# British Accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2000, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742 "2000-06-18T01:11:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/61 "2000-09-07T06:50:42Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by TomH \* > Shane MacGowan is a good example – he was born and brought up in London, he went to Westminster School (one of the top public schools in the country) but he still has a distinctive Irish accent._ Are you absolutely sure about this? I remember hearing that he was actually a Londoner as well, but there was a recent big story about him in one of the Irish papers which said he was born and brought up in Tipperary, and moved to London only at some point in late childhood (probably still early enough that he should have lost the Irish accent, though). ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/62 "2000-09-07T10:54:43Z")
I’m not absolutely sure that he was born in London, but I am absolutely sure that he went to Westminster School and spent much if not all his childhood in London. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/63 "2000-09-07T11:29:12Z")
My vague recollection is that Shane was born in London but then his parents went back to Ireland in his early childhood. Of course, much depends on the record company admin who wrote the press release I’m probably remembering reading – anything written after a lunchtime livener can be fraught with factual inexatitude. Wasn’t it Mick Jagger who went to Westminster (and then briefly the LSE) ? ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/64 "2000-09-07T14:13:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Wasn’t it Mick Jagger who went to Westminster (and then briefly the LSE)? I believe he went to a grammar school in Dartford, but he was at the LSE. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/65 "2000-09-07T18:19:54Z")
Since you tend to grow up with the accent of those around you I would have thought that most of Shane’s accent comes from his parents.They may well have been part of a semi-closed Irish community in London too. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/66 "2000-09-07T20:06:30Z")
Children get their accents from their peers, not their parents. This is virtually axiomatic. Unless the community was so closed that all of Shane’s friends, neighbors and schoolmates spoke with Irish accents, it’s highly unlikely he would have retained his “naturally”. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/67 "2000-09-08T12:33:48Z")
> [@](#): > > From TomH: > When I was at school (in Sheffield) one of the teachers habitually adopted a “posh” voice in front of the class. She would pronounce glass as “glarse” and bus as “bas” and so on. The problem was, she didn’t know when to stop, so she would end up saying–I kid you not–“batcher” for butcher and “pat” for put. She once described the place they have the film festival in the South of France as “Carnnes”. Have you heard that bloke from the Rugby League, Maurice Lindsay? I believe he’s from Hull but he’s tried to ‘posh up’ his accent with hilarious consequences. My favourite thing he says is the Bradford Belles (= Bulls). Side-splitting. I also heard there is a sentence you’re supposed to be able to say to prove whether your accent is “naturally” RP (you always spoke like that) but it’s a dead giveaway if you learned a “posh” argot from a voice coach because you get vowels in words like “butcher” mixed up the way your teacher did. Any dopers know what it is? ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/68 "2000-09-08T15:36:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Unless the community was so closed that all of Shane’s friends, neighbors and schoolmates spoke with Irish accents, it’s highly unlikely he would have retained his “naturally”. Where I live in London, the local newsagent stocks all the Irish local papers, the pubs all show Sentanta Sport and we have a branch of the Bank of Ireland (we even have a dance hall). I doubt that there is a more “Irish” area of London. Even so, people who speak with an Irish accent are in quite a small minority. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/69 "2000-09-08T17:16:06Z")
Kilburn? ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/70 "2000-09-08T17:19:30Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2000, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742/71 "2000-09-11T12:53:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > \*\*…How do UK citizens feel when their accents or localities are being protrayed in film? \*\* Yes, it can be annoying that British actors often play crooks, but perhaps Americans should feel more insulted than us - clearly Hollywood and the TV industry in the USA thinks you’re a bunch of morons who can only accept steroetypes of some kind. Most nationalities seem to be treated in the same shallow way, it just so happens that the British stereotypes you’ve been fed on are ‘The Aristocrat’, ‘The Punk Rocker’, ‘The Effete Homosexual’, and especially ‘The Sinister Bad Guy’. You’d be even more insulted if you saw the stereotypes we get of you! But do the Hollywood execs know their audience? Do they know anything? They don’t seem to know much about the UK. Don’t forget, these are the people who (when _Sense and Sensibility_ became a minor hit) asked for the author’s fax number unaware that Jane Austen had died in 1817 :). If you agree, you might like to check out this thread: [Hollywood/Madison Ave & Tokenism & Minority TV](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21871) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-accents/22742.md?page=3)