Worst English accent?

old hippy

Demonical wrote: »

I hate most dublin accents but especially that north inner city horrid accent and the D4 one too "loike"...ughhh.
South African accent is a close 2nd to Dublin
Then the english one where they say "innit bruv" and the american one where they say "I axed 'im" instead of I asked him...actually nearly all American accents annoy me, I just cant listen to the whingy whinyness

"Horrid"? Who are you, Enid Blyton?

So, basically, going by your post - you don't much care for the banter of working class people at home or working class black British or black Americans?

As Enid might say, "you young ruffian".

LincolnsBeard

scudzilla wrote: »

Scouse, it's like a cross between Mancunian and how a pig would sound if it tried talking

Old Scouse is alright. Listen to old interviews of The Beatles. Nice accents.

However, modern squeaky Scouse is just disgusting.


My favourite accent is the type Christopher Hitchens had. Beautiful.

Dejvice

old hippy wrote: »

people who say "like" every second word but that's more affectation, like.

or '....em......em....em....em.....em.......em....em.......em....em...em'

old hippy

Dejvice wrote: »

or '....em......em....em....em.....em.......em....em.......em....em...em'

Automatically makes me think of Jo Brand, Bob Monkhouse, Graham Norton, Dara O'Briain. They all do that "em" thing in their routines. Just after a joke is told. Are they pausing for comedy effect or is it a tic?

Thomas_I

Arpa wrote: »

This seems to be turning into an English vs Irish thing. Wasn't my intention. We speak very differently in context but I was trying to get an insight into what is considered to be the best spoken English or the worst spoken English...from countries who English as an official language.

For me the Australian/New Zealand accent is grating. South African is close behind. But worst of all is the USA. Some parts are tolerable mainly because the country is so large. There are bound to be some nice accents. Most are awful. Strangely enough I love the Canadian accent. As for Nigeria...go home. That's not English.

Many people would say that the English speak the best English because they are English. I don't think it's as simple as that. The influences of other languages on English are too heavy (Latin/Saxon) to credit one nation as having the original language. In fact at the time of Chaucer, seen as a hero of the English canon, many Anglo Saxons spoke French.
As for us, the Oirish...I have heard it been said that we speak the most beautiful English in the world. Perhaps because of our Gaelic tradition. When we had no word for "yes" or "no" we had to contrive a new way of expressing affirmation. Therefore our language became an amalgamation of Gaelic and English, giving rise to a fluid way of speaking. Hiberno English may be more poetic as a result as it has to negotiate more linguistic obstacles than Anglo Saxon English.

But I suppose originally I was asking who has the most fluid, poetic, lilting and pleasing timbre of English. I would vote for the Welsh...they have a lovely tone.

From following this interesting thread up to page 4 atm, I´m missing someone mentioning the "melody" of the language that influences the accent in pronunciation. Irish people, and in particular from the North are more "singing" their language and as you´ve mentioned the Gaelic roots it is still to recognise in their "melody". Sometimes I find that it sounds similar when listening to people from Scotland (not just the focus on the well-known rolling "R") to those from NI.

I can´t stand that "aristocratic style" English, it´s rather hearing someone sissy talking. In general, I´ve no particular dislike towards any Irish accent, as long as I can understand what someone is saying.

The only thing I would not use any time at any occasion in the present of any person is the word "Oirish" because it means an offence.

Dejvice

old hippy wrote: »

Automatically makes me think of Jo Brand, Bob Monkhouse, Graham Norton, Dara O'Briain. They all do that "em" thing in their routines. Just after a joke is told. Are they pausing for comedy effect or is it a tic?

yes it's the use of 'em.......em' no stop. Or use of 'eh.....eh......eh...eh'.

Example yesterday on the radio one guy could only get as far as:

'The Croke eh Park talks were eh eh eh eh.......'

Listen carefully and you will hear so many people using it.

Also over use of the phrase ' you know'......or 'ya know'.........or ' ah shur'

Daveysil15

LincolnsBeard wrote: »

My favourite accent is the type Christopher Hitchens had. Beautiful.

He was a very articulate man who had a great way with words. It just depends on the person sometimes. There was a Welsh singer on the X-Factor a few years ago. When I first heard her talking I remember thinking to myself, "she has a lovely accent." However she is also a great singer and therefore has a nice voice. It wasn't just down to the fact that she was Welsh, although I do generally like that accent.

Rasheed

Dejvice wrote: »

Also over use of the phrase ' you know'......or 'ya know'.........or ' ah shur'

I'm very bad for all of the above. I hate doing it and I'm trying to stop but it's such a habit!

Wacker The Attacker

hollster2 wrote: »

hate the way some english say "free" for three or "nufink nothing grrrr

Irish people do that too. They may repeat the examples that you've given but I've heard irish broadcasters mispronounce words horribly.

Growth as Gross

City as Cissy

among a host of others

Wacker The Attacker

The Belfast accent is the aural equivalent of sandpapering your eardrum

LordSutch

But I think there might be more than one Belfast accent?

Jimmy Garlic

The New Zealand accent is incredibly annoying. Imo it is worse than the Australian one.

Hidalgo

I find the Down accent very hard to understand, lot of mumbling.
Not a fan of the Cork accent.
From Kerry up to Mayo, along the coast is what I would class as the quintessential Irish accent
The Welsh accent, most of the regional English accents are fine.
New Orleans/Nawlins accent is just so laid back its lovely to listen to.

old hippy

LordSutch wrote: »

But I think there might be more than one Belfast accent?

"No", "nae", "never" etc

Wibbs

LincolnsBeard wrote: »

Old Scouse is alright. Listen to old interviews of The Beatles. Nice accents.

However, modern squeaky Scouse is just disgusting.

Again it depends from where in Liverpool. Thinking of the heavy Scouse accent as representative of Liverpudlian wouldn't be far off thinking a strong inner city Dublin accent as representative of Dublin in general. Plus the Beatles were mostly lower middle class kids(two of them went to art college in the 50's for a start) and Lennon was certainly middle class, so that's the accent you're getting there. The equivalent of the "polite" Dublin accent pre the D4 phenomenon.

Except for the really thick near impenetrable versions of regional accents or the forced received British accent I can't think of an English or British accent that I dislike TBH(ditto for Irish accents, though some northern ones are a bit harsh). There is a bland, even boring middle English accent, the low wattage David Brent, I work in a cubicle kind that kinda wears thin fast. It could make the most interesting story dull and make me feel like cutting myself. That and the braying Hooray Henry type would irritate alright(ditto for the pretentious Dort accent, particularly with the mid atlantic twang). I like accents myself. They're part of the fossil record of a person and their background. I dislike when people seek to deny that. You know the types, those with a "telephone" accent.

Aglomerado

The Cockney accent is awful. Eastenders makes my ears bleed. :mad:

Magill

I like most accents tbh. Find the scouse accent really nice, at least on women.

Love the Scottish/Welsh accents.

The only Accent that i don't like would be Cork/Kerry/Limerick accents, mostly because i can hardly understand them. Up North, the kilkeel or larne accents are the worst i find.

LincolnsBeard

Wibbs wrote: »

Again it depends from where in Liverpool. Thinking of the heavy Scouse accent as representative of Liverpudlian wouldn't be far off thinking a strong inner city Dublin accent as representative of Dublin in general. Plus the Beatles were mostly lower middle class kids(two of them went to art college in the 50's for a start) and Lennon was certainly middle class, so that's the accent you're getting there.

I thought The Beatles were working class?

John Lennon sang Working class hero and all...

Daveysil15

What about the Caaaaaaaaaaavan accent?

LordSutch

LincolnsBeard wrote: »

I thought The Beatles were working class?

John Lennon sang Working class hero and all...

Lennon in particular liked to portray themselves as very working class (suited the hard image),
but like Wibbs said, the reality was that all four of them were mostly lower middle class kids.

Liam90

ejmaztec wrote: »

Geordie, Seth Effrican and Kiwi make my ears bleed, but the one that produces the most blood is definitely the Kiwi one.

I love the kiwi accent.

The South African and Cork accent do annoy me though.

Mo60

Aglomerado wrote: »

The Cockney accent is awful. Eastenders makes my ears bleed. :mad:

The accent in Eastenders does not actually sound like an east end or cockney accent to me, more like a south London accent. I speak as a person brought up in the east end of London.

RobbingBandit

Junkie/Scanger Dublin is the worst, Pimp/Rapper Slang is second to this, on the island of Great Britain the Geordie accent is the worst, followed by Yorkshire, sounds like they are eating a mouthful of bread whilst they speak.

IzzyWizzy

A lot of the time, it has to do with the connotations, doesn't it? I grew up in the North West of England and was conditioned to think Scouse accent = common, lower class, untrustworthy. I have American and Canadian friends who love the accent and it makes me think that it's not the Scouse accent itself people have an issue with, it's the connotations behind it. Same with Irish people thinking Dublin accents are horrible, most of the time it's because they don't like Dublin or the people. My boyfriend has a Dublin accent and everyone swoons over it in the UK!

LordSutch

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

My boyfriend has a Dublin accent and everyone swoons over it in the UK!

parts of the UK I guess . . .