Accents

What I find amusing is that one person will absolutely love a particular accent and another person will find the very same accent unbearable! There has to be a reason for it! I'll give an example; I am not keen ( that's an understatement) on French but I can listen to Italian,Spanish or Portuguese all day . I don't care that I can't understand everything that is being said, the words just sound delightful. If anyone can offer a scientific explanation I would be obliged.

I was born in Leicester. Then to Northamptonshire then Bristol.
I have now lived very near the potteries for 30+ years. I find myself picking up the accents. Particularly the lack of prepositions . I do tend to pick up accents if I am with someone for a while and I can't always help it.

I dont like RP ...its ridiculous to expect everyone to speak the same ,accents give us colour and a different slant on peoples lives .I come from an irish background my granny had her Donegal accent until the day she died even though she had lived here for almost 70 years .It always makes me smile when I hear that accent .

I have a northern accent and once dated a Geordie but could not understand a word so unfortunately we did not get very far. I could listen to a Scottish or Irish accent forever but once they have had a few drinks their speech speeds up and I have to concentrate

bring being

Parsley
No accent, to me, is possibly only bring able to determine if the speaker is from the North or South vowel-wise.

callgirl depends where in Wales, if in the north it is very
much their first language,

Richard Burton - just thought of his reading of Under Milk Wood and gone weak at the knees. Will now swap listening to this instead of watching Montalbano

Richard Burton! I could listen to him all day, beautiful voice.
I love the accent from Scotland`s West coast, but find Glasgow accents difficult. I love Welsh accents, but worry that when Welsh people speak Welsh in front of me that they`re not being very complimentary. I adore the Geordie and Scouse accents.

Yes Callistemon and I have to say Richard Burton, Pontrhydyfen , ?

I like Welsh accents. These days I don't think accents hold you back unless you speak with such a strong one that people find it hard to understand you. I don't like to hear grammatically incorrect speech.

You can have an accent without speaking ungrammatically.

I am happy to have an "Essix" accent having been born in East London and moving northward to the Suffolk border over the years. My accent adapts according to the situation, but I don't have a "phone voice" like some people I know. Think Hyacinth Bucket!

I used to travel by train from Newcastle to Carlisle. fascinating to hear the accents......Bardon Mill,Riding Mill, Haltwhistle the cusp before you hit Cumbria....

Do you ascribe characteristics to people with accents? I find Black Country accent and people warm, funny humorous.

And Tom Jones, Anniebach! (Pontypridd

I love the gentle West Country accents but loathe Geordie, Lancashire, Mancunian and Birmingham ones. They sound so miserable and morose.

I was born in the East End and lived there until I was seven when we moved to Kent. In Kent I first went to a primary school and then when I was 11 I was sent to private school. Some of the parents of the other girls at the school were very nasty about my accent. Not to my face, but I heard them talking about my voice at picking up time. I was rarely asked to play or tea after school and I can't help feeling it was because of my accent. It is something I have never forgotten.

True Callistemon I lived for a while in Welshpool, Shropshire accent through the town.

Carms and Cards , counties next to Brecon and Radnor , accents so different to Mid Wales. Even South Wales has different accents and North Wales is so different too.

I have lived in Mid Wales since 1971, when I hear a recording of my voice , nothing like my daughters and grandchildren.

I blame that film ‘How Green Was My Valley’, only one Welsh actor, the rest were Americans ?

Northern is lovely, sorry I can’t be more specific, I know the north is a big place

Dislike midlands and Essex

I didn't think I had an accent until I heard myself on the answerphone!
So much for my elocution lessons at school.

Anniebach I agree re the 'Welsh' accent.
There is no such thing - it differs just as English accents do.
Some are a cross between Gloucestershire and Wales, between Cheshire and Wales, lilting, harsher city accents - all very different.
Mid-Wales and the English accents of native Welsh speakers are different again.

I wonder which particular Welsh accent were you thinking of, Lois?

Not everyone has a regional accent. Received Pronunciation is the same all over the country.

I love all accents I think we’d be a very dull nation if we all spoke the 1950’s BBC English . Imo it’s progress that we’re not judged by our accent.

Yes Grandma70s, in a video but I meant that we can't hear ourselves when speaking to others face to face as to how we sound to them.
Probably well-spoken is how I'd describe my speaking voice from past video family recordings, as opposed to " posh ".

What does “ no accent” sound like?
Surely everyone has a regional variation of the English language.

I had an aunt who came from Dorset and had the loveliest country accent. Also like to listen to a southern Ireland accent. If there is one accent I don't like it is probably the northern Irish which sounds a bit harsh to me, but on the whole I think it is the way some individuals speak rather than a whole region.