Max-U52 wrote:And on the subject of accents, forgive my ignorance but take comfort in the fact that you've made me think (again). I imagine a Scottish accent could be considered British, since Scotland is part of Great Britain and an English accent would be that of an Englishman. So what about a Welsh accent? Is there such an animal? How many other accents will one find in the British Isles?
Just one more reason I love this forum so much, I'm constantly learning new things about far away people and places.


Yes, Gary, accents have borders in Britain. For a welsh accent, there's a beautiful old B & W ghost film made during the war, and starring (welshman) Mervyn Johns and his lovely daughter, Glynis: "The Halfway house". Glynis later made a splash in Hollywood (as a mermaid...)
Globalisation is eating away at accents; but the welsh one is derived from the Brythonic Gaelic language. I believe the incomprehensible tongue (to me anyway..

) is compulsory in Welsh schools up to the age of 14.
Similarly, the Scots accent derives (ultimately) from Irish Gaelic, which was imported in the Highlands in the 6th Century onwards, and which is taught in schools here. However, the lowland accent is the one most would recognise, and comes from Germanic dialects.
English accents drive partly from Danish, but mostly from Saxon (Sachsen) Germanic dialects, as well as Plattdeutsch ('flat German'), which is still spoken is Friesland (where the black and white cattle come from) and parts of Holland.
All the tribes on this Island (Britain/Alba in Scotland) are notionally British, and even the English (the last invaders) share 60% of their DNA with the Ancient Britons: The 'Beaker Folk", the "Celts', and the 'Picts' ('Painted people'-
though I'm sure
they didn't use a 'Clear Coat' before applying their washes

).
Thus, all native Britons may still have differing tribal origins, but they
all have true indigenous status. Political correctness is now trying to 'include' people in this mix who could never have been here..
As a by the by, Sentencing in the US strikes us here as being truly bizarre, just as the 'Three strikes' rule does. What's the point, for example, in sentencing someone to 300 years in jail, unless his name happens to be Methusalah?

Justice is not only blind sometimes, but plain stupid too..

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.