That would be from people referring to just England when they say "British," not the entire British Isles.

Old English was a Saxon-Norse Language, drawing heavy on slavic and teutonic orgins. It exsisted at the same time as Ancient Welsh and Irish (Which a lot of people call Gallic, which is in fact a language from Southern Frace called 'Gaul.') When Rome took over England, latin was introduced into Old English, and by the time Rome would fall, 'Middile' English had devolped from the merging of the old language, latin, and an increased saxon influence. As the welsh language, banned by the Romans, merged with the forming middile english, would set it onto the path of the language it is now.

Now, the language became modern english about 1300-1400ad as more and more English scholars began to merge greek and more latin into the language, and a revival of its teutonic origins. Thus modern english is the cummenation of latin, greek, and early german.

So heres a question for this international community... Whats a California accent? I'm still convinced California is accent less.

Its not fare, the whole east side of the country has like its own accent for each city! New York, Boston, Phili. Then theres South Dakota, (Fargo) The south I guess gets mixed together, but I think of different accents when I hear Georgia vs West Virginia. And then Florida.. does Florida have an accent or have they somehow succedded from the south? And Texas I guess is the same as Georgia...

But now that I think about it, the English have multiple accents too don't they? London vs Villages or something... think I remember someone once saying Cockny (sp?)

Oh and I love how infomercials are now using Australians and British people to sell stuff so that they sound more educated and viable.

I must say the 'thy','thou' and 'thee' orgy gets to me as well

Actually I'm more interested in the sentence structure used (assuming they have a consistent sentence structure).

Umm maybe I'll give an example. I was playing The Return of the King on PS2 the other day. There was a cut-scene where the undead king woke up and said:

'The dead do not suffer the living to pass'. I was like... 'huh?'

Its like they speak 'Yoda'...

I think they just left out the word for ... "the dead do not suffer for the living to pass" I.E. We don't get tormented in this world just to let some living people walk through us.

sufffer P
v. suf·fered, suf·fer·ing, suf·fers
v. intr.
1. To feel pain or distress; sustain loss, injury, harm, or punishment.
2. To tolerate or endure evil, injury, pain, or death. See Synonyms at bear 1.
3. To appear at a disadvantage: “He suffers by comparison with his greater contemporary” (Albert C. Baugh).

In this case they would use it in the second, archaic form. Meaning that the dead won't allow the living to pass.

Hey that makes sense!

A few things. First of all, most people believe that their people "Don't have an accent." Technically, being as we speak the language of the brits, they're the ones without the accents.

And yeah, there are a huge number of accents within England. Cockney is the whole "Shine ya boots, guvna?" type accent (My native accent in fact, even though I'm Australian, because my parents are English).

Though I obviously don't sound very Australian now. At least 3 times a week I get asked "So when did you move to Australia?" *twitch* I was born here you idjit. Most of them think I'm a yank though, which is strange.

I also find it hilarious when Southerners take offense to being called yanks. Yes yes, I know I'm about to get the obligatory twelve reply posts saying "But we're not Yankees". I didn't say Yankees. Its just Aussie. Fair dinkum.

Southerners are not Yanks! :-p Calling a southerner a yank insults both the yanks and the southerners...

Anyways California does have an accent, just we don't slur or accent words like other cultures. The fact you 'notice' a difference between us and others means we do indeed have an accent.

We should just call you all seppos anyway.

It's y'all, not ya'll, dagnabbit. *eyes*

I don't know, I've never heard text to speach sound like anything but a monotnous californian. ....And... I've never heard a british person impersanate a californian accent, I've heard them do bostonian or Georgian but you never see some comic saying.. Here let me sound like a californian, unless they are using words such as "like and dude" but then thats just surfer or valleygirl.

Edit: I was born on the eastcoast.

I live near Philadelphia, and it's funny because even when I'm so close, I do not have a Philly accent. It isn't a strong accent to begin with, but out in the suburbs you rarely find anyone with much of an accent.

But I have to say, I love Scottish accents. Mm mmm.

Heh, I've only been living in Philly for 2 years now. I don't have an accent, because I've never lived anywhere long enough to acquire one. The philly accent is funny though, worder (water).

Well I guess I can say I've heard some of the accent. Some of my friends say wooder (water) and beggel (bagel). I don't though so I always get really mad, heh. I was born and live here now, but you really have to live in the city to have the accent.

As for "old" english in MUDs, it has the potential to sound cool, but sometimes it just sounds out of place.

Exactly. Newsflash, Britain is different from England. Why isn't it called "English accent".

I agree with Daganev, here. To be technical, an accent is a consistent deviation from perfect pronunciation while speaking. The Midwest accent, which California by and large shares, isn't really an accent; it's perfect pronunciation of American english. Interestingly, if you stop and notice, most national news personalities speak like this in the u.s.

If you look at it historically, these areas were the last to be settled, becoming a melting pot of the various accents people brought with them, which is why the accent is so homogenous and accessible to the rest of the country now.