Wish I had a regional accent?

[turnyourmattress]

I don't know why, but I don't have a strong regional accent. There are occasional hints of it, and it comes out when I'm really angry. Most people think I am southern, or sound a bit RP (not really imo).

I am from Liverpool. Went to an inner city state comp, lived around people with strong scouse accents. My parents don't have strong ones, but do have accents. My grandparents were near unintelligible to outsiders 🐲

I think my accent softened a bit at uni. Or in other words, any accent I did have, disappeared. I never ever made a conscious effort to change it.

People are always surprised when I tell them I'm from Liverpool. They don't believe me, or ask if I went to boarding school/grew up down here. Ask when I changed it. I've had other people from Liverpool claim that I am pretending to be someone I am not. Some people think I am a huge snob, others think I am trying to hide where I am from.

AIBU to wish I had a regional accent, just so that I could conform to what people expect from people from Liverpool?

In my experience it's mainly people from the South of England (or places like Harrogate and Edinburgh where some people speak like English southerners) that claim to "no accent" and insist that RP isn't regional - despite it sharing 99% of pronunciation with regional Southern English. It's like the "home" counties - London/SE centric without even any self awareness.

My accent comes up with I'm 'home', with people from home or on the phone.

Otherwise I only have a hint of an accent; part of moving to London for uni and nobody understood me - I couldn't even get a job.

I can't force it though, I sound like a twat trying to fake it 🤣 The change happens automatically

The thing about accents is they not only vary from region to region, they also vary from county to county. Also, dialects can change across a very small area if you live next to a county border. At one time I lived right on a West Yorkshire/South Yorkshire boundary. I went to school in one county and socialised in another (the place where I lived). I found myself having to adapt to fit in but never picked up the particular dialect of each place that set them apart from the other place. Despite having at some time lived in every county in Yorkshire I've never heard people sound like, 'oop road t' shop' - a phrase which was used above, as in the stereotypical mimicry of how 'northerners' speak.

There's a difference between people's actual speaking voice and how they're stereotyped. I'd imagine most people these days have moved around, rather than staying in the same locality their whole lives. I'd challenged anyone to work out my origins from my accent, as it's been influenced by so many areas.

I apparently don't have an accent, or so English people tell me.

I think this is less that I lack an accent, and more that I have aspects of a lot of them, so people can't pin me down. I get asked to settle arguments about it occasionally. It's a bit weird, to be honest.

In my experience it's mainly people from the South of England (or places like Harrogate and Edinburgh where some people speak like English southerners) that claim to "no accent" and insist that RP isn't regional - despite it sharing 99% of pronunciation with regional Southern English. It's like the "home" counties - London/SE centric without even any self awareness.

There is definitely a regional Sussex accent - it gets lumped in with an Eastenders-style accent but is actually quite distinct from it. I understand that there is also a Kent and Buckinghamshire one.

Scousers don't give a shit what you think

@CruCru There is definitely a Bucks accent but it's not immediately noticeable. I know alot of people from there and have extended family there too. I've heard 'pie' pronounced 'poy' and a stronger dialect amongst older generations. Also the accent differs in various areas of Bucks eg closer to Oxfordshire can be stronger. It is getting diluted due to other accented people moving in and possibly will be swallowed up by RP & London accents which is a shame but that's how accents evolve, movement and assimilation.

I like the Liverpool accent on the whole. I can't differentiate between the areas though!

People who think that harrogate doesnt have an accent clearly dont come from there

It has a very distinct accent- discernible from Ripon or Leeds

There is an Edinburgh accent

Only just spotted this - reckoned that the comment would wind some people up; there are some very sensitive wee flowers out there.

Personally I like a regional accent and generally don't think that accents have any bearing on intelligence but there's always a line. I come from and live in a city where some of the broad accents are like nails down a blackboard so I know what I'm talking about.

I have an accent but people say I don't. They say that because I don't have what they think the accent should sound like.

I know exactly where you're coming from. I spent the second half of my childhood in the Midlands, and it's where I usually say I come from, but I sound like a southerner. My mum was a southerner, my dad was a northerner who had deliberately modified his accent long before I was born, because in those days it would have been a disadvantage in the job he hoped to do. So we talked "southern" at home. I could have made a conscious effort to pick up the accent of the Midlands city when I was still quite young, but at the time I was scared to - I thought people would think I was making fun of them. In fact they quite often made fun of me because they perceived my southern vowels as "posh!" I really regret now that I didn't just bite the bullet and start talking like everyone else - it would have become second nature fairly easily and any social embarrassment would not have lasted long. I live in the south again now and being from the Midlands is (to me at least) an important part of my identity/story, but nobody can tell in case I make a point of mentioning it, and that would be weird in some contexts.