Local accents - what be yourn?

[Cugel]

I have a strong Tyneside accent, despite living 50 years in Lancashire. It feels like part of "me" (whatever that is).

Apparently many are attempting to "soften" their regional accents to become acceptable to those who make the decisions about who to favour and who to not-favour. Is this a good thing or just another nasty conformity-pressure imposed by The Establishment?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... eir-voices

My own accent was certainly a drag-anchor on some occasions where I sought some sort of advancement. At uni it seemed to suggest to a philosophy tutor of very posh mien that I was fick. Ha! I showed him, the toff! But many of my contemporaries did adopt some form of RP accent. One lad from Hull went from a very thick Hull accent to incredibly Oxford-posh overnight! It was a bizarre experience for the rest of us.

At work it was often obvious that interviewers, senior managers and various others with posh voice and "correct" educational background assumed I was a fick yokel because of my accent. It may have oppressed my career (such as it was) now and then - although I found I didn't care as I lack ambitions for the greasy pole climbing.

Elsewhere I've found that people will adapt to me and trust me far more readily than they will with a posh chap. It might work both ways then.

What's your accent (including the various forms of RP)? Do you feel it affects your life in any important way? Have you changed it over the years, a little or a lot?

Cugel

[fausto copy]

Mine's still broad Cheshire.
Don't know if it ever stopped me from getting on, though I never really got anywhere
If I ever had my time over again, I would love to study accents or dialects at Uni.

I'm fascinated by accents and whenever I meet someone new I always try and guess where they're from.
Mind you, if I ever meet a fellow cyclist up around Tregaron way, I probably wouldn't know if he's from Tyneside or Tameside.

[reohn2]

Broad Lancashire with broad Lancashire dialect which I have to modify to be understood by people not use to it.

[kylecycler]

I was standing in the queue at my local Homebase behind a bloke who wasn't the most articulate talker in Ershur (Ayrshire). The checkout girl couldn't find the barcode and he was trying to explain why...

"It hisnae goat a fumdae cos it's hingwaed - tha's hoo ah bocht it in the furst place, cos it's hingwaed, tha's hoo it's no' goat a fumdae."

"Sorry?" She wasn't getting it.

"Aw, fur gawd's sake, hen... It hisnae goat a fumdae cos it's hingwaed - tha's hoo ah bocht it in the furst place, cos it's hingwaed, tha's hoo it's no' goat a fumdae..."

She still wasn't getting it and the queue was building up behind so I thought I'd better help out: "It hasn't got a barcode because it's reduced - that's why he bought it in the first place, because it's reduced, that's how it's not got a barcode," I explained.

"Oh, right," said the checkout girl, enlightened.

"Tha's whit ah said," he protested.

Weel, it wis an' it wisnae (mainly it wisnae).

I don't talk like that but I don't talk like this either. Somewhere in between.

[sjs]

East Midlands, despite not having lived in Ilkeston since going to uni in 1976. Still quite strong in family gatherings. There is a series of little books "Ey up mi duck" by Richard Scollins and John Titford, still in print, which deal with it pretty well.

[gbnz]

"It hisnae goat a fumdae cos it's hingwaed - tha's hoo ah bocht it in the furst place, cos it's hingwaed, tha's hoo it's no' goat a fumdae.".

Sounds like Newcastle yesterday! As the above poster states, they do sound a bit fick (Nb. And post industrial population types do tend to look it as well)

Thank god neither the bishop nor choir spoke/sang in that manner at evensong yesterday (Durham Cathedral).

As for my accent? Definately a Sir at the local supermarket, gym and bus. Well to do, middle class English, with a slight Oceanic twang, depending on the time of day (NB. I think I've lost the French-Candian, Finnish, Mexican twang I may have pickedd up as a child, and neither the South Welsh, New Zealand or Tanzanian seemed to have stayed - apparently it was annoying at the time, though I wasn't aware of it )

[pete75]

Mine's still broad Cheshire.
Don't know if it ever stopped me from getting on, though I never really got anywhere
If I ever had my time over again, I would love to study accents or dialects at Uni.

My wife studied dialects as part of her English degree at Leeds University. Her tutor was Stanley Ellis, one of the leading dialect experts in the country. The police ignored his advice on the ripper tapes which was a mistake as he was eventually proven to be extremely accurate in placing the hoax tape man.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... s-obituary

[honesty]

Have a look at this -https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html

Got me very close to where I grew up.

[drossall]

I was a student at Leeds during the Ripper business. We all did service walking girls home - what else could we do? I remember taking a fellow-student back to her all-girls hall. When we got there, all the girls and the warden were sitting on the stairs. You got the feel of what it was doing to people.

Another time a friend asked me to escort his then girlfriend (they're married now) to a party because he couldn't make it to the start. He knew I was faster than any non-cyclist. It was the fear in his eyes as he asked, "You won't leave her behind on a hill?" that I remember.

Back on topic, I'm a right mixture of Leeds, Hertfordshire and Cheshire, having lived twice each in the first two of those places. Someone once placed me to within four miles of where I'd lived in Cheshire. But that was soon after I moved down here (again).

Have a look at this -https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html

Missed me by approximately half the country, when I did it before. Nowhere near any of the places above.

[kylecycler]

East Midlands, despite not having lived in Ilkeston since going to uni in 1976. Still quite strong in family gatherings. There is a series of little books "Ey up mi duck" by Richard Scollins and John Titford, still in print, which deal with it pretty well.

And Ilkeston is pronounced "Il'ston", isn't it? I know because I used to meet someone when I was out with the dogs who came from there. She also finished almost every sentence with "Jannettamean?" - "Do you know what I mean?"

[sjs]

East Midlands, despite not having lived in Ilkeston since going to uni in 1976. Still quite strong in family gatherings. There is a series of little books "Ey up mi duck" by Richard Scollins and John Titford, still in print, which deal with it pretty well.

And Ilkeston is pronounced "Il'ston", isn't it? I know because I used to meet someone when I was out with the dogs who came from there. She also finished almost every sentence with "Jannettamean?" - "Do you know what I mean?"

No "t" in Ilson, for the purists.

[kylecycler]

Have a look at this -https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html

Got me very close to where I grew up.

It was spot on for me, even though I was brought up just south of Edinburgh - in the east - and there's quite a difference. Both my parents were from just south of Glasgow, though, so maybe I never picked up the east coast accent. Even then, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness accents are all quite different.

Last year I went with some of my Ayrshire cycling buddies to Creetown, only a day's ride away from Ayr, and the (wonderful) accent down there was completely different again.

The nicest English speakers I've come across personally are those who 'have the Gaelic'. First one I met was in Wester Ross, where I used to go on holiday when I was a wee boy. I was with my dad and was at the age when I thought it was clever to swear - my dad never swore but I thought it was 'grown up' - and as we walked away after meeting the fellow I said, "Talks like a [effing] Welshman, dad." It was the first and last time I ever swore in my dad's presence - he laughed but still gave me a skelp.

[kylecycler]

East Midlands, despite not having lived in Ilkeston since going to uni in 1976. Still quite strong in family gatherings. There is a series of little books "Ey up mi duck" by Richard Scollins and John Titford, still in print, which deal with it pretty well.

And Ilkeston is pronounced "Il'ston", isn't it? I know because I used to meet someone when I was out with the dogs who came from there. She also finished almost every sentence with "Jannettamean?" - "Do you know what I mean?"

No "t" in Ilson, for the purists.

Oh, right!

[Cyril Haearn]

Really want to hear Cugel speaking, especially when the Welsh seeps in
I used to speak standard Oxford English, but not posh like the PurgaTories
Don't think it has changed much, but people make assumptions about me when I mention Oxford, +1?

Plenty more on my thread 'What English do you SPEAK?'

Anyones accent changed involuntary after moving as an adult? Anyone here speak Estuary English?
..
I understand the Highlanders have a lighter accent than the lowland Scots because English was adopted later in the north and taught by RP speakers, is that right?

[feefee8]

My accent should be broad Doric with a Tayside twang but I never really picked up the accent, probably for a variety of reasons.

I’m definitely Scottish, most people have guessed Inverness or Perth so not too out of place in Fort William.

Having a bit of Gaelic helps too....mostly to get annoyed by misspelling on road signs!