To think that many Mumsnetters despise regional accents and dialects?

I don’t think people actually give a crap, isn’t it just lighthearted banter between the north and south? I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone that actually cares how “bath” is pronounced

The way my sister in law talks annoys me and it’s not the accent it is the way in my opinion she consistently uses the wrong words. My brother in law and sister in law both come from the same northern English town and both have parents from the same area too. Yet my brother in law manages to use the correct words whilst speaking in his own northern accent. My sister in law will say things like “The train what got me in at 2pm” instead of that and I find it grating as what is a question.

Here you go:

https://www.englishspeechservices.com/blog/ssb/

My children all obviously had the same upbringing regarding their accent but it’s fair to say that they now sound differently. One just has a southern well spoken voice,middle child has a lazy voice and drops his ‘Ts’ he is in Australia now ,the third has a very well spoken accent ie public school. Pretty sure it depends who they socialise with.Myself and husband have a typical MC accent from the South East.

There's so much snootiness on MN towards people who commit the crime of being Scottish. I've been told here that "high school" is an Americanism and I should say "secondary school" instead. My old school was founded 120 years ago and literally says "_ High School" above the door! Same with Santa - apparently that's an Americanism, and we should all be using the traditionally English "Father Christmas" instead. It's just ignorance.

I've also read snooty comments about using first names as surnames. That's completely normal in Scotland - off the top of my head, I know people whose first names are Crawford, Forbes, Moray and Sinclair. People need to educate themselves and stop assuming there's no world outside their little bubble.

I'm Irish and can very often spot Irish people posting here even though they don't say that they are Irish. The way sentences are structured or certain phrases are a giveaway. For instance if someone writes 'He was after going to the shop.' I'd wonder if they were Irish.

I am a Kiwi and when I lived in London I used to crack up when English people would insist they didn't have an accent. I mean, everyone speaks English with some sort of accent. One of my colleagues had apparently ridded herself of her Devon accent, and did not have one at all. Then I went to Decon on holiday and found myself surrounded by people who sounded like her. Just like the colleague who took elocution lessons to get rid of her Manc accent, except she still sounded Manc to me. She told me I should get lessons to turn down my Kiwi accent in order for people to better understand me, but I wasn't willing to use whoever she did, since that was clearly a waste of money 😂

I agree. As a born and bred South Londoner who now lives in God's own county (Yorkshire), I don't understand the snobbery and disdain shown towards regional dialects.

I love the variety of accents we have around the British Isles. This isn't just a mumsnet thing. It is wider than that.

How is it fun?

What's wrong with a bit of banter within the family? They tease me for how I say "book" and I tease them for not being able to say "whisper". It's just a bit of fun.

YANBU, OP. There is also dislike of working-class southeastern English accents. Particularly, those from London, Essex etc. Estuary English and MLE. The features of those accents and dialects are considered grammatically incorrect. It seems a lot of Mumsnetters think the only acceptable accent to have if you're from SE England is RP.

Indeed but here in Somerset we didn't until it was shown on every American TV show and all the films. It's not a British national event like in the us.

Hence my explanation to the American poster why sometimes, things from the us are not appreciated in the UK. Like my friend experienced when she lived in the us and was asked if we celebrate July 4th.

South Wales is a region of Wales

You do get a lot of ‘professional Northerners’ though. ‘Don’t think just because I’m northern that..’ ‘it’s because I’m Northern!’ ‘Oooh listen to you with your posh voice! So down to Earth, us Northerners’ etc, like they think everything they say and do is somehow more authentic because they were born in Hull (looking at you MIL)

@MasterBeththis Wikipedia page describes the geographical area that forms the south east of England. It doesn’t state there’s a standard accent of the south east -and that’s because there most definitely isn’t.

I don’t find accents in general boring like if I met someone with an unusual accent in real life I’d probably be subconsciously interested. I’d find a thread here about it incredibly boring though

Not so much regional, but yes, there are some vocal MNers - alongsidesome very vocal members of the general public - who have strong rage around accents and dialects that are different from what they're expecting, and IME, it's getting worse recently on here and elsewhere.

In the last year, I've had far more people get aggressive that I have a mixed accent with some words clearly not local sounding than ever before. I've been shouted at work about "That's not a local accent!" when answering question, I've had quite a few get really annoyed when they ask how long I've lived here if I say that I've lived where I do for over 20 years as they seem to view it insulting that I don't sound perfectly local - I've had the desire to bring up that Arnold Schwarzenegger has lived in the US longer than I've been alive and still sounds as he does, but never yet had the energy to come out with it to anyone who pulls this.

I've been told on here that still having such an accent after so long is a failure on my part, and that's certainly how it seems people have started reacting towards me in the last year or so - not only my failure, but that I should just accept the abuse as punishment for failing to sound local. I'm at the point now where I no longer answer questions about why I sound weird, I openly say I'm not comfortable discussing it anymore or just walk away when I'm asked. I've given up trying to be polite to people who care more about how I sound rather than the content of what I ay.

spelling and grammar are right or wrong, they don’t have a regional accent.

Standard spelling and grammar for Modern English didn't really start cementing until the late 18th century, and Standard English is based on the accents, dialects, and ideas around language of those who developed the texts that then had the power for them to become the standard. Even with that, spelling can show accents - see Mum/Mom/Mam - and as writing online tends to be more in-line with how people think and talk rather than Standard English, it often shows dialects.

If you were brought up with RP as the standard, then certain things in common usage, eg, “aitch” pronounced “haitch”, are incorrect.

I see those as two different ways of saying it. I don't see either as incorrect. I don't see the point of putting that kind of value judgement on something like that.

Just because we're brought up using language a certain way doesn't mean we need to view other ways negatively. That's a choice.

so there has been a genuine concern about the Americanisation of "holidays". Which in itself is an American phrase.

Holiday comes from Old English and regularly used to refer Christian festivals for centuries. It was in British English that it became expanded to mean any time off work, religious occasion for any faith and certain secular occasions as well like Bank Holidays and New Years. The earliest American texts I'm aware of followed the latter part significantly later. It may be more popular in the US now, I don't think that makes it an American phrase. It, like many 'Americanisms' is a Britishism that either fell out favour or was never used in wealthier parts of England and just ignored that it's used in other parts of the country or the Anglosphere well beyond and was brought to the US.

Agree entirely with this, esp. the “haitch/aitch” thing.

I love accents - the more the merrier.
Variety is the spice of life.

Of course there is.

Two separate things there, I think - whether you make it two syllables and whether you pronounce the R. Some west country or other rhotic people would say drorr but it's still one syllable. And some non-rhotic people would say draw-uh - two syllables but still no R. (For me, it's draw. That's true of most people where I live - and it's amazing how many WRITE drawer as draw).

What nonsense. My first husband was Irish and the 2nd was from Yorkshire. I speak the Queen's english.
My stepfather is Indian with an Indian accent.
I get a lot of people mocking my accent and asking if Im "posh" and making assumptions about my family being rich. We are not, we were 100 years ago but not anymore.
Its very tedious.

I’m 55 now and I’ve had several accents. DF was in the RAF and we moved very 3 years or so. Moving from Buckinghamshire to Yorkshire I was labelled posh. Then from Yorkshire to North Wales (very close to the English border), I had the piss taken out of me and called Emmerdale Farm girl. Now I’m called posh again because I don’t have the typical accent for this area (close to Liverpool so a bit Scouse).
🙄