accents

[RWright]

I have been in several chat rooms that have talk features. One of my favorites was a trivia room that was mostly people from the UK. It was an eye (ear) opener hearing how different the accents can be from region to region there. I always had to listen carefully but some, I had to listen MUCH MUCH closer.

My favorite accent is whatever Polly Harvey's accent is. I think liking her singing voice has something to do with it but I also listen to a lot of her interviews. I am not sure exactly what the accent is but I could listen to her talk for hours I think. Her voice and accent just seem very relaxing to me. She also pronounces her R's very clearly for someone from the UK. She may speak differently at home, I will probably never know, but her interview voice I like.

I guess the closest my accent is to someone y'all may have heard would be John Edwards.
I read something about the accent but forgot what I read. I think it is one of the lesser used dialects.

There are a lot of different versions of southern American English. I think I read somewhere that more people in the US speak with some form of southern accent now than any other. Hard to convince me of that with all the damn Yankees moving down here. There are so many in the Cites now that I was thinking the southern accents in North Carolina will be gone by the next generation. To be replaced by some Yankee-Mexican-Gangsta Rap Ebonics hybrid nightmare language. Thankfully I probably won't be around to have to listen to much of that.

 

[Lance Jack]

I don't think I have one. I'm born and bred in Kent and I still live here. When people say I do have an accent they tell me its " posh cockney" whatever that is.
For the record my mum couldn't hear Bow bells when I was born apparently.

I also live in Kent, born and brought up in North West Kent. In the army I came across many accents and they always put me down as a Cockney. Always had great fun with a Jock regiment, when they spoke I used to say "say again me 'ol china"

 

[Arch]

I've no idea what my accent is. I've had 10 years in Belfast (but with English parents, both with neutral accents ), 20 years in Leicester and 14 years in York, picking up bits from each place along the way. I do find I'm influenced by being in places with strong accents and pick up odds and ends while I'm immersed in them.

 

[Bollo]

This one really cracks me up, especially as my parents are from Manchester.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKF8KkD7rE

 

[petersull]

Born and bred Slough Berks have lived on Walney Island ( that's in the avatar ) which is in Barrow-in-Furness for 8 years. I have not picked up the Barrovian accent , but i do use words like pants instead of trousers etc.

Our daughter who is now 22 talks like a barrovian when in the company of friends etc but talks in her southern accent when around us. Her daghter our grandaughter is the opposite to us she has a very strong barrovian accent even at the age of 3, but she has some southern words the most telling is she uses mum instead of mam.

 

[Jefferson Meriwether]

I've got a South Gloucestershire accent with a slight hint of the Bristolian accent chucked in for good measure. I like my accent very much and wouldn't dream of trying to hide it

 

[Kies]

I'm from London. No accent here

 

[MontyVeda]

Born and bred Slough Berks have lived on Walney Island ( that's in the avatar ) which is in Barrow-in-Furness for 8 years. I have not picked up the Barrovian accent , but i do use words like pants instead of trousers etc.

Our daughter who is now 22 talks like a barrovian when in the company of friends etc but talks in her southern accent when around us. Her daghter our grandaughter is the opposite to us she has a very strong barrovian accent even at the age of 3, but she has some southern words the most telling is she uses mum instead of mam.

Coming from across the bay... it's definitely 'mum' in Lancaster & Morecambe rather than 'mam'.

I keep meaning to get over to Walney Island as I've never seen the bay from that point of view.... quite fancy the jaunt over to peel island too.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I used to have a geordie accent until I was five and then I had it kicked out of me dropped it to conform with the other kids in Crawley, most of whom, on my estate, spoke like my mother, a proper cock-er-ney rather than like the Aged P with his pitmatical speech. Every time I went 'up home' for school holidays the geordie would assert itself over the estuary whine and I'd have to force myself to drop it when I came back home or get a slap from the local bullies. (until I learned to get my retaliation in early)

 

[srw]

I suspect I had a Geordie accent of sorts until I came down south at the age of 4. When I went to university (6 miles from home) and found myself among a bunch of mancs and tykes it began to come back - especially the vowels.

Every so often an accent hits you. I remember fairly recently, on a bike ride with another forum member, hearing a very broad accent all of a sudden from someone who usually speaks very neutrally. And on a slightly different tack there's an Eastern European receptionist at the gym I go to in central London who a couple of times has said "there you go my lovely" as she's swiped me in.

 

[guitarpete247]

The GF is from that there Lardarn. She says Grarse for the green stuff at the front of our house. I ask her (she's Catholic) what was it Our Lord rode into Jerusalem on?
I work in Nuneaton and drive to work past the new geographical centre of the country (England) on my way to and from work. In Nuneaton they call bread buns batches too.

 

[Bollo]

I used to have a geordie accent until I was five and then I had it kicked out of me dropped it to conform with the other kids in Crawley, most of whom, on my estate, spoke like my mother, a proper cock-er-ney rather than like the Aged P with his pitmatical speech.

I had it the other way around. I'd lived in Norf Landan from about 7-12 and then my dad got posted to deepest Northumberland. It took me about a week to lose the cokerknee (as spoken by everyone south of Gatesheed) and a month to sound like Jimmy Nail. Either that or be the recipient of frequent kickings.

 

[Archie_tect]

Wow Bollo, you must have been a particularly unpleasant child to cause such a reaction!

 

[guitarpete247]

We take the granddaughters up to South Yorkshire a couple of times a year from Ashby-de-la-Zouch and they come back with Yorkshire accents (Donny not Barnsley "Tha Knos"). The eldest does a passable Leeds "Through 'key'ole" (She's 5) .

 

[Linford]

actually, Brum is far south of centre... the true midlands of Britain and the UK is up here in Lancashire... sorry.

the 'bath/barth' thing apparently comes from the aristocracy of London wanting to set themselves apart from and above the common man, so pronounced words like 'bath' as 'barth'... the further one travels from London, the closer to the original pronunciations one gets, tha knows

but yes, be proud of your regional accent... putting on some faux posh/english accent is denying who you are.

When i was in America a couple of years ago, i apparently had a Swedish accent

Born and raised in Cheltenham, the Barth bit comes from the west country burl. We have a lot of people commuting into the town from Gloucester, The Forest of Dean, and further south, and I believe it is just these accents being brought up. I can hear the Brum in Evesham accents, and that is only 15 miles north of Cheltenham...and we have a couple of people who come from there.