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Ok Brits, need some accent identification...

Observe this woman, Tessa Dunlop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0rY24sOPZE

She has a certain accent that, for some reason, is THE accent for British women that appear on history/archaeology shows on the History channel.

What is this accent, and what "sort of person" would have it?

She has a London accent at the core, you can tell from the 'a' sound and some words now and then. I wouldn't notice if I were not asked to listen closely to her.

But she is speaking with RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION, which is broadly a class rather than region accent. Its normal in people of upper and upper middle class backgrounds, but can also be learned.

Good example of that is Sir Patrick Stewart who had a very course regional accent (cannot remember which one) which he trained himself out of for theatre. Its very common in the media, especially newscasters. However some grew up with that accent, though that is declining of late. Sad to say even many public school boys often sound like chavs nowadays.

But she is speaking with RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION

I noticed mention of that during my googling and assumed that was what she was doing, but I wasn't sure. I'm not sure I can really pick it out correctly, I just assumed she would be trying to speak like the queen.

The long, low 'A' gives it away. Orlanth is right, it's what some linguists would refer to as "King's English", in order to denote a diplomatic character.

It is Received Pronunciation with a bit of influence in there, you can hear how she says "objicks" instead of "objects".

Received pronunciation is sometimes called BBC English. Even though nowadays there are plenty of presenters with regional accents, the main newscasters still largely speak with this kind of accent.

Basically it is a south-east England middle-class accent, however non-native SE English middle-class people may pick it up through schooling and university while retaining traces of other influences.

Kilkrazy wrote:It is Received Pronunciation with a bit of influence in there, you can hear how she says "objicks" instead of "objects".

Yeah, that made me think 'Essex' but with elecution lessons, as others have pointed out.

I'm going to go with BBC English.

It's kinda amazing how many accents the British Isles manage to cram into a relatively small geographic area.

What does the accent make one think of the speaker? Is it pretentious, or just a normal way of speaking?

Is it an uncommon way to speak? In the US, there's a sorta "generic" way that a LOT of people speak, and then there are a few very obvious regional accents (New York, Boston, Minnesota). Is RP the generic way to talk?

My initial read on it was it seemed a little sexed up, kinda haughty and breathy, but I can tell that's not really the intention. I think it had more to do with the specific women and the content of the show (which was about Roman vice or somesuch).

So you like blondes with bangs?

She was totally bangin'.

That was a pretty cool clip. Objicks, so many objicks.

So you like blondes with bangs?

Well, TBH, Tessa Dunlop looked pretty good on the show i was watching, but I wasn't actually watching the one I linked. I was watching the History Channel, a show about Egypt, and she was on it. I just found a web video of her that showed her accent.

A lot of these British gals they have on the History channel seem to have been chosen for being attractive. That or all female British historians/archaeologists are attractive younger women (unlikely).

That got me wondering if this was some sort of "sexy" accent, but I expected it wasn't.

It's been pointed out recently that women over a certain age tend to disappear from television fairly swiftly. Attractive younger women make up most of our female presenters as a result.

Some recent "documentary" programmes have been structured around a young, attractive female scientist explaining the subject as a kind of travelogue.

Phryxis wrote:It's kinda amazing how many accents the British Isles manage to cram into a relatively small geographic area.

What does the accent make one think of the speaker? Is it pretentious, or just a normal way of speaking?

Is it an uncommon way to speak? In the US, there's a sorta "generic" way that a LOT of people speak, and then there are a few very obvious regional accents (New York, Boston, Minnesota). Is RP the generic way to talk?

My initial read on it was it seemed a little sexed up, kinda haughty and breathy, but I can tell that's not really the intention. I think it had more to do with the specific women and the content of the show (which was about Roman vice or somesuch).

It's referred to as 'BBC English' because it's the sort of non region-specific accent that news anchors speak in. I believe there's a similar situation in the US with news services? It's actually changing at the moment, as the trendy feths in charge of the beeb think that regional accents sound 'earthy'.

Think she was fromthe Bristol area in the South West of England.
Tessa Dunlop won an Award for her work on BBC Inside Out West
She says

"Archoive"
"Set asoid"
"Roightful"

So she do be from that area Oi rekan! She bain't from London.
(Yeah I know, that is more Devon/Cornwall than Bristol!)

Phryxis wrote:That or all female British historians/archaeologists are attractive younger women (unlikely).

Clearly you have learned nothing from The Mummy.


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Albatross wrote:
It's referred to as 'BBC English' because it's the sort of non region-specific accent that news anchors speak in. I believe there's a similar situation in the US with news services? It's actually changing at the moment, as the trendy feths in charge of the beeb think that regional accents sound 'earthy'.

Yeah, in the US you'll find that most news agencies speak in 'Neutral English' which is really a sort of mid-western accent stripped of eccentricity.

Orlanth wrote:
Good example of that is Sir Patrick Stewart who had a very course regional accent (cannot remember which one) which he trained himself out of for theatre.

That would be his native 'yorkie' accent then.
He has reprised it on occasion - but it takes him a while to remember the mouth and tongue positions.

(He was a guest at a SF con out here back in the 90s. One of the throng of female followers wanted him to "Say summat yorky" and he did - but possibly only because she was from the same village (separated in years).)

OT: I only know that as BBC English.
Tends to be picked up by non-brits when they go to certain schools, though.