talk to me about accents

[stripeypillowcase]

I am curious.
what is it about a strong accent that make people think the speaker is not very bright/uneducated? especially rural accents?

I have a strong accent myself, speak 3 languages fluently, went to university, have a good job...

@countFosco How does the Glasgow uni accent happen? I've always wondered how people end up with it. I live in Glasgow and hear it a lot, it's a very unique accent

Nobody from the south of England hears their accent.

I hear it though!

If you're interested in exploring this further, try reading David Crystal, Peter Trudgill and all about the 'matched guise' studies. There's loads of research on the attributions people make on hearing accents. Received Pronunciation (Standard) accent, whilst often attributes an impression of the speaker being intelligent, scores low in terms of empathy. Strong regional accents score high, usually, in terms of empathy but lower re intelligence. Of course, this is all linked to culture, history, economics of the country. Some countries don't have such a strong tie between accent and socio- economic status as the UK. In other words, the link is arbitrary. There's nothing intrinsic or inherent in an accent t hat makes it sound 'intelligent' or 'empathetic' - it's merely a constructed social attribute.

When we went on holiday, to Jamaica, the locals and some of the tourists from Canada and US, liked to talk to us because we sounded like something off Harry Potter! We thought this hilarious because we are from the West !

We rarely spoke English at home (immigrant parents but I was born in the U.K.), so when I did start to speak English at school, it came out in quite a muddled accent - a mix of a Polish accent and the regional accent from the area we lived in. I was teased mercilessly by the other kids. In the end, my grandma paid for a few months of elocution lessons for me and my sister.
I now speak in a very generic, “English” accent. Although DH tells me I slip into a Polish accent when I’ve been at my parents’ house

The opposite happens as well, of course. Thinking someone is bright because they have a posh accent (Rees-Mogg).

Maybe they meant Hagrid?! He has a sort of west country hybrid accent.

I’m scouse and people think I’m either a bit thick or starting on them

I’m neither... promise

I'm scouse too and I have the same issue.

What I wonder about is how did all the accents in the uk come about?

"it always makes me cringe almost inside out when people meet someone from, say, Yorkshire and start going: 'Ey up, lad!" or "Trouble at t'mill!" or whatever."

So true, everythingcrossed. I was born in Birmingham, and spent my first five years there. After that I've lived in Hull, Huddersfield, London, York, Yarmouth, Norwich, Bury, etc etc. I've lived in all four counties of Yorkshire and never once heard a local using the above phrases. In fact, as I've moved between Yorkshire counties I've struggled myself to understand certain usage of words/phrases because, funnily enough, people in 'the North' and Yorkshire have differing accents and differing 'common language', just as people in other parts of the UK do. But I did at one time have a whippet (how I miss him, but his accent was Italian :) ).

I'm from Yorkshire and I have some of the accent but not too strong, Mother sent me to elocution lessons. In the US I have been mistaken for an Australian!!

I worked in the export department and spoke to people across the world with no problems, but struggled with Glaswegian for some reason.

I really detest people who take the piss out of other people's accents.

I'm from the Black Country - not the strongest accent but you can tell where I'm from. I've luckily found a job that focuses on the Black Country so nobody turns a hair and we're all BC together.

Sadly it's not always the case. Have often been taken the piss out of or treated like I'm thick. I have a hobby - I judge etc to quite a high level. I was at a judges lunch not too long ago and was talking to a lady who is a bit of a hero of mine - she was lovely - RP as most of the people there were - no problem - apart from a bloke who shouted 'where yow frum!!' really loudly and lots of people laughed. I was so embarrassed I didn't talk to anyone for the rest of the day.

I’m really really awful at understanding a lot of accents, I used to work with a guy from Aberdeen, I genuinely couldn’t understand a word he said and we had to communicate via email only.

I wouldn't think that you're bad at understanding accents from that as most of Scotland finds that about the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire accents, aka Doric! I was born in Aberdeen with an Aberdonian father and a mother from Dudley but I have an RP accent thanks to the equivalent of a forces brat upbringing and boarding school. However, I have no problem understanding Aberdeen, unlike my mother who was completely lost if my father switched back into it from his usual mostly RP accent, but neither me nor my father could ever understand my maternal grandfather who had a Dudley accent you could cut with a knife, despite me having as much exposure to the Dudley accent as the Aberdeen one thanks to living abroad.

Incidentally, the accent Kevin McKidd used in Brave was a slightly modified version of his own one growing up in Elgin. 😂

That woman's Scottish accents are shite - "Sir Robert Burns spoke with an Inverness accent".......... he came from Ayrshire!

I have an Aberdeen accents which is rarely heard on the media so people usually have no idea where I'm from. I've been asked if I was Irish or from Yorkshire in the past. We have our own words for things and it does make me cringe if I see someone interviewed on TV who uses these, as if the general public know what they meann

Accents where sounds/words are said 'wrong' confuse me. Not because I think people from these areas are stupid or are actually wrong (they're not!), but because I'm a foreigner so it sounds weird to me when someone for example replaces a 'th' sound with an 'f'. If through was meant to sound like fru it would have an F not a TH! And then theres all the daft English words like Frome which should be pronounced Fr-oh-m but is said Fr-oo-m, why?!?!

But then people mock me for how I say words in silly foreigner ways so it's all relative

I dont think this is true anymore and the ones that still judge simply flag themselves up as ignorant and prejudiced.

I worked in law and accents are much more common these days. Indeed I think everywhere is more inclusive. I've noticed strong accents on the BBC especially.

As a Geordie who moved abroad as soon as I was allowed, I lost my accent but pick it right back up when ‘home’. I think I must be a very good mimic, I get lots of people thinking I’m whatever nationality of language I’m speaking or asking if I’m local, wherever I am!

A woman on a market stall in France told me I must be French in front of my colleagues on my last trip. It’s nice to hear, but cringeworthy!

@Dreamersandwishers
@happycamper11

HOLD UP. I am Scottish...from just outside Glasgow and I use outwith. Is this a Scottish thing? Is it not widely used? I am shocked 😂😂

@Owlypants

I went to Strathclyde Uni and it was prevalent there.

At that point it was mainly girls from private schools around Glasgow who seemed to flock to one another and speak in the most irritating accent known to man.

I don't think regional accents make people sound thick, I'm quite jealous of people with nice accents.

I grew up in the south east then moved to Yorkshire, then moved to Devon and now I'm living in Lancashire. I've ended up with some weird hybrid accent. Now when I go to see my family they take the piss out of my northern accent and when I'm home in the north I get mocked for my posh southern accent. It gets a bit wearing and I'm strangely sad that I don't sound like I belong anywhere anymore. Where ever I am now someone has some smart arsed comment about how I speak!

It doesnt seem to matter what accent you have north or south, if you're anywhere other than where your accent is from someone will have something to say about it.

it always makes me cringe almost inside out when people meet someone from, say, Yorkshire and start going: 'Ey up, lad!" or "Trouble at t'mill!" or whatever."l

My partner has some family from Yorkshire. We are both from London. Every time we visit his Yorkshire family, he (my partner) says all that stuff. It makes me cringe too.

Mancunian. Find that many people are stunned to discover I am university educated.....GP’s in particular. I’ve even had people correct the name of the road I lived on because I couldn’t possibly live on Drive, it had to be Road because someone with a Mancunian accent couldn’t live in a “naice” house in a wealthy suburb of Trafford.
I was often mistaken for the housekeeper.

Apparently I have an outside toilet too.

I am Scottish...from just outside Glasgow and I use outwith.

Me too. I think it's one of those words that has largely died out in English but is retained in Scots, like poke, or uplift.