how many major accents are there in england?

Question

in the US there are so many from the northeast,southern twang,west coast ,jersey,boston,midwest etc...
many people in the US just assume the english as having one whole accent.
I can easily tell apart the english,irish ,scottish ,australian
accents.how many english are there? do you sometimes maybe mock a different regional dialect in a way that would be lost on an american?

Answer 1

There are so so many, every town or city is slightly different, but most places down south are categorised by county. I'm from Southampton and have a proper Hampshire accent, which is close to BBC English, but has a slight farmer twang to it. The further west you go the more farmer like it gets. (Love that accent!) Bristol has a strong accent again a different sounding farmer type thing, People from Essex for some reason seem to all talk slightly higher pitched than the rest of us, David Beckham for example (I think he's from Essex?) Portsmouth have a different accent (rougher!) and People in Winchester are closer to queens/BBC English to people from Southampton.
Then there is London, my nan is from London, and she can tell which part of London a person is from, by listening to them. There are many accents in London.

The Isle of Wight has a different accent again. Further north there are loads of different accents but they all really confuse me, and am not 100% sure they are speaking the same language as me half of the time! I like the accents, they are just hard to understand. I must admit I can't always tell Manchester, Newcastle or Liverpool accents apart. They are quite different but sometimes sound very similar.

Answer 2

There are a huge number of accents and even dialects right across England. Each county, or even sometimes each town will have marked differences in how people speak. I live in Gloucestershire, and although it's similar to other westcountry accents, it also has hints of Birmingham in there. Unfortunately, due to the migration of a huge number of people from London and the Southwest to these regions, many are now speaking estuary (I.E. Thames Estuary) English and the regional accents and dialects are being lost.

There are things said in somewhere like Bristol which may not be used anywhere else in the UK, something like "Gert, lush" meaning great and beautiful, wouldn't be understood elsewhere, it's localised. I actually think there is a richness in the dialects of this country which probably points to more differences than between states in the US, even though our country is very much smaller.

By the way - BBC "English" was originally taken from the accent in Aberdeen - Scotland.

Answer 3

Just generally speaking, there are two main english accents: Proper and Cockney. Proper english is the James Bond or royalty version. Cockney is the down in the streets "Guv'nor" you see on tv.

However, there are other "english" accents to consider, too. Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Australian all could be considered an offshoot of english accents, as well.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Answer 4

Nobody's mentioned the South West which is very unique, when in Australia people kept saying I sounded like a pirate!

Cockney is the most annoying for me, there's loads of them round here now, always think they know it all about everything. They call us turnip munchers and we call them cockney w@nkers (pity their fathers weren't!). Scousers are great, really comical. The sexiest has to be from the mouths of the Irish ladies.

Answer 5

American English African American Vernacular English Appalachian English Baltimorese Boston English California English Chicano English conventional American Hawaiian English Maine-New Hampshire English Mid-Atlantic English huge apple-New Jersey English North crucial American English Pacific Northwest English Pittsburgh English Southern American English Utah English Yooper

Answer 6

Queen's English (aka BBC English), Cockney, Geordie, Scouse and Brummie accents are the ones that instantly pop to mind.

Answer 7

we have a very diverse range of accents, often changing within a few miles of each other. Out ancient heritage has probably led to this.

We have unintelligible accents (glaswegian, geordie, broad scouse)

We have intersting accents (cork, and scottish borders)

We have amusing accents (brummie, west country)

We have annoying accents (welsh, mancunian, cockney)

All in all, none of us sound like Dick van Dyke, and don't say

"Gor Blimey Mary Poppins". That is a hollywood english accent.

Answer 8

There's loads of major accents.

Also the longer you live in a certain place the better you get at hearing the subtle differences between that accent and one from say thirty miles away.

Answer 9

Theres the geordie accent - Newcastle, cockney accent - London, Brummie accent- Birmingham, Yorkshire accent - Yorkshire, Scouse - Liverpool. There the accents i can think of around england

Answer 10

Each county has a different accent:
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Nottinghamshire.

I could go on but you get the picture.