"Whatever the accent, words should be clearly articulated and should be impossible to confuse."

- Nice idea, but a contradiction in terms. Words spoken by someone using a very different accent will not be "impossible to confuse" at all. That's why I demand subtitles on Scottish TV programs.

The only way to avoid the problem is for us all to adopt the same accent (and pray, MissPrism, which one should that be? Can I guess?)

"I can remember having elocution lessons at school. I expect that this would be politically incorrect in this day and age."

- Not politically incorrect, love, just a bit farcical.

I love the American accents!You have taken the English language and added your own accents, just like the British.Being raised in 50's England everything was American, music, movies, etc.and we even lived close to an American air base, so I got very used to the American accents and way of life.I love the Southern drawl (as I always think of Elvis) and I love the New York accent, but they all sound fine to me. What is fascinating is the different tones, some Americans actually have Disney character voices, which I find very amusing.I am from the North of England and when I visit America, they always think I am Australian. I think it's because my accent is "different" from the BBC's English, but they can't really work out why!In England you are sometimes actually judged on your particular accent. If you speak broad Northern ( which is very Medieval) you are considered by some to be of a lower class, yet many famous people are from the North.The things that amuse me about the American accent is the use of the letter "D" instead of "T" which someone mentioned earlier. I once asked for butter in a restaurant and they could not understand me. I had to say "budder". Also saying mobil or fragil instead of mobile and fragile. The letter "e" on the end softens and elongates the word.I know many Americans laugh at our pronounciation of these words, but it's the correct way. Ha, Ha, listen to me, giving advice, with this broad Northern accent which cannot be understood throughout the world, we miss out actual words, not only consonants!Accents are great and are part of whom we are, part of our heritage and ancestry and nobody should be judged on how they speak.Be proud!

While in Sass Fee Switzerland, I stopped off at this place where I could swill a few cold uns and scarf down some pizza.

This big group of British tourists came in. They appeared to have that upper crust accent, even the small kiddies.

One little girl said: Father, I do hope that we can get some lunch soon because I am quite famished actually. :))

The Father: "You needn't worry. We shall soon be revived.

I thought that was funny! :))

Best example of the British accent I have seen and heard in years. LOL

flup: I like you story about budder ! I once heard Dilly Keane telling a similar story, on the radio, of trying to buy batteries in New York. The shopkeeper said he'd never heard of them : she was wondering how to describe batteries, before coming up with the idea of saying something like "bedderies", & he asked why she didn't say so before :-)

MissPrism: "The voice should be audible to the person you are addressing but not to an entire restaurant." - spot on ! (whatever accent it's in)

Well, young Neil, Estuary English is becoming universal in England.
It sounds just like Australian.

However elocution lessons are gaining in popularity. It is found that speaking nicely is a great asset in getting a job.
By nicely, I don't mean posh but not speaking sloppily. The teaching of manners is also gaining in popularity.

There was a TV programme called "Ladette to Lady" which attempted to teach a bunch of female yobs to behave properly.

You might be interested in http://www.pagetraining.com/finishing-academy.htm

They have courses for gentlemen ;-)

Ah yes, Miss Prism, but WHICH Australian? LOL Adelaidian, Melbournian, Queenslander, Convent educated with "Haitches" or Anglican "aitches", Kath & Kim or June Dally Watkins?

We could start a whole new thread on Australian linguistics - accents, words, inflections ;)

I'm Australian but apparently don't fit into most (others') idea of how an "Australian" should sound. The Brits think I might be a New Englander (US); the Americans think I'm English. The Europeans only know I can't be Australian :)

Who was it that said something along the lines of one never having an accent oneself - it was always "the others"

I had elocution lessons too, neither optional nor particularly harmful, as I recall. Don't know where you're from, but there's a demand for corporate" finishing courses" (for want of a better term) here in Sydney these days, too.

Unfortunately, a couple of generations of eating in front of televisions has left a swathe of "youngsters" (some in their 30's) not knowing how to eat properly, let alone what to do when faced with a formal place setting. Trainers are now being brought in to lots of firms run in-house courses for their "young execs".

I know it's become popular to mock it, but I actually don't think there's too much wrong with knowing & using good manners & courtesy; how to introduce & address people; speak properly without either affectation or sloppines, and having a vocabulary that extends beyond 400 words.
(Judging by what's coming out of the mouths of some of our politicians the last few days, even 100 that aren't at gutter level appears to be beyond their reach :()

MissPrism, you've won me over - it's been a long time since anyone used "young Neil" around these old bones. Now I can't think of anything better that joining your good self and the Canon for high tea and absorbing some more dulcet tones (unfortunately, though, I fear that I wouldn't qualify for a class for gentlemen).

On "Estuary English", I remember a TV series called "The Story of English" in which the speech of early-1960s sixth-formers from a posh public (what we'd call "private") school was compared with a similar group 30 (?) years on - the difference was very marked. But then, I believe that what was considered acceptable upper-class speech 200 years ago was quite different to today's.

An interesting change I've noticed has been in the typical New Zealand accent. When I first visited in the early '70s I didn't notice much difference from Australian, but since then vowel sounds (exemplified by the classic "fush and chups") have shifted noticeably. Linguists are not 100% sure of the reason, although one theorised that an increasing Pacific Islander population may have something to do with it. During my last visit I thought that it was most marked among Maori people and the young.

Another oddity is that of younger Australians using a rising inflection at the end of sentences, making them sound like questions. I've heard Australian TV soaps blamed for something similar happening in Britain (but I think it's an American import).

Wiesel:

"Canadians have no ability to distinguish Americans (speaking standard American) from themselves in speech."

Utterly, utterly false.

On the contrary, no American can avoid detection. At least by these ears. It is all in the vowels, of course.

American vowels sound stretched and strained, slewed sideways and loaded with overtones.

Whereas a Canadian from central Canada sounds to me like a Canadian from 3000 miles away.

Atlantic Canadian (English) accents are markedly different, of course. Like really, really different.

I find our Canadian accents are far more homgeneous than when I was younger.

In those days, I could always tell an (Anglo) Montrealer of good family by the sharp clarity and lack of intonation. Far purer speech than Toronto speakers, even prep school friends.

My parents and many friends had sharp Ts and rounded vowels, unknown now.... All gone and irrecoverable:

I do miss the beauty of Cdn. English as spoken in my youth.

This thread is teaching me not to suffer when I don't understand too well some accents in English. You all are English-speaking people and seems that you don't understand each other sometimes :)) I still have hope !!!

Kenderina:

Newfoundland, in eastern Canada: On a recent business trip we were in a taxi. The driver talked constantly. One colleague, who speaks fluent English but is French Canadian, said:

"I did not understand ONE WORD in 15 minutes."

LOL, tedgale !!! :))

This is really an interesting post. I am from Minnesota (or as we say Minnesooooda) and when I travel people usually think my accent is Candian. They don't specify which region though! To me, all I have to hear is the word "about" to be able to determine if someone is Candian - they pronounce it "a boot" and I pronounce it "a bout". I also have been mistaken as a Scot, which surprised me.

I personally believe that there is an increasing convergence of English pronunciations worldwide, driven by the increasing mobility of English speakers and better and more rapid communications. While it is true that regional accents exist, they are become very weak indeed. Yes, some areas of the United States and Canada have distinct accents, but with people moving and communicating so much these days, they are being smoothed over, and some 300 million native speakers today sound practically identical to each other.

In Australia, too, regional accents seem to be weakening. Ditto for Ireland and Scotland. England is still lagging a bit, but they will probably come along as well. Many younger Irish people who haven't spent their entire lives in one village have very little perceptible accent at all (from my American standpoint); at first they seem to have no distinctive accent at all, and only after a bit of talking does one notice it. Similarly, Australians seem to have no accent until they've talked a bit. The most marked regional accents are in certain areas of the UK, and apparently in Glasgow as well. There are very, very few accents that are so strong that they cannot be easily understood by the vast majority of English speakers worldwide.

A little off-topic (surprise) but I'm reminded of a story from my daughter, who's teaching English at a middle school in northern China. One day, to lighten the lesson, she said "I wonder who can say "hello" in the most number of languages?" One boy, the class wit, put up his hand and offered "Four!", proceeding to say "hello" in English, Mandarin ("ni hao") and Cantonese. "OK," said my daughter, "how about giving us the fourth?" The lad assumed a deep, gravelly voice and slowly intoned "niiiii haaoooo". So what language is that, asked my daughter? "Farmer's Mandarin", replied the junior comedian.

BTW, I doubt that Australia ever had regional accents as other English speakers would know them - some minor differences in pronunciation only, such as South Australians' tendency to say "brahnch", "dahnce" etc, and rhyme "school" with "bull" and Victorians' pronouncing "castle" as most Americans do. The reason is that the European population was pretty much homogeneous from Day 1, and there wasn't enough time to develop differences before the advent of mass mobility.

Accents can be difficult if not used to them.
My wife (English speaking South African), and 3 work colleagues attended a conference in Galveston, Texas. Because of overbooking in the main venue, they had to stay in a motel near to the conference centre. They had some problems making themselves understood to the staff, who had difficulty understanding any of them, except for Chris.

At the end of the trip, when booking out, the receptionist apologised for for seeing slow, but said she really did not understand what 3 of them had been saying, but that Chris had the prettiest English accent she had ever heard.

Chris has lived in the UK for 5 years - she comes from rural illinois, and sounds very American to me.