Brits only thread

I study English Phonetics. Is it true that a person's social status can be easily determined by his or her accent in England? Is it true that only 3% can actually speak with standard accent (RP) and you have tons of them in different cities (parts of the cities)? Do you often hear Cockney and other shit-tier ear-raping accents? Were you taught to speak with RP accent at school? Can you do it right away?

Yes

I dont understand what RP standard accent means or sounds like

But yes you can pinpoint a persons accent down to a few miles in some cases

Yes this is true. In Spain you can tell all the Brits are trashy because of the accent. I have never seen any Brit speak RP in Spain tbqh

It's BBC pronunciation. As far as I know, it is taught in private schools and only upper-class Brits can speak with that accent flawlessly.

How do you study it, ecли нe ceкpeт, mein Freund?

Further yeah you can pick up right away where someone is from by the first words they say, class can be determined by the manner in which they speak as well as the accent, typically lower classes distinguish themselves immediatly by the words they choose to say or as with northerners by how many words they leave out of a sentence

The haughty taughty accent of the upper classes isn't as defined as it used to be, but the more a person speaks the greater you can appreciate how much better an upbringing they had by word selection and pronounciation

Do you wanna work in England?

I have Practical and Theoretical Phonetics at my uni.

>Is it true that a person's social status can be easily determined by his or her accent in England?
yea but it's like that everywhere isnt it
>Is it true that only 3% can actually speak with standard accent (RP)
sounds a bit low
>and you have tons of them in different cities (parts of the cities)?
yes
>Do you often hear Cockney and other shit-tier ear-raping accents?
cockney is dying out, but yes
>Were you taught to speak with RP accent at school? Can you do it right away?
no you dont learn accents in school, but yes people can easily put it on

BBC prounounciation today isn't anywhere where it used to be... do you mean the accent of old and famous from radio broadcasts... you can find that pronounciation still in certain areas but it sounds almost antiquated and even the current royal family hardly speaks in that manner

>yea but it's like that everywhere isnt it
nope

BBC pronunciation is varied nowadays. They've deliberately employed people from all the different regions of the UK so different accents are represented in BBC broadcasts.

To answer some of your questions.

You aren't taught to speak with a particular accent in school. You're taught how they speak in your region.

There is SOME variation in "class" but the class system isn't as strict as it once was. The main variation in our accent is by region.

People are always surprised how many different regional accents there are in the UK. Pic is a *very* rough guide.

russia is basically unique in how standardised your accent is though. nice digits btw.

yes, but you aren't taught accents in school.
Myself and most of the people i know have RP accents so i doubt the 3% figure but its possible i just live in a bubble.

France is like that as well, isn't it?

No

Ok

> Is it true that a person's social status can be easily determined by his or her accent in England?
Yes
>Is it true that only 3% can actually speak with standard accent (RP) and you have tons of them in different cities (parts of the cities)?
I can't attest as to the 3% figure, though it wouldn't surprise me. We have a lot of different accents, yes.
>Do you often hear Cockney and other shit-tier ear-raping accents?
Cockney sounds pleasant, Brummy, Scouse and Geordie are the earraping ones. Depends where you are though.
>Were you taught to speak with RP accent at school? Can you do it right away?
No, we aren't taught to speak any accent. I have a fairly RP accent due to being a shut in that only watched old shows and the BBC for my formative years.

I'm pretty sure that underclass has their own dialect/accent in most countries desu.

That map doesn't cover the middle of the country, we don't all sound like brummies.

>"very rough guide"

Yes, Cockney is pretty pleasant, but it's earraping because they omit certain sounds ("h", for example) and it's very hard to understand what they say for a non-native speaker like me. Do you easily understand different accents or you also find it hard to catch what they say?

'ello govna'

If you've never been to an area and speak with 'lower classes' you can often find yourself asking 'what'... and trying to say it in the way that sounds least rude... but eventually you tune your ear to their particularities

i'd hate to imagine how it feels for a foreigner to understand certain accents... but then again, if you are a foreigner and stick to one area it would become second nature, as you often hear football players talking in the regional accent that their club plays in

Manchester and Liverpool are weird