Oh Bloody Hell, Yo, 'Sup; America love a british accent

yes I read that american women prefere English men because somewhere along the line the englishman will have read a good book or two.

What about Canadian men and their handsome accents, eh?

That's true Algis. I've read at least 6...

With all due respect to a fellow member of the Commonwealth Piffka, most Brits can't tell the difference between Americans & Canadians, or Australians & New Zealanders for that matter. I'm sure they are a fine set of accents, but 'Due South' is about all the education most of us have had. It makes me feel so ignorant!

I hated the southern accent I grew up with in Louisiana. I knew the world wasn't going to take me seriously if I sounded like Scarlet O'Hara (not that Vivien Leigh had a very authentic accent.) I took a course in Phonology in college, which is the study of transcribing sounds on paper - how various accents or dialects can be documented. We started by transcribing our own voices, and that process helped me change my accent to a more "standard" American sound, similar to what newscasters strive for. People all over the country have asked me where I'm from, and not believed the answer!

It's funny how some people are trying to lose their accents, and others are trying to gain a one.

I'll gladly swap mine on a trial basis if anyone is up for it...!

Gee Mac, I've never heard of phonology. How cool.

I have a west coast accent (well, of course, born & bred, here, doncha know). It seems like nothing to me... I think anyway, that I sound normal. Isn't that the way most people feel? The only reasonably accurate accent I'm able to recreate is one that I have to work myself into by being there, or at least by having recently watched FARGO. Then I can do a fair representation of a high-midwest Minnesotan. I like it, I guess, it seems so friendly and positive. (Yah, you betcha, uh-huh. And how's your family takin' it? Yah. That's what I wan-ta know.)

People in broadcasting always tried to sound accentless (political reasons), and were paragons of accuracy. No longer. Some local TV people cannot even read well.

Mac, For shame. Southern accents are beautiful but East Virginia accents are different from the accents of the deep South. When I took linguistics, we had to transcribe the IPA as an attempt to understand certain accents. There was no counterpart for the way that I pronounce "house", it's rather like Peter Jennings on ABC.

I love a British accent, however, and always will, be it London English or other areas of England.

Incidentally, Phoenix's accent is delightful

I've never met an accent I didn't like. That's why I always felt badly that I didn't have one.

Here are some accents I've particularly enjoyed:
Southern accents, Texas accents, Mexican accents, New York, Boston, Philly. Caribbean. Canadian. Hawaiian. Philippine. Indian. Japanese. Korean. British. Scottish. Irish. Australian. German. Italian. Spanish. Swedish. Norwegian. If I haven't named it, it's because I either haven't heard it or was trying to rush.

Letty, I agree that many Southern accents are beautiful, but for a woman in particular, having that accent and working in a position of authority, I felt it would put me at a disadvantage.

I'm glad to hear that Phoenix's accent is delightful - perhaps I'll hear it for myself some day! (My mom grew up in Brooklyn, so it's a familiar sound for me.)

Peter Jennings somes from the same area I come from, he's from Red Deer, Alberta. Like me, his accent is hard to place. American companies for years have set up inumerable call centres up here, in the Canadian prairies because our accent is so hard to place. These companies did studies and found that we have a very mid american accent that would not bother anyone, it's very plain.
When I was a youngster, I took a trip to the British Isles. It was the year JR Ewing was shot. Everywhere I went people asked if I was from Texas. I couldn't understand how the Brits could mistake my accent for the southern drawl. But most people here can't tell the difference between an Ozzie, Kiwi, South African or British accents either. I've got a pretty good ear and can generally spot regional accents pretty well, but I think that has more to do with having a musical ear. I love to mimic my friends and relations, much to their chagrin.
My Dad grew up in Yorkshire, he doesn't have the accent though. His father was a bit of a snob and would chastise him endlessly if he came home with any of the local dialect. It's funny though, I have never been able to hear my parents accents, except on the phone or over a microphone. They sound like everyone else to me.

I don't get diggin' a Brit accent.
However, let me talk to someone from Georgia or Virginia and


<thud>

I think Kilts are a survival of pre-modern dress. Certainly for the Greeks and Romans, pants were only worn by barbarians.
Bagpipes are pretty much universal. They show up in iconography from the 4th century BCE in the near east, even. The Scot's have no particular claim on them (ducks!).

Awkkkk. Well, who but the Celts wore plaid? (Shuddering at what the answer may be!)

I grew up in Minnesota, was deaf before I left, and have been mightily curious about the Fargo phenomenon. We have an accent? What on earth is it? How is it different from how other people talk? I understand this in a general way, but I haven't been able to really get a bead on it.

My dad's from New York, though, with a pretty definite accent ("donkey" rhymes with "monkey") and I picked up enough of that that people from NY wondered if I was another displaced native. Then since I became deaf I have developed a slight accent that many people think is European -- French or Italian are guessed a lot. So people have NO idea what to make of me.

When I went to New York earlier this year, certain a2kers thought I had some New England in my voice. I do... my mother was from Boston, but I have a bunch of Chicago and masses of California overlaying it.

Well...

I don't have any accent at all! Of course not! (or so I thought!)

A couple of years ago, I was with an English friend, in the Albert Hall, London, before one of the Proms concerts. I was asking her if there was somewhere to get a feed. This voice chimed up behind me "If you go around that corner, you'll get a feed every bit as good as you'll get at the Sydney Opera House!!" It was some middle aged man I'd never met.

How did he know I knew the Opera House? I wasn't wearing any Sydney tags. I don't sound Sydney <do I???> And food every bit as good as the Opera House - how disappointing! The Opera House food has been awful for ever! (although there is a new chef, now, who's supposed to be not bad!). He was right, though - the English food on that trip was awful everywhere, about as good as at the Opera House, but more expensive! It's improved a bit since!

That was food???

Well - in the "animal; vegetable; mineral" stakes - you can take your pick!

Mostly mineral! Broke a tooth on something during intermission at Die Fledermaus there in the mid 1990s.