Local accents

[Jody]

Living in Sheffield, once you get your ear in you really can tell the difference between here and the surrounding towns.

It's odd how much an accent can change between a village only a mile or so apart but you can also tell which area of Sheffield someone is from (or grew up in)

 

[oldwheels]

Bit off topic but on the subject of Mull
We were on holiday in the summer - small boat thing - and there was a posh woman on board with a posh CHeshire accent
(know the bishop you know!!)
and she had been bird watching on the island on Fingal's cave
We were waint for the boat and talking about the birds, especially the seabirds on the rock in front of us,and she commented
"This is a great place for a shag"

Highlight of the holiday!

anyway - what was the topic???

Sailed past Staffa many times but never landed. Indeed a good place for shags and cormorants.

 

[MontyVeda]

it's fairly bland for accents up in this corner of Lancashire. It sounds much the same every where. But as Accy and PK99 have pointed out... east of Preston the accent seems to change every five miles. I have family in Accrington so was tuned into the Accy accent. In fact they lived in Church so about as near to Blackburn as you can get, but after spending a year on a training course in Blackburn everyone spoke differently to my cousins in Accy, and on that course was a guy from Darwen who's accent was distinctly different again, despite Darwen being just over a hill from Blackburn

 

[rogerzilla]

I can tell the difference between Scouse and Birkenhead. It's a bit like the difference between Birmingham and the Black Country; the latter is far more extreme.

 

[wiggydiggy]

I was dragged up not far away, in a little place called Clayton Green, halfway between Chorley and Preston (9 miles apart).
I went to school in Preston on the bus with kids from Chorley and several places en route. I could tell by their accent who came from Chorley, Whittle, Bamber Bridge or Walton-le-Dale. I doubt the same would be possible now. As much as anything because all the accents have been modified by immigrants from Manchester and Liverpool where they speak proper funny.

Clayton-Le-Woods FTW!

I grew up and then left around 2005ish but still have family there, I went to school in Chorley though so opposite direction.

A thick chorley accent to me pronounces Chorley as Chor-Leigh, with a little grunt as you say the eigh.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I can tell the difference between Scouse and Birkenhead. It's a bit like the difference between Birmingham and the Black Country; the latter is far more extreme.

Yup easy

Funny thing - when I was teaching in Rhyl ( a remote suburb of Liverpool according to a lot of the inmates - sorry residents) then we often got kids that were Scouse - totally and absolutely - at least in their opinion
Some of them really were

My Head of Department was born and brought up on Scotty Road - i.e. prime Scouseland
but he had lived in North Wales for many many years
We got a new student direct from Liverpool - she was expected to be trouble due to her record of non-attendance and being expelled from several schools
She arrived in a class they the 2 of us shared - 5 lessons a week each
She started in my class and I spent a lot of time trying to find out what she had already done and what she knew - and then egtting her started on the course - which was at GCSE level but mostly coursework.

All went fine for a week or so - and my HOD and I had a catch up
He asked how she was doing - senior management had asked him as they were concerned
I reported that she was no Einstein but behaved fine and was getting on with her work - allbeit slowly and with a lot of help but was fine

He heaved a sigh of relief and said he would have to leave her to me as he had tried to talk to her and couldnd't understand a word she said!!

She came from Kirby
I went to a posh school on the Wirral and had no problems with her accent - he came from Liverpool and couldn;t understand a word

weird

 

[PK99]

I can tell the difference between Scouse and Birkenhead. It's a bit like the difference between Birmingham and the Black Country; the latter is far more extreme.

Did you know that the scouse accent has 3 components:

1/3 Welsh
1/3 Irish

And

1/3 Catarrh

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Lancastrians have 436 words for rain and none for sunny weather.

 

[PK99]

Lancastrians have 436 words for rain and none for sunny weather.

Ask anyone who knew Preston before ~2000 what shop they remember and it will be The Umbrella Shop on Orchard Street!


View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsmithbarney/6919461842

 

[PK99]

Lancastrians have 436 words for rain and none for sunny weather.

UKAEA/British Nuclear Fuels HQ was based at Warrington (between Manchester and Liverpool) because their original role was in Nuclear weapons. Warrington was the logical place as in (the then recent) WW2 Warrington had been the site of the largest collection of munitions manufacturing in England. Why? Because it has the greatest number of days of cloud cover to hide the factories from German Bombers!

 

[Dave 123]

Prompted by this
https://metro.co.uk/2023/10/31/engl...rown-bread-19749653/?ico=top-stories_home_top

anyone noticed any local accents that have gone
or ones that have changed dramatically??

Personally - I know that current "Scouse" accents are very different to some that my Dad used to know
Him and his mate (who lived in Swansea - and was even the Mayor at one point) grew up around Aintree/Bootle in Liverpool (ish) in the 1920/30s
Given the opportunity they could switch to an accent/ language that a lot of people couldn;t even understand
It was quite amazing that I was OK with it as long as I actually listened - by Mum couldn;t understand a word!!

and that was form fairly posh areas!

today's accents in Liverpool appear rougher in terms of some things but the deep accent the dialect words have all changed and the old ones are no longer understood mostly


OK OK OK - I'll say it

EDIT
p.s. locals down think I have an accent as I grew up on the Wirral (note ON the Wirral - not in!) and went to a posh school
people from lesser places do sometimes think I am from Liverpool!

calm down

I was born in Clatterbridge. My mum was born in Liverpool.
She would insist it was ‘in Wirral and not ‘on the…’

I had 2 points

1- She was a scouser, so she could keep her opinion to herself.
2- ‘in’ denotes an actual place ’in Chester’ or ‘in bed’
’The’ denotes an area. ‘ The Lake District ‘ or ‘The Cotswolds’

But would you be ‘on the Cotswolds’?

 

[winjim]

I was born in Clatterbridge. My mum was born in Liverpool.
She would insist it was ‘in Wirral and not ‘on the…’

I had 2 points

1- She was a scouser, so she could keep her opinion to herself.
2- ‘in’ denotes an actual place ’in Chester’ or ‘in bed’
’The’ denotes an area. ‘ The Lake District ‘ or ‘The Cotswolds’

But would you be ‘on the Cotswolds’?

In Wirral, on the Wirral [peninsula]

 

[Accy cyclist]

Just a fake plastic cockerney accent round these parts. Very few local oo-ar-ey accents left.

When hearing anyone from Southampton on the radio, or online videos etc, to me they tend to have a London/southern type accent these days, rather than the same accent as ex Southampton and England footballer Mike Channon, who's kept his 'worzel' type accent.

 

[winjim]

When hearing anyone from Southampton on the radio, or online videos etc, to me they tend to have a London/southern type accent these days, rather than the same accent as ex Southampton and England footballer Mike Channon, who's kept his 'worzel' type accent.

That's because Southampton's in Hampshire and he's from Wiltshire. Hampshire's a South East accent, similar to London. You need to go West to Dorset or Wiltshire to start getting that West Country influence.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I was dragged up not far away, in a little place called Clayton Green, halfway between Chorley and Preston (9 miles apart).
I went to school in Preston on the bus with kids from Chorley and several places en route. I could tell by their accent who came from Chorley, Whittle, Bamber Bridge or Walton-le-Dale. I doubt the same would be possible now. As much as anything because all the accents have been modified by immigrants from Manchester and Liverpool where they speak proper funny.

Am I right in saying this fellow has a very strong Chorley accent? 🤔