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the most "British" British English
So many kinds of different dialects exist in England. Sometimes it's really hard to understand a particular accent for non-native speakers like me.
I'm wondering which one should be considered the most "British" and should be learned.
I've heard it said that England has more variety of accent and dialect for its size than any other country in the world.
Standard English though is the English spoken by 'educated' people in the South of England, this is the standard form of the language. I would learn this. This standard is pretty much the same standard as 'international English'.
Ed : « I've heard it said that England has more variety of accent and dialect for its size than any other country in the world. »
Je pense que c'est faux — Ich denke daß, es nicht wahr ist.
It might well not be true, but I suspect it would be hard to disprove. Where would you suggest has more?
It is true. Manchester accents are quite a bit different than Bolton accents, but Manchester is only 16 miles away.
If we were to say that of all the English speaking countries, then it may well be true that the British Isles has the widest range of accents and dialects. That's different from saying: *** England has more variety of accent and dialect for its size than any other country in the world***.
How many of us know how wide a range of accents and dialects exists in Germany? Or France? Both are physically large countries and have geographically diverse regions, like the UK. And how about Spain? Spain is very large and really does have very diverse regions.....Galicia and Andalusia look to be as different as chalk is from cheese. It also has very distinct Language differences as well.
<Or perhaps Norway? So many dialects and only 4,5 million people... >
Dialects and accents are different. Ain't they?
Bolton has its own vocabulary which isn't really that well know in Manchester such as:
Dobber- a fat person Wang dang doo- a good time
<Dobber- a fat person
Wang dang doo- a good time > What the ....... ?! What the hell is Bolton? The Australian State of Britan?
But in Germany or France or Spain are there places where the accents or dialects of cities as close together as Manchester and Bolton are distinct? Galician and Andalucian are very different, but they are seperated by hundreds of kilometres.
I'm not saying that there aren't countries where there isn't more variety as there surely must be many, just that in England much variety is packed into a small area. As I said, this statement may well be wrong, but would be difficult to disprove.
I can't imagine that one British accent is "more" British than another.
Well, in Norway a trained ear can pinpoint your municipality based on your speech.
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