mortified - someone at work said i

[EnlightenedOwl]

talk "rough"
i have a strong accent - think Lancashire x Yorkshire and confess the odd "t" has been dropped but do have an immaculate phone voice
No one else has mentioned my accent but this person who I've worked with a while often makes reference to it saying they can't understand me etc
However to say I talk rough is an all time low.
Anyone else ever felt mortified by their accent?

I get teased on a regular basis in work for my Welsh accent. I work in Cardiff!

I'm Welsh and have a fairly strong accent. In uni my English housemate told me I sounded common, "like you're working class or something" .

I was self conscious for a long time, but everyone else said it made me sound friendly. One told me it was musical, and she loved listening to it.

I don't care about it now, it's not going to change and I like it.

PS I lived oop North for a while. The locals appreciated my accent and I enjoyed listening to theirs. There was only one person I couldn't understand, but that was because he spoke very fast, nothing to do with the accent.
Your colleague is being a cow.

Yep, rough manners without a doubt. Fail to see how you'd be understandable to be honest, maybe that's because I'm from Yorkshire though...

That's obviously supposed to say how you wouldn't be understandable ffs, clearly your colleague has a point.

I has a Scottish accent. Generally considered to be a 'naice' Scottish accent. When my company works with foreign clients I am often picked for presentations as having the clearest voice.

The only person who has ever been rude about my voice was ironically a man with the broadest Cockney accent imaginable.

He often pretended he couldn't understand me just to be difficult.

^^ have obvs

dwinnol what's a "southern English accent"? I live in southern England but don't recall ever hearing one.

Drbonnie listen to everyone around you I the south if England - that's a Southern England accent.

There is no such thing as 'no accent. Some accents (such as RP) may be considered more socially acceptable or imply higher status but they are still an accent*.

Ask any first year Linguistics student.

No that isn't a southern accent. In the same way there is no "northern accent". The south has many accents depending on where you are from. A bit like the North of the country.

drbonnie that's just like me saying that I live in Wigan but have never heard a Wigan accent.
It assumes that the way in which you speak is the norm and everyone else has an accent!

X post-yes you are right there-I see what you mean now.

It's like when people think london = cockney. It doesn't at all. Being cockney is to be born and brought up in a very specific area of East london, no more than a few miles in radius.

Drudge no it isn't!! Wigan is an area within the North. so your accent is specific to Wigan but perhaps not the same as ten miles away.

Don't people in the south have those varied accents?

It's saying the North is made up of say 100 different accents. On the south we apparently have 1!!!!

Sorry, I posted that and then read your next post!

It always feels as though prople from the North are "allowed" individuality on their regional variations. In the south, we're not! To me, Kent sounds very different to say, Sussex or hants. Same as south London sounds different to East London or Berkshire.

drbonnie if that was a wee swipe at my first post the gentlemen I referred to self identified at Cockney, no assumptions on my part.

You are correct that different parts of the South of England have different accents but the differences are necessarily identifiable or discernible by those from other regions and therefore are generalised as a 'Southern' accent.

I have SN identifiably Scottish accent but unless you are Scottish or familiar with Scottish accents you probably wouldn't be able to narrow it down to more than 'Scottish'.

SN? No idea where that came from. Should have been 'an'

Eigg, not a gentle swipe or otherwise. If I'd wanted to say something to you I would have!

I think there is a generic home counties accent that spreads out from London with the constant movement of people outwards from there. Huge swathes of Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, etc. have populations with variations on Estuary and RP English, and the regional accents that those areas had before have almost gone.
I always like to link people to this archive. sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Berliner-Lautarchiv-British-and-Commonwealth-recordings

I can work out a few Scottish accents yes.

But I would not ever refer to someone as having a "northern accent". Because I think that's quite lazy. I am able to decipher a fair few accents from the North of the country too - they're accents, not a coded language!! Granted I wouldn't be able to narrow down within a matter of miles.

In my opinion sounds rough means lots of bad language, gutter talk, etc.
But an accent, no way. What a bitch (with rough manners).
If she makes any more snipes I would report her to HR.

Admit to

buzz fir
hurr brush
the offence I committed yesterday was, I said to a colleague I'll send yer t'link and the person in question piped in with her you talk rough comment
As in I will send you the link (interweb)

actually here's another gem. We went out once after work for a department meal. We were sat in the pub bit downstairs (the restaurant was upstairs) as had to wait for the table and had a quick drink first. Well as we wouldn't be waiting long I couldn't be bothered taking my coat off and faffing so just left it on and unbuttoned it. She leaned over and said "You can take your coat off you know. Do you not get out much where you come from?"
Luckily before I could reply in a suitable fashion we were asked to go through for the meal..
I think her game plan is to try and make me feel uncomfortable and socially awkward

I really think more people should read an introductory book on linguistics at some point in the first 30 years of their life, it would stop much of this nonsense. It's also rather important in a country like the UK that is so plagued by class division and the effect that has had on the role of language.

Language Myths by Bauer and Trudgill is also a nice little read.

"I'll just leave that hanging there..."
"Have you not travelled much?"
"I enunciate quite clearly so maybe you have a hearing problem."

I've used all of these, with varying results admittedly, but thankfully I've not had to bit back very often.

Make a record of these...that coat jibe was sheer twattery and adds weight to any complaint you'd like to make.

Yorkshire bird in Oxford here...do you know what, there's people from all over the world here, and most of them don't give a shite if you're from 200 miles up the road!

Point out how parochial she sounds.

It's weird that the only place I've ever had prejudice against my accent is in the UK, everywhere else I've ever lived people have always said I have a great accent. They never think I'm English though, usually Scottish, Irish, Aussie or Russian!

That's definitely a perk to being an ex-pat, lack of prejudice!