Why does British English sound so strange?

Question

It is even harder to understand, feels like American English is the proper and default one. As a non-native English speaker. American English is much more normal and clear.

MCheetah · Accepted Answer

Technically speaking, American English IS the proper form of English. What they currently speak in England is The Queen's English, also known as "Received Pronunciation" English. It was developed by the upper class and elites in the 19th century. But then, you know, everyone else started using it because they wanted to be "elite" too. Now, it's the norm in England (and Australia, and mostly Canada, and India) even though it's the newer, more flawed, more broken version of English.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

If it helps, I have a Master's in English, and I'm also a ESL teacher in South Korea.

TL;DR: Americans speak real traditional English and current Brits speak made-up, hoity-toity royalty English that no one else was really supposed to use.

bolverk · Accepted Answer

That would depend on were you are listening to Americans, because as a English man who has lived and worked in America, I can tell you they have accents just as unintelligible to an outsider as any part of the UK, I'm from the North of England and when I first moved to America my dialect was so strong that the people I was working along side had a real problem understanding me, so I had to flatten my dialect to what you would call BBC English, today its call Received Pronunciation or RP for short.
To the British the American use of English sounds strange and sometimes twisted.

Brokenheartedx · Accepted Answer

British English, which dialect and country do you mean? Scottish, Welsh English? Even then of our small countries in different counties we all have different dialects, the Londoners sound different from the liverpudlians, the liverpudlians sound different from those in Newcastle. Glaswegians, we have a language of our own and don't sound or speak the same as those from shetland, even 40 mins down the road Edinburgh has a different dialect to weegies.
So please elaborate who and which country you are on about that sounds strange

dovendyret · Accepted Answer

For me it depends on the dialect.

Both British English & American English can sound like absolut nonsense to me despite of me being pretty good at English. When it comes to grammar - spelling, I've no idea when I'm using what. Was taught British English in school - but internet Hollywood has introduced me to American English.

NamerOfStars · Answer

Familiarity, mostly; you hear the American version more, and are more used to it. That, or you have an allergic reaction to extraneous vowels (I mean, "aluminium"? Seriously?). American accents, by virtue of the way the country formed, tend to be less pronounced, and ever since Hollywood started making its movies with Midwestern-accented actors (it actually probably goes back to the days of radio, but was finalized later), it's stuck: the most common form is the Johnny Carson-style Nebraskan, which is slow and VERY clearly articulated; any English speaker is going to be able to understand you (your words, at least). If you listen to old pre-television radio recordings, even of Americans, you'll notice they talk much faster; you can even see it in movies from the 30's.

WindAtMyBack · Answer

You might think that way because the US is the post populous native English speaking country. Plus all the US media. So it's what you hear the most.

In a similar way Brazil is the largest Portuguese speaking country, with more than 20X as many speakers as Portugal. And Mexico has three times as many Spanish speakers as Spain.

That's what happens when a country is imperialistic and spread it's language and culture around the world.

Кураж · Answer

I'm not a native speaker either, but I find American pronunciation much more strange.
For example, the complete lack of T sound in the American pronunciation of "water" just makes zero sense to me and feels so arbitrary I forget how it's pronounced most of the time.

I can get behind "wawtuh" but not "woder".
To me Americans sound like Germans trying to speak English.

alice55 · Answer

Depend on which British accent you talk about I find for example the accent of the queen to be easy to understand but the one from Birmingham impossible, seem to me they don't even pronounce half of the letter. American one it depend some are easy to understand but a lot aren't.

Akanzal · Answer

From what I've noticed theirs different accents depending on the region, I've met someone that had the heaviest British accent I've ever heard. I had a friend many years ago that had a lighter British accent and he would make fun of some of my American terms and I would make fun of some of his British terms, it was friendly banter.

menina · Answer

It's not strange, you probably are not used to it. Most non-native speakers are more used to hearing American English than the British English. Also it depends on the accent that the speaker has.

Smoke-n-Growls · Answer

Tell me you're a monolinguist, untraveled American without telling me you're a monolinguidt, untraveled American.

Levin · Answer

I resent that man. I'm perfectly understandable. My voice is beautiful.

bones_20 · Answer

It doesn’t sound strange. It sounds hot and is one of the nicest to listen to.

OddBeMe · Answer

Only northern British. Its like bible belt American.

Anonymous · Answer

Oh no not another angry American that hasn't left their country

Anonymous · Answer

Yeah same, i hardly understand British English written/spoken

slatyb · Answer

It's just what you are used to.

goaded · Answer

Try watching English TV instead of American TV.

LimitedBenefits101 · Answer

I agree it's totally weird tbh

Why does British English sound so strange?

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