Why do US tourists think that Britain=London?

[davec]

Righto, Peter. We do notice the differences first, as there are several things that almost all British accents have in common that American accents do not, and vice versa. But if you were to make a video consisting of brief conversations with people from a couple of dozen British regions, we'd hear the differences. One problem is that we can't categorize the accents in our minds because we hear actors, news readers, and people being interviewed, usually without knowing where they're from. Samantha Morton is very Nottingham, and Michael Palin retains much of his Yorkshire accent, but without knowing that... I've heard English accents so slight they sound like expats who moved to the US when they were three, and others so thick you can barely tell what language they're speaking. But these are exceptional.

A close listening to American accents reveals much, though. Wealthy Americans sound like English southerners, while the yokels twang away like Fenlanders, who have a collection of diverse accents you never hear over here, and from what I can tell not much in England either. An attempt to get video samples of Fenlander accents in Google gets you nowt.

[daisy]

My maternal grandfather (who died before I was born) was from Edinburgh, and named his four daughters after English Queens.

Perhaps Quentin Crisp, Danny LaRue, Larry Grayson, and Elton John? I jest...


Yuk yuk yuk...I laugh...besides, you forgot Steven Fry and Graham Norton...
Seriously, my aunts, who were all much older than my mother, were named Bess (for Elizabeth I), Victoria, and Catherine. He'd already done Elizabeth I when Mama was born, so he went instead for Virginia.

[davec]

I don't think I consider Stephen Fry a queen, but Graham Norton more than makes up for that!!

Graham Chapman was gay, but he hated campy queens.

[PeterSF]

Graham Chapman was gay, but he hated campy queens.

Perhaps best exemplified by this classic sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol5Dfs7jqFI