Which are the features of the southern accent from England?

[ngabriel]

Hello. I'm a brazilian student of english and I find the southern accent from England quite fascinating.
The problem is: I'm clearly not from England and nobody here in Brazil talks like that, so I need I little help.
Where the southern accent differs from RP?

 

[probus]

I don't think we'll be able to help you with this one. The variety of accents among native speakers of BrE is extensive, even if you restrict yourself to the south of England. It's very complex, involving socioeconomic factors at least as much as geography. Suffice it to say that your "southern accent" of BrE is not a phenomenon that others will recognize.

 

[Tdol]

The term southern is a bit vague- it covers a number of different accents- a Cockney may speak very differently from someone from the Home Counties, and then there's the South-West....

 

[5jj]

'Southern British' is used by some writers as a (near-)synonym' for 'RP', but that is unhelpful. As others have noted, there are many southern accents, and 'RP' has as much to do with social, economic and educational background as geography.

 

[ngabriel]

Oh, all right. I heard the teacher of the section of learning english in the BBC website saying that her accent was ''standard southern english''. I find it a bit strange but then I thought ''Ok, she is a teacher. She has to know what she is talking about''. So... Let's narrow the question a bit. Which are the features from London accent? I know that even in London there's more than one accent, but I want one that doesn't sound too posh or too colloquial. What are your advices to really capture the accent?

 

[Tdol]

As she says standard, I'd assume she means RP. What's your accent like now?

 

[ngabriel]

I think I sound like Martin Freeman (who is from Aldershot, Hampshire) with a bit of Cockney. Grammar is a bit problematic for me but my biggest difficulty are (or is?) words which ends with consonant+L. For example: I say little as /lɪt.əʊ/ and not as /lɪt.l/. The same with Middle, Castle, Toggle... It simply doesn't sound right when I try to say with the L. The only person I heard saying like this (/lɪt.əʊ/) was Alex Turner from the band Arctic Monkeys (from Sheffield, South Yorkshire), as in the song Dance Little Liar.

 

[Tdol]

Could you post a short MP3 file with you saying this?

 

[ngabriel]

Could you post a short MP3 file with you saying this?

View attachment VN00028 20130408 1152.mp3


The first four words I said was in my ''normal'' way, which I discribed as ''the Alex Turner way''. The last four was an attempt to say with the L. Sounds weird to me.
Which of them are the ''correct'' ones? Could you post a MP3 file with you saying this slowly?
(And apparently the file went with a cover from a Miles Kane single. Doesn't mind.)

Sorry for the delay!