If you have a strong regional accent do you like it?

[purrswhileheeats]

I moved about as a child so have never really had a strong accent, I always 'switched' to fit in with my peers. I live abroad now and tend to flit between a Scottish and weak Scouse accent depending on who I'm talking to but I'm always slightly envious of people who've kept their accent no matter where they live

@ChiefAdjusterOfRubensShorts

Broad Mancunian accent here! I love my accent, although I do sometimes end up sounding like Liam or Frank Gallagher if I’ve had a drink

My friend is from Bolton and sounds really Manc-y after a drink!

I remember being on holiday years ago and getting friendly with a couple - he was from Manchester and she was from Leeds. She was was an utter bitch and would shout 'I 'ate your accent!' at him. Horrible woman

I’m a brummie, I’ve moved away from Birmingham now but I still quite like my accent. I don’t think it’s a nice accent but it reminds me of home, which I suppose is weird😂

I used to have a strong Geordie accent (with a hint of Makem from family), but over a decade living near Carlisle has blended it a bit into generic Northen I would say.
I’ve always liked my accent.

I'm from Lancashire and I like having a Lancashire accent, but to my chagrin I found myself having to tone it down a little when I moved to the south-east as a) some people couldn't understand me and b) a small subset of idiots who thought everything above Watford Gap services was 'north' found it hilarious to do a cod 'Ee bah 'eck lass, put t'wood in t'hole' type of voice whenever I spoke. Most original, not.

I'm in the Midlands now and people seem to understand me just fine, but to be fair my accent has softened a bit since when I lived in Lancs, not really by choice but by habit.

I hate my accent. I actually avoid saying certain words because my accent flattens the vowels and it sounds common. Like I will say “the pandemic” instead of “Covid” because the flat o in Covid makes me sound thick.

Apparently my accent is hard to pin point, my parents are from Manchester but I grew up in Scotland. I don't sound like either of those at all!

The kids on the other have 'International accents'. We're expats, they sound sort of British but use so many Aussie / American words thrown in for good measure. They're also hard to pin point.

Geordie here and I don't mind mine! It's quite soft until I get pissed off or speaking to a crowd.

Apparently mine is a weird combo of Brummie and French. DH is French and we live in a Francophone place, although I’m obviously originally from Birmingham.

Brunch @FloconDeNeige?

I’m a true cockney with accent o match, which I really love, more so as I know lots of people don’t rate it. When we moved out of London 10 years ago people thought we were either very rough or very stupid, and often both. Charming neighbour said it was like Fagin had moved in We’re both professional, relatively educated arty types! Returned to London thankfully but have definitely been treated like the help by middle class colleagues.

I’ve spent far too much time with naice middle class people in recent years that my accent has dulled to more estuary. Like most people, it really comes out when I’m wound up or angry.

I was born and grew up in Glasgow, but my parents were from the Highlands, so I never had a particularly strong Weegie accent, even as a child.

Living abroad for most of my 20s and early 30s and spending most of my life working in a profession which isn't particularly tolerant of strong regional accents ironed out any slight creases that remained, so I now have what I self-mockingly refer to as a 'generic middle class Scottish accent' - you can tell that I'm Scottish, but you would probably struggle to place exactly where I'm from (unless you actually were Glaswegian / west coast).

Scouse here. I like having it, I can really dial it up if I need to . It gets you heard over a din for sure! People I've met through work have made absurd assumptions about my intelligence because of how I sound...then choked when I hand over a business card with all my letters and quals on it. Have to tone down sometimes though because people whose speech is less rapid than a Merseysider's can find it too quick to follow. I enjoy the Glasgow, Geordie and Lancs accents to listen to.

I love that people have different accents. Long live accents!

My Mum went to a grammar school in the 1960s and they had elocution lessons to help smooth out their regional accent. It meant that we grew up with a strange muted regional accent.

Dh and I are from the same town but his accent has almost disappeared with uni and being around a lot of Londoners, mine was not that influenced at uni.

We do not live in our home town and my children have the local regional accent for here which is different to my accent. My Mum used to try to correct their speech to make them sound posher. I told her I wanted them to grow up with the same accent as their peers.

I detest the snobbery that comes with the perception of accents.

Is that teaching English @LadyJaye ?

I didn't realise until I got to university that the two French teachers we had had at school had strong Marseilles accents that had really rubbed off on me! I pronounced the 'e' at the ends of words and my nasal vowels were all wrong.

I quite like the idea of a single class of students somewhere doing their school leavers English exams in strong Glaswegian accents.

I have an estuary accent, and although it's much derided on MN (thick and vulgar are the usual descriptors) I don't mind. Although I live in the north now, and my colleagues did once ask me to say "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" for their amusement.

Broad Yorkshire here. Changed a bit when I lived in South Yorkshire but back to full on Bradford now. Living in Spain , I do some spanglish as well.

Geordie accent here. I like it.
Tend to tone it down when speaking to people from other offices at work though, people tend to assume if you have a Geordie accent you are 'thick'.

Geordie here!!

I have an Ayrshire accent but have had to tone it down as I have gone to Uni and worked in Glasgow since I was 18.

I did a year as an English language assistant in a French school too. Love the thought of a generation of young French people going around with Glaswegian accents! Mine had softened over time but still distinctly Scottish and gets worse when I've been back home for a visit.

I love accents and I'm a little sad that my kids have a very generic, neutral accent despite growing up in Swansea with a Weegie mother.

My accent is Brummie ! .. I like it Bab

Sing songy, gentle South Wales accent here (not Gavin and Stacey Barry accent) I like it.

I sound like Lorraine Kelly which I'm not thrilled about but people seem to like it when I travel out of Scotland.

I have an northern Irish accent which isn't particularly strong but people native to where I now live in NI know I'm not a local born and bred. NI has lots of regional accents but normally people only think Belfast until we had Derry Girls. I'm not a fan of a Belfast accent as I think it's quite harsh but I love a Derry/Donegal/West NI accent.

I'd love a strong regional accent! I'm originally from the North but moved abroad when I was little! I've not lost my accent completely as most brits here comment on how amazing it is that i've still got a northern-twang! My dad's from Aberdeen and i love his voice and my grandparents too!