AIBU to ask how "well" you speak?

[buggerthebotox]

Saw and article in the Mail (sorry!!) about "declining standards of spoken English" and I am wondering how you all speak and whether you consider yourselves to be "well spoken"?

i pick up accents quick. if i movd to scotland or wales or liverpool i would pick up the accent and come home with it. I live in East Yorkshire, Nearer to Hull so people talk alot different to how people talk in my hometown just outside of wakefield west yorkshire. My two boys speak differently to me and DH as they go to school here, i have picked up the accent change a little and certain words sound diferent to how my friends/sister/mum/dad say them/.

GetOrf I'm from your neck of the woods and I didn't pick up a west country drawl, it wasn't intentional I just don't have an accent. People are always really surprised when they meet my family because they all sound like farmers.

How strange that people pick up accents quickly!

I visited my aunt in Essex, after one day dd came back speaking like Denise Van Outen. It's strange.

My brother is the same - he has lived in America for only 3 years, he has got a mid-atlantic hybrid accent and sounds like a groovy 70s DJ.

My accent is unwavering I think - I can't imagine I would speak differently wherever I lived tbh.

thai my family and friends who still live in Devon also sound like the Wurzels.

I grew up in the westcountry so have a westcountry accent when tired or drunk! Recently had to inform non-english friends that their dd was developing a proper "estuary" accent! (nothing wrong with that, just that they were so pleased with her posh english accent!)

I speak the finest estruarine.

When I spent time in the middle east I picked up an Indian accent. I loved it actually, much nicer than my normal voice.

I love local accents, see no problem whatsoever.

Estuary English another thing altogether - just sounds lazy to me - and grates badly.

It does depend upon the situation.

If I am speaking to a well-spoken, often older person I come across as well-spoken and educated. If I am speaking to the majority of people where I live, if I speak more quickly, more colloquially and my accent becomes very pronounced.

I also have a very bad habit of taking on the accent of a person I am speaking to. It gets embarrassing when they look at me as though I'm taking the piss.

Really pleased to see posts from people who have a variable accent. I have, too. I think it's so natural to aim for good communication, we unconsciously alter the way we talk according to the situation.

As such, I wouldn't say the Camerons are being dishonest; I think it's just a normal modification.

Goldberry "One thing I find interesting is when I hear children speak very differently from their parents"

My mindies parents often comment that their children speak as I do and that they also use my phrases such as "Jolly good" "Super" etc.

One was dismayed her children say "barth" rather than bath as she does! I love accents, especially Scottish, I could listen to one of my colleagues all day long.

My DD has comments made to her at work on how well she speaks and how posh she sounds, but she says to them - "Well, my mother says I have a Herts accent" The response was her mother must be the Queen!

I speak well most of the time, but it has dumbed down from when I first went to work in London at 20 years old, as I was accused of being the posh girl all the time and teased a lot.

I believe it is very important with small children to speak clearly and properly when they are learning to speak and I do wonder when I hear poor speech how some children ever learn to write correctly if all they hear is "innit" etc.

Amongst southerners no I'm not posh. People from other regions reckon I am though.

I have a Sussex/Hampshire borders burr, as that's where I grew up.

I'm not familiar with an estuary accent. Which sleb has one?

I get told I'm posh or have no accent at all from people 'from not around these parts!' . I am from South Hampshire and people from here say I've got a slight West country accent.

My grammer though is diabolical . I am dyslexic and really struggle at times to get a sentence to sound right - even though it sounds wrong.

I moved to England when I was a child and my parents sent me to a prep school which offered elocution lessons, so I speak with an RP accent. When I have had several large gin and tonics, my voice reverts to it's original Irish. It amuses DH no end.

Accent is a mix of West Coast Ireland, gutteral Glaswegian, with more than a touch of Mancunian. But I do choose my words carefully.

I don't think it's a matter of how large your vocabulary is. More important is what you do with it.

As it were.

Am a bit puzzled by this "decline in standards of spoken English"- concept. Surely what constitutes the standard for spoken English changes from generation to generation: the Queen herself would probably be considered very sloppy by Queen Victoria.

The best you can hope for as an individual is to have a level of spoken English that is considered appropriate by the people you are hoping to get on with at the time.

I don't think having a certain accent is going to hold your writing back- as long as you have a flexible attitude. No spoken language- not even the most Oxford-donnish-accent of some of my colleagues- could be written down as it is spoken and pass for correct written language: anyone who is literate has to be at least bilingual; that is the nature of the beast. Doesn't worry me: as an immigrant, moving in totally different social circles at work and at home, I switch constantly between three accents- so if my ds drops into estuary I do not automatically assume that he will never be capable of anything else.

Hmm no real accent here - at the moment...

I pick up all sorts of accents, until 7/8 yrs was broad Lancashire, then Wales from 8/12 then gradually lost any accent at "posh" school.

Then I picked up a very posh accent at Uni, then slowly went back to having no accent.

When I am around friends from my home town my general level of speaking disintegrates (as does my language) in an unconscious effort to fit in.

I'm still posher with my Uni friends than I am in every day life. However, I would say I speak with correct grammar and a wide vocabulary (most of the time)....

suwoo estuary is Jamie Oliver-types, as far as I am aware...

meant to add I'm now teaching children who have English as a second language, and embarrassingly I find myself picking up their slightly odd sentence construction

"Miss when you did go to the beach, was it sunny?"
"No, when I did go to the beach it was raining... ermm I mean when I went to the beach"

RP/posh (god I hate that word) as a rule. Most definitely have my telephone/talking to my mother voice, but lapse depending on where I am. My children are all very well spoken but they, like I did, will deliberately drop Ts to annoy me as I did to my mother.

I definitely tone it down a lot where I live as have been judged for my voice quite regularly here.

Whenever Jamie Oliver says 'brovver' I went to punch him in the face.

Actually, I often want to punch him in the face, which is odd because I used to quite like him.

And what is that thing where the 't' is not pronounced midword? DS was doing that for a while before we left London, he has stopped now, thank goodness.

Morloth I also want to punch him in the face!!

I think the 't' thing (from experience) is a deliberate attempt by them to piss us off. I know that was my intention when I did it to my DMama as a teenager! They also send me texts with text speak to annoy me, but oddly enough will never do that when they want something, as they know I'll probably not even read it properly

I sound vair, vair posh and have done since I was a tiny child, with a brief but abortive attempt at Norfaaampton when I was twelve, as I was fed up with being bullied by ill-spoken cretins. At sixteen I rebelled in reverse and spent a year sounding like Princess Ann, but since then I've reverted to a more acceptable RP.

I'm not actually very posh at all though: my father's family is, quite, but my mother's family come from Oldham and have Lancashire accents.