Accents

[Alex]

I don't think I've got an accent    

Years ago at school we had elocution lessons, given to us by Miss MacCallister a Scot who used to sweep into class with her gown swishing and mortarboard slightly tilted.  I loved her and never forgot the 'backward U ' sound which I allegedly had, no idea what it's called today or if it still exists. 

A few moons ago I was helping my neighbour's daughter with her English homework, this sticks in my mind to this day as she repeated the sentences sounding like a watered down  Cilla Black 

I do like hearing accents though, particularly love the Geordie, Scots and South Wales.  Pet hate accent is North Wales!!    Do you have an accent ?


🐰🐰 P.s. do you have a rabbit rabbit smiley Klondy ? :)

[dextrous63]

Yes.  North Welsh.

[Alex]

Good job we don't have sound on posts then Dex 

[muddy]

I don't have an accent in English but I do have a South American accent when I speak Spanish For some reason the Spanish think this is very funny .

[Scrumpy]

I don't have an accent.. I come from Surrey..
Sometimes I have trouble with accents.. I find Scottish , parts of Ireland, and some Northern places hard to understand..
Many a time I have not been able to watch a ( brilliant ) series simply because I have no clue as to what they are saying..

[Alex]

I don't have an accent in English but I do have a South American accent when I speak Spanish For some reason the Spanish think this is very funny .

Same with me Muddy, Germans think I'm Dutch !

[GrannyMac]

Everybody has an accent.  We all sound different.  Some of us don't use dialect, but that's different.  I have a pretty standard Scots accent, my OH, kids and grandchildren have fairly standard English accents, but they aren't all the same.

[JBR]

In my opinion, accents are part of our country and our history.
In days gone by, the people in other parts of the country would sound very different to visitors from other areas.

Radio and television and, of course, the ability to travel longer distances, have reduced such accents and dialects and we are beginning to all sound the same!

The best accent is, of course, Yorkshire and when we visit our friends in Huddersfield, who still sound more Yorkshire than we do, we hear words (for example 'nesh') which we never use ourselves.
Thankfully, dialectic words still exist and I think that is a valuable part of our history.

[Scrumpy]

Everybody has an accent.  We all sound different.  Some of us don't use dialect, but that's different.  

I guess I have just a regular accent then..  Some people near here talk well posh..
Not me..

[klondike]

I know I do. I even met people when on holiday who correctly guesses#d where I came from. Accents can vary over a very sort distance. I was born in Northampton, lived a while in Ruby then back to Northampton. Although Rugby is only 20 miles away some words were pronounced distinctly differently. 

I started work with Ford when they were in the process of moving from Essex to Daventry. All of the people I was working with had moved with their jobs to Daventry. I was told that I had started speaking with an Essex accent.

[Michael Rolls]

I suppose I have a sort of 'standard English accent'. What is frustrating is that I really struggle to understand strong accents, regardless of what they, yet I have never, ever known anyone fail to understand me, no what their own accent might be.

[Raven]

Aye, yes I do. It's the lilt of the Isles. Never lost it when we moved to the Mainland. A few people do have trouble with some of my words, they can't seem to get their ears round the rolling Rs 

[JBR]

Aye, yes I do. It's the lilt of the Isles. Never lost it when we moved to the Mainland. A few people do have trouble with some of my words, they can't seem to get their ears round the rolling Rs 

You roll your arse?  😮

[Raven]

You roll your arse?  😮

[GrannyMac]

 From me too! 

I've lived and worked across South Yorkshire for over 50 years, very different accents just a few miles apart.  Barnsley ist'strongest tha' knows.  JBR I'm familiar with 'nesh' too.  The strangest thing I found was the prefacing of family members with 'our' or more broadly its pronounced 'ar'.  Our mam, our lass (wife/girlfriend), our Bill etc.  

Mike, I've never had anyone not understand me either.  I worked on an enquiry line when customer service was the byword of British Gas, my accent was never a problem.