To wonder if Americans hear spoken English differently?

[LordLancington]

Obv, not meaning that they have different eardrums or something, but more whether they don't have the same contextual associations that we do.

Started wondering this after going down the YouTube rabbithole earlier, as I sometimes do when aimlessly browsing. I watched a couple of UK drill videos out of interest - not at all my cup of tea, but I was interested to see what all the controversy was about.

I was surprised by how many Americans were saying things "can't take this seriously. Talking about stabbing people, but using the Queen's English." Thing is, it was about as far from the Queen's English as I could imagine. Proper London accents with loads of urban slang, and for want of a better term I'd have said pretty 'chavvy'.

I've read before that in studies English people tend to associate the Birmingham accent, for example, with being not particularly bright, and the Scottish accent with being 'authoritative'. However, American people found the Brummy accent as 'melodic' or 'friendly' - something like that.

I think most Americans just thought everyone sounded British but they actually were trying to match different regional accents to different parts of Westeros.

This night have worked for the Americans but I got irrationally annoyed that the northerners didn't all have Yorkshire accents. Had the same problem with LOTR, actually. Side effect of Sean Bean being the first character from that region we really get to hear.

Struggled with immersion because of the hobbit accents too. The generic well spoken English versus the stereotypical West country farmer made sense in context. The Mancunian and the Scotsman did not.

I think most Americans just thought everyone sounded British but they actually were trying to match different regional accents to different parts of Westeros.

well they didn't try very hard, Ned's daughters somehow managed to not have even a twang of northerner. I know their mum was a southerner but children pick u the accent around them.

I think “Australian” is sometimes just a catch-all designation when people can’t figure out your accent. I’m Canadian, lived in Somerset for a few years. I sound like I’m from the west coast of Canada. Other Canadians insist I sound English, English people think I’m Australian or Texan, Americans think I’m posh English. People have no idea.

We once had a German student board with us, he was a bit of a twat. Very strong German accent. He couldn’t hear it at all and insisted he no accent at all. Bit odd. I can do various accents, but I wouldn’t think I could fool someone with that accent.

In 2020, only lower class/non college educated young Americans have any discernable accent. All the famous old regional accents like Boston and southern have mostly died out among younger generations. I'm American and have lived in many cities in the U.S. and have never met any professional under 40 with a regional accent.

So yes, I agree with PP that Americans poetically assume Britain is like the U.S. where all English is basically the same these days. They aren't familiar with British regional or class accents and may not realize there are differences.

Also, most Americans' only exposure to British culture is through the royal family and historical movies and such. Lots of Americans who are unfamiliar with modern day British culture don't really know about the British lower and middle classes so they only associate the accent with "fancy" people and things.

there seems to be a different attitude to talking about class/ income bracket in America, or with some Americans.
they seem to boast about not associating with lower class or poor people, whereas here most people would disapprove of such an attitude, they certainly would not admit it, if so.
in UK the very term lower class is not really acceptable, barely used.
i noticed this with with lance black talking about how they chose a US surrogate as they had more control over the whole process and the agency only used middle class people. i kind of understood what he meant, about motives of those who might be driven by poverty desperation, but the bald way he said it showed he was coming from different cultural norms.
i've also noticed it in other contexts.

@puffinkoala
“I always wonder where the Liverpool accent ends and the Mancunian or Lancashire accents begin. And it's also interesting how far it stretches across the north Welsh coast, too”

At the Wigan / St Helens boarder - it’s bizarre...

Before I spent time living in the UK (England), I thought the Eastenders accent and the Coronation St accent where one and the same!

I thought there was RP, and then everyone else. Quite the eye-opener living there for over a decade, and realising the incredible variety.

I also worked in the US for a while. A colleague of mine was Scottish, and an American colleague thought both she and I (Antipodean) sounded like the queen. 🤣 Clearly neither of did, not one little bit.

And Irish - I thought they all sounded the same, even Northern Irish. Met Irish DH and started spending time there, now I can tell Galway from Dublin from Mayo from Kerry, yada, yada, and of course Belfast.

"they seem to boast about not associating with lower class or poor people, whereas here most people would disapprove of such an attitude, they certainly would not admit it"

They would just say it in a different way. There are plenty of posts on here about areas that people wouldn't go to.

@sashh

I think most Americans just thought everyone sounded British but they actually were trying to match different regional accents to different parts of Westeros.

well they didn't try very hard, Ned's daughters somehow managed to not have even a twang of northerner. I know their mum was a southerner but children pick u the accent around them.

Oh I agree! I just think it's funny they put at least some effort into regional accents and it all just completely sailed over the heads of all the Americans watching.

Oh I agree! I just think it's funny they put at least some effort into regional accents and it all just completely sailed over the heads of all the Americans watching.

It sailed over my British head too.

One thing I've noticed is that people who speak British English tend to have a pleasant lilt at the end of their sentences whereas people speaking American English tend to drop down tonal wise( don't know the proper word for it) so their speaking tends to sound a bit rough to me..no matter the regional accent...I find Irish english is mostly spoken with the same pleasant lilt. May be just me, though.
Ah ha! Maybe that's why some Americans swoon at a bloke with a UK accent