Keeping local dialects alive.

[classic33]

I wonder if it is just a UK thing or does it happen in other countries? (it would seem so if Inglorious Basterds is anything but pure fiction)
If so, to the same degree with accents changing over such short distances?

Ireland has similar distinct accents. With many local words.
Killaloe/Ballina, split by the Shannon & joined by a bridge had distinct accents. Killaloe folk talked a bit quicker as well.

Sadly dying out as workers from other countries move in. Forcing a change in the spoken word. Interesting to listen to them change how they speak, depending on who they're talking to. And their ability to do it, with no loss of words.

 

[Drago]

It's interesting how some people lose and some retain their accents. I work with Aussies a lot. One guy who has lived there for most of his adult life has, to me, a pure Aussie accent. Another guy (originally from Northwich) has lived there at least 25 years and, to me, has a completely unaltered Cheshire accent without even a hint of Aussie in it. Weird

My mats Keith is an ex Green Jacket like wot I is, and he's from the Gorbals so he's a soft southerner. In the army he was called Taff for a laugh, which he took surprisingly well.

Now, to my islands ear he sounds like a typically guttural Glaswegian but he reckons when he visits his folks back home home people sometimes won't speak to him because he sounds "too English".

Leaving aside how juvenile such attitudes are, its interesting how people do indeed change their accents, even if it often too subtle for outsiders to spot it.

 

[bruce1530]

Also, people's accents change depending on who they're speaking to. I had a pal, who's accent was "regular west of scotland". He had lived here all his life, but parents were from Newcastle and Dublin. Got a bit of a shock the first time I went to his house - when he was speaking to his mum, he spoke like a Geordie, and when talking to his dad, there was an Irish twang.

 

[oldwheels]

Ireland has similar distinct accents. With many local words.
Killaloe/Ballina, split by the Shannon & joined by a bridge had distinct accents. Killaloe folk talked a bit quicker as well.

Sadly dying out as workers from other countries move in. Forcing a change in the spoken word. Interesting to listen to them change how they speak, depending on who they're talking to. And their ability to do it, with no loss of words.

I had a couple of Irish guys worked for me in the past. No idea really which part of Ireland they came from but north west somewhere I think. They spoke so quickly and with a bit of an accent that it was difficult to make out anything they were saying. Even after a couple of years I still had problems understanding them.

 

[Gixxerman]

...Even after a couple of years I still had problems understanding them.

In a similar vein, when I was first at pub age, I was in a pool team with 2 Scottish brothers Tommy and Alec from Dundee way who had moved to my town in Lincolnshire. It was highly amusing hearing them talking to each other when they played doubles. At first I could barely understand what they said. However, over the years we played in the same team, I did get so that I could understand most of what they said. One incident springs to mind. Tommy knew I was a boxing fan and asked me if I had seen "feet neet" on the TV earlier that week. It took some time and a few charades to realise that he was referring to "Fight Night" a weekly boxing program. They also referred to pool table cushions as "Dykes", which I had never heard before.

 

[oldwheels]

In a similar vein, when I was first at pub age, I was in a pool team with 2 Scottish brothers Tommy and Alec from Dundee way who had moved to my town in Lincolnshire. It was highly amusing hearing them talking to each other when they played doubles. At first I could barely understand what they said. However, over the years we played in the same team, I did get so that I could understand most of what they said. One incident springs to mind. Tommy knew I was a boxing fan and asked me if I had seen "feet neet" on the TV earlier that week. It took some time and a few charades to realise that he was referring to "Fight Night" a weekly boxing program. They also referred to pool table cushions as "Dykes", which I had never heard before.

I take my life in my hands saying this but Dundee lives in a world of it's own.

 

[Edwardoka]

I take my life in my hands saying this but Dundee lives in a world of it's own.

Ah yes, the infamous Dundonian phrase "ahll huv twa pehs a plen bridie an an ingin ain anaw"
No-one I met when I lived there sounded anything like this. There was a bit of an "ao" twang to long "o" sounds, but other than that...

 

[Ian H]

Now, to my islands ear he sounds like a typically guttural Glaswegian but he reckons when he visits his folks back home home people sometimes won't speak to him because he sounds "too English".

From an anthology of courtroom cuttings.

 

[DRM]

people do go on about a Yorkshire accent, but there is such a wide range of accents in the county, people from Barnsley/Rotherham sound nothing like a Sheffield accent, who sound nothing like a Leeds person, who is different to Dewsbury, who are different to Huddersfield, and nothing like someone from York, ‘Ull is different again, North Yorkshire changes from York right up to Cleveland it’s so, so varied and thats in one county that people have such set ideas about

 

[DRM]

I can well believe it. As I said above, I was born in South Shields. When I started work (at 16), my first job was in Sunderland (only about 8 miles away), everyone referred to "trousers" as "strides", which I had never heard before.

Funnily enough strides is a term I’ve heard used round South Leeds for trousers, as well as kegs

 

[classic33]

people do go on about a Yorkshire accent, but there is such a wide range of accents in the county, people from Barnsley/Rotherham sound nothing like a Sheffield accent, who sound nothing like a Leeds person, who is different to Dewsbury, who are different to Huddersfield, and nothing like someone from York, ‘Ull is different again, North Yorkshire changes from York right up to Cleveland it’s so, so varied and thats in one county that people have such set ideas about

If you can locate a copy, Basic Broad Yorkshire by Arnold Kellett, goes a long way to explaining this.

 

[snorri]

Not like Orkney where they start speaking Orcadian when an outsider or a ferry louper is about.

If you'd hung around a bit longer you'd have discovered they also speak it when there are no outsiders or ferryloupers about.

 

[tyred]

Ireland has similar distinct accents. With many local words.
Killaloe/Ballina, split by the Shannon & joined by a bridge had distinct accents. Killaloe folk talked a bit quicker as well.

Sadly dying out as workers from other countries move in. Forcing a change in the spoken word. Interesting to listen to them change how they speak, depending on who they're talking to. And their ability to do it, with no loss of words.

Irish accents -

 

[oldwheels]

Ah yes, the infamous Dundonian phrase "ahll huv twa pehs a plen bridie an an ingin ain anaw"
No-one I met when I lived there sounded anything like this. There was a bit of an "ao" twang to long "o" sounds, but other than that...

Most Scots I have seen portrayed in TV programmes speak in an accent I have never heard anywhere else but on telly and fake accents written down really annoy me. I have been pretty well everywhere in Scotland so know how people really speak.

 

[Julia9054]

North Yorkshire changes from York right up to Cleveland

I used to work in Northallerton. Accent is a complete half way house between Yorkshire and North East. Spent years trying to get it right - never did.