Favourite Accent

bella maybe you're right. HMthe Q is rather extreme.

We said "Pax" at school We used to say "Pax Romana" (but were in the Midlands nowhere near Italy).

HM is not as 'posh' as she used to be if you listen to recordings of her when she was young.

I think Prunella Scales used RP, very clear and distinct.

For me, although he is long dead no one can beat Richard Burton's accent

Oh yes-Prunella Scales.

There's an article somewhere saying that Prince William is less poshly-spoken than HMtheQ. But still apparently RP.

I heard him on the radio the other day (well, a recording) - it was Richard Burton narrating from The War of the Worlds on 'Forever Autumn'
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRV7CUU5tFk

The music may not be to everyone's taste, but I am sure that Richard Burton's voice will be.

When I was in Argentina I loved the way Argentians spoke English slightly different from natives of Spain, they roll their rrs a bit more maybe due to an American influence, Uraguayans sound much the same. Native French and native Italians speaking English and Scandis all sound good to me and southern Irish I like too.

Favourite English tongues, think with travelling in the past, you can regionalise an accent and pin it down to an area.
Brummie wise besides the Black Country dialect, you also have a slightly upper class , Solihull one, a softer tone, compared to that raw Brummie one, Wolves and Walsall both have variations , and Coventry like Solihull as a softer one, and that's spanning 30 plus miles.
Mick
PS being in Northants the accent changes from Towcester towards Northampton ,and then onwards to Kettering and the Lincs border

Botswanan African. I just loved the way our guide on holiday said Africaah.

(I don't like strong Newcastle or Glaswegian as it's all foreign and I can't understand a word!)

I like soft Irish accent it's very soothing oh had a auntie who was half Irish half Scottish I couldn't understand a word she said she spoke very fast as well !

'I can't understand a word' - this of course works both ways. It can be equally difficult to understand people who assume that theirs is the 'right' accent. When you think about it, there are some very intolerant, arrogant people around.
When I first came from Glasgow to live and work in London, as a youngster, I was made to feel so inadequate that I modified how I spoke according to perceived 'acceptable' speech. Oh how I wish I hadn't now and, instead, had demanded the same tolerance I had to employ to understand many of the 'affected' accents I came across. I wouldn't do it now that I know I'm as good as anyone, however I speak.

Aw peaceatlast, it was of it's time , accents not accepted on tv or radio.

Unbelievable now, isn't it Anniebach ? You only have to watch old footage to hear all those strident BBC accents. Nobody speaks like that nowadays. Thank goodness for regional accents and how awful for peaceatlast to have been made to feel inadequate because of hers. We've come a long way since those days.

These days there are so many accents around, I suppose people have gradually accepted that there is no one way to speak, thankfully.

I'm just sad that I can't retrieve any of my accent, even when I try hard but, I suppose, I left Glasgow in 1971, a long time ago but you would think, having been born and brought up there till the age of almost 20, there would still be a little bit left. Mind you, when I go back to Glasgow, although they "accuse" me of being English,(in jest) I do come back with a hint of my original home accent for a little while anyway.

Belladonna, it is so difficult to believe just how awful it was, all those clipped accents, so boring

Peaceatlast, go on, practise , it will come back

At school in deepest Norfolk we were taught to be bi-lingual. Norfik and English. My English does have an accent but at least I can be understood, I lapse in varying degrees depending on who I'm talking to.

Portuguese friend told me she loved the way Brazilians spoke Portuguese 'they make it dance' and is now happily married to one!