| ▲ | bjackman 4 days ago |
| I think something important to explain about British English dialects is the class factor. It's easy to forget because the classic RP accents have largely died out, but the way I was brought up to speak (actively! My parents would "correct" my speech patterns) is much more reflective of class than locality. This is the case throughout England at least. Brits take this for granted but it's not the global norm! In many British cities there is also a major race axis to dialects too. Just like how American English has black and white accents, you could make a better-than-chance guess at a modern Londoner's ethnicity from a recording of their voice. (See Multicultural London English). |
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| ▲ | foldr 3 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| >Just like how American English has black and white accents, you could make a better-than-chance guess at a modern Londoner's ethnicity from a recording of their voice. (See Multicultural London English). The whole thing about MLE is that it's multicultural, i.e. not stratified along ethnic or racial lines. I do not think I would be able to judge the ethnicity of a Londoner aged under (say) 30 in this way. |
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| ▲ | thebruce87m 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| > This is the case throughout England at least. Brits take this for granted but it's not the global norm! England and Britain are not interchangeable, unless you specifically mean that all Brits take it for granted that this is only the case in England or something like that? Edit: for the downvoters: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/difference-between-britai... |
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| ▲ | bjackman 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | That's exactly what I mean. It's not entirely the same in e.g. Scotland. But Scottish people will understand English class signals. Hilarious that you'd read my comment explaining British class and linguistics dynamics and assume I don't know what Britain is lol | | |
| ▲ | thebruce87m 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Glad you find it hilarious, but if you think that the rest of the UK spends great amounts of time considering England I would encourage you to visit some of these places. |
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| ▲ | Jensson 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | There was no error there, maybe he doesn't know if class is a major factor in Scotland or Ireland? That could make sense since England as the center of power that class would be more of a factor there for dialects, but I am not sure. | | |
| ▲ | bjackman 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes exactly in fact I was specifically thinking of my belief that class is signalled less strongly in many Scottish dialects. But the general concept of class being closely related to accent is something that people will instinctively understand throughout the whole of Britain (and probably Ireland too), even if it's not that big an effect in their own local dialect. | |
| ▲ | thebruce87m 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | The great thing about LLMs is we don’t have to argue about language any more, a machine can do it for us. Here is is explained: “The common country error in that statement is confusing “England” with the entire United Kingdom. Explanation:
• The statement says: “This is the case throughout England at least. Brits take this for granted…”
• It singles out England but then generalizes to all Brits (which includes people from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—not just England).
• This is a common error, especially among non-UK speakers, where England is incorrectly used to refer to the entire UK.” | | |
| ▲ | n4r9 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I didn't get the impression that bjackman was confusing England with the UK. They are two distinct statements, one applying to England and the other to the UK. Appeal to LLM isn't going to convince me otherwise! |
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| ▲ | 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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