What type of accent does James have?

When Hammond says "fast" in earlier series, it distinctively sounds northern. I love all their accents :)
 
When Hammond says "fast" in earlier series, it distinctively sounds northern. I love all their accents :)

Hamster definitely sounded more regional in Series 1. By Series 2 it sounded as though some more RP had crept in.
 
I've noticed the "four-b'-fours" thing.

But then, I'm almost completely hopeless with the varying accents there (except for the stereotypical "British" accent (is that what RP is?) and Cockney), so the three of them sound virtually the same to me, with a few differences here and there.

There you go. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

Best bit from that link is:

"It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed." Someone tell the colonials.
 
amazing, accent can be of so many types in a country.i had never noticed
 
The silent Rs stuck to the ends of words in brittish english is common in most of it's dialects if I remember correctly. but in bristol it's a silent L instead.

Oh, is that what that is :) I had noticed in many episodes that they all seem to pronounce 'Honda' as 'Hondar', etc.
 
He certainly doesn't have a Bristol accent..thank god.
 
Actually, people can sort-of make a comparison with the Bristol thing if they watch 11x01 because Justin Lee Collins has quite a strong Bristol accent :)

I have to agree, I really don't hear it in James.
 
The silent Rs stuck to the ends of words in brittish english is common in most of it's dialects if I remember correctly. but in bristol it's a silent L instead.

Fortunately the Bristol accent is relatively rare actually in the city of Bristol, more common round the edges though.
 
Fortunately the Bristol accent is relatively rare actually in the city of Bristol, more common round the edges though.

I think as time goes on, that's becoming the case with cities generally. I suppose the population in the centre of the city is very mixed and mobile, so accents aren't as strong there. The communities around the edges and in less wealthy areas that don't attract people who move to the areas and where there isn't the mobility outwards are where you still hear the regional variations most. My dad still has family in Knowle West and even I have difficulty in understanding some of the older ones!

And actually, bringing it back on topic, James's accent, or lack thereof, is pretty typical of what you'd hear in any city with a relatively mobile population - an accent that reflects that mobility :)
 
The other accent I found really noticeable was on the Robin Reliant film - the model airplane pilot, Steve somebody.

I don't know where he's from, but I love listening to him say, "...I'm afraid with the Robin it's the other way 'round..." :D
 
The other accent I found really noticeable was on the Robin Reliant film - the model airplane pilot, Steve somebody.

I don't know where he's from, but I love listening to him say, "...I'm afraid with the Robin it's the other way 'round..." :D

Steve Holland, classic 'rural' accent. Might be West Country but i've not got a great eat for these things.
 
LOL what, do you not have accents in Aus?

Not really. We have australian... and broad australian. Older Aussies, tradies, outer edge suburbanites and country people (but not all) tend to have a broader accent but it's still the same accent. And south australians pronounce castle differently to everyone else. S'bout it. Nothing like Britain, or France with all their regional accents. Oh, and you don't hear it much anymore but some older people used to have a posh half-british, half australian accent, like old school newsreaders.

I'm glad this thread popped up, I was wondering about James' accent.
 
I'm surprised people don't hear the Yorkshire in Jeremy's accent. It is subtle, I'll grant you, but it's definitely there. His accent is very similar to a friend of mine's. She was born in Doncaster and grew up in York. Some of the accents from that part of the country are not at all what people expect them to be!

I can hear it, but I grew up around it as most of my family are from Yorkshire (whereas I'm a total Londoner that's been destroyed by living in Australia too long). When Parkinson was on SIARPC, it sounded like a family gathering to me. :lol:
 
Not really. We have australian... and broad australian. Older Aussies, tradies, outer edge suburbanites and country people (but not all) tend to have a broader accent but it's still the same accent. And south australians pronounce castle differently to everyone else. S'bout it. Nothing like Britain, or France with all their regional accents. Oh, and you don't hear it much anymore but some older people used to have a posh half-british, half australian accent, like old school newsreaders.

I'm glad this thread popped up, I was wondering about James' accent.

Some Victorians (especially those around Bendigo) pronounce "castle" differently too- I think it's like the Liverpudlian accent a bit (having had to act with one before), whereas everybody else is more RP.
My accent is actually more British (RP) than most Aussies, as is one of my friends- can't figure out why (called" cultivated Australian" from memory :D). Most Aussie accents are pretty similar to RP though, though some have a "twang" to them.

</excessive use of the term RP>
 
Not really. We have australian... and broad australian. Older Aussies, tradies, outer edge suburbanites and country people (but not all) tend to have a broader accent but it's still the same accent. And south australians pronounce castle differently to everyone else. S'bout it. Nothing like Britain, or France with all their regional accents. Oh, and you don't hear it much anymore but some older people used to have a posh half-british, half australian accent, like old school newsreaders.

Ooh, that's really interesting. Thanks for the info! I often wonder how sometimes people from other countries "can't hear" different British accents as there are an absolute ton, but I think in a lot of cases they don't realise they exist.
 
British accents are fascinating, and I particularly like the one hat Vinnie Jones is speaking.
James would probably say that that accent is "the speak of british peasants", but I think it's quite cool.
 
I don't know how you guys can cope with the different regional accents and then topping off with the RP. Whereas Ausssies just have the one accent and if there is a few, they're nearly the same.
 
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