Regional British Accents

[Campfire]

Actually Blazed, 'Ducks' is Staffordshire! I lived just outside Leek for about 7 years.

I like listening to peoples' accents, finding them interesting and just like listing to people talking. I dislike Manchester accent, it doesn't sound so much Northern but just lazy, omitting d's and t's in the middle of words. I prefer Liverpool accent as I think it sounds cheerier than Manchester. I also don't like the accent of my own town, being more like Manchester than Liverpool. The accent of Preston, Blackburn & surrounding areas is a really warm one, and I could listen to a NE accent all day.

 

[gavintc]

It would be better if everyone had the same accent. I dont like travelling and not being able to understand people because they speak like plebs which is usually in places up north. I dont like walking into a shop and being called a "duck", "thank you ducky" what is that all about i thought people only spoke like that on coronation street not in real life.

Some sort of London accent for all would work best but i dont think that is going to be possible. I really think London should break off from the rest of the country and form its own island.

IMO, the estuary English is one of the less attractive accents. I am not sure whether you are posting in irony, but the 'pleb accent' is a constant throughout UK, it just has a slightly different tone. But, I agree with the background to your comment, it can be a bit of a struggle to understand regional accents.

 

[Glow worm]

I really think London should break off from the rest of the country and form its own island.

I don't think you'll find too many of us outside London arguing with that! Cheerio!!

Back to the OP, I love hearing a true Norfolk accent. Also, West Wales (LLanelli / Maesteg girls sound simply gorgeous). Aside from ever encroaching London, I don't think there's any accent I dislike, the variety in the UK is still very rich and I like still being able to hear an East Anglian burr even in parts of Mid-Essex. Likewise real rural Berkshire as close to London as Reading- great stuff.

 

[Ian H]

I love all the variety in all the accents and I think it's a real shame that they are gradually dying out. It would be nice if people from Kent still sounded kentish and not estuarine.

They're certainly changing, but I don't think they're dying out. In fact local accents seem to be a source of pride for many folk. This might be a reaction to the idea of a few decades ago that everyone should speak RP.

 

[Over The Hill]

They must all fade out rather quickly now as we are all moving about so much. I now live in Hampshire having started life in London via Essex and Wiltshire.
Education and change of location will soon knock an accent out of someone.
It would be boring if we all were the same though.

 

[darkstar]

Not really a fan of accents tbh, can't stand the scottish accents, welsh, brummy (the worst) etc I like plain, minimal accents from the south
If i were pushed i'd say somerset (dad from the region) or Bristol.

 

[Alembicbassman]

Girls from the Home Counties have the best accents, Beds, Bucks, Berks, Herts. Posh girls always sound as if they know more than they let on. i.e. you kind of know what you're getting with a scouser. I have met some nice Liverpudlian lasses though.

Born in Brum, lived in Preston, London, Herts and Yorkshire.

 

[Ian H]

Not really a fan of accents tbh, can't stand the scottish accents, welsh, brummy (the worst) etc I like plain, minimal accents from the south
If i were pushed i'd say somerset (dad from the region) of Bristol.

Wherever you're from, it's always others who have the accents.

 

[Apeman]

Once I was visiting my cousin in the Fire Service College in Moreton-in-the Marsh ---went to the bar with all her colleagues on the course-12 people in all and not one of them had the same accent. Fantastic experience!

 

[WeeE]

I remember a dozen Glaswegians faling off their seats laughing when this guy from Chicago said in all innocence, "..yeah...sometimes I wish I had an accent."

Basically, the simplest way to tell whether someone in any country belongs to a dominant social group is that they think they "don't have an accent".

 

[Wester]

I've a fondness for the Preston accent of my northern cousins - all voiced consonants and strong 'R's.
West Devon and Cornish accents are interesting - some sound almost Canadian.
But I have an embarrassing liking for posh scouse.

The English west Country accent is very similiar to the accent in the maritime provinces of Canada Nova Scotia / New Brunswick / Prince Edward Island / Newfoundland

 

[Melvil]

Living in Scotland as I do, I have to echo the sentiments above that there is no such thing as a 'scottish' accent. You can get rough (to my mind horrible sounding) west lothian accents, indecipherable and fast (but engaging) glaswegian brogues, similar but less intense Lanarkshire accents, verging-on-over-correct-English posh Edinburgh admonishing accents, soft and mellifluous borders lilts, Sutherland tongues that sound like a cat meowing and (for me) the most pleasing, romantic accent of them all, the Orkney accent. Lovely.

 

[Globalti]

A friend of ours got a job welding at Harland & Wolf in Belfast, he's from Lewis and normally works on the rigs. For the first 3 days he said blokes kept coming up and asking him pointless qustions then straining to hear him speak - they were all trying to work out where he came from and check he wasn't one of those hated Catholics! In the end somebody actually asked him where he was from and there was general relief when he replied that his name was Burns, from the Hebrides.

Shortly after that the yard security blokes come over to warn him about thieving and drug dealing in the yard. If he wanted to do any of that, they told him, he'd better see them because they were in charge of theft and drugs!

 

[Ian H]

The English west Country accent is very similiar to the accent in the maritime provinces of Canada Nova Scotia / New Brunswick / Prince Edward Island / Newfoundland

There are lots of different West country accents. Which one did you mean?

 

[Funtboy]

In your eyes maybe, i bet always many are reading nodding their heads in agreement with me.

No. You're a bell-end.