There's no such thing as a 'British' accent

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Today's horrible news about the apparent death of a US journalist is not being improved for me by the chronic news reports pointing out that one of the people responsible had a 'British' accent. It's bad enough when American networks use the meaningless expression. The man has an 'English' accent, surely?

But surely an English accent varies depending on which part of England you are from?

Yabvu there is a typical British accent, different regions and dialects.

I'm not sure, I think there's probably a British accent at some level, in that the various national accents sound similar to people from elsewhere. Like how to most people American and Canadian accents sound similar, so might be considered a North American accent. And US accents vary hugely, but most would still associate them to a general American accent, if that makes sense?

The man's voice is clearly not Scottish, Northern Irish or Welsh. It's English Not suggesting anyone tries to pin it down to a particular region of England, just objecting to the meaningless catch-all term

SKY is reporting "English" accent, but as England is part of Britain, then it's not wrong to say 'British'.

Perhaps linguistics experts Will be brought in to localise the accent further, if any investigators see a need to identify the origins of the speaker's family more closely. But given there is free passage through all the home nations, his precise origin probably makes little difference to countering radicalisation here, or to predicting where fighters might return to and what they might do anywhere within UK borders.

Henry Higgins would Probably describe 'English' as a meaningless description too. I guess it all depends on your perspective.

I know England is part of Britain but if the man sounded like Billy Connolly would they be reporting him as having a British accent? Just seems unnecessarily vague

They are just saying British to distinguish it from other nationalities, not to pinpoint exactly where he's from

By your logic they shouldn't say English either as apparently it's a London accent, not Midlands or Devon or Cornwall etc.

No more than an American has a southern accent or a northern accent or a New York accent. From a linguistics perspective, there is as much (if not more) variation between those as there is between an English and Scottish accent.

They are lumped together because of similarities in lexicon, geography, rhythm, etc as compared with other countries' brands of a English.

YA splitting hairs.

They're saying 'British' because the story was originally broken by US networks and the journalists are too lazy to change it.

Yup English accent.
Accents of the British Isles are generally described by the country, Scottish,English etc.

No way would if say British accent if the terrorist had been Scottish or Welsh.

If it's for an international audience, I think 'British' probably does the job. It's an accent belonging to someone from the UK.

Why English? Could be a welsh accent

I couldn't care less either way. It really isn't the important feature of the incident as far as I'm concerned.

Have you heard the recording feelingmellow? He's definitely not Welsh. I think it is an important feature of the incident because somebody in the UK is likely to know that voice. The forensic linguists will be all over it, no doubt, but in the meantime it might have been more helpful to say that one of the murderers appears to have an English (or South East English or London or whatever) accent than go with the US term

oh this British thing annoys me, but I bet it annoys the Scots WAY more

Don't Americans usually get pulled up on saying England/English instead of Britain/British though.
The obviously can't win.
It seems a bit of a non issue to get your knickers in a twist over though.

It's like saying "American accent".

Yabu.

An English accent is a British accent.

Just as a Scottish/Welsh accent is also a British accent.

There is nothing wrong with anyone from the 'home nations' describing themselves or being described as British.

I first heard about it from Middle Eastern journalists (on Twitter) and they all said British. Not just the Americans.

I really think you're overthinking this and tbh it's a bit tasteless given the horror of what happened.

Lots of Americans and other non-Brits have trouble distinguishing between northern English accents, Welsh, Scottish and Irish accents. Especially Geordie vs Welsh and Scots vs Irish. I think it's okay for them to say "British accent". They often think that just means English though.

Not seeing an issue. Scottish accents, Welsh accents, scouse accents, Brummie accents, Geordie accents are all British accent. What is wrong with saying the person spoke with a British accent.

Totally overlooking the importance of the slightly more significant issue here. Who cares about semantics when someone has just had his head chopped of by another human being?

Annoying and sometimes an actual problem when someone uses "English" to mean (eg) "Scots".

Not at all a problem when someone uses "British" to include "English".

Mindblowing when someone starts a thread about a murder-for-TV in one of the most troubled regions of the world to complain about a correct use of "British."

YABU. I have a British accent. I am Welsh/Scottish, live in England and grew up moving around because my Father was in the Forces. Like a lot of Forces brats my accent is difficult to pinpoint because I grew up with lots of different British accents. It changes slightly depending on who I am speaking to and it probably sounds more 'English' than anything else but I get deeply offended when I am called English because I am not. I am British and I have a British accent.