What accent do you speak in?

[Bazzer]

When growing up I was told I sounded like little Lord Fauntleroy. Probably because although born in Manchester and schooled in central Manchester, I lived at the time in South Manchester.. I do though tend to absorb the accents around me. When younger I used to stay with my grandparents who lived in the Fens and by the end of a couple of weeks my speech patterns had noticeably changed. Even now, by the end of weekend visiting relatives, I find myself for example saying "Yis" instead of "Yes".

Child 1 actively changed her accent when she went to a South Manchester independent school, to save her from standing out. Now her accent stands her out in her job in Salford.

 

[potsy]

My family think that I sound Northern

I've never met you but I can guarantee you do not

When I met @coffeejo expecting a proper bumpkin accent I was surprised to hear her sounding all posh, you will be the same

 

[Cubist]

My accent is RP. Born inthe midlands but educated at an independent school. I was also a keen amateur actor and did a lot of singing back in the day. The way i speak used to come as a surprise to many people as a cop in West Yorkshire, and I vividly remember the day we had a new inspector who asked me a question. I gave him the answer and he more or less exploded, thinking I was taking the piss. He later explained that he was accutely conscious of his own accent, and that the speed of his speech made him sound thick. (His words)

I was often asked to do radio interviews for work, mainly local radio but including a Five Live interview on rural crime and a couple of local businesses have asked me to record their voicemail intros, which is quite flattering. At one time I used to vary my accent to suit the audience, but don't do it so often now as occasionally it can appear patronising.

 

[MontyVeda]

When growing up I was told I sounded like little Lord Fauntleroy. Probably because although born in Manchester and schooled in central Manchester, I lived at the time in South Manchester...

Wasn't Little Lord Fauntleroy from New York?

 

[rugby bloke]

Originally South Yorkshire, but most of this beaten out of me at Boarding School, apart from my flat vowels. Not picked up any Norfampton twang despite having lived in the area for 25 years. Curiously my children have sided with their mother and use the "wrong" vowel and always take the piss out of my pronunciation of grass, bath, castle etc.

 

[Gravity Aided]

And some New York accents can be as difficult as those of York itself.

 

[Nibor]

Lancashire

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Even after 10 years in deepest West Somerset, still have "me" Coventry accent. Down here they call me that "funny sounding Northerner" (having said that, they regard Bristol as North). When I lived in the Midlands, work colleagues and friends from "oop" North called me a shandy drinking Southerner. Hey ho, everything's relative I suppose. The funniest, is when some of my Brummie cousins come to visit, great hilarity on both sides.

With regard to localised variations in accent, my experience is that these occur everywhere, they certainly do back up in the West Midlands and down here in Somerset.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Received pronunciation with a hint of Devonian

 

[SteCenturion]

I like listening to different accents. There are plenty of different accents around Greater Manchester.

When I teach phonics I have to make myself say the letter sound 'u' as the middle sound in 'good'.

Those accents of Gtr Mcr vary quite wildly too as you know Katherine,
Mancunian & Salford accents/speech being much faster & harder edged than those of outer GM suburbs like Wigan, Oldham or say Cheadle for example.

I would also say that North Manchester & Salford accents are 'rougher' than those in the South.

Factor in the 'class' & urban demographics of towns/villages very close to each other with huge variants in speech/accent like the ones I am passing through now, Chorlton *very diverse* through Didsbury/Fallowfield both a 'c0ck stride' from Moss Side, & onto Heaton Moor *posh* via adjoined Burnage *rough arsed home of the Gallagher brothers* then Stockport.

Here enters what I call the 'Uni' effect, where a good number of graduates settle from other regions in affluent areas of Manchester yet border some of the harshest poverty stricken environments of GM.

So far on this journey I think I have detected around a dozen variants on the Manchester/Greater Manchester accent, from the slightly slow drawl of Bolton through the very slow & lazy drawl of Farnworth through sharp Salfordian Swinton & encountering the plummy RP of affluent Didsbury & Heaton Moor.

I must also say Katherine that I have been extremely impressed with modern teaching techniques & standards, especially phonics & literature/writing.

At the age of 4 & one of the youngest in her reception year, juniors comprehension of language both written & spoken is far more advanced than I could ever have envisaged at such a tender age.

I am not sure when 'real' or joined up writing began to be taught from the outset but I see the advantage of not relearning as I did from 'print' to joined writing.

Glad to see the back of the cane & the slipper that I became accustomed to in the 70's too.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Estuarine with a smattering of Geordie and Pitmatic words mixed in.

I was told a couple of weeks ago that I sound a) incredibly common/working class (this from an Ulsterman!) and then by a bunch of Danes b) like Ray Winstone and then they had a chat amongst themselves and said I talk like, and have the mannerisms of, Billy Mack (Bill Nighy in Love Actually)

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Transatlantic drawl mixee with French and Spanish when my mind goes that way.

I sound ridiculous.

Lloyd Grossman?

 

[swee'pea99]

I talk about the 'class' as if it rhymes with 'gas' rather than 'cars'. Whereas the word 'staff' rhymes with 'calf' rather than 'chaff'.

I remember reading somewhere that the 'long a' (starf, rather than staff; parth instead of path) only came in around the time of Jane Austen, and was introduced very deliberately and calculatedly by those of her class to distinguish themselves from the hoi polloi. Up till then everyone said 'path'.

 

[marknotgeorge]

A quite high-pitched Derby accent, I think. Which is not unlike the Derbyshire accent, only I don't use many of the dialectal terms like 'duck' and 'youth' and I pronounce the K and the T in Ilkeston.

 

[potsy]

Those accents of Gtr Mcr vary quite wildly too as you know Katherine,
Mancunian & Salford accents/speech being much faster & harder edged than those of outer GM suburbs like Wigan, Oldham or say Cheadle for example.

I would also say that North Manchester & Salford accents are 'rougher' than those in the South.

Factor in the 'class' & urban demographics of towns/villages very close to each other with huge variants in speech/accent like the ones I am passing through now, Chorlton *very diverse* through Didsbury/Fallowfield both a 'c0ck stride' from Moss Side, & onto Heaton Moor *posh* via adjoined Burnage *rough arsed home of the Gallagher brothers* then Stockport.

Here enters what I call the 'Uni' effect, where a good number of graduates settle from other regions in affluent areas of Manchester yet border some of the harshest poverty stricken environments of GM.

So far on this journey I think I have detected around a dozen variants on the Manchester/Greater Manchester accent, from the slightly slow drawl of Bolton through the very slow & lazy drawl of Farnworth through sharp Salfordian Swinton & encountering the plummy RP of affluent Didsbury & Heaton Moor.

I must also say Katherine that I have been extremely impressed with modern teaching techniques & standards, especially phonics & literature/writing.

At the age of 4 & one of the youngest in her reception year, juniors comprehension of language both written & spoken is far more advanced than I could ever have envisaged at such a tender age.

I am not sure when 'real' or joined up writing began to be taught from the outset but I see the advantage of not relearning as I did from 'print' to joined writing.

Glad to see the back of the cane & the slipper that I became accustomed to in the 70's too.

Or a simpler way to say it

Manc
Posh Manc
Stopfordian posh like what I am