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...

sleekit uplift is not Standard English?! Blow me down with a feather.

Dreamer God's country

Be honest, would you not be a little concerned if a surgeon about to perform open heart surgery on you spoke like Ozzy Osbourne?. ‘This is where I’ll make the incision....’ (in a slowwww drolllll brummy accent). Or a brain surgeon that spoke like Stacey Solomon. ‘I fink it will go okaaaay, but I can’t guarantee nuffin’. Or a therapist that speaks like Alan Sugar, ‘now this over thinking malarkey ain’t no good for no body’. That’s not to say Lord Sugar, Stacey Solomon and Ozzy Osborne aren’t good, hard working, high achievers. (and hugely wealthy). It’s just that some accents, rarely, if ever find their way into certain professions.

I would disagree with those who said you have to travel far to hear American accents. You can hear the 5 different boroughs of NYC, and dialects within those boroughs. The same goes for parts of Boston, where you can tell from one side of Boston to the other. People from Southie drive their ‘cah to the bah at the edge of the pahk’. Interestingly, the accent in Boston UK also drops it’s R’s, so the accent the Pilgrim Fathers took over to Boston USA all those years ago has obviously kept its influence. Pretty cool 😎

Be honest, would you not be a little concerned if a surgeon about to perform open heart surgery on you spoke like Ozzy Osbourne?

No, because I'm not ignorant.

I have a very strong foreign accent (and am still not 100% fluent).
It does worry me that my children will pick up an accent that would be perceived as "uneducated". They have a tutor with a perfect, even a bit posh, RP, but I still hear that they mainly model their speech after cockney / estuary speakers.

I've got a fairly strong accent, which is a lot stronger if I am talking about home or to someone from home. I avoid using dialect words at least at work, as most of my colleagues have English as a second language, and it would be unreasonable to expect the to understand. On the positive side, it means they don't make the same assumptions around a West Country accent and lack of intelligence as my British colleagues have been known to. Although I am the only woman in the department, so there are still assumptions I can't be a techy.

When I was 18 and away from home for the first time, I did have to have someone interpret between me and a Brummie guy, but there was also alcohol involved.

I really struggled with a former German boyfriend''s mother - my German has never reached fluency, but she had a strong Ruhrpott accent (and sometimes dialect words) and a lisp. We got on better in writing.

Rightly or wrongly this is why DH and I relocated from Leicester centre to Somerset where I was born and my family are based over Manchester/Oldham where some of his closest family are. I have a pretty nothing accent but have been bullied for being ‘posh’ while in the midlands, that was odd as both parents (while middle class now) grew up working class or poor in my mums case (her dad was frequently out of work, council pre-fab, one of five kids etc). We didn’t move to Manchester (despite both loving the area and having lived there before) as we felt our children would have an advantage with a more neutral/southern accent. Sad really, our current 3 bed semi is worth about 300k and up north this could well buy us somewhere much bigger/nicer - area depending of course!

Another forced brat here. I think we notice the attitudes to different accents and dialects a lot because we both experience it and notice others behaviour around them.

As a result I have a weird Anglo-Scots accent. Scots say I have an English accent, English say it’s Scots.

I also have to resist doing something I later learned actually has a name - accommodating. Slipping into the accent of whoever you’re talking to.

And it doesn’t have to be an accent of an area I’ve lived in either - which really confuses people! But any strong accent has an effect on me.

Op there are LOADS of studies on this stuff if you’re interested? Sounds like you’re interested in the sociolinguistic aspect.

It’s a fascinating subject, and definitely not a new thing at all. Even monarchs in the past came under scrutiny even criticism for their accents and dialect.

So did shakespeare and many other writers.

My parents have broad weegie accents and they are working class people but they’re far from stupid. Dysfunctional yes but not stupid!

I’ve cousins who’ve ended up being raised in other parts of Scotland or other countries and so sometimes have “posher” accents but they’re no more intelligent or educated than the cousins with broad weegie accents 2 of whom are teachers and 1 a lecturer.

I also have the pleasure of having a lovely friend who is EXTREMELY posh, went to best schools etc - even HE would and does describe himself as “astonishingly thick considering” he barely managed 3 GCSEs.

You can’t tell from someone’s accent any more.

I lived at one point in a VERY posh part of the country - I’m talking royalty, Major celebs living in the area... worked in a shop there (was only living there because ex stationed there) all the locals very posh accents and of course a variety of educational levels - as there are anywhere.

But... very little snobbery issues there.

@Brigante9

I'm the same. I only really have a Geordie accent when I'm at home with me mam an' me da, otherwise it's RP all the way. Which doesn't stop people, when they find out where I'm from, bellowing "Why-aye" and "howay" at me. Which gets right up my nose. Pet.

@TooManyPaws I also struggle to understand people from south wales, newcastle, kidderminster etc. My little brain just can’t cope 😂

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

My DH is like this. He had never encountered a Geordie until he joined the military, and couldn’t understand a world the guy was saying!
It was fun the first time he met my mum and dad

I love accents-in English I have quite a posh accent as the result of being a forces brat and attending a posh boarding school, in my other language (the language my mother speaks) I have a very rough village accent and if I try to talk posh I just sound like a ninny. I have a split personality depending on which language I speak which I find FASCINATING

very interesting discussion.
thank you all!

I find it absolutely fascinating.
accents and dialects bring soo much to our culture(s).

I remember watching trainspotting for the first time and everyone in the cinema (in america) going

I have an accent that sounds northern to southern ears, southern to northern ears.

This means that up north (where I originally come from) I regularly get called "posh" and down south, people occasionally say "which part of Lancashire do you come from", and drop the subject.

Wow.. i do that "accommodating". Didnt realisw it had a name

@Thewarrenerswife id think that person made it in ameritocracy not old boys connections

My partner is private boarding school educated so has that ‘accent’ people always think he’s being charming and polite even when he’s actually being a bit of a cunt!!

People are always shocked when I say where I’m from and assume I’m gunna speak like a geordie. We don’t speak anything like that here and I actually struggle to understand geordies!!

Maybe people who have grown up in a small village in the home counties judge, but for those of us who grew up in densely populated metropolitan areas, we heard different regional and global accents every day of the week and got used to listening to the content rather than the accent early on in life.

Maybe people who have grown up in a small village in the home counties judge

Lots of people do it subconsciously. Certain accents are seen as more trustworthy, so call centres are sometimes located very deliberately to make the most of that.

There's been tons of research on accents and perceptions and so on - see the aforementioned Trudgill and Crystal among others. David Crystal is the compiler of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, which is fascinating if you're really into all this. He's written loads of other books too, easily accessible.

I’m Scottish living near Newcastle. The people I work with say I have a strong accent (Ayrshire) but I have definitely changed it a bit. When I go back home DH comments that my accent changes. It’s more Scottish. I heard someone talking in a strong geordie accent last week and I didn’t understand a word he said which surprised me as Scottish and geordie are quite close. He was talking fast though

I think if you've been around a bit you get an appreciation for the differences! I have a common as muck southern accent. My partner's got a strong Lancashire accent and the most amazing turns phrases and we basically coo over each others accents as if they're the best thing ever. I absolutely adore how words sound coming out of his mouth. I also spent time in the black country and that's an accent I associate with kindness as I had the nicest landlady and neighbours. I work with a lady from Bristol and like her lovely soft lilt. Can't think of an accent I don't like!

I'm originally from Hertfordshire. When I moved into East Anglia in my 20s I had a job at a factory. It took at least six months for any of the other staff to bother getting to know me. They admitted that they thought I would think I was too posh for them based solely on how I spoke. They soon learnt that wasn't the case.

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 😂😂

Agreed!!!!

What the hell? Do people not use out with??? What!????

Im Scottish. It never occurred to me this wouldn’t be a commonly used word

My university tutor would actually mark down our scientific presentations if we spoke with an accent. Including the member of our tutor group who was Korean.

I come from a part of the country with a very strong and much mocked regional accent, but I don't have it and 'pass' as a 'respectable' southerner. I very much enjoy listening to people happily insult my hometown around me before I reveal myself and watch them squirm.

@justcly I feel your pain! Mostly, tho, I get 'Ooh, you don't have the accent' or my DH tries to do a chronically crap imitation of the accent along with the 'Eeeeh, I had a great night in the toon, fifteen tattoos and a broken nose, best night ever down the Big Market!' Yeah, yeah, just stereotype us all!

Im Scottish. It never occurred to me this wouldn’t be a commonly used word

If you're from a Scots speaking region of Scotland you probably use a whole raft of words that aren't commonly used, or not used at all, in English. Scots is a different thing, you can quibble over the line between language and dialect but you can't change the fact that Scotland and England are different countries with different histories that are reflected in their different linguistics.

The dialects of north east England are also an interesting case as they retain various words lost to other English dialects.