Which UK accents work in the US?

2011-03-03 05:44:05

2 March 2011 Last updated at 14:36 Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Will Cheryl Cole's Newcastle accent work in America? By Jon Kelly BBC News Magazine Cheryl Cole may be understood by British viewers, but US producers may find her less easy on the ear Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The time Britain slid into chaos 7 days quiz Does the Queen do fashion? 10 of your Vidal Sassoon cuts

Cheryl Cole's Newcastle accent may be an obstacle to her succeeding on US television, reports suggest. So do American audiences understand some UK regional accents better than others?

It has been suggested Cheryl Cole is taking speaking lessons ahead of her appearance on the US version of the X Factor, with a focus on vowel pronunciation and vocabulary.

The same accent that has made Tyneside a magnet for call centres may not translate perfectly across the Atlantic.

It is not one with which most US audiences have been regularly confronted since Eric Burdon's heyday as lead singer of the Animals, and international rock stars who hail from the North East, like Sting and Bryan Ferry, have tended to have only mild accents.

It highlights the reality that patterns of speech used by millions of Britons, which would be readily recognised across the UK, are less well understood in the US.

Indeed, Sunday Mirror TV critic Kevin O'Sullivan, who served as a correspondent in Los Angeles for eight years, suggests that the issue is simply one of familiarity for most Americans.

Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

Americans have two British accents that they recognise”

End Quote Kevin O'Sullivan Sunday Mirror

"Their reaction to Cheryl is not to be confused with prejudice - it's purely logistical," he says. "If you think of how a really extreme Glaswegian accent sounds in London, that's what Cheryl Cole sounds like to an American.

"Americans have two British accents that they recognise - standard-issue received pronunciation and Cockney, as long as the latter isn't too pronounced. No-one over there can understand strong northern accents."

Indeed, Ms Cole is not the first North East celebrity to encounter such difficulties.

During Ant and Dec's short-lived stint as presenters of US game show Wanna Bet, which was filmed in LA during 2007, producers drafted in an interpreter to press a button every time the pair said something that he feared would baffle audiences.

By contrast, after winning an Oscar for his role in the King's Speech, Colin Firth's acceptance speech - delivered in textbook RP of which George VI himself would have been proud - was heard loud and clear by the crowd.

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