To think that many Mumsnetters despise regional accents and dialects?

Mumsnettters despise a lot of random obscure things I’ve never known anyone in real life to give a shit about toilet brushes being one.
Apparently names like lily -may or Lola -rose etc are absolutely horrific and only a complete scumbag would ruin their child’s life by bestowing such a name. But clementine and olive are apparently lovely names?

I wouldn’t worry about what gets said on here

Yes and no.

I have no problem with accents and dialect words, but I cannot stand bad grammar, particularly in writing, and unfortunately I think it is partly social media influencing this, as it has become more acceptable for people to write the way they speak. In my opinion, there is never an excuse for "you was", "I seen", "them books", "should of" etc. in writing. Ever.

It is also really annoying when you see an odd mixture of formal and informal English in the same sentence, such as a former beautician of mine who writes similar to this on her Facebook, "For those of you wishing to book an appointment, i left me appointment book at home, so give us a message and al (I'll) get use booked in."

Regional accents and dialects are great but an effective communicator will always consider their audience, even if that means using RP in order to be easily understood. The same goes for unconventional grammar: Fine with friends and family but outside of that you need to consider how it might detract from conveying the intended message.

The majority of mumsnettters will have a regional accent themselves OP. RP is relatively limited in the UK.

I don't care whether people speak with regional accents or use regional vocabulary - some dialects I like the sound of, others I don't but that's on me and we've all got our preferences. Regional grammar and spelling however really sets my teeth on edge.

I agree, but notice it a lot more with regional ways of expressing things than with accents. For example, when there's a thread about things you hate people saying, there is particular anger vented towards, for example, 'gotten' and 'can I get?', both of which are perfectly acceptable in Ireland (north and south), in many areas of Scotland and some parts of England. I'm in NI and have seen 'gotten' used in official government documents and other letters, brochures etc. I don't mind that people don't like these expressions, but the vitriol with which it is expressed is shocking. They are referred to as 'Americanisms' which isn't even accurate, but worse still, displays a degree of snobbery and thinly disguised xenophobia towards Americans, who also widely use these expressions. It's the snootiness and patronising tone that annoys me, especially when those expressing it are, in fact, wrong in their assumption.

But that's all fine. You have the self-awareness to realise that things sound different depending on where you're from, and that means people say words differently. It's not right or wrong, it's just different.

The issue comes with the sneering and looking down on those who don't speak like the late Queen.

I actually love all those threads, and mentally hear myself saying all the words and all the pronunciations!

I was intrigued when I met DH- he cannot say nor hear a difference between bold and bald, tong and tongue, won and one among many others.

I grew up in Wales and remember my work being corrected for words like ‘cwtch’. I had no idea it was Welsh not English. It was just how we spoke.

YABU to talk about "Mumsnetters" as some kind of uniform mass.

Some do, some don't. You've just noticed the ones that do, and who have posted about it.

I’m not sure it’s that. If you were brought up with RP as the standard, then certain things in common usage, eg, “aitch” pronounced “haitch”, are incorrect. If RP isn’t your standard then you won’t think of it in that way.

There are certain mispronunciations that are just irritating to some people. Personally I can’t stand “mischievee-ous”. I don’t know why it irritates me so much but it does!

I don't understand why people get so worked up about it, and I write for a living. As long as people can be understood, that's all that really matters.

I have noticed that a lot of people on here can't imagine that people live different lives and have diffeent experiences to their own, though.

We were taught that there is correct pronunciation, grammar and spelling. All the regional variations were considered incorrect.

It’s only with the discussions on MN that I’ve discovered the background to the ‘aitch/haitch’ discussion. It makes me mentally twitch when my DH and DC pronounce it incorrectly (always) as that was considered a sign of lack of education.

The attitude was- if you sound like the people around you, that’s ‘normal’. If you are well educated you will be able to use standard English when needed.

I have to rein myself in when my DC show signs of being ill educated (by old standards). ‘Hence why’ is my current gripe DS1 👀

I agree. I’m Scottish and I’ve seen so many threads instructing us how to speak properly. 🤣

Yanbu at all. I do see this aimed at Irish/ NI names too.

I grew in the US and also note the use of American to mean bad. Anything American (or seen as such) like Halloween or Thanksgiving is "American" and "commercial". Mostly from people who have zero idea what it feels like to celebrate over there.

(Yes I know Hween isn't originally American.)

I was brought up in Liverpool and used to have a very strong local accent. When I went into a profession I felt conscious of having a stronger local accent than my colleagues so I began to aquire "recieved" English. Eventually that way of speaking took over, especially once I left the city I was born in. I eventually went to uni as a mature student and no one could tell which part of the country I came from. I eventually became an academic and as a leacturer it was important that I should be understood by a wide range of students, including international. I think some of them would have struggled had I still had a strong Liverpool accept. However it does come in useful when I answer the phone to an unknown caller and do so in a scouse accent. If its someone I dont want to talk to I tell them I am the "housekeeper" and my employer is not available. Otherwise I can simply switch accents once my housekeeper "fetches" me. I can also do a very convincing American accent having worked in Las Vegas for a year.

I like different accents and dialects but I don’t like it when people use incorrect grammar and say it’s their dialect. Like ‘He done art at school today.’ No. You mean, ‘He did art at school today.’

In my accent (NW England ) "laugh" and "giraffe" rhyme, but "scarf" doesn't. But then, in my accent, "draw"'and "drawer" sound identical. I can't even make the latter sound with two syllables if I tried - it would just come out like "draw-yers" or something. And what's with "ah-mond"? Surely everyone knows it's "ollmund"! 😉 But then my DH pronounces "book" and "cook" etc. with the same double "o" sound as "loop" and "hoop", whereas I say "buk"' and "cuk", and he's only from the other side of the river to me. 🤷‍♀️

I think a lot of posters, from wherever, just can’t cope with people doing things differently from them.

Agree and/or they aren’t around people that aren’t like them much.

I grew up hearing different accents and dialects in my own family because they lived in different regions before they settled somewhere and then going to school with classmates where English was their second language. It never occurred to me that anyone was wrong with their pronunciation only that there were other ways to pronounce words, people learned/taught in different ways , physically didn’t hear the difference or couldn’t pronounce it the same way.

Some just want to be unnecessarily pedantic because something “annoys” them.

I had a heated discussion with someone at work who was looking for examples of word rhymes. They insisted that ‘one’ and ‘bun’ rhymed. I tried to point out that it rhymed in their accent but not in the local accent of the children we were working with. It would make no sense to the children at all. She couldn’t see what I meant.

You’ve forgotten south-west England too which is always lumped in with southern England.

I was bullied mercilessly by kids from the Home Counties when I went to a boarding sixth form and had the audacity to sound like I had grown up in Somerset (which I had)

People will say they love it and it’s so friendly and trustworthy, but the assumption is that you are thick and backwards.

I had it dropped completely by the time I was 21

My ex bf’s mum had a go at me for giving advice on slightly changing my bf’s Yorkshire dialect.

However, it was only for context of the workplace. His CV was unprofessional, and he was applying for a call centre job where I explained to him that people from all over the country would be calling him and therefore would not understand words such ‘mesen’ (myself).

I have lived all over the country and abroad and certainly don’t despise any accents or dialects. Very strong word.

Hee hee in my neck of the woods giraffe and scarf do indeed rhyme and tortoise is definitely tor-tuss!

I don't mind accents but I really dislike the Essex accent, sorry not sorry .

There are a lot of MN posters who think their way is the right way and anything else is wrong

Thats not just about accents and dialects either. Traditions - Halloween and Christmas in particular - are either right or an Americanism.

School holidays are another one. It’s quite bizarre how many people with confidently post “half term was last week” or “schools are closed this week” on a thread like some sort of gotcha without even considering for a second that not everyone lives where they do.