Question about British accents

I stayed in Aintree for work once and my boss who was with me gave up trying to understand the accent and left it to me! I am fascinated by accents, having a Wiltshire one myself, could I detect Irish in the Aintree one? I know I ended up using a sort of sign language in a supermarket. We had to do a medical workshop at the hospital and were a bit worried but found that was such a mix of international accents, it was fine.

When I was a child we moved from Hull to a small town in North Yorkshire, I went to the local school and was told that "you sound like the BBC!" Would describe myself as middle class and my speech as RP.

My daughter has quite a 'well spoken' London accent (no idea why, we are all cockneys ) but judging by the amount of people who think she is Australian I wonder if there is a 'posh' Australian speaking area.

If you listen to ANYONE who's NOT from Birmingham or the surrounding areas, they'll tell you that the accent which is actually from the Black Country (Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Wednesbury etc) is a Birmingham accent WHICH IT MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT, a true Birmingham (Brummie) accent is VERY different.

There may only be a few miles between these towns/cities but our ascents are poles apart, just ask a Brummie!

Don’t patronise me, Paddyanne. You know fine that ‘white settler’ is not a welcoming pleasantry with which to greet someone, it’s a pejorative term.

It’s a pleasure to watch films from around the 40s or 50s. Yes the cut glass diction (apart from the caricatured working classes) can sound affected and dated now, but there’s no problem understanding the actors.
Many came straight from the stage tradition of projecting the speaking voice clearly.
Nowadays, even my son has the subtitles on for a film.

Sue Donim I dont know anyone who thinks they have an accent ,but then if they hear their voice recorded they see that they do.Its just different to those around them but an accent just the same .
We were raised in Glasgow yet when we moved when I was 12 the teachers at our new school thought our accents weren't Glaswegian...just a different side of Glasgow than she was used to.There are likely 30 different accents between Glasgow and Edinburgh

White settler was often used decades ago in the same way Ex pat is when people from the UK go to live abroad.Its rarely an insult ,just a remark that you've moved from south of the border .Then theres incomer ,thats what we were and we only moved 20 miles .

CanadianGran

Thanks all; I'm sure there are lots of fans of the Baking Show here, so perhaps you remember who I mean. She is very cheerful and jokey, with hair half natural and half bright orange. I enjoy her on the show, but can't catch half of what she's saying!

It's all good fun. I'm fine with most accents, but I have a hard time with hers. My mum was from Jersey, so I'm sure I must have had a bit of an accent myself as a toddler before school.

Put on the subtitles! Works for us....

Please everybody, stop sounding "th" as an F
***********************************
so far this discussion has been good-humoured, mostly.
but i find the presumption in the above dictat objectionable.

Welsh? Not a fan.

I've said this before on GN:

There is not just one Welsh accent. It is like saying there is one English accent.

Someone from Newport may sound completely different from a person from mid-Wales, West Wales or even the Valleys and completely different from North Wales.

Mayisay, yes I am fascinated by all the accents! I don't come across many that I can't understand, but to me it seems like some of the very rural country accents are stronger. I once worked with a man from Yorkshire that I had to really pay attention to in order to catch everything. My DH and I had a laugh when we were watching a show about treasure hunters, where a man had found a stash of roman coins in a farm; he was easy to understand, but the farmer was very hard to understand!

And Canadians in general all sound the same, except in the Maritime provinces and Quebec. Even native English speakers from Quebec will sometimes have a slightly French accent. Across provinces there may be some different word usages or colloquial phrases, but not noticeable to outsiders.

On TV.
If accents are Irish, Scottish or Welsh, or occasionally scouse, the subtitles go on.
It maybe something to do with my hearing, but I ‘canna’ understand a word they say.
,

Don't watch bakeoff, but I find accents difficult as I am deaf.

I find regional accents interesting. On moving from the coast to central Lancashire , a pupil said " Don't you talk posh. Miss"
I could recognise anyone from the Wigan/ Leigh area as they would say. " I'm going out tonight Me"
A relative working in Corby, Nothants had to get used to the Glasgow accent which was prevalent there.
Down south I have been asked if I am a scouser by people who sound Cockney to me.
Please everybody, stop sounding "th" as an F

I think the mills were mentioned, Gabrielle! I can’t remember all of the article and can’t find it again - typical.

There are! I'm from Liverpool and live on the south coast. No one has any idea I'm a 'Pudlian. (Middle class RP). Even among the much recorded Beatles - Ringo and George were quite 'common' (heavy accent) Paul - middlish and John had to put his on - he was really pretty middle class. Recently the accent seems to have diverged and people from poorer areas have VERY thick accents. Same as 'very' Londoners or Brummies have heavier accents.

gran5up

What a fascinating thread,Canada Gran, many thanks.

Listening to a radio programme I heard that Liverpool's the only accent where male and female speak differently: a man would pull his lips stretched wide and say "weark",for "work" while a woman would a woman would purse her lips, pushing the lower one down a little to make a sound more like the standard,"work".
Older Grans may remember the girls in,"The Liver Birds" their accent is different from the Beatles.

I've discovered from TV shows that a long "O", as in "down" or "out" can help tell a Canadian from an American, Canadian says it like an Ulsterman with the "0" like in "flown"

The actresses in The Liver Birds were not Liverpudlians, and it showed. They couldn’t really do the accent.

I am a Liverpudlian but left the city at 14 and went to Australia. Now people ask me what part of Australia I come from. But every time I returned to Knotty Ash and Huyton, I find I can slip back into speaking Scouse quite easily. I still love my home city and belong to various Liverpool groups on FB. Needless to say I love that accent and am sorry some people dislike it…but I understand.

'Diversity' is now the watchword. Celebrate - even emphasise - your differences.

Fine. But there was a lot to be said for 'BBC English'. It meant everyone could understand what you were saying!

What a fascinating thread,Canada Gran, many thanks.

Listening to a radio programme I heard that Liverpool's the only accent where male and female speak differently: a man would pull his lips stretched wide and say "weark",for "work" while a woman would a woman would purse her lips, pushing the lower one down a little to make a sound more like the standard,"work".
Older Grans may remember the girls in,"The Liver Birds" their accent is different from the Beatles.

I've discovered from TV shows that a long "O", as in "down" or "out" can help tell a Canadian from an American, Canadian says it like an Ulsterman with the "0" like in "flown"

I'm from just outside Edinburgh, and I can confirm that there are definitely different accents in different parts of the city.

Nantotwo

17:58Grandma70s

I have lived on the outskirts of Liverpool for a long time, and I can’t understand the accent if it’s strong. How anyone can find it pleasant is beyond me. I think it’s hideous!

I find some peoples behavior hideous, never accents. Many years ago I was at Disney land stuck on a whitewater raft with a loud, sweary, 'look at me' Brummie, the first time I'd really heard the accent in real life so that put me off the accent a little....until I had a manager with that same accent and he was as sweet as can be and now I think of him when I hear it and love it.

I worked with people mainly on phone for decades and could pinpoint most accents, Liverpool was not the best when very strong but very lilting and almost Irish sometimes:Brummie? The least intimidating ever! Even when dealing with an angry Brummie , they sounded as if they didn't really mean it! (Couldn't watch peakie blinders, all sounded too cuddly even when slicing and dicing!): Geordie men....aaah....could listen all day.bristolians? Pirates! And frequently mistaken for Americans!!: Welsh? Not a fan.: And my favourite from both sides of the border? Irish men......liquid seduction down the lines....they got away with murder so etimes because I couldn't say "no" in business that is! Then I am half Irish,

My father's family was from the North side of the city and my mum's side, the South.
There was a difference in accents....all Liverpudlian but I'd suggest the 'Southern' contingent was stronger.
I moved away from Liverpool 40 years ago but still have my accent which causes great amusement to my Geordie colleagues especially when they use every trick in the book to make me say 'chicken'!

SueDonim

I recently read an article which said that the stronger accents associated with inner cities could well have developed due to the environment people lived in. Cities were noisy places with heavy industry going on all round, so people had to shout to he heard.

Also the pollution led to people’s nasal and lung passages being congested, hence dropping their ‘t’ and making the more guttural sounds connected to city accents. I thought that was all so interesting.

I live in Scotland, although was born and raised in Kent. I don’t really have much of an accent, which led to a Scotsman calling me a ‘White Settler’ the other day. Nice.

Well your article appears to have completely missed the facts about "mill speak" ! A method of exaggerated miming of words to avoid screeching to be heard over ear splitting mill machinery! Was used all over in the industrialised North and when we were young all the older gen ladies used it, see Les Dawson's character when she "mimes" sensitive conditions!?

Canadagran, I think you must be quite fascinated by the variation in British accents. Our first visit to Canada started in Toronto, followed by Calgary, the Rockies and finally Vancouver. All the people on our tour noticed that the Canadian accent didn't seem to change at all! We were quite mystified as it is such a huge country.