What English do you read, write, speak?

[661-Pete]

I took it he meant Recieved Pronounciation.

Spot on. I spikka da Eengerleesh as I were tortah! Simple as that.

Or you might hear him narrating the old pathe news reels or reading the news on BBC R4( but in the old days perhaps ).

Edit: Basically Posh .

Have to admit, when I was a kid (well - once we'd got a TV that is, when I was about 9 or 10) I used to watch (without taking much in) the BBC News being read out by the likes of those old stalwarts Robert Dougall, Kenneth Kendall and Richard Baker. All RP-speakers, they were: the Beeb didn't hold with accented newsreaders back in those days.

But..... during WW2 they did in fact employ Yorkshireman (and heavily accented) Wilfred Pickles as a newsreader. This was, apparently, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters".

Call me 'posh' if you must - it's just another version of spoken English. Our son's underlying accent is also RP, not surprisingly - but he is a dab hand (unlike me) at putting on all sorts of regional accents. In particular, he can do plenty of different passable Scots accents, everything from Weegee to Dundee - a legacy from the time he spent living in Scotland. He tells me my attempts at Scots (usually when trying to recite William MgGonagall) are hopeless!

[Cyril Haearn]

My English accent was picked up in Derbyshire and even though I left thirty five years ago, the accent just will not leave me!

Have you picked up a bit of Welsh too (language or accent)?

Many people can not guess where I am from, I have to tell them in the end

[old_windbag]

perhaps I should get out more in the wider population

Make your first port of call henley regatta, then stop off and have afternoon tea with jacob rees-mogg and his environmentally friendly family. . That should be plenty edjucashion for one day.

I used to regularly travel to a company in over-hulton near bolton. The dialect was great and the workers down to earth, straight talking and good to work with.

Have to admit, when I was a kid (well - once we'd got a TV that is, when I was about 9 or 10) I used to watch (without taking much in) the BBC News being read out by the likes of those old stalwarts Robert Dougall, Kenneth Kendall and Richard Baker. All RP-speakers, they were: the Beeb didn't hold with accented newsreaders back in those days.

richard baker still pops up time to time or did at proms time, sadly the others RP is now RIP.

Sometimes actors show how good they are when it is a shock to hear them in interviews having only heard their acting persona, eg wilfred brambell( steptoe snr) and even pam st clement( pat butcher eastenders). Both rather posh.

[661-Pete]

richard baker still pops up time to time or did at proms time, sadly the others RP is now RIP.

Blimey*, is he still around? Must be pushing ninety by now! [just looked him up - 92 actually]. I remember him doing a cameo on Monty Python once - hilarious! "Lemon curry?"

*Now there's a good old RP expression!

[meic]

There is even plenty of Derbyshire in my Welsh!

I dont consider my children to have a Welsh accent, they have a Carmarthen accent. Not Llanelli, nor Swansea. Gogs are indistinguishable from Scousers to our ears.

[Cyril Haearn]

I love hearing different accents when travelling, they are part of the place just like buildings or landscapes

My Oxford English (or accent-free as it has wrongly been called) is not like Mr Rees-Mogg speaks, he is in a different league

[old_windbag]

Blimey*, is he still around?

There is a website something to the effect 50 actors you thought were dead and it makes surprising viewing and nice to know we still have them. Near the top is olivia de haviland( designed the mosquito fighter-bomber in between films) who is 101?

[Si]

I dunno as I never listen to my self.

Having said that I had to interview some people the other day and on playing back the recordings some time later I was confused as I couldn't work out who was doing the interview....definitely didn't sound like what I think I sound like. In theory I should have a mix of rural Shropshire and Black Country....oo ar, yam yam.

[reohn2]

.....I used to regularly travel to a company in over-hulton near bolton. The dialect was great and the workers down to earth, straight talking and good to work with.......

Mrs R2 originates from Walkden,when we met 1976 she'd just come back from 2 years living in Italy,that had an effect on her accent.
All her family were very well spoken no strong Mancunian/Boltonese accent,something that surprised me at the time as they were ordinary working folk.

[reohn2]

There is even plenty of Derbyshire in my Welsh!

I dont consider my children to have a Welsh accent, they have a Carmarthen accent. Not Llanelli, nor Swansea. Gogs are indistinguishable from Scousers to our ears.

I can understand that,I'm sure there are more Scousers in North Wales than Welsh folk,it's a retirement bolt hole which is no wonder really,the country is beautiful.

[old_windbag]

Mrs R2 originates from Walkden,when

I went to the red lion pub at walkden one night( i could often be working until 3am so had to grab food before closing). But more often it was the watergate inn on the a6 roundabout. But if early finish ie 7pm it was the old george at garforth near leeds.

[Cyril Haearn]

There is even plenty of Derbyshire in my Welsh!

I dont consider my children to have a Welsh accent, they have a Carmarthen accent. Not Llanelli, nor Swansea. Gogs are indistinguishable from Scousers to our ears.

I can understand that,I'm sure there are more Scousers in North Wales than Welsh folk,it's a retirement bolt hole,which is no wonder really,the country is beautiful.

One thing I realised when visiting Holywell (it's quite obvious really) speech changes gradually between places, in NE Wales the people speak more like those in Liverpool, didn't sound so Welsh to me at first,but L is much nearer to them than Caernarfon

Is there a hard divide between Lancashire and Yorkshire?

[reohn2]

I dunno as I never listen to my self.

Having said that I had to interview some people the other day and on playing back the recordings some time later I was confused as I couldn't work out who was doing the interview....definitely didn't sound like what I think I sound like. In theory I should have a mix of rural Shropshire and Black Country....oo ar, yam yam.

I find it's never good to hear myself speaking,its not so much the accent but I have a very nasel voice,a cross between a Scottish practice drone and a Breton Bombard,an acquired taste even for me

[pliptrot]

I speak Oxford English, or I used to, haven't lived there for a while and I speak mostly German now, my English is not quite right any more, people notice that occasionally

I grew up in Manchester and it took me a while and a lot of effort to drop that accent. I live in Berlin now, an English speaking city , and my wife (from Singapore) tells me that under the influence of a few pils I revert to Mancunian German, which no-one understands. Mancunian English is just the same here, no-one knows what I am on about. It's hard work for me in Germany and Singapore.

[[XAP]Bob]

One speaks proper like.