To wish I had a regional accent?

[Flawe]

I’m from the UK but not England. Locally people have quite a strong and distinctive regional accent. My grandmother who was working class had a lovely lilt and accent.

My parents moved away for studies, as did I, so we don’t have a regional accent. People usually think I am from the South East where I live. I sort of wish I had a regional accent so people would know where I am from!

I once had a brummie tell me he liked my accent and he wished he had an accent but he just sounds neutral 🤣 he was most taken aback when I told him he did have an accent!

If you have a South East accent you're probably at an advantage (speaking as a scouser who has had a lot of horrendous comments and assumptions thrown my way just because of the way I speak)

Genuinely curious to know why you want people to know where you're from, based on your speech alone? Asking as I would rather people didn't make assumptions about me based on what I sound like.

You'd be surprised - people do see your accent as an actual accent. I'm from the south east and also have that kind of slightly posh, RP accent. I now live in Yorkshire and several people have asked where my accent is from. They see it as a very distinct accent.

I know what you mean. I'm from Essex but I could be from any southern county really.

I'm a Bristolian but I don't sound particularly Bristolian, just generally west country. My parents weren't from Bristol, neither is DH and I went to school with classmates from all over the world.

I guess there is also a difference between a regional accent eg Northern Irish vs Bristolian etc?

"alroight, my mate" 😂

Anybody guess that one lol?

I understand what you mean OP. My parents are both Westcountry and I live in the area now. I was an army brat who moved a lot so people can’t place my accent. I have never felt that I belong anywhere. I would fit in more at work with a local accent.

OP you do have an accent if you are from the south east!

Tho you say the UK but not England - so are you from Wales? do you wish you had a Welsh accent?

I used to teach in an East Midlands town where the locals have a really strong twangy accent (complete with idiosyncratic pronunciation and words - "mammar" for grandma for example) - kids used to say to me "Miss, we don't really have an accent here in XXX, do we?" Errrrrr yeps you do! It's just different from mine - which of course they could hear. As @CaramelMac says, often you cannot hear your own accent.

I have geordie accent and spend the majority of my working day toning it down because our clients are nationwide and can't always understand me over the phone. Although for the most part I like my accent, it can get in the way.

They do. The kind of RP you are referring to has almost died out. Expecting someone of 40 to talk like the Queen did in the 50s is like expecting someone who lives in Bow to have the kind of cockney accent that was spoken there after the war.

All accents change, but all the younger royals speak a variety of what’s known as general RP. William sounds much less estuary when off camera, his media accent is slightly put on.

Catherine has always spoken more or less as she does now. She had elocution lessons to help with public speaking, not her accent. Her father went to Clifton, she was at a prep from the age of 8, followed by Marlborough and St Andrews - it would be unusual indeed if she didn’t speak RP.

I have a v mild, barely noticeable regional lilt and have been terrorised about it in the South of England since I moved there for university.

Ive always found it v strange. The suggestion often is that I just be from some terribly impoverished background and have managed to break away from it.
🙄

Running joke with my school friends now, all had the same experience.

lol I have a South Coast burr, mixed with an Essex twang after a move 20 years ago. One of my sons is pure southern, he moved back after only a year or so in Essex so never picked up the native Essex. The younger 3 grew up in Essex so sound quite twangy.

My granddaughters that live with me started speaking after our move to Norfolk 18 months ago…. Norfolk accents lol.

Well l sound like Jane McDonald..so you know where I'm from lol.

I have a broad regional accent and it has pros and cons. Pros are, people seem to find it interesting, characterful and distinctive. It's not one of the ones stereotyped as annoying. Cons are, I get people imitating it, I get the piss taken out of it a bit, I think it's made me seem more local and less plausible in the national public facing elements of my career. I'm told it sounds friendly and trustworthy to foreigners and people from elsewhere in the uk. It's who I am and I'd never try to change it but I've wished it away or less a few times.

So many people from the south of England think they have RP but .......... most don't, they really don't. I'm not even British but I can tell. There are some really elongated vowels that just take you out of RP

The South East definitely has accents. I can tell the difference between Kent, Essex, Herts, London, then within London whether it's N,S,E or W 🤷‍♀️

Some refs on different types of RP, and accent change, if of interest

www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022/05/25/received-pronunciation-old-new/

eltlearningjourneys.com/2015/12/09/received-pronunciation/

www.bbc.com/future/article/20220915-what-the-queens-english-told-us-about-a-changing-world

I’m of mixed background but have a very plain, neutral northern (non posh) accent. Short ‘a’ sound. It’s very boring.
It’s a bit disappointing when I have Irish, Jamaican and Welsh family members who have fantastic accents! However at least it’s clear and no misunderstandings with word pronunciation and no potential for teasing as family and friends have had for the way they speak, sadly.

Me too. I’m from Kent and moved to the south coast at 23. Everyone here used to say I had a cockney accent which obviously I don’t ! My husband can never understand how I can tell the difference between the accents. To him it all sounds the same .

I married a Suffolk boy and could hardly understand my MIL until I got my ear in. DH also had a softer Suffolk accent when I first met him, but after nearly 20 years I barely notice it anymore.

I'm only from Essex/Herts so not far away! I do love the variety of regional accents. There's a definite difference between Norfolk, Suffolk and (country) Essex accents but lots of similarities too.

You don't tend to notice the accents you grow up around though.