The Thing About British Accents

I'm sure I'm not the only American girl that suffers from this. Stateside accents  sound flat, especially the ones around here. British accents just have a certain musical quality to them. Even English language experts agree. John Algeo and Thomas Pyles, the authors behind the nortorious textbook, The Origins and Development of the English Language, spend several pages discussing the differences between American and British accents. Since most of you probably aren't English nerds like me, I'll just give you some highlights.

British English speakers pronounce some of their A vowels differently. We frequently call words with this vowel "ask" words. Most Americans pronounce the A in this sentence like so.  (Though we tend to enunciate our Ks a bit better. Otherwise it might sound like we're saying something entirely different. Ahem.) When Brits pronounce this word it sounds different to our American ears, like this. (Dear British Voice Over Artist, Please teach your American coworker to pronounce her Ks!! Love, America.) They also sometimes pronounce their Os differently, though this is less noticeable.

Over time British speakers and American speakers have learned to stress polysyllabic words differently. One that sticks in my mind is "matrimony." When Johnny Depp says "matrimony" it has two stresses: "MAtriMONy." When Jack Sparrow says "matrimony" it has just one stress: "MATrimony."

However, the most noticeable difference between American and British accents is intonation. I'm not saying Brits are more in tune than Americans, but that they change the pitch of their tone differently than we do. I think it's not natural for Americans to raise their pitch at the end when they ask a question. We're taught to when we read. Brits do the opposite, raising their pitch at the beginning of the question. They also lower their pitch after the first word of a statement or question. In American English we don't change our pitch until the end.

The effect of a British accent is epic. As examples of the difference an British Accent can make, I'm including two different readings of Samuel Coleridge's   "Kubla Khan", one done by what I believe to be an American, and one done by a Brit. Those British accents just make everything sound better.

Oh, and British accents have a tendency to make girls like me swoon. I would show you copious videos of girls swooning at British accents, but apparently I'm the only one who would. Perhaps I'll start something when I get over there?