Accents - a privilege to hear them

Not obsessive but I do enjoy hearing them and the fact that in the U.K. we have so many distinct different ones. I’m now wondering if other countries are similar?

I think it’s something to cherish. I don’t have a distinct Yorkshire accent - it had all the rough edges smoothed off when I left home at 17. I do tend to lapse these days but people still say “yer not from round ‘ere are yer?”😊! My husband was Welsh and didn’t have a distinctive “twang” until he went home to visit his family and then he fell into it quite naturally.

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

I'm Cornish-born but without an accent. When I lived in Liverpool (love their accent!) I was told I sounded 'posh'. 😂

I’m Cornish born with an accent , even though I have not lived in Cornwall for most of my adult life. People can never place it., and often ask.

I love my accent - although I can’t hear it😊

I like Scottish, Irish and North East England accents but all accents are interesting and unique to an area.

My cousin who went to Oxford, worked in the treasury and retired from the IMF - lived in the USA and now Canada still has a broad Cornish accent.

My dear husband was a true Cornishman born and bred, we went to a wedding in London once and the wedding registrar after the ceremony came up to us. She asked him to talk to her as she loved the sound of his accent.

I lived in Bath until I was twelve when we moved to Fife, then Edinburgh. In my mid twenties we moved to N Cheshire, where I have lived for nearly forty years. In Scotland I quickly picked up the local accent (to avoid be identified as English). Despite all that I am often asked where I’m from and listening to myself I can plainly hear the West Country accent in my voice. I have clearly returned to the accent that influenced me while I was a young child.

David49

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

Did you mean to sound so snobbish? 🙄

I love listening to different accents, and I love listening to people talking in different languages, particularly Welsh. It's a joy to try to work out their origin

It's a pity that David had to attempt to spoil this thread with his complacent offensive comment.
I love different accents. There are so many different accents from such a small country

tanith

Not obsessive but I do enjoy hearing them and the fact that in the U.K. we have so many distinct different ones. I’m now wondering if other countries are similar?

Yes, they do. Well, at least the French do. We had a holiday home in Normandy for many years and not only is the accent different they speak faster and have a whole vocabulary that is different to main stream French.

I think the same applies to German, especially as Germany is an agglomeration of lots of small and large states. I can remember a girl at school, whose parents were living in Bavaria finding that bavarians said it different .

Some regional accents are difficult to understand.

I love accents too, find them all interesting, am particularly fond of a Scottish, Welsh, or Irish accent and am not bothered how broad it is, I think is ok to ask someone to repeat what they said/slow down. Interesting to hear that about Australia, though am wondering if the influx of people from differing parts of the world will impact upon the language, causing accents to develop in the fullness of time.

tanith not sure how many but I'm sure lots do ...

I think the Netherlands must have accents. My mother lived there, in Holand, as a girl. In her 60s she said, "do you speak Dutch?" in Dutch, to a man who she'd just met.
"Yes, he said - and you are from Amsterdam!"
She was amazed as she had no idea thar she had an accent from her schooldays.
From what he said it was quite "thick" - I have always thought it must sound like Liverpudlian or Brummie English.

Today I just found this article...
dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-accents-and-dialects/#:~:text=The%20Amsterdam%20accent%20is%20fast,at%20about%201.5x%20speed.


To my ears northern and southern Italy sound different.

David49

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

In your rather snobbish opinion David49

Isn't it strange how we have so many accents in the UK in a relatively small area? As nanna8 says, in Australia, a massive country with many remote areas, there is hardly any variation, yet in the UK we can often tell what town someone is from by their accent. We are from northern England. My son used to work in Glasgow and then moved to New Zealand. He found the Kiwi accent much easier to understand than the Scottish ones!

I understand that there is a North/ South accent difference in Spain. A friend who lives in Spain runs holiday lets on the Costa del Sol. A local born member of staff, ringing a Madrid firm regarding a purchase, was incensed to hear " Is there anyone there who speaks better Spanish"?

I'm originally from Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, but moved here to Whitby in January 2026.

I have an ex-work colleague who was born and raised in Worcester, but her voice, not her accent, sounds more like Kent or London! She's never been to Kent and doesn't like London, only being forced to go yearly to London for school trips, so she has no idea how she obtained such an accent!

I am Liverpool born but I began to lose my Scouse accent then I went into a profession. My family speak with a noticeable LIverpool accent. I lost it completely when I went into academia and began to speak received English so the international students could understand me. I sometimes slip into broad Scouse when I answer the phone to an unknown caller (usually someone selling) and pretend to be the "housekeeper" to put them off. I can also do a very convincing mid west accent from my time in the USA.

Hours of fun with cole callers and would be scammers.

My parents were from Surrey but had no accent. You might say they spoke RP, but not with the posh vowels.
I have moved around the country and can speak like my parents, or Yorkshire where I lived for a lot of my life. I’m a bit of a chameleon. I don’t always realise.
I enjoy hearing different accents, but some are a bit tricky to understand.

I’ve definitely got a Hampshire accent, but have been told over the years I talk ‘posh’ whatever that is, I consciously pronounce my h’s. MrJ is N Irish, his family say his accent has anglicised, it does become broader if he spends time there, a few people think he’s from Scotland.
I love our range of accents across the UK

That’s interesting Jaxjacky. My son is told at work that he talks ‘posh’ although he has only ever lived in Berkshire. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t have a Berkshire accent whatever that is .
I particularly like the Geordie accent as it reminds me of my father and grandparents who came from South Shields.
I sometimes find the Glaswegian accent difficult to understand. On one occasion I was working in the area and while booking into the hotel I was approached by a youth uttering something quite incomprehensible to me. While looking at him blankly someone else said that he was asking me where the football ground was!