EDIT: Also, is there such a thing as a "neutral" British accent, analogous to American broadcaster's midwest pronunciation that is perceived to be the most free of regional characteristics.
Check this out in relation to the accent question. I find it extremely interesting to hear accents from different places.
Also, is there such a thing as a "neutral" British accent, analogous to American broadcaster's midwest pronunciation that is perceived to be the most free of regional characteristics.
The Cambridge pronunciation dictionary calls it "BBC English". Previously the term "received pronunciation" was in use.
Pin pointing British accents I would say would only come from familiarity and experience. Coming from the UK with a fairly neutral East Midlands accent and being a fairly regular visitor to the States in the past, my accent has been confused in order of frequency as Australian, South African, NZ, French and Russian. The most common response to hearing my voice in the States is "Cool accent... Where are you from?"
I would urge caution regarding using BBC news readers as a source of a neutral British accent as in recent years some regional accents have been quite commonly used. The current anchor for the 6 o'clock BBC news, Hugh Edwards is Welsh and his accent is quite distinctive. Better examples would be Moira Stewart or Sophie Rayworth. I agree that Richard Dawkins is a little on the posh side.
This site at the British Library has a collection of different regional accents, some recent and some recorded several decades ago:
http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/
Some of the older ones, made c. 1918, are quite difficult for a modern Brit to understand, and the recording quality can be poor too:
http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Berliner-Lautarchiv-British-and-Commonwealth-recordings
Perhaps a rule-of-thumb is that people from the north of England generally pronounce the 'a' in words like bath and glass short, whereas people from the south draw it out longer, more of an 'ah' sound, 'barth, glarss'. Also, northerners pronounce 'u' more like 'oo'. I don't know the technical words for this, sorry.
I doubt there is really a completely neutral British English accent. There almost always small give aways in an individual's speech which carry influences of both region and class. Having been born and brought up in Solihull, a south-eastern suburb of Birmingham, I grew up able to speak with a West Midlands accent and alternatively with a supposedly neutral British accent. The latter was acquired by being sent to a posh boarding school by my parents, who were determined I should not speak with a Brummie accent.
I believe the West Midlands accent uses more vowel sounds which differ from the neutral (or BBC, or "Oxford" or Queen's English) pronunciation than any other regional accent. I think this is why West Midlands (or Birmingham or Brummie) is so despised. Personally I love it; it's the linguistic equivalent of a delicious mature Blue Stilton cheese.
The inhabitants of Solihull are somewhat obsessed with trying not to sound Brummie. They will even go to the extreme of saying in their obviously West Midland tones: "We're nothing to do with Birmingham, you know. We come from a little village near Stratford upon Avon". Their feigned association with Will Shakespeare is comic. I have no doubt that the playwrite/poet/actor spoke with a version of the West Midlands accent used in his day and, like any good actor, could probably mimic any accent needed for whatever part he was playing at the time.
Let's not get too serious about it.
Noel
is there such a thing as a "neutral" British accent
I believe that both BBC English and Received Pronunciation are artificial attempts to impose a "neutral" accent where there was previously none.
I think of BBC English as analogous to inventing Canberra as the capital of Australia to avoid offending the good people of Sydney and Melbourne.
On the other hand, Received Pronunciation was an attempt by one, particularly privileged, class of people to unilaterally declare their accent as The Neutral One.
I don't believe there is a neutral British accent.
There was a PBS/BBC tv show back in the '80's called "The Story of English". Also has an updated companion book.
It was quite the good program. One interesting thing that was done in the show, was to compare various British accents to American accents. For example comparing American Southern accents, to accents in specific parts of Great Britain. Anyway, it was a long time ago when I saw the program; but it was quite fascinating.
"Americans" are a rather diverse lot. Many of my friends aren't very well travelled, and honestly couldn't tell an Indian accent from a Brit from an Aussie. On the other hand, folks who love watching the Pythons and/or imported British shows like Downton Abbey, eventually might be able to discern multiple different British accents.
Heck, some folks (particularly clerks) are isolated enough that they are hopeless outside of their own native accent. My dad had horrible trouble when visiting me in Philly trying to ask for a can of Skoal at a convenience store. Conversely, I had a buddy from Philly visiting the South tell me about multiple failed attempts to ask a southerner for directions.
