To say it’s “because my parents were professionals”?

[seegulle]

Ok yes - it is generally BU.

But what do you say when someone asks you why you don’t have a regional accent?

Where I grew up, there was a strong regional accent. Not everyone had it, but most did. Unfortunately it was drilled into people of a certain generation that speaking like that was not proper.

And so, despite my family having lived in the area for time immemorial, with my parents having gone to university in the 1950s/1960s, they had no strong regional accent. Perhaps a bit of a twinge but most people wouldn’t tell.

Recently I was chatting to a stranger in the pub who asked where I was from. I told him I was from the next town over. But he wouldn’t have it.

He kept asking me why I didn’t sound like everyone else. I told him that maybe it’s because I went away for uni. That wasn’t enough. He suggested maybe I moved here as a child. I told him no, I was from here. Then he kept asking why I or my family didn’t sound local if we were local. So the best I could come up with was “well I guess it’s because my parents were professionals”. Then queue all the lah di dah comments.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with you. I was a few months old when we moved to the north east and my younger brother was born there. We all went to the local comprehensive and are professionals but do not have regional accents. That wasn’t by conscious decision.
I live outside the area and often used to have people asking why I didn’t have a geordie accent. Apart from pointing out that I don’t come from Tyneside it’s a difficult question to answer.

I grew up in the north, but I’ve never had a northern accent for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, I’d always get asked where am I from, people would assume I’m a relative from a different area visiting. I’d always get asked why I don’t have a northern accent

it’s funny bc my siblings have a northern accent especially my brothers, his is very strong, i used to struggle understanding him due to the strong accent.

I wouldn’t have kept talking to him but that irreverent.

What you said mad it sound like you thought only the uneducated working class have regional accents and from the sounds of this man he may have been in that category, I personally think he deserved an answer like that for being so pushy with a complete stranger and a woman at that

Sounds like you also didn't get your accent from your parents then, just as I said - which is how OP seems to think it works. Maybe you watched a lot of BBC4 documentaries growing up 😂

How about, because I come from the educated middle classes, who speak the Queen's English?

All regions have a 'posh' and 'not posh' version of their accent. And we all know them, think of the comparison between the Glaswegian accents of Billy Connelly and Armando Iannucci.

People's accents depend on their parents, their school, whether they moved away for University, if they moved again for work, and who they are talking to. But we all have an accent and the most annoying are those who pretend they don't have one, you do, you're just mixing with people with a slightly less posh version of your shared accent. I have lived everywhere from the north of Scotland (for my childhood) to the south west of England (as a young adult) and depending who I'm talking to my accent has been considered everything from 'posh' to 'thick'. It changes (becomes stronger) when I'm home in Scotland but that's when it's most likely to be called posh.

Say you were brought up properly😎

He was being very rude haranguing you like that. My DH is from north wales - says glass not glarss and bath not barth- but no accent otherwise. He has a good friend from County Durham - no accent whatsoever. It just happens sometimes, and indeed until recently was encouraged.