Standard British pronunciation

[alexpen]

I was looking for English pronunciation videos on Youtube, and the search returned this one in the top results:
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4NVPg2kHv4
Does this count for a proper British accent today?

I mean, why does the lady pronounce the wide æ instead of the long back-tongue ɑː when she says ‘for exAmple’? And the way she voices long i: - it IS familiar to me: I noticed that some British speakers diphthong-ize the long front i: voicing it as ei: instead, which makes it pretty similar to the vowel that comes in words like ‘face‘, ‘place,’ ‘case’, but these are two different vowel sounds. The i: in the video sounds to me a bit more back and open from what the textbook says it should be. I am not sure, but is this the so called received British pronunciation? By the way, the lady's eɪ seems way too open and has something of a twang, hasn’t it?

And the word cough at 2:25 – isn’t that a totally wrong vowel symbol? Which may result from the fact that she pronounces ou too closed and back than it is supposed to be. It’s not kɒf - it is kʌf!

Or am I horribly mistaken and she is not British, at all? But she is… Isn’t she?

 

[Raymott]

She could be Australian. She's not pretending to be British, only to be a native English speaker.
But she does mispronounce the letter 'h' as 'haitch'.
If you want a British speaker on YouTube, make sure it has 'British' on it. Lots of people are excellent native English speakers, but not British, such as this woman.

PS: No, 'cough' is not kʌf.

 

[alexpen]

She could be Australian. She's not pretending to be British, only to be a native English speaker.

She doesn't pretend, for sure. She sounds most natural, although her utterance is a bit exaggerated, which - again - is quite natural for a teacher of English.

But I am not sure what you are trying to say... does her accent sound more Australian than British to you?

 

[Raymott]

Yes. In fact, to me, she doesn't have an 'accent'. Therefore, like me, I think she's Australian.

 

[alexpen]

PS: No, 'cough' is not kʌf.

What about the long /i:/? And the twanging /ei/ vowel?
Is there no accent in British English where you can come across the diphthong-ized /i:/? I was under the impression there was...

 

[Raymott]

It might be best to wait for an opinion from a British person. I'm sure one will come along eventually.
Yes, those features you mention are consistent with Australian.

 

[emsr2d2]

She certainly sounds Australian to me (BrE speaker).