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Comment by chrismorgan | Hacker News Reader

I thought it was down to a few rather small regions left in the UK (and fading), but I’m not expert in their accents. I could well be wrong, and my word choice was injudicious.

I should also note that Indian English is also a bit patchy, their leading aitches are regularly silent due to it not being a common construct in their own languages; but they’re also less precise about a/an in general too.

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Oh it's certainly fading. And I suppose I should have qualified that I meant the 'traditionally associated dialect & accent' of large geographic chunks - which isn't to say that the majority of the population there actually speaks it. But the accent of the guys propping up the bar of the locals' pub across large geographic chunks, I think. I'm no expert either.

As an American, I’m fascinated by your precise description of accents. We have plenty of our own, but we don’t categorize them that precisely. For example, I can usually distinguish between West Texas and North Carolina, but I probably couldn’t explain the difference.

I think they can be just as readily, not that I mean to tell you your own interests of course but if one is interested in accents/linguistics/usage etc. then the patterns are perhaps more noticeable.

I'm British, so I'm not that familiar with many American accents, certainly not your examples, but off the top of my head you do find elongated vowels, t->d, ay->i (short), rhotic r, nasalisation, 'vocal fry', 'baby voice', and ending every sentence or half sentence with rising intonation like it's a question?

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