To think that many Mumsnetters despise regional accents and dialects?

[binnibonnieboo]

I'm Irish, and I've been on Mumsnet for years. I've seen so many threads fulminating about pronunciation, spelling and grammar. These so often ignore the diverse accents and dialects across the UK and Ireland. There seems to be a view that anything not RP or standard southern English is common, ill educated, Americanised (wrong), and just Not Right. Sometimes (not always) I sense a thinly veiled contempt for how I and others (Scottish, Northern Irish, Welsh, northern English) talk. AIBU to feel this?

YANBU. I am Scottish, have a fairly generic Lothians accent and try not to get drawn into discussions about how giraffe and scarf rhyme.

In my experience, those of us who speak with a Welsh/Irish/Scottish or other regional accent are well aware of the fact that others speak differently and that there is no right or wrong way of pronouncing things. it seems to be the SE-centric people who can't get their heads around it.

I kind of agree but not in relation to Welsh or Scottish which seem to be liked and not derided as much.

it;s not so much derided as being told it's not "proper".

That if we say for example tor-toys rather than tort-uss we are saying it incorrectly. Or that of course scarf/laugh/giraffe rhyme and how could they possibly not. Or that Scottish/Irish accents are just impossible to understand anyway.

I think you notice things aimed at your accent.

I notice a number of people being very disparaging about Southern English accents as well, saying we’re pronouncing things incorrectly.

I think a lot of posters, from wherever, just can’t cope with people doing things differently from them.

I did not grow up in the UK, speak English as a first language, and live in the SE. I love the variation of accents and pronunciations that I come across. But I am often tripped up by phrases that I'm not familiar with. "Tea" as a meal puzzled me when I first arrived in the UK (I'd only ever known it as a drink). English people saying, "We must have lunch" or "How are you?" when they have no intention of having lunch with you and don't give a damn how you are were also surprising until I came to understand that these are just niceties that are employed with no interest attached. And yes, I still haven't got my head around yog-hurt instead of yo-ghurt. But I understand what people mean :)

I have to admit I haven't seen this, but will keep my eyes out for it.

'Despise' is a bit much! 'Not very keen on' might fit.

I think you are wrong. I am sure a very high proportion have regional accents.

I like hearing regional accents. Naturally there are some I like the sound of more than others. South Wales accents are my favourite. I’m a bit less keen on a South African accent but I wouldn’t tell someone from SA they’re speaking incorrectly. People who talk about correct/incorrect pronunciations just display their ignorance. Language variety is a wonderful and endlessly fascinating subject, not something to be telling people off over.

There are a lot of MN posters who think their way is the right way and anything else is wrong

Thats not just about accents and dialects either. Traditions - Halloween and Christmas in particular - are either right or an Americanism.

School holidays are another one. It’s quite bizarre how many people with confidently post “half term was last week” or “schools are closed this week” on a thread like some sort of gotcha without even considering for a second that not everyone lives where they do.

Hee hee in my neck of the woods giraffe and scarf do indeed rhyme and tortoise is definitely tor-tuss!

I don't mind accents but I really dislike the Essex accent, sorry not sorry .

My ex bf’s mum had a go at me for giving advice on slightly changing my bf’s Yorkshire dialect.

However, it was only for context of the workplace. His CV was unprofessional, and he was applying for a call centre job where I explained to him that people from all over the country would be calling him and therefore would not understand words such ‘mesen’ (myself).

I have lived all over the country and abroad and certainly don’t despise any accents or dialects. Very strong word.

You’ve forgotten south-west England too which is always lumped in with southern England.

I was bullied mercilessly by kids from the Home Counties when I went to a boarding sixth form and had the audacity to sound like I had grown up in Somerset (which I had)

People will say they love it and it’s so friendly and trustworthy, but the assumption is that you are thick and backwards.

I had it dropped completely by the time I was 21

I had a heated discussion with someone at work who was looking for examples of word rhymes. They insisted that ‘one’ and ‘bun’ rhymed. I tried to point out that it rhymed in their accent but not in the local accent of the children we were working with. It would make no sense to the children at all. She couldn’t see what I meant.

I think a lot of posters, from wherever, just can’t cope with people doing things differently from them.

Agree and/or they aren’t around people that aren’t like them much.

I grew up hearing different accents and dialects in my own family because they lived in different regions before they settled somewhere and then going to school with classmates where English was their second language. It never occurred to me that anyone was wrong with their pronunciation only that there were other ways to pronounce words, people learned/taught in different ways , physically didn’t hear the difference or couldn’t pronounce it the same way.

Some just want to be unnecessarily pedantic because something “annoys” them.

In my accent (NW England ) "laugh" and "giraffe" rhyme, but "scarf" doesn't. But then, in my accent, "draw"'and "drawer" sound identical. I can't even make the latter sound with two syllables if I tried - it would just come out like "draw-yers" or something. And what's with "ah-mond"? Surely everyone knows it's "ollmund"! 😉 But then my DH pronounces "book" and "cook" etc. with the same double "o" sound as "loop" and "hoop", whereas I say "buk"' and "cuk", and he's only from the other side of the river to me. 🤷‍♀️

I like different accents and dialects but I don’t like it when people use incorrect grammar and say it’s their dialect. Like ‘He done art at school today.’ No. You mean, ‘He did art at school today.’

I was brought up in Liverpool and used to have a very strong local accent. When I went into a profession I felt conscious of having a stronger local accent than my colleagues so I began to aquire "recieved" English. Eventually that way of speaking took over, especially once I left the city I was born in. I eventually went to uni as a mature student and no one could tell which part of the country I came from. I eventually became an academic and as a leacturer it was important that I should be understood by a wide range of students, including international. I think some of them would have struggled had I still had a strong Liverpool accept. However it does come in useful when I answer the phone to an unknown caller and do so in a scouse accent. If its someone I dont want to talk to I tell them I am the "housekeeper" and my employer is not available. Otherwise I can simply switch accents once my housekeeper "fetches" me. I can also do a very convincing American accent having worked in Las Vegas for a year.

Yanbu at all. I do see this aimed at Irish/ NI names too.

I grew in the US and also note the use of American to mean bad. Anything American (or seen as such) like Halloween or Thanksgiving is "American" and "commercial". Mostly from people who have zero idea what it feels like to celebrate over there.

(Yes I know Hween isn't originally American.)

I agree. I’m Scottish and I’ve seen so many threads instructing us how to speak properly. 🤣

We were taught that there is correct pronunciation, grammar and spelling. All the regional variations were considered incorrect.

It’s only with the discussions on MN that I’ve discovered the background to the ‘aitch/haitch’ discussion. It makes me mentally twitch when my DH and DC pronounce it incorrectly (always) as that was considered a sign of lack of education.

The attitude was- if you sound like the people around you, that’s ‘normal’. If you are well educated you will be able to use standard English when needed.

I have to rein myself in when my DC show signs of being ill educated (by old standards). ‘Hence why’ is my current gripe DS1 👀

I was thinking in particular of the aitch/haitch threads. People get very angry! In my Irish bubble I had not even known people pronounced it aitch until I encountered these threads.

I don't understand why people get so worked up about it, and I write for a living. As long as people can be understood, that's all that really matters.

I have noticed that a lot of people on here can't imagine that people live different lives and have diffeent experiences to their own, though.

I’m not sure it’s that. If you were brought up with RP as the standard, then certain things in common usage, eg, “aitch” pronounced “haitch”, are incorrect. If RP isn’t your standard then you won’t think of it in that way.

There are certain mispronunciations that are just irritating to some people. Personally I can’t stand “mischievee-ous”. I don’t know why it irritates me so much but it does!

YABU to talk about "Mumsnetters" as some kind of uniform mass.

Some do, some don't. You've just noticed the ones that do, and who have posted about it.