to love regional accents

[Owllady]

And love having one myself :) ?

(Has this been done before:o)

I have the worst one too, black country ay it bab

Nothing wrong with outwith. I use it a lot at work too.

I'm from Surrey originally so no pronounced accent but have moved westwards and now picking up bits of Dorrzett. You only seem to hear a broad West Country accent amongst older people. Which is a shame.

Young people here sound much the same as Surrey/west London, including the rising intonation? D'you know what I mean?

Owl, ay up duck ow at?

I'm down the road in stoke. My accent is a lot softer than my dad's was, and dd in turn softer than me. I'm not keen on hearing myself speak. I especially hate the pronunciation of book as bewk and though I've tried to train myself to say buck i always forget so now I'm just embracing it lol

I agree there's nothing wrong caitlin and I was not trying to suggest there was. it is just a word used in a different regional accent to where I am based now. Reading Games' post struck a chord and made me smile about having conversations about using a word when speaking to someone not used to hearing it, that's it.

foolishfay of course people from Surrey have an accent. Just because it is the "accepted" English accent doesn't mean it's not an accent! I challenge you to go into a pub in Dudley (or Barnsley or Edinburgh or Liverpool) and say you don't have an accent!

I love the accent in Stoke, rem

I love the accent in Stoke, reminds me of going to stay with family as a kid - I think its gorgeous!

Nice there's a few people from the particular bit of South Staffordshire I am from. I was but a short ride on the 862 from Cannock and have fond memories of the cinema (queuing up outside in all weathers, kids today don't know they are born etc.) Taylor's restaurant and the library with the male nude outside (that always made me snigger)

As for accents, I can tell a Black Country accent from a Birmingham accent, despite being geographically close Liverpool and Manchester have completely different and easily distinguishable accents, as do Manchester and Leeds. Edinburgh and Glasgow: totally different.

However in the South East of England it seems like an homogeneous mass of estuary English, with very little to distinguish the accents. I thought perhaps I don't have an ear for southern accents, but my wife is from Sussex and has what I'd think of as a generic south east accent and she can't distinguish whether the person is from Kent, Essex, the London suburbs etc.
Whilst people of her age (30s) and her mother's generation (60s) tend to have these non-specific accents, older people have a completely different accent, which I imagine is 'old' Sussex.

I wish I had an accent. A real friendly one like Janice battersby. It sounds so welcoming, like I'd want to go in for a 'brew' is she asked me.
I have no accent. Though to some Americans, I too, sound like an Australian!
I did hear someone once who sounded like me and turns out he was bought up in the next town over (rushden), none since sadly.
The husband is a (proud) Teessider, his accent has gone soft as we now live in manchester but when he's home he falls right back in.
It's very broad but comforting. I miss home when I hear it from others.
(And no, it's nothing like the Geordie accent).

I've quite an ear for accents, it comes with growing up moving around. (Army brat)

Have a play with this: sounds.bl.uk/sound-maps/accents-and-dialects

I love a broad Suffolk aaaaaaccent, me...

Compo, that is quite bizarre as I read your post on the Gary Barlow thread yesterday regarding mining communities and I was nodding away! If anyone ever dares pick on me they must be reminded my husband was in the lea hall colliery boxing club :o

I lived in thanet, Kent for a decade and there is less to distinguish accents, but I always assumed it was do with people moving out of London, especially the estates in eltham etc.

I've had people hear me say one word, exclaim "oh I'll never be able to understand you!" It's embarrassing, my accent isn't especially broad and when I'm talking to someone from a different area I make a point of moderating it and trying to avoid idioms. Guess I don't do it as well as I hoped but then again when my in laws came to visit and heard the neighbours speaking the commented how much stronger there's was than mine.

I think it can only take a few miles for an accent to change. Where I grew up they say wisnae but 5 miles along the road they say wurnae. It means wasn't for those unfamiliar and I don't use words like that when speaking to non locals.

YANBU. I find them amazing and fascinating. Couldn't differentiate between them, but I love them! I'm from Essex originally though I don't think that I have much of an Essex accent. I do slip into it when I have been talking to my Mum and sisters though and slip into the colloquialisms. I love regional colloquialisms as well, those make accents doubly interesting. Even the accents that I don'#t particularly like are interesting, so likeable in that sense.

I really love mild Scottish and Irish accents though, my bosses have these and I love their accents, very jealous of them!

I hate hearing my stokie accent

sorry posted too soon.

I think it might just be my drawl of a voice though to be fair.

We say book and look properly though

I sound terrible, terrible, when recorded. as do the other people in my region

My N Irish accent is almost identical to a Scottish accent, probably the west of Scotland/border area? I'm often greeted by Scottish people with the words 'Ah, someone from home!' so I don't think I'm imagining it.

I'm RP . Born and bred Geordie/Northumbrian, but my whole family is RP. Lots of people seem to assume that a NE accent is mandatory if you come from the NE; they ask when I lost it, if I had elocution lessons etc. Why do so many people think that it's "normal" to speak in RP if you come from the SE, and all-but impossible if you come from the NE?

Married to an Essex boy, and I was definitely attracted by the accent!

I have a Leicester accent but currently live in West Country so I'm starting to pick that up too.

owl lady that's crazy! My Uncle worked at Lea Hall too. But then did nearly everyone on Cannock Chase, that's if they didn't work at Littleton.

I went to Wolves Poly (many years ago) and lived in halls of residence in Dudley. It took me the first term to understand what the people on the bus were saying. I still love to hear a Black Country accent.

Have a strong Welsh accent myself which I am quite happy to have.
What fascinates me about regional accents is how they can differ so much even within a few miles. My mum comes from a village just 3 miles from where I live, yet all my relatives who live there have a different accent to me. Still welsh and you'd probably need to be a local to pick it up but you'd instantly know they came from that village.

Llanelli and Swansea are very different accents even though only 12 miles apart.

I work in Cardiff but live near Swansea and my colleagues often take the piss out of my 'Welshy' accent. In a nice way of course.

I have a broad Lancashire accent and if anybody takes the mick it makes me go even more lanky

My works head office is in Kent and they think it's hilarious that I ask if they want a brew.

I love the Geordie accent, I have a customer in Newcastle that I could listen to all day.

LST I try really hard to use buck, luck and cuck, especially when I'm at work (in a school), but then I'll come home and slip into Stokie and it all goes out of the window

I recall my Dad when I was younger having a reasonably broad Stoke accent, but then he'd meet a workmate or a friend and lapse into a language I couldn't understand half of. It was all full, broad, stokie slang and it used to fascinate me. They'd bid each other goodbye and he'd go back to speaking normally.

Still amuses me now to hear two old stoke men chat.

Or if you were older there was always fives too compo
I can't believe we also have someone posting from burntwood on the thread too. I learnt to swim at burntwood baths:o