I heard the store clerk tell another clerk about that 'British lady came in again'

I asked him 'Was that British lady English, Scottish or Welsh?

He was dumbfounded and said 'Oh she just had a kind of British accent - i don't know the regionalities'

So to many Americans there is no such thing as a English, Scottish or Welsh accent - they are all Brits to us

My I be so bold to ask you PalenQ if you are in the USA? Sorry if you have indicated this in a past posts!
Just to generalise about accents etc., - here in Africa they would think she is from "Overseas" Not many people in the 40yr old to ??? bracket have any perscepcion that there are various continents with a huge number of nationalities.
To expand further: When having travelled abroad I always bring a gift home for my gardener and my char lady. Not ever have they asked or shown any recognition about the country in which the gift is from.
I am determined that both of them shall board an aircraft and fly with me before I get too old to travel!

I must admit that I would not know how to distinguish a Welsh accent, yet I can still distinguish an American accent from a Canadian accent.

I don't think I can distinguish an American accent from a Canadian one, which sounds like a midwestern accent to me. But I can distinguish a Boston accent from a Rhode Island one, or I used to before those accents got on the endangered species list.

What's so odd about that, I was in Krakow, Poland once speaking to a clerk in one of the booths in the cloth market, and he remarked that the previous customer (who had a very distinct British accent, I doubt she was Welsh as she was a young black woman) was American.

He couldn't even tell the difference in a British and American accent, so I wouldn't put down Americans about this. I am not sure I would pick out a Welsh accent but I seldom hear one -- and I've heard plenty of British and Scots who speak entirely different from one another.

tod - i'm a Yank

and i admit at times having trouble as well distinguishing some Scottish accents from Irish - no problem with the various English accents however even though i feel sometimes asking say folks on Coronation Street to 'speak English please' and find subtitles useful.

so i cannot blame this 20 yr old or whatever bagger - i just asked out of curiosity, expecting his reply he gave.

Well I guess most Americans don't get to hear too many European accents at all, never mind Welsh ones. I suspect that most of my Dutch neighbours couldn't identify a Welsh accent either.

Could you tell the difference between a Northwest Wales and a Southeast Wales accent Pal?
I can usually identify a Canadian as they have a particular way of saying certain words. Specific US accents, apart from New York City would be trickier for me, I'd admit. And apart from a Newfoundland accent I couldn't identify which bit of Canada someone came from by hearing them speak.

I have btw heard truly terrible "Dutch" accents on TV and films.

Nikki:


I've been "out of" Massachusetts for 51 years..and I'm usually spotted as "Kennedy accent"...you can take the boy out of Massachusetts,..etc etc. but I still "pahk my cah in the hahvidd yahd!"

My wife is Canadian-born and occasionally lapses into "oot and aboot"...after 60 years!

stu t. (tower, or is it "towah&quot

Christina, there a plenty of black Wels people. Paricularly from the Cardiff area.
For Instance Colin Jackson, the former hurdler, is a black Welshman.

I can tell within seconds whether one is English, Scottish, Welsh. I can usually distinguish what part of England one is from - usually accurate to within 20 kil.

Sometimes I can tell by smell alone. Someone from Manchester usually smells like coal, stale bear, and unwashed linen. A Liverpoolian would smell of salt, diesel fuel, mustard, and anchovies.

A Glaswegian Scot would smell of peet, burnt oak, and sour strawberries.

As a faithful viewer of Masterpiece Theater I can generally tell British regional accents apart, although divisions in Scotland and some of the north of England continue to befuddle me. (That's when I turn on the close-caption function!)

stale bear,>>>>

I'm loving this mental (in all senses) image.

oops,

That last post of mine should have read "stale beer". "Stale bear" would be more Austrian than Enlish.

Also peet should read peat.

And I haven't even had my first martini.

Enlish,

It just gets wurst...

You folks may have fun with this courtesy of Schlegall from the Lounge.

It's a game where you guess where someone's accent is from:

http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html

I can't even tell Canadian from American.

sorry.

"So to many Americans there is no such thing as a English, Scottish or Welsh accent - they are all Brits to us"

My father is from England. He's a 'Brit' to my sister and I.

>>>>>
So to many Americans there is no such thing as a English, Scottish or Welsh accent - they are all Brits to us
>>>>>

why would you think it would be any different? i certainly would not expect people from halfway across the world to understand all of our little provincial accents.

some britons do get uptight about these things (and requiring the whole world to know what the heck GB, UK, england, british isles, etc are). not all of us are so self important.

Well, it's all a matter of exposure, isn't it?

Most British people don't distinguish different North American accents, beyond heavily emphasized Southern, say, and I suspect there are plenty that only have a fairly hazy idea about different accents within Britain, despite plenty of options on TV.

I like to try to cultivate an ear for such differences, and I think I can even tell (some) New Zealanders from Australians. If you don't know, ask a New Zealander to talk about cricket or fish and chips. An Australian once told me her father was making arrangements to meet a colleague from New Zealand at the airport: the New Zealander said "Oh let's just meet at the check-in counter" - her father said he was waiting for half an hour by the KFC stand before he worked it out.

Reminds me of the time we were in a back country bar in FL with our friend John, who had a very posh English accent. The barmaid asked if he was some kind of "Furriner"? Yes, I'm German he replied. She said she had thought so!