【转载BBC节目介绍英国英语里的“地方”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?

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?