Can you tell where someone is from from how they write on MN?

[Theystoleourrecipe]

I've noticed that when going through posts, I'll read something and think, 'oh this person is from x, just by the words and phrases they use. I'll sometimes be able to localise this to a more specific region. I never look at usernames when I'm reading unless something really stands out to me, so I generally don't have any prior knowledge of the poster influencing me. Of course I can't be 100% sure but I would put a bet on being right, most of the time.

Do you ever recognise a particular region through how a poster writes? Are you conscious of how you write, making sure not to use colloquialisms unique to your area or do you not think about it, or do it anyway?

Yes, RP, but it's very much dying out. In fact, if you listen to QE2 in her first broadcasts, and her later ones, her accent changed.
The younger royals don't use RP so much as southern standard. (Another quirky fact is that the Princess of Wales- having been taught to "speak correctly" often uses more RP traits than William.

One example (with apologies in advance for bringing him onto the thread) is Boris Johnson. Still very much RP and thus accentless. Was he born north, south, east of west? None, he was born in the US, but obviously, you'd never know.

If I said " I put my gurt lush daps on, went down the slider and scraged my knee " you might be able to work out which city I'm from.

In one part of Ireland, skint means that you have no money...30 minutes down the road, it means cold. In one part of Northern Ireland, scundered (or scunnered) means embarrassed, in another it means bored. Amazing how micro the regional differences can be.

I've heard "daps" in Dundee? 🤔 Clearly not Glasgow, else you'd be going down a chute.

Daps are very West Country!

All the Scottish terms are reminding me of a documentary I watched called The Scheme, where everyone spoke very Glaswegian and I had no idea what they were saying. I do remember 'greetin' for crying though.

@DelphiniumBlue i am glad to add some useful words to your lexicon.

I now live darn sarf in Essex and have never seen a cling filmed cob in all my 30+ years here. I strongly suspect your gastro pub theory may be correct. I am delighted to inform you that the tradition is still alive and well in the midlands. Here’s a fine example purchased just this year in Leicester when I travelled across to the wild east to a football match. It’s magnificent.

Very heavily associated Northern Ireland and so Northern Irish.

Apparently, I still say those all these years later. But I really don't notice it!

"So ye are!"
"So it is!"
"So we did"

"Ats us nai!" is one I've never used. Probably used it in standard form as "That's us now!" with "now" said in a very obviously NI way.

RP is very much regional to me. I associate it with the South East of England. It isn't at all neutral imo.

Ah, as well as the bread roll map of the UK and Ireland, we really need a "what we call those rubber soled shoes children wear in school" map. 😁

Me too. A very pronounced accent to my ear. Everyone has an accent, whether it's from where they grew up or it's migrated somewhat since then (I can be guilty of that).

<pulls pin from grenade and throws>

Morning roll?

This thread made me look up this test again https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html

And also Cumbria.

@continentallentil you are spot on!

Slider and scrage are Bristolian words for a slide and a graze respectively.

Mmm, bacon cob.

Course Derbyshire nicked this word from Nottingham.

Loving the thread.
West Yorkshire ( or parts of it):

On a morning
Pants meaning trousers
Using "me" at the end of a sentence ( I love that, me)
Mournjy ( moody/sullen)
9 while 5
I aren't fussed (I'm not fussed)
Our kid/ (my brother/sister)
Pack-up (packed lunch)

Also v happy to here about the Irish use of brought/took as I have been told off all my life for using them wrong, and now I discover I'm just secretly Irish 😁

I want a bacon bap so bad now!!

Mid typed upthread: Our kid ( my brother) Our lass ( my sister)

Cen aois thu is used in Irish for what age are you or how old are you.. but it translates directly as what age are you.. I never noticed that before!

Blah is a word used for soft rolls in Waterford..

Not in Hiberno-English, which follows the different usages of the verbs ‘beir’ and ‘tóg’ in Irish.

Also West Yorkshire: " what do they call you?" for what's your name?

Absolutely, but it says a lot about a dialect’s traditional prestige that RP speakers, touchingly, appear to genuinely believe they have ‘no accent’, or ‘speak neutrally’.

Would murder a bacon roll now... must look for the kids plimsoles today....