What accent do you speak in?

[MontyVeda]

Accents are very much in the mind of the individual listener since we all take our own accent as a neutral starting point.

The UK is also all but unique in having so many different regional accents, and also in equating accents to class and social status.

In America, Bill Clinton speaks the same way as his dustman, sorry, refuse collector.

Australia is reckoned to have only three or four regional accents.

Taking where I live as a comparison. there are several accents I can detect in different parts of Sunderland, people from South Tyneside speak differently to those from North Tyneside, and there are several accents in Newcastle/Gateshead.

All within about 20 miles.

That pattern will be repeated across the country.

I guess it's true for 'modern' accents like american and australian, but i'd hazard a guess that places like france, spain, germany, italy, norway and sweden and so on have a good few handfuls of regional accents of their own. Maybe we just don't pick up on the nuances since they're in a foreign tongue.

I speak in a north Lancashire twang... just middle of the road northern. When i was in the states though, I was told that i have a swedish accent

 

[Levo-Lon]

I can mimic many accents very well...but i guess im probably peterborian with a little lancashire thrown in...

 

[hopless500]

No idea. Up north they thought I sounded southern, down south, northern.
Prob more northern than not

 

[hopless500]

I guess it's true for 'modern' accents like american and australian, but i'd hazard a guess that places like france, spain, germany, italy, norway and sweden and so on have a good few handfuls of regional accents of their own. Maybe we just don't pick up on the nuances since they're in a foreign tongue.

I speak in a north Lancashire twang... just middle of the road northern. When i was in the states though, I was told that i have a swedish accent

In the US and NZ they thought I was Australian!

 

[MontyVeda]

In the US and NZ they thought I was Australian!

Thing is... when i told my american cousin and uncle that a lady on the bus said i had a swedish accent, they both replied, "yeah you do." ...maybe to americans, all us europeans sound the more or less the same, with the exception of the beatles of course.

 

[ianrauk]

but i'd hazard a guess that places like france, spain, germany, italy, norway and sweden and so on have a good few handfuls of regional accents of their own

Having lived in and having to travel to Germany quite a lot for work and pleasure. Their regional accents are quite easy to distinguish even if you don't speak German. For example the Hamburger accent is so noticeably different to the Bavarian one.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Also I speak both Norwegian and Swedish all day at work and even my brother has to ask me what I'm talking about when I speak to him on the phone from time time to time.

If you speak as much crap to him as you post on here, I doubt that has much to do with him not being able to understand you.

 

[Old jon]

I have been told I sound like I am from Todmorden, by a born and bred Yorkshireman. I am not.

 

[Buck]

Dunt tha meen spaking

But then tha wunt understand mi and a dunt speak to mi sen! (Much!)

Reminds me of my grandad always telling me to "put wood in th'ole" and this:-


'Ear all, see all, say nowt;
Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt;
And if ivver tha does owt fer nowt –
Allus do it fer thissen.

 

[tonyg52]

Pommie

 

[marzjennings]

Cornish when on the phone with mother, rather more BBC when in the office when talking to Texans.

 

[growingvegetables]

Still speak with an Aberdeen accent - not very strong though.

Until I get on a train north with the kids.
- Leeds to Carlisle/Berwick: we talk "normal"
- Carlisle to Glasgow, or Berwick to Edinburgh: it's "Dad, what was that word?"
- Glasgow/Edinburgh northwards, it's "Dad - will you speak English please! We don't understand you!"

 

[Berk on a Bike]

West Yorkshire but not Leeds or Wakey.

Yorkshire accent joke: A Yorkshireman's dog died and he decided to have a gold statue made of it. The jeweller asked, "do you want it eighteen carat?". The man replied, "nah, lad, just chewin' a bone..."

 

[User169]

Posher than Brian Sewell.

 

[alicat]

I speak with a Yorkshire accent, until I go back home and then they all tell me I sound like a shandy drinking southerner.

Snap. At work in London about 25 years ago I was once told 'Oh haven't you got a strong accent'. Only to go back to Leeds that weekend and be told 'Dern't yeh talk posh these deys!'

I now think I have an educated Yorkshire accent with a hint of Brummie.