Welsh people who don't have a welsh accent?

[faced]

So I'm dating someone who is from Cardiff. He doesn't have a welsh accent? Maybe a few words, but he says that people from Cardiff don't sound Welsh. Especially if their parents are professionals etc

Is he having a laugh? What about Gavin & Stacey? Isn't that set near Cardiff?

Cardiff isn't the most Welsh sounding

How can a Cardiff accent not be Welsh sounding? I don't understand. That's like saying a Yorkishire accent isn't English sounding.

DH's mum's family is Cardiff professional, solid middle-class and with no Welsh accent.

His dad is West Wales rural middle class, Welsh-speaking- chapel -Eisteddfod background; strong accent speaking English. This is not an accent you hear on the media often, it's the accent of someone for whom English is a second language.

I live in North Wales in a Welsh-speaking area - some people have a very strong accent and some have no accent at all.

What people would consider a Welsh accent is probably a Valleys accent IMO.

Since gavin and Stacey I love the welsh accent! I’d be a bit gutted if he was welsh without the accent

Maybe the OP is thinking he should have a valleys Welsh accent.

There is a Cardiff accent, a valleys accent a north west Wales accent and north east Wales accent.

My Dd raised in Norfolk - no Norfolk accent
Went to uni in Cardiff( no accent) still living in Cardiff but working in the valleys for the last year has developed a bit of a welsh accent( certain words mainly) however if she spends a length of time back in Norfolk it goes!

Of my Welsh relatives , one is from North Wales and has an accent that is more ivor the engine .
The relatives from South Wales have an accent that is different , more subtle- but not like gavin and Stacey or Charlotte Church.

Bristol and Cardiff aren't very different, which makes sense as they're not far from each other?

To me the Caaaaaaaaaaardiff accent is very distinct and totally recognisable as a Welsh accent.

Cardiff has its own accent, distinguishable from Newport down the road or Swansea in the other direction, as Chepstow is different from Bristol.

All areas have ways of speaking, and people in them have degrees of strength of the accent. People with family from other places, or who lived or went to school elsewhere don't have as extreme an accent as others.

I grew up round there. I can hear it in voices of some actors, like Anthony Hopkins, for example. He doesn't 'sound Welsh', but he does have a tone or measure of an accent. My Aunt, Newport born and bred, has a fairly refined welsh accent (unless she's three sheets to the wind).

When I speak to family on the phone, my accent gets broader. Generally people don't hear Welsh in my voice at all.

I'm from West Wales and have a very strong accent. Dh is from Cardiff and has a very slight Cardiff accent. The children are Welsh speakers but have very English accents - as if they went to public school! I know quite a few Cardiffians who do not have a Welsh accent.

A Welsh speaking friend of mine always spoke English without any accent. When asked about it she said that she always tried to speak a foreign language with the correct accent!

Shinyletsbebadguys no leeks? They should be drummed out of the Max Boyce fan club forthwith!

LTB for false advertising.

My Dm was from the borders and had more of a west country accent than Welsh but said yer and tuth

I have a friend who was born and brought up in Cardiff, lived there until her mid-twenties and has no discernible Welsh accent - except when she talks on the phone

@tinselearedcow

Shinyletsbebadguys no leeks? They should be drummed out of the Max Boyce fan club forthwith!

Quite right ! Couldn't agree more . My df still has a max Boyce record in the attic (even though he claims not to)...it should be confiscated.

I'm from Pembrokeshire (below the landsker line known as little England beyond wales). I don't sound welsh at all, more a jumbled mix of cornish/Irish imo. I don't class myself as welsh either, other's from here are very patriotic which is fine but for me I'm British.

I also have a friend who speaks Welsh as her first language, but her accent when speaking English is barely noticeable from southern/generic/quite posh English.

Fun fact: They continue to have the Welsh knot in middle-class schools in Cardiff. Any pupil who rolls an rrr, knows what ll should sound like or draws out a vowel has to wear it. The child who has it in at the end of the day is beaten.

Or maybe it’s a pretty diverse capital city. It has its own accent but many of us born and bred in Cardiff don’t have it as it’s highly localised. I doubt you’d know I was a Cardiff girl unless you had an excellent ear for accents.

A Cardiff accent is quite unique. As a pp suggested listen to Frank Hennessy gives you a good idea but even he has a Welsh lilt that you can clearly hear (if you like Folk listen to his radio show Celtic Heartbeat and you can kill two birds with one stone )
I'm born and bred Cardiff but I don't have the accent. My father used to correct us if we slipped into paaaaark! We weren't allowed to drop our aitches either. I've had people who are from Cardiff ask me where I'm originally from.
Accents get even more interesting 13 miles east in Newport. It can vary from Welsh sounding, Cardiff sounding and a bit of Gloucestershire twang.

I am from Newport and don't have an accent at all.

@mrwalkensir

Bristol and Cardiff aren't very different, which makes sense as they're not far from each other?

🤣🤣🤣 The Caaaaaaaardiff accent is fuck all like a Bristol accent. I'm from Cardiff but I don't have a Caaaaaaaardiff accent, I can do it but it's not natural.

The North East Wales accent sounds far more Merseyside/Scouse than Welsh. But then you can see Liverpool so clearly from parts of Flintshire that’s not surprising.

. It can vary from Welsh sounding, Cardiff sounding and a bit of Gloucestershire twang
As i said my DM was from borders, DGF from Abergavenny and DGM from Monmouth. My DM and my cousins from Monmouth have more west country accents, with a bit of welsh thrown in
My DM came to London in her 20s and her accent changed a lot when she wrnt home , the moved to Norfolk in her 70s and her accent got broader again
I used to get upset when we went to Wales because when we were littlr i thought she was talking funny and didnt sound like my DM