Regional Accents

[LucilleBluth]

I was just reading the Sean Bean thread in chat. Lots of posters talking about his accent and how he has refused to change it and also a bit of snobbery.

I have a regional accent and I live in a different area…my accent is commented on frequently, especially in my work. I’ve also lived abroad where it was remarked upon. I have a degree, I’m WC now probably living a more MC life but I want to know if anyone else with an accent is actually really proud of it or has tried to shed it.

I find that I’m prouder the older I get. And I would say that there’s definite prejudice around accents in the UK. It’s one of the last things we can judge people on.

Agree about accents being ok but not poor grammar or diction

Big difference

I did a research study on this at university. It was fascinating to see how people judge others based on accents. Personally I love different accents and hate when RP is made out to be the most correct spoken form of English (when in actual fact Welsh most closely represents Old English).

I can't remember all the findings but I do remember that people often found the Liverpudlian accent to be deceptive, Yorkshire accent to be friendly, RP to be intelligent but cold. Then there were the foreign accent findings too. Would be interesting to dig it up.

I love a proper Cockney accent. Accents are great, I like accents, some more than others. They add dimension and diversification to the spoken word.

It's kind of different. Aren't actors supposed to be able to do different accents as part of their job?

Blame the phonograph ... or radio .... or television. And transport! And industrialisation.

AFAIK most people had regional accents and regional dialect in their speech until the early days of last century. I remember meeting one of the few remaining Surrey speakers. Like Hampshire (John Arlott anyone?) but even softer. He wouldn't have changed his accent.

Lords, ladies, MPs et al would have spoken their local dialect. Queen Victoria had a Germanic accent. In came public boarding schools in a big way in the 19C which meant a certain ironing out of individual accents and the birth of RP. And long story short, people were moving to cities in their tens of thousands.

In comes broadcast radio, generally dictated by the RP upper echelons. Where strangulated vowels of RP predominated and unseen newsreaders wore black tie to read their scripts. And nonsensical people like Nancy Mitford dictated what words were acceptable (forget mirror, it's looking glass).

When someone like Joan Bakewell deliberately changed her northern accent for RP to become more acceptable for her Uni friends and then TV, it's a shame.

TV got split between the highly successful regional series with regional accents, , and a misrepresentation (Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and the like) of the division of accents between the classes.

This always bugs me on CBeebies, where hardly any of the programmes have characters with northern accents. Definitely reading too much into this, but to me, what they're implying is that a southern accent is the correct way to speak. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the BBC used to be based in London

I stopped putting it on for the kids for that reason. Thing is, once they get to CBBC age, regional/northern accents abound! So they CAN employ a diverse range of actors/presenters, they just choose not to on CBeebies. I've spent far too much time mulling this subject over...

I love the diversity of accents across the UK.

I live a lot further south than where I grew up and, even though I've naturally shed dialect that won't be understood, I still have my accent, obviously. It's not strong or remotely hard to understand, but now and then I get people 'correcting' my speech/pronunciation just because I don't speak like they do. People can't seem to get it into their heads that I'm not saying things wrong, I'm saying things correctly for where I grew up. I wouldn't expect you to completely change how you speak if you moved there.

When someone like Joan Bakewell deliberately changed her northern accent for RP to become more acceptable for her Uni friends and then TV, it's a shame.

When DH first went to university he had to tone down his very stong Geordie accent because no-one could understand him.

I'm in the North so everyone's got, um, a Northern accent I suppose. Of one of the many varieties. I rarely encountered snobbery until I met Londoners and Southerners.

Good god, they were astonishing. My first boyfriends' family shook my hand then called me "a Northern monkey" and laughed whenever I used a short a. My in-laws snort with hilarity at my speech - which is deemed 'a bit posh' by Northern standards, as I do not use most of the regionalisms and it isn't strong - and make snide remarks that my children 'shouldn't talk like that.'

Of course it only makes me more determined to retain my accent.

And avoid Southerners.

(posh, snooty ones.)

I like accents really adds a bit of character to people.

I find it odd when people unsuccessfully try to cover them up. Denise Welsh for example, now yes if she's lived elsewhere her Geordie accent may soften but honestly she sounds like she's trying to be the Queen mother with her faux posh voice. Likewise that Robson green chap.

Likewise that Robson green chap.

And Sting, and Bryan Ferry.

@Panaesthesia I'm a southerner, but prefer northern, Scottish, Welsh and Irish accents. In fact, my least favourite accent is a cockney accent.

Same I like Scottish, Irish and Welsh accents.

@LucilleBluth I love regional accents! People shouldn't change them to please someone else or to portray themselves as something they're not i.e 'upper class'... A typical example of this is Donna Air who's a Geordie and has the same accent as Cheryl Cole! When she started going out with James Middleton (Duchess of Cambridge is his sister) she suddenly started speaking with a frightfully upper class accent and sounded posher than the Queen!

They were together for a few years but it was rumoured at the time that Carroll didn't like her Geordie accent and didn't think she was posh enough for her son! I saw Donna interviewed once where she was asked about her new accent and she was very defensive and didn't like it one bit! She said something about her being a trained actress which sounded ridiculous tbh and moved the conversation on very quickly after that!

On the other hand I don't think there's anything wrong with softening a very string regional accent a little if it means going up the ladder in your career but definitely not change it completely. People can see right through fakeness.,,

Regional accents (anything other than RP) are always “kept” or “shed” which implies there’s a subconscious feeling that people are putting them on. That if they wanted to they could drop it and talk “properly.”

For example, no one would say Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman kept their accents when they played Holmes and Watson, but they would say Andrew Scott retained his accent when playing Moriarty.

When David Tennant played Touchstone at the RSC it was notable on that he played the part in his own voice. It was interpreted by some reviewers as a comment on the serfdom of a nation. He says he was giving himself one less thing to worry about.

As to the poster who asked if it isn’t part of an actor’s job to be able to change their accent - well yes it is a handy skill to have but the issue is why should they?

Strong not string!

You have a point there @LemonRoses.

Have a word with the advertising industry. Ever noticed how "domestic" advertising, e.g. Supermarkets, household products are more likely to use a regional accent, and female? Also used by banks pretending to be friendly and fluffy. Whereas "high-end" products like luxury cars usually male RP? These kind of things seep in and add to people's unconscious biases.

I love accents and am a collector of them. By that, I mean that I have a bit of an “ear” for them and tend to take them on quite easily. Having moved from the North to the South, I now have a “Southern” accent, not because I’m trying to be something I’m not but because I’ve tuned into it and assimilated it. When I lived in Scotland for 3 years, I had a Scottish accent. I don’t think I’m alone in this so I don’t think we should be knocking anyone who changes their accent.

I’m a yam yam (Black Country) wench living in Devon. Married to a brummie for my sins. I don’t think I ever had a strong accent tbh. An old school friend of mine lives very close to me coincidentally and when we start talking I hear my accent getting broader 😊

I have had people claiming to not understand me 🙄 but tbh that happened more when we lived in brum than here.

Broad Devon accent seems to be more common in older people although there are certain common words and phrases that are proper Devonian and are used by most people.

The thing that annoys me most about accent use in the media is the insulting stereotypes they peddle. Particularly when they want an “oh, it’s daft little old me” female, so they always use an actress with an OTT Rochdale accent.

Actually I meant to say Black Country and Birmingham accents seem to be used to signify someone is a bit thick or slow. Accents are a lazy stereotype for tv and films aren’t they?

My dad was from Lancashire and was refused jobs because of his accent, which I didn't think was that strong but I guess I grew up with it. I think he did tone it down for work because it seemed more obvious as he got older.

My mum is from Liverpool but you wouldn't really know unless you were listening out for it.

I know people think it's prejudice, but some accents just sound nicer than others. Different people probably like different accents but I thin most accents are nice when they are fairly light. Any strong accent can be difficult to listen to.

There was a website where you could say how you pronounce things and it told you where your accent sounded like it was from. I can't remember the name of it now but there was a guy on Twitter who said his dad was pinpointed to the village outside Bolton he was from! It decided I was from Cheshire or the Cheshire side of North Wales, which is probably not far off as I have generally lived in the south but have north western vowels. However it wasn't able to narrow my son down to more than a huge swathe of southern English from Canterbury to Bournemouth ;) I wish I cold remember the name of the website now.

I’m a Mancunian and have the accent to prove it 😀. 15 years away has done nothing to soften it. DH is also manc and is more of a high flyer than me (travels the world for work MBA blah blah) he reckons people either judge straight away or it disarms them.

A PP said it’s weird to be proud, but I absolutely am. I’m proud of being northern it’s just that life has taken me elsewhere.