this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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[–] YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world 34 points 2 weeks ago (42 children)

Funny thing is, there are thousands of UK accents that are as different from each other as they are from the generic American accent. Granted, there's variety in the US as well, but the concentration is higher in the UK, as we've had towns and villages for thousands of years within 20 miles of each other that had their own unique way of speaking that often only locals can understand without effort.

So yeah, when you say 'British accent' that means basically nothing to anyone in the UK.

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 11 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Saying "generic American accent" is about as valuable as someone doing a cockney accent and saying it's generic British.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I remember seeing some claim they did a study of English accents around the world and when they tried to average them all they got something similar to how people talk in Boston. Which I must say that's hard to believe, but fuck do I know

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean, how do you "average out" accents?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

pick the vowels and consonants in a word with lots of the vowels and consonants that change between accents, then chart them. then pick the mode for each individual sound. i know it sounds ghotiy but it works.

[–] YeahIgotskills2@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

I take your point, which was why I added the next sentence acknowledging the variety of US accents. I'd argue that the Mid-Atlantic accent that most (but certainly not all) movie stars use is the closest thing to said generic accent.

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