Let’s ignore July 4 with this handy guide to UK accents

4 July 2014 Rob Buckley TMINE 2 Comments

July 4 is the anniversary of something or other in the US that they like to celebrate for some reason, so they’re all going to be busy setting fire to miscellany today: gunpowder, bits of meat, that kind of thing. But just in case they want something better to do, such as learn about the British (we’re not coming, we’re not coming – we’re staying here), here’s a handy guide for them to UK accents, with Siobhan Thompson going through 17 regions’ worth of speech sounds from around England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and just for luck Ireland.

Just to warn Americans in advance though: there are lots more accents than this, particularly the much-hated Estuary English, and if you think London (and Lancashire, Yorkshire et al) only has one accent, you might be in for a surprise. Also, her Glaswegian accent is way too comprehensible – you will not understand Glaswegians.

But it’s pretty good. And at least you’ll now know what accent Billie Piper was aiming for in Penny Dreadful.

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  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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