What is it with Americans and the archetypal English accent?
Tell them, "No, she doesn't. However, you have an accent." To you, your mother doesn't have the accent and if you are also English, then you have the English accent. If the people with whom you converse are like many of the Americans I know, that comment will stop them in their tracks and get them thinking-- They wouldn't understand how they have the accent, but you mother does. If they REALLY want to hear English accents, direct them to BBC America (or BBC shows in the US, that are on Hulu), Monty Python, "Hot Fuzz", Sean (Shawn?) of the Dead, BBC News America on PBS and NPR...
Americans often use English accents for the voices of their D&D characters. Do D&D players or DMs of other countries ever use American accents for their characters?
American here, so I really can't say for sure.Personally, as DM I play stereotypical personalities for important NPCs instead. For example, some of the NPCs in my current campaign are: gruff and grumpy but fatherly old retired adventurer, "heart of gold" prostitute, sinister but for some unknown reason helpful wizard (he's actually a lich but the PCs don't realize that yet), cheerful but reckless tinker gnome artificers, and so forth. But that's because I can't do a good accent to save my own butt, not really out of preference!
Why do Americans like English accents so much?
The upper-class British accent has a wonderfully elegant sound to it and some of the lower-class accents have wonderfully earthy sounds to them and the BBC Mid-Atlantic accent has a wonderfully educated sound to it.So no matter what your linguistic tastes are, there is a British accent for you to like.Even if the versions of English as butchered in Glasgow and Manchester are decidedly acquired tastes best left to the natives.
Which English accent is more admired: British or American?
I’ll try to make some sense of this question:I think that most Americans are admirers of what they consider to be a ‘British’ accent, and feel the speaker sounds more intelligent and cultured. Most probably what they mean is the ‘BBC’ accent. However, there are quite a number of accents extant in the British Isles, and some are distinctly less charming. For example, altho it has its admirers, most people regard the Cockney accent as a bit hard to hear and much less associated with refinement, and yet it is just as British as a BBC accent. Commonly Brits like the accent associated with the Southern US, but nearly everybody finds a strong New York accent to be comically unpleasant (except New Yorkers, of course.) The standard American accent is accepted seemingly by the British, and this is not guaranteed, as apparently the British are not at all admirers of the Australian accent.Anyhow, if you don’t agree with the above, that’s OK.
What do Americans think of British accents?
Speaking as a woman, the appeal of a British man's accent is really one of novelty. It's not something we're used to hearing, so it sticks out. When I moved to the UK for school, the novelty wore off really fast. It's one thing to be charmed by an accent for a few moments at a time. It's another to be surrounded by it all the time, including in many less-than-savory situations. I also found that people in the UK liked my accent, and that I was something novel. (I was once stopped in a pub by a South African gentleman with a strong Afrikaans accent, who told me he loved my voice. Flattering!)My boyfriend is British and has lived in Liverpool, near Glasgow and in Lancashire in a village not too far from Manchester. His accent is probably closest to Liverpudlian, which is not your traditional Hugh Grant-ish posh delivery. I like his accent because I like him, but it isn't novel. We have a joke: "I don't have an accent, you have an accent!" To each other, the other's accent is what sounds novel.
What do Brits make of the American accent?
Actually it kind of depends.‘Standard American’ accents can sound whiny and nasal, so it depends on the extent to which the natural tone of the voice overcomes this.Hillary Clinton for example sounds like chalk on a blackboard, whereas Barack Obama sounds calm and authoritative - he has a great voice!The generic West coast accent sounds a bit more laid-back, I like that one.‘Noo Joisey’ is horrible, but the Southern accents are great fun. I think most Brits would find them really entertaining.The archetypal ‘black american’ accent is generally perceived as supercool. Reginald D Hunter is a well-known stand-up comedian in the UK. Apart from being very funny, he’s black and comes from Alabama - I can't think of a single person who wouldn’t like that accent!
Why does Hollywood hire so many British actors for American parts?
It's useful to remember that this is a two-way street. The Brits hired Renee Zellweger to be the archetypal modern English girl in Bridget Jones. Likewise, Gwyneth Paltrow played the inspiration for Juliet in Shakespeare in Love.But to the question: Why do Americans so often hire Brits (lately, Tom Wilkinson as LBJ and David Oyelowo as MLK in Selma and Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln) to play Americans?1) Generally, British actors are stage-trained, learning their craft first in theater in contrast to many American actors whose apprenticeships are in daytime dramas and Disney shows.2) Generally, the Brits don't demand the pay scales of American actors.3) Generally, the Brits are more likely than American star actors to serve the role rather than the career.
Does the standardized American accent sound unpleasant to listen to?
Hillary Clinton, Megyn Kelly, SE Cupp, Amber Heard... the modern American accent seems to have a shrill and monotone sound, that foreign languages and even English dialects (Canada England Australia) don't seem to have. Does it bother anyone else?