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?

I’m in Swansea and I think most of us could recognise a Cardiff accent quite easily. It’s not the (for want of a better word) stereotypical welsh accent though, it’s quite distinct. In Swansea, however, we all sound like we’re trying to fight you, regardless of how happy we are to see you.

I’m Welsh with no welsh accent, we were taught to speak ‘properly’ in primary school so that we could get decent jobs. I used to be able to speak half and half 😂 but now just sound English with a bit of yer, yur.

What accent does he have then?

Everyone has an accent of some sort.

But I don't think I have one, because everyome where I live speaks the same, but it's wouldsl be quite a strong accent to most who don't live here.

Does anyone remember "'aaark 'aaark the laaaaaaark in Caaaaaardiff Arms Paaaaark"? I thiink it might have been a radio jingle or something.

John Humphrys is from Splot, a working class area of Cardiff, and yet you have to listen very carefully to hear any Welsh accent.
Not everyone speaks with the local accent.
I am from a Northern city with a very well known accent, and yet although I have lived there all my life, no-one in the rest of England ever knows where I am from. People are always really surprised when I tell them. I haven't changed my accent at all. I speak in the same way that I have always spoken.
My parents lived all their lives in my city, and they too did not have the local accent.
I think acquiring an accent can sometimes depend on educational background rather than location.

My boss from Newport didn't have a Welsh accent at all. He had a massive chip on his shoulder as he couldn't speak Welsh as apparently the best jobs go to Welsh speakers.

Think it’s important to note as well how different welsh accents are, so if you aren’t aware of it, people aren’t going to sound like a stereotype. Someone from Bangor, Wrexham or Carmarthen is not going to sound like they are on Gavin and Stacey!

Ask him to say Car Park - the Cardiff accent will emerge.

There are so many variations in accents within Wales and the UK it's hard to define a specific "Welsh" accent. Many people will think valleys but I'm from the valleys and I think "sounding Welsh" is a West Wales accent.

Welsh speakers do have the best jobs though. We allocate them all at our secret Welsh speakers meeting every month.

You're thinking of valleys Welsh OP.
I can hear a non accented Welsh person miles away im the christian bale kinda welsh, you know theres a lilt but you wouldnt know i was welsh unless i launched into cymraeg

Oh god the fucking dimwits that think Gavin and Stacey is what all welsh people are like
Are you for real?
There are a myriad of accents and dialects in Wales
And some of us ....brace yourself....speak Welsh all the time

I’m from North Pembrokeshire. DSIS and I sound English. Our DM was English but DF has lived there since he was 4 and still doesn’t have a Welsh accent.

Then again I have a friend with Welsh parents who is England born and bred. Because Welsh is her first language, she sounds more Welsh than I ever will.

@GreenSlide I mean you would never be able to tell where I come from by hearing me speak. I have lived in England for the last 32 years and the same area for the last 28 and I do not have an accent from any of those areas.

I've found posh well educated welsh people don't sound welsh at all, they must purposely change their accent.

This thread is funny!!

No, OP - you wouldn’t expect someone from Cardiff to have the classic Welshy accent. It’s completely different.

My partner is Welsh he's also from Cardiff. He just has a fairly generic accent. People do have an accent in Cardiff but it's not the Welsh accent you think of as stereotypically Welsh.

@Yorkshireswithallroasts 😂😂

I (pre-COVID) spend a lot of time
In North Wales - Bala, Barmouth and Llandudno mostly. A lot of people there have Welsh accents and speak Welsh. Even professionals 😂

I know quite a few people from Cardiff - a couple of them have a very Welsh accent (and they were Cardiff born and bred), but most of them don't. It's still a distinct accent, I can't explain it, but it's not typical Welsh.

The people I know from North and West of Cardiff have very Welsh accents, but those East of Cardiff do not, its more similar to the typical 'Cardiff' accent.

That's my scientific analysis as an English person

I thought "upper class/ aristocratic" Scots don't have a Scottish accent. I'm not in the UK though so I might have that wrong.

My grandparents were from the valleys, sounded very Welsh. My dad was born there and lived there as a child - no accent. My uncle was born in England, lived in England until he was in his 30s, then moved to S Wales - sounds as Welsh as my grandparents. My dad sometimes has a Welsh sounding word or two, and can sound very Welsh if he's deliberately putting on the accent (he does this when he plays walking football for the Wales team) but in normal day to day speech, you wouldn't know.

@TommyShelby there are many ignorant folk in Wales and over Clawdd Offa who think Wales is Cardiff and stops once they reach Merthyr.

@LadyEloise

I thought "upper class/ aristocratic" Scots don't have a Scottish accent. I'm not in the UK though so I might have that wrong.

They do... it’s just not what people think a Scottish accent sounds like, but as people have been pointing out with welsh accents, there are many very different Scottish accents.

I'm from Swansea but live in Cardiff now and I can discern a Cardiff accent a mile off. It's not a Gavin-and-Stacey accent at all though. It's all in the 'a' sounds and the fact that (to a certain demographic at least) everything's plural: DS once got a fab birthday card in which his friend's mum had written 'I hopes you haves a lovely birthday' :)

My accent varies depending on who I'm talking to - I don't sound all that Welsh (to myself) when talking to my English DH but I get very Swansea when I'm talking to family or school friends.

My Welsh friend from Cardiff has what I think of as a very Welsh accent. My other friend is from Wrexham and I wouldn't know she is Welsh from her accent.

@spiderlight

I'm from Swansea but live in Cardiff now and I can discern a Cardiff accent a mile off. It's not a Gavin-and-Stacey accent at all though. It's all in the 'a' sounds and the fact that (to a certain demographic at least) everything's plural: DS once got a fab birthday card in which his friend's mum had written 'I hopes you haves a lovely birthday' :)

My accent varies depending on who I'm talking to - I don't sound all that Welsh (to myself) when talking to my English DH but I get very Swansea when I'm talking to family or school friends.

The is made me laugh.

True ‘C-AAAH-diff’ accent is heard at its best when the phrase ‘C-AAH-diff AAHrms pAAHrk’ is spoken.

It’s very different to any accent from any other part of Wales.