I'm thinking of developing a false identity as an Englishman.
Context: native speaker, english-dutch ancestry, mongrel international accent.
The first thing I need to do is to pick an authentic sounding accent, and learn it.
How common is RP as a "native" accent?
Are there regional or class varieties of RP, within the educated elite? e.g. the people who say "yah" for year or "ketch" for catch?
Are there differences between the accents found in major public schools? Harrow vs. Eton?
Likewise, between major universities?
Do upper class Scots still sound Scottish, or are they assimilated with the South? Likewise for regional English dialects.
Etc. Too many questions, but I'm interested to get a general conversation going.
RP isn't a common accent outside broadcasting.
Travel 20 miles in any direction and the accent changes.
Upper class Scots sound less Scottish than lower class Scots.
>>51879645
So, what would be an "educated" sounding accent that doesn't sound too newscaster-y?
>>51879827
For example, what accent would you describe David Attenborough as having?
(No way am I imitating all the gesturing.)
>>51879210
who is she?
quite long chin...
>>51879645
I live in Buckinghamshire and it's very common but it depends on your class. Working class people here have an Estuary accent.
>>51879210
This thread confuses me, why are you thinking about this, also are you white and if not how are you going to explain that away?
>>51880751
Kim Yoo-ri
>>51880784
Boredom.
The pleasure of deception.
Also because it's more convenient to simplify my national identity instead of explaining that I exist as a result of carefully racist endogamy on the part of my white imperialist ancestors. I'm basically apartheid on legs.
It's not quite as awkward as being a saffer, but even stranger when you consider how few white people settled here.
And finally, because the natives that don't know me personally already assume that I am just here on business from the UK, never mind that I was born and raised here.
If I dress very casually, which is rare, I am then seen as an American tourist.
Really, under the circumstances, it's hard not to see how flimsy and cheangeable ones public identity is. It's all optional. I'm opting for something more stable.
>>51879210
....
Why?
>>51881737
While I think your desires are rather perplexing, RP is not a good camouflage, especially outside of the south-east of England. What do you look like?
>>51879645
>RP isn't a common accent outside broadcasting.
I don't know. The southern accent you hear down in sussex and kent is pretty much RP.
>>51881737
Just be yourself.
>>51879210
Step 1: Be White.
>Do upper class Scots still sound Scottish, or are they assimilated with the South? Likewise for regional English dialects.
Edinburgh accent is posh scottish. They sound half english half scottish
>>51880783
This is something I will never understand about the English language. How can your social status affect the way you speak?
>>51881899
Like an average northern European, who would be assumed to be a local in: Britain, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, Russia.
Light eyes, fair complexion (I avoid sunlight whenever possible.)
>>51881963
Step one: accomplished.
>>51881976
It can when, for a very long time, rich people sent their children to the same dozen or so boarding schools, and then sent them to the same two universities.
The schools become artificial villages and develop a common dialect.
>>51880131
He has an RP accent.
>>51881899
I suppose I should add that it's not really camouflage. It's a role.
If people are going to slot me into the easiest ethnic pidgeonhole, I'd rather choose a comfortable pigeonhole for myself.
I travel frequently, and intend to spend a lot more time in Europe, including London.
So the ethnic question will become less about being white than about having a cultural background. Imperial apartheid and inherited wealth from colonial exploitation does not exactly sit well with most Europeans. No need to ruffle their feathers.
RP says "English" to Europeans just fine, but I'd also like to fool Englishmen. I'd really rather not feel I have to avoid them, they're common enough on the continent. So I want to flesh this role out thoroughly.
>>51882629
Huh. I know he's fairly standard, but there's something about it that does not suggest the schoolroom. Might he have been raised speaking that way?
Why would you want people to think you're a C uck
>>51879210
Oh man you're exactly like me.
I want a crime to be committed near my house and the police to come by to ask questions so I can act super suspicious, offering them wine and saying things like "IT'S TO DIE FOR" while cackling maniacally.
We should merge our master plans somehow.
>>51879210
>english-dutch ancestry
Fuck the Anglo menace, embrace Batavia.
Are you autistic OP?
>>51883322
i hope you know that you'll never ever be able to convince somebody who was born in a place that you were born there too - because that's the only real way to acquire an accent. Almost every person i've met here who tries to fit themself into an accent always sounds tryhard to their own language and still sounds foreign to the accent they're trying to get
Just speak languages and be proud of wherever you're from, god damn, i'm a native brit and i've got like 20% viennese accent from living here but i don't give a fuck. Even somebody i know who lived in england for 20 years and gave himself an RP accent still doesn't sound like a brit and is a bit of an idiot
RP is uncommon and it makes you sound pompous, the only people who speak it are the upper/middle class in southeast england but even the children of those people are adopting estuary english and trying not to talk like that
>>51885391
English is my native language, and I know I'll never amass enough contextual cultural understanding to pass as a native in another language.
However, I can at least manage to alter my accent to the most prestigious one available. If prejudice is against me, I'll force it in my favour.
I'm still not sure that plain RP is good enough. If it really does sound artificial, then it's not really prestigious, so I'll study ways of softening the base RP accent to sound more regional, maybe give it a touch of Kent, where I was born and raised as of thirty seconds ago.
>>51885802
Does drinking Flemish beer count?
>>51886306
Thorough is the word I'd use.
>>51886645
I know the IPA, so all I need is recordings of example speakers, a pen and paper, and a lot of studying. That is also a real way to acquire an accent.
Most people don't study accent types with that degree of thoroughness. I've had some experience with Mandarin, so tonality in Western languages stands out more sharply to me than it might to a more casual fraudster.
As for region, I am now the son of a surgeon from, say, Canterbury, unless it's a grubby sort of place, in which case I am from somewhere else.
(Naturally I'd do some field research in the area before making any such claims.)
>>51888407
>As for region, I am now the son of a surgeon from, say, Canterbury,
Choose (Royal) Tunbridge Wells.
Rate my English Accent
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0Az4rUoM6MG
>>51889937
Not bad, could easily pass for British Indian.
>>51890010
Yeah I've been working on it, can't get rid of that Southall Twang.
