What accent do you speak in?

[Hitchington]

Blandon.

 

[stephec]

If we're starting the accent jokes.

An elephant from Wolverhampton dies and goes off to the elephant graveyard, only to find it closed.

"No problem," he thinks, "I'll come back tomorrow."

Next day he's greeted by the elephant St Peter who says, "hello, have you come here to die?"

"Yes," replies the elephant, "and I was here yesterday."







I'll get my coat.

 

[Hitchington]

London Bruv!

init

 

[classic33]

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

Which side?
Twas alf an alf at one go though.

 

[NorthernDave]

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.

It's a bugbear of mine when television shows just throw in an actor with any "norven" accent even if it's nothing like the one they're meant to have. Emmerdale used to be terrible for it (I haven't watched it in 10 years) - supposedly set in the North Riding, but populated by Geordies, Mackems, Mancs, Lancs and even Smoggies.

Even within Yorkshire there is a massive difference in accents - you couldn't confuse Barnsley with Bradford.

 

[Crackle]

RP as anyone who's met me will attest...

 

[NorthernDave]

Which side?
Twas alf an alf at one go though.

Tod - the town that no-one wants.

 

[classic33]

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.

Disagree. Ireland has as many as there are counties

 

[classic33]

It's a bugbear of mine when television shows just throw in an actor with any "norven" accent even if it's nothing like the one they're meant to have. Emmerdale used to be terrible for it (I haven't watched it in 10 years) - supposedly set in the North Riding, but populated by Geordies, Mackems, Mancs, Lancs and even Smoggies.

Even within Yorkshire there is a massive difference in accents - you couldn't confuse Barnsley with Bradford.

They'll let anyone in these days.
Pub is/was only just in North Riding.

 

[NorthernDave]

West Yorkshire but not Leeds or Wakey.

Bratfud?

 

[GM]

A few years ago I was working with a couple of lads from Brum, they kept asking me if I wanted a kipper tie.

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Bratfud?

Summat like that

 

[martint235]

Growing up in East Lancashire a mate of mine reckoned he could tell which town you were from by your accent. He was actually quite good at it.

I've been reliably informed that my accent when speaking German is most definitely Austrian

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

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

Oddly enough, with the exception of the south, notably Marseilles and and the Provençal accent, French accents are not very pronounced. This is due to a relatively recent imposition of a standardised French, pretty much on the model of the Île de France. Many rural communities spoke a highly localised variety of patois which has now been ''educated'' out.

Curiously, there is a sort of urban yoofspeak but even that appears to be standardised - at least according to a translator friend of mine. She had a pretty good ear but couldn't tell, say, the Paris version from the Lyon one.

 

[Dave 123]

I left Ellesmere Port aged 16, went to college for a few years before moving to Devon for 10 years.

Many people would ask me if I was a brummie at this point, so I guess my accent was sliding down the country at a slow rate.

I've lived in Cambridgeshire since 1999 and I think that my accent has settled on 'moderately northern'