i've never really left canada, so please tell me... is there a difference between britain, england, and the uk?
The UK is the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland". Great Britain is made up of England, Wales and Scotland. England is just one of the 4 countries that make up the UK, and one of the 3 that make up GB. Although everyone credits being "British" to the English, everyone from England, Wales and Scotland are british. The Republic of Ireland (the bit on the bottom) is not part of the UK.
is there a difference between britain, england, and the uk?] britain is what liberals use uk is remarking on the kingdoms of wales scotland england and northern ireland, which are united...which isnt technically true... and england is an area of britain.
well if you wanna be exact about it although its worth pointing out that wales, scotland and ireland have been around a lot longer than england, which originally was divided up between a few tribes, untill the saxons invaded and repressed everyone including taking over welsh land and bassically trying to ethnically cleanse us all....
Just in case there are any of you who are not confused, Ireland is not part of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland is part of the British Isles, which are a geographical entity rather than a political one. Oh and whoever it was, missed out the channel Islands, the Shetland Islands, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, and I suppose Anglesey counts as part of Wales as well. They're not really separate countries but they are separate land masses. But this is why the term "British accent" (or British anything else for that matter, if it has to do with nationality) has no meaning whatsoever as Britain is made up of a number of countries, (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are considered separate countries as well), and you'll find more different ways of speaking English within Britain than in the entire non-British English-speaking world. Oh and by the way. Most countries in Britain have a rather healthy rivalry between each other. Well really it's that no-one gets on with the English, no-one gets on with the Welsh, and everyone gets on with the Irish, although they do tend to make Irish jokes in the same vain as blonde jokes, which is rather unfair, IMHO, but anyway. So yeah, I think that just about covers it. Can't believe a Canadian would have asked this question. It's such an AMERICAN thing to ask. You've obviously been watching too much yank telly.
ok ok ok... im glad a canadian asked it so i didnt have to.. i found this all very informative cuz i was really confused before..and didnt know where to find out.. except something like great britain, er um, uk , er um, british isles, er um... all those places.. you know what im talking about for dummies. anyway, dont make fun of people who ask though. at least they desire to find out those things that they know they are so ignorant about .. which leads me to ask a question that i know im gonna feel embarrassed about.... who are/were the saxons? eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh im turning red already.
if this is one of those questions that no simple answer will do for.. if anyone knows a link to some history site or something just post that thing up here and consider me answered hahaha.
The Saxons were the people that turned up in Britain after the Romans got bored and left. Scandinavian origin mostly, and had a lot of things in common with the Vikings. They forced out the and put them back in their place, and let the Celts in Scotland and Ireland just get on with their lives. They were around until the beginning of the 12th Century, when they were finally forced out following the Norman conquest in 1066. Harold was the last Saxon king, who famously lost the battle of Hastings to William of Normandy. It was a close thing. He beat Harald Hardrada in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, in the very north-east of England, and marched all the way down to Bexhill on Sea, right on the south coast, in order to face William the Conqueror less than 3 weeks later. No wonder he lost that one, his men must have been knackered!
so yeah, thats all about it the natural inhabitants of these islands always being repressed and killed by invaders! obviously thats stoped now tho
I once put up a "Learn To Speak Yorkshire" course up on the forums, with soundclips of me and my dad speaking Yorkshire and tips on how to get the authentic Yorkshire effect. Bloody shame I don't have any webspace nowadays, or I'd put up another one
Unfortunately, I have no webspace...but I could try to retreive the URLs to the accent soundclips on my old webspace, since Freeserve are being sloppy and crap about deleting ex-members' stuff from their webspace...I'll see what I can do
