Favorite accents of English?

[konungursvia]

Yes, South Africans, Newfies, Aussies and Scotsmen are all kind of rough-diamond charming to me. As is the Cockney rhyming slang.

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

I think now the discussion must concentrate on what is an accent!
I think it is the time period and stress on certain words and sounds, and the rhyming like sound from mother tongue(for other than the English mother tongue speaker) languaage, which makes an accent different.
I request members to discuss the finer points of sound, time period, stress on certain sound, the rhyming of speech etc., which makes an accent.

Just for the sake of new page, I am quoting myself again.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

I think now the discussion must concentrate on what is an accent!
I think it is the time period and stress on certain words and sounds, and the rhyming like sound from mother tongue(for other than the English mother tongue speaker) languaage, which makes an accent different.
I request members to discuss the finer points of sound, time period, stress on certain sound, the rhyming of speech etc., which makes an accent.

"Accent" is used for all those things. It's a broad term, meaning the overall character of all the phonetic and phonological variables of a particular person or region, etc.
It is studied scientifically using spectrographic studies, which measure speed, timing, frequency, etc.
Course, chapter 8 Figures

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by Raymott

"Accent" is used for all those things. It's a broad term, meaning the overall character of all the phonetic and phonological variables of a particular person or region, etc.
It is studied scientifically using spectrographic studies, which measure speed, timing, frequency, etc.
Course, chapter 8 Figures

Many thanks. The Indian accent being quoted above has also various versions which can be easily distinguished by any Indian. The South Indians speak with an accent similar to their language. The Punjabis have a different accent, the Marathis and Gujaratis bring a flavour of their own language in English, while the Bengalis, Oriya and Assamese have a particular style of pronounciation. The Hindi speaking populace has its own distinct style too.
Yet the standard English style being addressed to as Indian is one which follows the All India Radio style or the BBC style of speech.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

Many thanks. The Indian accent being quoted above has also various versions which can be easily distinguished by any Indian. The South Indians speak with an accent similar to their language. The Punjabis have a different accent, the Marathis and Gujaratis bring a flavour of their own language in English, while the Bengalis, Oriya and Assamese have a particular style of pronounciation. The Hindi speaking populace has its own distinct style too.
Yet the standard English style being addressed to as Indian is one which follows the All India Radion style or the BBC style of speech.

Yes, and those who speak of the "American" accent are making a similar error. But it depends on what level of scale you're addressing.

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

Yet the standard English style being addressed to as Indian is one which follows the All India Radio style or the BBC style of speech.

Rather the old school BBC style, as you almost never hear it on the BBC nowadays. I get a Singaporean news channel here and there are a number of journalists of various ethnic origins who use that style, and I find it very refreshing to hear English spoken that way.

[SUDHKAMP]

Originally Posted by Tdol

Rather the old school BBC style, as you almost never hear it on the BBC nowadays. I get a Singaporean news channel here and there are a number of journalists of various ethnic origins who use that style, and I find it very refreshing to hear English spoken that way.

What are the features of BBC English which make it distinct in pronounciation? Kindly elaborate.

[konungursvia]

Well, each of its phonemes is pronounced in a standard way; these are easy to look up, but include a strong wet /t/ and a nice strong /h/. There are also norms of word pronunciation, as distinct from phoneme pronunciation, as in "conTROVersy" (cf. our American-sounding "CONtroversy". And there are norms of intonation, more difficult to describe but which sound rather animated, compared to our flat AE intonation, yet rather emotionally distant, proud, and bourgeois. Of course, I'm kidding. But there is little else we can say in short texts to explain....

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by SUDHKAMP

What are the features of BBC English which make it distinct in pronounciation? Kindly elaborate.

There isn't such a thing nowadays as the BBC has gone for an inclusive approach, so you'll hear regional accents, etc. In the past, they used a somewhat stylised form of RP, which they would probably consider to be elitist today. Vowels tend to be long, there's much less reduction of sounds, all syllables are pronounced, there's less running of words together, etc.