Quora精選：英國人聽到美式口音什麼感覺？
How do American accents sound to British ears? Their accents sound so refined to us. Do we sound refined to them?
英國人聽美式口音什麼感覺？我們感覺他們的口音很有教養，他們聽我們的口音也覺得有教養嗎？
獲得7.7k 好評的回答@Joel Thomas：
No, and I think the main reason for this is the “prestige non-rhotacism” of British Received Pronunciation.
不。我認爲主要原因是英式英語標準發音中“著名的不r音化”。
You know how typically in American accents you can always hear the “r” sound? Well that's rhoticism, and it's perhaps the difference between British and American accents that most stands out.
你知道美式發音中最有特點的就是你總能聽到“r”這個音嗎？那就是“r音化”，這可能就是英美髮音最顯著的區別。
One of the things that really gets up our noses is “Americanisms”. In Victorian times we would play fast and loose with our own language to our heart's content, but with the old order upended a large number of these innovations started to come from the wrong side of the Atlantic, and so to preserve our Britishness it is now our duty to identify and reject all such dilutions of our pure language. After all, it's called English so it must be ours!
有一件我們真正討厭的事是“美國腔”，在維多利亞時期我們根據心情會把自己的語言說得時快時慢，但隨着舊的社會秩序被推翻，大西洋彼岸傳過來大量類似的語言創新，所以爲了把英式英語的特色保留下來，現在我們有責任識別並抵制所有類似的對我們純潔語言的侵犯。畢竟，它叫作“英語”，所以必須是我們的！
獲得1.9k好評的回答@Paul Rodgers：
I have a Canadian accent but live in London. Most people I meet assume I’m American. Those that guess that I’m Canadian often say that my accent is softer that an American accent. I suspect that this means that they find American accents harsh, and Canadian accents a bit less harsh. They certainly don’t consider them refined.
我有加拿大口音但住在倫敦，我見到的大多數人都以爲我是美國人。那些猜我是加拿大人的人經常說我的口音比美式發音聽起來更柔和。我想這就意味着他們發現美式發音很粗糙，而加拿大口音沒那麼粗糙。他們當然不會認爲美式口音“有教養”。
獲得630好評的回答@ Neil Highnam：
I don’t know what you mean by refined. However, I do like American accents and generally prefer listening to them than to many British accents which can sound so dull.
我不知道你說“有教養”是什麼意思，然而，我確實喜歡美式口音，相對一些英式口音我通常更喜歡聽美式口音，英式口音有時聽起來很無趣。
I grew up in south east England and the typical middle class accent spoken there sounds really whiny and uninteresting to me. I’ve had friends from various places in the US with different accents and most films, videos and tv shows I watch involve Americans. I don’t think of American accents as being in any way exotic.
我在英格蘭東南部長大，那兒典型的中產階級口音我真的很煩，覺得很無趣。我有來自美國不同地區的朋友，都有不同口音。我看的很多電影、視頻和電視節目裏都有美國人。我不覺得美式口音像外國口音。
I like the fact that an American is judged more by the words he speaks than the accent with which he speaks them. In Britain politics, theatre and cinema, along with all manner of powerful positions are filled with bumbling toffs talking nonsense with posh, “refined” accents. The only reason many got where they did is because they come from a wealthy or aristocratic background. Success due to background is not limited to the UK, but I always liked the fact that the President of the USA will speak in the same way as most people from the same area, rich or poor. Bill Clinton’s Arkansas southern accent is a modern example of this.
我喜歡人們評判美國人時更多的是看重他們所說的詞彙，而不是看重他們的口音。在英國政界、劇院和電影院裏，還有所有有權勢的人中，都摻雜着很多裝模作樣的紈絝子弟，操着優雅的、“有教養的”口音胡說八道。很多人能有這種口音只是因爲他們來自富裕的或貴族家庭。靠家裏獲得成功的現象並不僅限於英國，但我總是喜歡美國總統和來自同一地區的大部分人口音一樣，包括富人和窮人，比爾·克林頓的阿肯色州南方口音就是當代的一個例子。
Listen to the words, not the accent. Then you will truly understand how refined the orator is.
聽一個人說的話，而不是聽他的口音，你才能真正知道說話的人多有教養。
（翻譯：菲菲）
