Do you have a strong local accent?

[nicecuppateainthemorning]

I do! If I hear it on a recording I am surprised at how strong it is. When I did a voice message to a family member I did it about ten times but couldn’t disguise it!

I don’t mind the accent but it isn’t particularly attractive.

I spoke to an old friend recently after many years and she had such a lovely voice/accent and we are from the same area.

Do you have a strong local accent and how do you feel about it?

Meant to say, I LOVE a Brummie accent. And Liverpool. And Newcastle. Whilst fully understanding that these can vary hugely within each region.

RP is an accent too!

Well, yes, a certainly kind of person tends to believe they don't have an accent, and will happily describe other people's accents as 'thick'. When of course they absolutely have an accent. RP is an accent, just a historically regionally prestigious one. Objectively, many forms of it sound absolutely rank, and could certainly be described as a 'thick' or 'strong' accent.

The late Queen as a young woman sounded terrible, with all that forward resonance (the high-pitched, nasal, strangulated quality), tapped rs, and raised trap vowel ('lend' for 'land', 'hend' for 'hand') and staccato rhythm. Not her fault, obviously, she was just using the voice of her tribe and her period. Noticeable she'd gradually dropped the most obvious markers by the time she was middle-aged.

I’m from Belfast so I am so it’s really strong when I hear it on recordings, so it is

i have an unusual accent, I’ve lived in several difference countries, so when I go home I have to ham up my accent or I get judged for being ashamed of my roots - but my accent stands out in the place we have currently settled. FWIW I love accents - I have a real fondness for them all - we should cherish them but instead we have a tendency to judge and categorise them.

I'm from the other end of the island, and I am automatically predisposed to like someone with a Belfast accent. I had an online meeting with a Belfast woman a couple of days ago, and even though she was actually nice, I had irrationally decided that I liked her after about two minutes because I liked the way she spoke.

I think the only Irish accents that rub me slightly up the wrong way are Dublin 4 'roysh' ones, and some Wexford ones.

I’ve got a strong valleys accent and notice it when I’m working as I work in Cardiff but when I’ve worked in Swansea it doesn’t seem so prominent because they have a stronger Welsh accent that makes mine sound different. It’s funny how 40 miles give or take has such an impact on what you sound like.

Definitely Scottish but you’d find it hard to place beyond that.

i do roll my rrrrs like a good rhotic speaker

Your post really made me smile @FiveShelties

I’m Lancastrian but moved ‘darn sarf’ to uni and then overseas for quite a few years and now I’m back in the UK but in London. I grew up in Lancs with Shelties (for quite a few years with five of them 😂) so your username made me chuckle - and brought back happy memories.

But there the similarities end perhaps. My mum was a teacher and although my family all spoke with the local Lancs accent, my mum was insistent that I speak ‘properly’ so not dropping h’s or using dialect etc so I suspect my accent was always slightly posh Northern rather than full on. Since then I’ve lived and worked all over the world (from France to China) so my accent is very neutral these days as I’m so used to having to communicate with non-native English speakers at work who wouldn’t understand me otherwise and it’s sort of stuck. And some words I’ve only learnt since I left the North such as “latte” so I pronounce them with the accent of wherever I was living when I first heard them.

But sometimes I come across people with a good ear who pick up on my accent being a bit mixed. It’s usually when I say bath, grass, class etc (in the correct i.e. Northern pronunciation) and you see this flicker across their face and realise I’m not so neutral after all. 😉

My favourite was the man behind the counter in a petrol station between Melbourne and Phillip Island (so Victoria, Australia). All I did was order a takeaway coffee and he pounced on my accent. Not because I was English but because it was almost identical to his. Turned out that he grew up in Wigan a few miles away from where I grew up in Lancashire and then he spent many years working for the Met in London before finally emigrating to Australia. We both have accents that are fairly neutral but with a mix of central Lancs and inner London thrown in. He was literally my accent twin. I’ve never met anyone else quite like it.

Edit: To my mother’s dismay, I can flip effortlessly into broad Lancashire as required. Usually when talking to my father but occasionally when someone up North pulls the “you’re not from round ‘ere, are you?” one on me. They soon shut up. 😛 Actually I was taught French at school in a broad Lancashire accent and didn’t realise until I studied French at uni in the south (and then in France) that apparently the rest of the world don’t sound like they’re from Lancashire when they speak French. 😂

Yes it counts. Everyone has an accent and that’s yours.

I spent my childhood years in both Merseyside and Scotland so I had a hybrid accent that I call 'Scoose' 😂 If I spend time with Scousers or Scots now I quickly lapse into either accent.

Lived abroad for 20 years and I speak the language fairly well although I'm aware I sound very 'local' with my accent and dialect - when I go to the 'mainland' I have to remember to speak properly or they look at me like this 🤨😳

I love the Scoose name you’ve given your accent 😂

Aye nae bather.

We sometimes dee it fin we dinna want onybody ti kain fit wir speaking aboot

I don’t because I moved around a lot, but I can speak in my local dialect which is incomprehensible to many! I absolutely love dialects and long may they live.

Same. Nobody can tell where I'm from, I dont even know myself.

I struggle to understand strong Geordie accents for some reason, I'm fine with broad Scottish and NI accents but Geordie, no. My brain just can't tune into it 🤔

I had an embarrassing incident years ago with a customer who approached me speaking what I thought was Polish. He was chattering away and I said 'Sorry sir, I can't understand you. Does your wife speak English?' His wife came over and explained they were from Newcastle 🫣 I was mortified 😭

in fact there are numerous accents across Cumbria depending on where you live, some of them are truly awful and instantly recognisable. Flood sounds like flud, great sounds like grate, laugh sounds like laff.

Surely that's what those words sound like across most of the North of England e.g. in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

@Melancholyflower , they vary from one village to the next. The variations might be tiny, but if you recognise it, you'll be able to say something like
'Are you from Cockermouth?' or wherever, and chances are you'll be pretty close.

@gamerchicklove a Geordie accent! As a fellow Geordie! I’ve been told I am quite broad. I’ve spent a lot of time as a nurse working in people’s homes, lots of broad Geordie granny’s and grandads!
Talks of oxters (arm pits) and Pains in licks (top of your leg near your hip!)
I don’t like my own voice! But I don’t know anyone who does!

I’m from east Lancs originally so had a really strong very specific accent when I was younger. I’ve lived down south for 30yrs now and although still recognisably most likely northern (mainly because of my short “a”s) you would not be able to pinpoint me to anywhere. I heard my voice on a video the other day and I was the opposite of the OP. My accent sounded so neutral. I can’t even put my old accent on these days, though I think I get more northern if talking to a fellow northerner.

Yes, Glaswegian for me.

Me too. My mother grew up in Derbyshire but got rid of the accent. My father was from Luton. No trace of an accent. We live in Herefordshire and have been here and away and back again since I was 5. There were 3 of us children. We weren't allowed to speak with a local accent and now, in our late 50s , early 60s none of us do.

My early years were spent in Africa and my parents had RP voices, so that was my voice. I was sent back to the UK to public school and developed that accent. Later, I was sent to the local school in Lancashire for a few months. As soon as I opened my mouth the other kids fell about laughing. Within 3 months I had acquired a lancashire accent.
As an adult I moved about the country a lot and picked up bits and pieces from where I lived.
I would say my accent is very faint northern without being traceable to a particular area of the North.
If I ever get drunk the public school accent comes back.

I’ve never heard so much shite in my life! Local accents are working class???

West Yorkshire native and lifelong resident. I'm not at all conscious of speaking with any particular accent yet I've been told more than once I sound like a Mancunian.