Great Britain refers to the landmass that is our lovely island, it's not a country. Regional accents aren't the same as accents of seperate countries. By your reasoning there'd be one European accent I will call the American accent a 'United States' accent if that will clear things up.

That is still not my point!
Let me see if I can articulate these thoughts more clearly:
I don't think people should say "British accent" or "American accent", but there are British accents and American accents. All accents within the area (I am and have always been fully aware that Great Britain is not a country, but an area [as I said above]) of Great Britain could be considered "British accents" since they are all accents within Great Britain. Just as all accents within America could be considered "American accents". Emphasis on the plural. You could technically say there are European accents, which would encompass all accents within Europe.

And.....how would that help? It's just calling it the same thing!

EDIT: If you want me to be specific about England, there is no difference. It also doesn't just have one accent. It has many accents, so someone who has a regional accent doesn't have the standard "English" accent. Same with America. Americans don't have a single accent, some of which foreigners can't differentiate.
http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#LargeMap

You're right, in that English, Scottish and Welsh accents do come under the umbrella of 'British accents', I'm not denying that. What I'm saying is that there is no single, combined British accent. I'm talking about when people say things like "I can do a British accent!" and then come out with what's actually the English accent (a generic, non specific one, but the English accent all the same). What we're disagreeing on here is that I don't think in anyway that the separation between several countries accents is comparable to the separations in regional accents.

I don't want you to be specific about English accents, you're right that there's many different ones and this is similar to how in the US there's many regional accents. What it's not the same as is differences between entirely separate countries just being considered 'regional'. They aren't.

Honestly, what I think this is caused by is the gulf between how British people view their nations and how Americans view it. For example, it's actually very unusual for someone to call themselves British (I do it here to save confusion and nit picking), the preference is to call yourself English, Scottish or Welsh (this is actually how I've caught out a lot of people pretending to be from here online, if they refer to themselves as British only it's pretty suspect). Whereas in the US I've noticed it all get put under a single 'British' heading. Every time I've visited the US actually I never had anyone call me English, or take a guess at anywhere else, I was always just called British and told I had a lovely British accent This in no way offended me, I just found the difference quite strange and interesting.

In a nutshell, I see your point that there's umbrella names for sets of accents in the US, and same for sets of accents in the UK, but I'm saying there is a big difference between different accents within a country, and different accents in seperate countries.

Cep - You're right, I forgot about House I'm so used to seeing Hugh Laurie in British films that it's always a bit weird hearing him do that accent so well.

... England, Scotland and Wales are ancient, seperate countries ... it's actually a little upsetting to be told they might as well all be the same.

I believe Jint's has corrected me on this before - thought it was going to involve a large stick.

Scottish and Welsh people definitely feel a lot stronger about this, probably because of hundreds of years of their own cultures being suppressed. I told my best friend who's Welsh (and very proud of it) about all this and she was scandalised I can sort of understand in that my family is from Southern Ireland and people can't always understand why they're so irritated by people assuming the Republic of Ireland is under British rule. It's a verrrrry touchy subject.

Mind if I ask a few *cough* or more *cough* questions? I'm writing a story set in England, and I want to get my facts straight.

I heard that Brits use the term "cuppa". Does that usually refer to a cup of tea or can it be any drink?

Supposing one of my character's needed something nice to wear for some formal occasion, but wouldn't be able to afford Harrod's. Any cheaper shops in the Greater London area that could serve the same purpose?

What kind of food, besides fish and chips, would be considered primarily English?

A "flat" is usually known as an apartment, right? If so, then would a house be called something else?

I probably have a lot more questions in mind, but I wanted to start small. If anyone could answer these, I'd be very grateful!

While I'm here

I heard that Brits use the term "cuppa". Does that usually refer to a cup of tea or can it be any drink?

It's (as far as I know) only referring to a cup of tea, not any other hot drink.

Supposing one of my character's needed something nice to wear for some formal occasion, but wouldn't be able to afford Harrod's. Any cheaper shops in the Greater London area that could serve the same purpose?

I'm no expert on suit buying, but I'd maybe do an internet search on tailors in the Kensington/Chelsea area. If you're setting your story in an earlier time period this would probably still be helpful as a lot of tailors and suit makers in that area have been established for a long time and are family businesses (so just check when they say the company was established and see if it lines up with your story).

What kind of food, besides fish and chips, would be considered primarily English?

I'd say probably the basic Sunday roast, which is pretty much a roast dinner with everything (veggies, roast potatos, turkey or chicken, and Yorkshire puddings). The British 'pub lunch' is similar too. Then things like scones and breakfast muffins

A "flat" is usually known as an apartment, right? If so, then would a house be called something else?

Flat is our word for apartment, but houses are just houses.

I have a question: How do Englishmen view the fourth of July? Doesn't it just not matter to them? And how do the English study the part of History where people left to come to America? I've heard that Englishmen don't really care that we left; is that true? Anybody live in England and have relations in the US because of parts of their family leaving England for America and parts staying put? Hope this isn't to controversial...

Lu

I think this is fairly politics free, we'll just have to be careful not to let it get off topic.

Honestly, it doesn't have any significance over here, most people either haven't heard of it or don't actually know why it's celebrated. The American Revolution definitely had wide ranging impact on Britain and the rest of the world, but truth is today people don't actually have much of an opinion on the matter. I don't recall actually learning in detail about the US becoming independent, we often learned about the dissolution of the British Empire but that would focus on places like India and some countries in Africa.

I've not actually heard of families being divided by immigration to America. There's lots of people in the US with British ancestry but I think the vast amount of it happened a long time ago so it's not so much of a current issue (not to say there isn't Americans with British relatives now).

Thanks, Shantih! Up for a few more?

What is the English day like? How many meals do you have a day, and did you say dinner is the most important? What time do you eat dinner? The other meals?

Is there any major difference in clothing between England and the US? I've seen pictures of the cast and they seem to dress 'bout the same as us here (Georgie Henley, Anna Popplewell, for example).

Any holidays in England that us Americans don't celebrate?

Lu

I'm going to feel unbelievably stupid asking this question but well as they say curiosity killed the cat. Is it true that in America you eat oranges with milk? (meaning that sometimes you drink milk while eating oranges) don't be annoyed with this silly question I just couldn't help myself

And here's one for England. I always wondered can Anglican priests get married. I know that Catholic ones can't and in the Russian Orthodox church you have to be married (or get married) in order to become a priest, but I never knew about Anglican ones

P.S. if anyone wants to ask a Russian anything I'm all ears

I think our mealtimes and clothes are more or less the same. There's some styles that are more popular in different places, like London, but that's the same as the US.

Off the top of my head, holidays I can think of are Guy Fawkes Night, or fireworks/bonfire night on November 5th. It was originally to celebrate Guy Fawkes failing to blow up Parliament, but nowadays I think it's more than anything an excuse to set off a bunch of fireworks As well as lighting fireworks and bonfires, it's traditional to make a 'Guy' - an effigy of Guy Fawkes, and throw that on the bonfire as well. It all sounds a bit barmy now I think of it, but it's fun, and one of my favourite holidays.

We've also got Boxing Day (also celebrated in Australia and New Zealand), which is a bank holiday on December 26th. There's not many traditions associated with it, the only one I can think of is in England there's always a big fox hunt meet on Boxing Day.

May Day, on May 1st, is another. It normally involves a lot of Morris dancing and the reason why this was my favourite holiday as a child, May poles -

And do you have Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday)? As well as church services, we get to make a ton of pancakes, it's great

I could name quite a few that we American's celebrate that English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish/Falkland Islands/Anyother nationality that is part of the UK ( ) don't celebrate. Thanksgiving and Fourth of July are primary examples. Others include (my favorite) dee Ground Hog day and President's day.

What do yall learn, World History wise, here in the States we learn the history of almost every major country, I think that is due to the amount of imgrant's who came across the pond (which British person thought that one up? ) to America.

WR: I've never just had and oranges and milk together just to have oranges and milk, so I don't know where that myth came from . but we often eat oranges with breakfast due to the amount of vitamins and minerals they contain. And we drink milk with breakfast for the calcium and such.

Oh, we also have May Day in the US, just to let jah know. Either way, Guy Fawkes Night sounds totally awesome! Blowing stuff up is fun, but we yanks do that on the Fourth of July.

I should have added, May Day here isn't what you call May Day in the US (correct me if I'm wrong on this!). I think your May Day is the same as Labour Day, or workers day (which we don't have)? Here it's from the European tradition of celebrating spring, fertility, that sort of thing. But like I said, if I'm wrong on this tell me

We learn about a variety of countries in school history, some I can recall studying were the US, Russia, some South American history, various European countries, and then places that tied into our history, either through war, immigration or colonialism.

I'm going to feel unbelievably stupid asking this question but well as they say curiosity killed the cat. Is it true that in America you eat oranges with milk? (meaning that sometimes you drink milk while eating oranges) don't be annoyed with this silly question I just couldn't help myself

Haha! No, I've never heard of doing that as a specific snack or something... I mean, there's nothing wrong with drinking milk while you eat an orange... but it's not as if we do it all the time. Come to think of it I've never had a glass of milk and eaten an orange at the same time. *Wonders what other stereotypes there are of where she lives that she's never heard of*

This is quite a fascinating thread! I'll weigh in with a few answers to questions previously asked:

...Is it true that in America you eat oranges with milk? (meaning that sometimes you drink milk while eating oranges)

Perhaps in some parts of the country...but I've never done it. I don't think I'd like the combination of the orange's acidity with the milk.

...And do you have Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday)? As well as church services, we get to make a ton of pancakes, it's great

Sounds delicious! Though again I'm not familiar with this custom. In fact, Shrove Tuesday isn't really observed much here in the northern US (to my knowledge). In some parts of this country it is better known as Mardi Gras - though that is celebrated quite differently, methinks.

May Day in this country, I think, used to be celebrated similarly to that in the UK, though perhaps not as much these days. There were Maypoles and such in my childhood, but I don't know if they're around much anymore.

Our Labor Day (celebrating workers) comes on the first Monday of September, creating a 3-day weekend informally called the 'end of summer' (as schools often open around that time, complicating family vacations and the like).

Boxing Day isn't observed here as it is in the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

Guy Fawkes Night was something I first learned about here on NarniaWeb. We don't observe it here in the US but (apart from the blowing up Parliament thing), I think we should - another night to enjoy fireworks and bonfires sounds like fun!

We don't celebrate Mardi Gras in the UK or Ireland, but for some reason I have memories of attending Mardi Gras celebrations in Dublin several times as a child. All I can think is that it must have just been Shrove Tuesday celebrations taken to a whole new level I will have to ask my uncles if this was my imagination or not I have attended the Italian version of Mardi Gras - simply 'carnevale', and the celebrations there are similar to how it is in the US.

Edit -

Just remembered, English pancakes are different to American ones. They're more savoury, and resemble crepes more than anything -

And taste sooo good with lemon juice

I never heard of Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday). And I never eat oranges w/ milk. Sounds gross to me, to be honest! And I don't really know what May day is or how it's celebrated here...?

Lu

You've never heard of May Day??? It's on the first day of may, there's dancing and a may pole to celebrate the end of winter, and all of the unmarried girls make flower wreaths to wear on their heads, and gather bouquets of Irises and Daffodils and scotch-broom. It's so fun!

At my house I make pancakes on Tuesday... but only because we have a set schedule of meals because otherwise we might be food-less