then she sounded normal.  :smile:

I remember when Christopher Eccleston was signed to play The Doctor there was some buzz about the fact he was the first actor to play him without a 'posh' accent. As a matter of fact, there's a scene in one of his first episodes where Rose Tyler asks him about his accent and he replies "Lots of planets have a North!".  :smile:

It was nails on chalkboard for me.