To wonder what your views are on 'working class' accents

[Timri]

And think people need to learn the difference between the words correct and standard
Inspired by a comment by somebody saying they didn't look down on anybody's accent, but hated words being pronounced 'incorrectly' such as 'bovvered'.
Uhm, it's called th fronting and it's one of the central features of a cockney accent FFS.
Please tell me I'm not alone in this?

[DeoGratias]

Say bovvered and I go toilet if you want to. Many employers and many potential husbands will not be put off.

Also some people change how they speak and others don't. Some will be English and live in the US and never lose their English accent and others will change almost as soon as they get there - I suspect it's unconscious and some are just good at fitting in and others either could not care less or just cannot change how they speak even if they want to do so.

However people are deceiving themselves if they think it doesn't matter in some contexts. Having had 3 graduate children look for jobs in London in the last few years we all know for sure how you speak (as well as your exam grades of course) and how you right has a huge impact in the higher paid jobs. The much maligned "posh test" exists out there and that is why many an interview now is first conducted on the telephone so the person's accent, way they speak and all the rest can be tested before having a face to face interview. It's more important than sex or colour actually.

[Sameshitdiffname]

Deo that depends entirely upon the job you're going after

[MrsJayy]

My dd was away for 3 months training with people from all over scotland and she would come home at weekends with this weird accent it was a mix of everywhere she is back home now and her local accent is coming back slowly im not sure why she picked it up must have an ear for it or something

[dodobookends]

I think there is a variation in southern accents

There certainly is round here (Bedfordshire) - we can tell the difference between the accents of people from the local villages and small towns. There are probably at least a dozen variations in a 15-mile radius of where we are.

[PurpleGreenAvocado]

My parents paid for me to have elocution lessons as soon as I started primary school. Once I finished primary school they took me out of the private school system and sent me to a comprehensive school on what would now be described as a 'sink estate' - I was teased for the whole time because I was 'posh'. My children haven't had, and will not have, elocution lessons. Neither of them have any form of regional accent despite living in an area where the local accent is very strong.

[MrsJayy]

If you live in an area you know the difference in accents next town speaks different but if you are on the outside listening in the accents will sound the same.

[Imustgodowntotheseaagain]

'Code switch' is interesting. I'd say I have a very neutral accent - I lived in London for years and when I went home people would laugh at my acquired poshness.

I went to some extremely upper-crust events with my work (think Mansion House, that sort of thing). As soon as I spoke I was placed as northern and 'not-one-of-us.' It was the short 'a' that gave me away.

My Fair Lady is still true. It's very disappointing.

[surreygoldfish]

i work for a very large organisation employing hundreds of graduates each year. Accent per se won't make a difference unless it's such a strong dialect that the individual is inarticulate. IMO there is also a difference between accent and dialect and just poor use of the English language!.....it's also no excuse for poor grammar - particularly in written form. Coming from London strong regional London accents grate on me. Don't mind any others. Although my late MIL from the NW used to always miss out words ( "shall we go shops" rather than 'go to'......grr

[Sameshitdiffname]

Mrss Jay my uncle is from Northampton he said when he visits Liverpool he can't get over the difference in accents between Huyton & Prescot this might not mean anything to you but the accents are extremely different prescot is a typical lanchasire accent huyton is scouse



Not sure if this picture will help or even work where the map says huyton lane that's huyton where it says Carr lane that's where prescot 'begins'


I realise I should have used capitals grammar etc here but today I'm lazy and cranky so cba

[EnthusiasmDisturbed]

The new sarf London accent irritates me no one I know pronounced south as sarf

You could have learnt something about accents as ds school assembly they sang songs that people sing in the East End of London in the cockney accent honesty it was like a Mr Cholmondley Warner sketch though it was not meant to be funny

[DeoGratias]

The Britisth Library has a wonderful collection of all this type of material www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/regional-voices/grammatical-variation/ ( I think it doesn't work in firefox as I just had to change to Chrome to get at the voices section)

[hollyisalovelyname]

They say the Liverpool and Dublin accents are similar because (and
PLEASE take this in the light hearted way it is meant) the lazy Irish who emigrated to the UK got off the boat in Liverpool and never bothered travelling further afield to look for work.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I don't know the history of the Isle of Man accent but there appears to be noticeable elements of Liverpudlian and Irish, which makey perfect sense geographically.

The Liverpudlian accent is so distinctive, I wonder how it developed?

[Pteranodon]

Jesus, it's hardly lazy to leave your home and settle as soon as you find work. Of course there are loads of Irish descendants in the NW of England.

[Sameshitdiffname]

Apparently a 'melting pot' of Scandinavian countries and the Irish barbara

[AyeAmarok]

Reading some posts on this thread suggests that some people think all of Scotland and northern England is working class.

Hilarious.

I know people who would be described as very "upper class" (titles, top private school, all the rest). They ALL speak with a Scottish accent. Because they are Scottish.

It's just another way for insecure people to try and protect their own status by excluding (regional accented) others who threaten them.

[DeoGratias]

The lazy comment is a bit much. There are lots of certain nationalities near Heathrow and that's because when you land you might well not have the fare to travel far.

[SenecaFalls]

Have you seen Brave? Young McGuffin is speaking an authentic Doric accent, from Elgin, Scotland which is Kevin McKidd's home town. It's the one Scottish accent (dialect) that I still find utterly impenetrable.

The friends I went to see Brave with (we are all American) thought that Young McGuffin's speech was an entirely made-up patois. I explained what is was, bringing into the conversation that I have lived in Scotland. "Oh so you understood what he was saying then?" they said. Well, no, not a clue, I had to admit.

[BoboChic]

My DD, who is not really exposed to working class British accents, was flummoxed by Michelle Dockery's accent when she watched her being interviewed recently. DD only knew the Lady Mary accent that Michelle Dockery speaks in when in character.

DD found Michelle Dockery's accent "really ugly"...

[Sameshitdiffname]

I've decided I hate the term working class accent it's very uppity

[SenecaFalls]

And David Robb who plays Dr. Clarkson with a middle class Scottish accent speaks with an RP accent in RL.

[MrsJayy]

We should all aspire to speak like lady mary

[TheHiphopopotamus]

I love accents.
I cannot stand the new one though. That mash up of estuary, american, Jamaican with a bit of Urdu chucked in.
It makes people sound stupid. All that drawling and weird stresses

Yep, me neither. It tends to be only people under certain age who speak like that, I wonder if they'll grow out of.

I'm from Yorkshire. I can do 'telephone' Yorkshire so that people who aren't from round her can understand me, or broad Yorkshire which often sounds like another language.

Also, well done to bobo for shielding her dd from all those terribly disgusting working class oiks...

[Pteranodon]

I just played an interview with Michelle Dockery, excited to hear Lady Mary all common, like. Her accent sounds middle class Southern English to me!

Bobo, perhaps you live abroad?