British Accents 英国各地口音
 
Kate:     Hello and welcome to Question and Answer of the Week. I'm Kate and today Wang Fei and I are going to be talking about British accents.
 
Wang Fei:Hi Kate. That's a coincidence because I've been meaning to ask you: What kind of accent do you have?
 
Kate:    Ah well I'm actually from Scotland so I have a little bit of a Scottish accent but it's not very strong. This is because I've lived in England and abroad for a number of years and now my accent has softened over time. 
 
Wang Fei:   Softened 这里是指口音变轻了。 我明白了，你的口音没有以前那么重了，或许以前你口音重的时候，我就能很容易地听出来。 
 
Kate:    Yes, it's a common problem. Britain is a small country but it has a surprisingly large number of accents some of which can be hard to recognise if you don't know what to listen for.
 
Wang Fei:   对，这也让我们谈到今天的话题：英国人的口音可以根据区域划分吗？英国人的口音有哪些种呢？Can British accents be classified? What categories are they?
 
Kate:  A very interesting question! So I went to find some expert help and spoke to Emma Serlin from the London Speech Workshop. I asked her to name some well-known accents from Britain. How many do you hear her mention in the next extract?
 
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Well, there's Cockney which you'd definitely find in London, and then there's Mancunian accent, Liverpudlian, Glaswegian….
 
Wang Fei:   Right, I counted four different accents. Cockney, from London, Mancunian, Liverpudlian and Glaswegian. 它们好像都和城市的名字有关。
 
Kate:  That's right! And as you might have worked out, many accents are named after the cities they are from - Mancunian is from Manchester, Liverpudlian from Liverpool and Glaswegian is from Glasgow. The London accent though is called 'Cockney'. 
 
Wang Fei:  Mmm Kate, I've also heard a lot about RP. Which city it this from? 
 
 
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Kate:  RP is perhaps the best known accent to many people outside the UK. Let's listen to what our speaker Emma says about it.  
 
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Well, RP stands for Received Pronunciation and that is essentially neutral English.  
 
Wang Fei:  她把 RP 称为 neutral English 中性英语。也就是说， 说 RP 的人是不带有口音的。哪里的人都可以学说 RP. 
 
    But Kate - how do you recognise a different accent and work out where it is from or what it is called?
 
Kate:  Well, you really have to practise listening to lots of different accents to hear the differences in pronunciation. 
 
  We're going to hear a selection of different British accents. First we're hear an example of an accent from Liverpool which is also known as 'Scouse'. 
 
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The Scouse accent is very guttural. It's very harsh. 
 
If I spoke to the Queen I wouldn't alter me accent.
  
Wang Fei:      Wow – that was a strong accent! 他的口音真是太重了！ 
  
Kate:  Yes, it was. Let's hear what Emma says about the Liverpool accent;
 
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I think it's like everything's a bit flatter in the mouth, it's all kind of different and there are sounds that get caught up in the back of the mouth. It just feels different. 
 
Kate:  It does sound very different doesn't it? Now let's hear the cockney accent.
 
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I consider my accent to be very London. I'm very proud of my accent. I deliberately use my accent to let everybody know where I come from. 
 
Wang Fei:      Yes, I know this one. I hear it lot on TV. Sometimes it can be very difficult for me to understand. 
 
Kate:   Now we're going to hear Emma speaking in an Irish accent. What does she say it has in common with a Cockney accent? 
 
 
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The Irish accent – there's lots of rrrs which we don't have in RP. There is a different relationship with the words and therefore with communication.    So you kind of get everything out much quicker and there's a similar thing with Cockney. So….like….everything's really quick right, mate. Whatever…
 
Wang Fei:      I think she said that both accents were very fast.
 
Kate:  That's right. She did a brilliant impression of both accents didn't she? And you could really hear how much quicker the Irish and Cockney accent were compared to RP. Lastly we're going to hear about the Mancunian accent – that's the accent from Manchester.   
 
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There, the thing is it's like a tonal thing. So everything dangles somewhere in the middle whereas with RP it comes down - it's quite light, because it kind of goes up at the end, all the time like that…. 
 
Wang Fei:  我们今天听到了很多不同的口音 - Liverpudlian 利物浦口音，Cockney 伦敦东区土话， RP 标准的英语口音，Irish accent 爱尔兰口音，Mancunian 曼彻斯特口音。 当然还有很多不同的口音，我现在也听出它们的一些区别来了。但是回到我们的问题： 这些口音能够根据区域区分吗？ 
 
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I think British accents probably can be classified. A lot of people can recognise an accent when they hear it and there are certain features that are recognisable. 
 
Kate:  So it seems that accents can be classified as each accent has certain features which are recognisable. 
 
Wang Fei:  区分不同的口音要根据你听到的不同的声音，根据发音的不同特点你会容易区分说话者的口音，并判断这是属于哪个区域的口音。
 
Kate:  Well, thanks to Emma Serlin for her help in today's programme. Do feel free to drop us an email at chinaelt@bbc.co.uk if you have any questions or comments. Bye.
    
Wang Fei:Bye bye.