How can an Englishman be considered to speak English with an English accent?

Question

We would consider it a nonsense to say that a Frenchman speaks French with a French accent.

Cecil..I think you will find you are wrong...you must be getting mixed up with the Irish influence on the accent in America. I can tell you are American from your use of "anyways" :-)

Fabee...you have just admitted it.."English with a Jamaican accent or French with a Quebec accent". English spoken by an Englishman can only have a dialect & not an English accent as this is a nonsense...it is our language!

Jonathon...try to think a bit deeper please.

Alion..A Frenchman cannot have an accent only a dialect..it is only those French speaking peoples in other countries who can be considered to have an accent.

Cecil...my apologies ...have done a bit of research & have found information which agrees with what you say about the former existence in England of pronouncing the letter "r" as American's do (except for maybe around Boston)....Anyways..y'all come back again, d'ya hear?

Answer 1

The people that come to learn a foreign language, speak it with the accent of their native language. So, no an Englishman can not speak English with English accent,
but a Frenchman could speak English with a French accent.

Answer 2

You're right. They should say a "British" accent!

Anyway. If you're in England, and have an RP accent, and you meet someone who is from Manchester. Well, you're going to say he has a Manchester accent.

If you're American and tell your friends that you've met an Englishman, they might (let's just pretend) ask you how you know he was English. Well, you can tell them that he had an English accent.

It all depends on where you live. I'm French, and if I go to Quebec, people will know I'm French because I have a French accent. It makes sense to me. And they would tell me I have a "weird" French accent if I spoke with a Southern French accent.

But maybe you said that it wouldn't make sense if people said that a Frenchman spoke with a French accent because when you think about the French language, you think about France.

When you learn English in France, you're usually taught to speak with the RP (British) accent (I admit that it doesn't seem to be working at all!). But because there are so many different accents around the world, they make us listen to other accents, whether they be British or American (ex: RP, Texan, Scottish, Irish, ... they don't really go into details).

So, basically, if in class we are supposed to identify which accent we can hear, we'll say: English, American, etc (our ears are not really good at recognizing slight differences). Same for English-speaking people. If you learn French, and your teachers wants to make you aware of the different French accents, you'd have to do exactly the same.

Answer 3

This question doesn't really have any meaning - of course an Englishman speaks English with an English accent, just as a Frenchman speaks French with a French accent (well he certainly doesn't speak it with an English accent!)

Answer 4

We might not consider it nonsense to say that a Frenchman speaks French with a French accent if we were in Quebec.

Answer 5

well, the english practice of non-rhotic english pronunciation is a relatively new trend in Britain. Before the mid-18th century, Englishmen spoke like Americans. So you could say that the manner in which the English speak today is incorrect, and American English is (more) correct. Anyways, it is definitely correct to say Englishmen speak with an English accent.

addendum- I certainly am not wrong. Non-Rhotic pronunciation came into fashion in England in the 1700's- That is the reason American english is Rhotic-it was how Englishmen spoke when the colonies were founded. On the obverse, non-rhotic english's appearance in England also accounts for the non-rhotic english of Australia and New Zealand--the English had already adopted the nonrhotic by the time those colonies were founded.
What?? is it too hard to swallow that your ancestors spoke more like someone from Virginia than from London? Give me a break. The "Queen's English" is a corruption of true English pronunciation. Sorry, mate. Cheerio!

Answer 6

because they are varieties of accents and an Englishman can speak English with a Jamaican accent, as a person from Quebec will spea French with an accent from Quebec.

Answer 7

It would be nonsense to say a Frenchman has a French accent?
Then what accent would he have?

Answer 8

it quite is an analogous reason that French, Spanish, and so forth. have diverse accents reckoning on the section. people who're bodily separated "evolve" of their language. additionally, human beings of diverse languages social gathering to make a diverse accessory. it quite is like how various Scandinavians moved to Minnesota, and something of the U. S. hears a definite "Minnesota accessory".

Answer 9

English has many accents and dialects for example yorkshire lancashire .

Answer 10

because we don't speak it with an american accent?????