What are the different French accents and how do they sound?

Question for linguists - Long O vowel sound in RP or Southern English accents?

• How does the British long "o" sound to you? I'm from South East England but I'm currently living abroad. I've had people from a number of different countries say that when I say no, it sounds like "nei" (rhyming with eye) or "nein" in German. To me it doesn't sound like this, but I recognise it sounds a lot different from accents of other English speaking countries. Non-native English speakers (who have learnt American English) often don't understand when I use words containing a long "o". Linguists, would you be able to give an explanation of how the long O in British English differs from that of American English or other accents? Do I just speak in a strange way or is this a common feature of British English or specific British accents? Would you be able to give me an explanation? I find it hard to categorise my accent; it's possibly something close to contemporary RP, but not exactly. Are there any other English people who have difficulty being understood because of this? Are there any people learning English who can't understand the long o? What do other British people think?

• Answer:

  Unfortunately, I don't have enough data, nor am I familiar with British English enough to be overly accurate, but I'll hazard a guess. From what I can tell, British English tends to "diphthongize" the vowel that is equivalent to the American English [o] to [əʊ]. This is not a significant difference, as both cases are still mid-back vowels, and many linguists are trying to write the American [o] as a diphthong (i.e. [ow]). Your particular case, from looking at these data, is highly unusual. Your equivalent to the American [o] is [aɪ], which is a low-back-to-high-front diphthong. The reason you may not think it sounds this way is related to your concept of English phonology; your brain thinks /o/, but what is spoken has been said, from your experience, to sound like [aɪ]. Try plotting the environment that your [o] or [əʊ] and your [aɪ] occur; is it only after following certain consonants, only at the end of a word, etc.? If there's a pattern, there just might be an explanation. It would be a lot easier for you to find someone else who knows how to transcribe spoken sounds into the IPA so that they can accurately transcribe what you're saying without your phonology getting in the way.