Mumf.....!

Would that be as in "rent of free hundred and firty pounds a mumf" ?

Oh yes, FarNorth....you've seen them too! Aaargh!!

Drives me insane too.

On the train today I paid 'free pounds firty' for my tea and crisps.

I thought it was a Cockney/London-type way of talking (as in Eastenders and the like). I don't think it's very common 'up north'.

My SIL speaks just like that - he is a dear!

Whats wrong with having a cockney accent... loads of people talk that way.. I don't find it annoying its no different to any of the other dozens of regional accents you'll find in our Island.

No, not annoying to me either - certainly not to the point of insanity!

I just realised I probably talk a bit like that myself , members of my family certainly do..

If we're talking chimney then it's free paunds firty

Damn Kindle cockney not chimney.

These agents aren't all Cockney-if they are then there's a disproportionate number of cockneys going into the estate agency business. It's the ubiquitous spread of Mockney/Estuary English not a genuine accent as such. We correct small children and teach them not to say vis, vat, vese and vose but there it is on the tv. Perhaps it's because I'm a Scot living in Scotland and I don't hear this type of speech around me that I find it so irritating. To me accents are one thing, then there's dialect and then there's mispronunciation-which is just lazy. Is Mockney the future?

(Ana-I use hyperbole to emphasise annoyance, not to be taken literally)

Chimney Nina

It's not 'Mockney' - many Londoners speak in this way.

I can imagine the uproar if someone on GN said they found a working class Scottish accent irritating!

That's exactly what I mean....lots of Londoners never used to speak this way.

No uproar from me re working class Scots accent-I presume you mean the stereotypical Glaswegian accent? I find it very hard on the ear along with Lanarkshire -very irritating indeed. I'm not deaf to the irritations north of the border Riverwalk and cringe at them as well. We have not defined, however. what constitutes a working class Scottish accent as every region has its own accent, dialect and it's own 'working class', therefore numerous possibilities of 'working class' accent. I'm not comfortable with using class to define people though.

My husband used to work for an outer London council and one of his task was to organise the induction programme. what drove him mad was that nearly all the speakers introduced themselves with 'Welcome to Furrock (Thurrock) Unitary Authority' (that's in an Estuary accent by the way).

I grew up in the East End of London- I only use the accent to be ironic. DH is a north London boy - they talk proper there.

I spent ages teaching my young son where to put his tongue when saying the, these, those etc., instead of ve, vese, vose. He learnt and speaks beautifully now. Sloppy speech annoys me, not regional accents.

That's where I'm coming from Hilda... I didn't actually introduce the question of accents! My father would have called it 'slovenly' speech.

A memory that stays with me is of the very pretty girlfriend of someone I shared digs with many moons ago. She came from Romford... and in her tea she liked a dash of MEE-OOK.

Well I guess I will be challenged, politely I am sure, but I am a Somerset girl and it sounds alright to me. I hear it when I go to Devon too.

Must be the company I keep.

The glottal stop is also pervasive - drives me up the wall!

Am puzzled POGS...I have good friends from Plymouth, Bristol, and Stroud and they all say 'month'.

Ariadne....shades of Tony Blair!!

KateK

Well I did say it must be the company I keep.

My grandad was 'Gramfer'. I lived in 'Baff' not 'Baath'

My first experience of it was when interviewing a young girl as an accounts clerk. I had several tries at understanding where she had come from. She said 'Thoughteneef' very clearly several times and in the end I had to ask her to write down what transpired to be 'Thornton Heath'. I rather like accents, once my ear has tuned in.

And there is an s required at the end of pound when valuing a property.