Well spoken areas - Accents

[arizonagirl]

Hi there,

We currently live in Surrey and I have to admit - the accent is really nice and the children speak so nicely. Always gets comments.

Ok, so we are looking at preps in another home county (probably Hertfordshire/Bucks/Berks). I am going to probably get really slated for this thread but hey...I am intrigued and really do wish to know people's thoughts. Which areas within an hour of London could we go to where people are very well spoken eg. 'yes' instead of 'yeah' etc. Not too impressed with Kent, Essex, Epsom tbh. Looking at Bishops Stortford - any thoughts.


Thanks!

[Wordsonascreen]

Ha ha ha

or should that be haw haw haw.

[LadySanders]

oh no, don't go to b stortford, it's full of common people from essex like me, innit

[NoahAndTheWhale]

I keep typing replies and then deleting them.

But your post has made me I have to say.

[Wordsonascreen]

yeah Felsteds well crap

[LadySanders]

also some of the prep schools there have children from essex in them... they creep in pretending to be nicely spoken but then once they're in they let loose

[amidaiwish]

is this a joke?
i think you'll find that accent is determined more than the area you go to.
i have friends from Liverpool and their children have the plummiest accents ever. Here in SW London it varies hugely. DD1 speaks like Mary Poppins, DD2 speaks like Eliza Doolittle before Henry Higgins got his hands on her, well not quite, but def not as well spoken as DD1. Why? Who knows.

[Wordsonascreen]

I'd dismiss the whole of the South East if I were you, can't be too carefull.

[LadySanders]

but dismiss the south east and all you're left with is.... horrors.... northerners!!!! (faints with disgust)

have you considered eton?

[Ineedsomesleep]

We went to London last week and nobody could understand me in the shops. We've decided its obviously because our accents are too posh

Come to Cheshire. We all have spiffing accents.

[thighsmadeofcheddar]

9/10

[skyeplusbump]

something to brighten up my morning!

hampshire
wiltshire

i grew up there,pepole always comment on my accent,but really it depends on the exact location,down to the street your living in,pepole around you etc...maybe just enrol them at a horse riding stables.

[Lougle]

I live in Hants. I was working in a shop when I was 17 and a man came in during the late evening.

Him: Do you have any bors
Me: Pardon?
Him: Do you have any bors
Me: Sorry, say it again...
Him: Do you have any bors, bors, you know, you tie a bor
Me: Oh! Boows
Him: 'Boooowws' - you're dead posh you, aren't you?

Me: No, this is normal for here.

Accents are really odd things.

[Wordsonascreen]

OP what accent do you have ?

Changing counties does not make ones children instantly change dialect.

A day trip on the M1 could be most entertaining otherwise.

[ivykaty44]

I think you need to move further away form London - at least and hour and a half away to get a good accent, I know this will mean a further commute but the time given will be worthwhile in the end.

It will also be of note that your accent needs to be possible toned down and a few lessons on your voice and accnet should help the dc not to be infulenced by your vowels























?.??.??.?

[LadySanders]

when i was growing up in not at all posh essex, i had a good friend who was from even less posh dagenham. she had a sister she called 'elen so i assumed her name was Helen, and called her that. it was years before she told me her name was, in fact, "ellen"

[Habbibu]

Wales. Or parts of the North East of England.

DD is developing a Fife accent. It's charming.

[Habbibu]

I mean, you'd have to commute a bit further, but worth it, no?

[Habbibu]

And you do deserve a bit of a flaming for "well-spoken" in relation to accent.

[Aitch]

lol at this thread. inverness accent delightful.

[arizonagirl]

Hey, some great thoughts :o

Horse stables might be a good idea lol!! And I think, Bishops Stortford would probably be a bit too much of a change from around here.

Fwiw, I come from Kent but have a pretty neutral accent after it being drilled in in school. Dh is one of those dreaded northerners but his accent is quite neutral these days.

I guess ivykaty44 is correct in saying don't live too near London. Mind you, Surrey isn't that far and everyone sounds like they are chewing toffees (not a bad thing but just saying).

[UnquietDad]

I think I have a "quite neutral accent" but I sound posh up here in Yorkshire!

[missbeehiving]

Norfolk's dreadful - full of people speaking with a regional accent. I'd stay well away if I were you.

[domesticsluttery]

My children say "yes" rather than "yeah" but have Welsh accents.

Having a regional accent and being well spoken are not mutually exclusive :)

[ageing5yearseachyear]

i reckon we have neutral accent ( bedfordshire)

however, once your kids get to around 10 they will stop pronouncing ts in the middle of words ( water, later) and try their hardest to sound as common as possible.

i take comfort from the fact that they know how to speak properly and do so when the occaision arises.

tbh you are mad to factor this in to house/school move