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?

How is it fun?

I agree. As a born and bred South Londoner who now lives in God's own county (Yorkshire), I don't understand the snobbery and disdain shown towards regional dialects.

I love the variety of accents we have around the British Isles. This isn't just a mumsnet thing. It is wider than that.

I am a Kiwi and when I lived in London I used to crack up when English people would insist they didn't have an accent. I mean, everyone speaks English with some sort of accent. One of my colleagues had apparently ridded herself of her Devon accent, and did not have one at all. Then I went to Decon on holiday and found myself surrounded by people who sounded like her. Just like the colleague who took elocution lessons to get rid of her Manc accent, except she still sounded Manc to me. She told me I should get lessons to turn down my Kiwi accent in order for people to better understand me, but I wasn't willing to use whoever she did, since that was clearly a waste of money 😂

I'm Irish and can very often spot Irish people posting here even though they don't say that they are Irish. The way sentences are structured or certain phrases are a giveaway. For instance if someone writes 'He was after going to the shop.' I'd wonder if they were Irish.

There's so much snootiness on MN towards people who commit the crime of being Scottish. I've been told here that "high school" is an Americanism and I should say "secondary school" instead. My old school was founded 120 years ago and literally says "_ High School" above the door! Same with Santa - apparently that's an Americanism, and we should all be using the traditionally English "Father Christmas" instead. It's just ignorance.

I've also read snooty comments about using first names as surnames. That's completely normal in Scotland - off the top of my head, I know people whose first names are Crawford, Forbes, Moray and Sinclair. People need to educate themselves and stop assuming there's no world outside their little bubble.

My children all obviously had the same upbringing regarding their accent but it’s fair to say that they now sound differently. One just has a southern well spoken voice,middle child has a lazy voice and drops his ‘Ts’ he is in Australia now ,the third has a very well spoken accent ie public school. Pretty sure it depends who they socialise with.Myself and husband have a typical MC accent from the South East.

Here you go:

https://www.englishspeechservices.com/blog/ssb/

The way my sister in law talks annoys me and it’s not the accent it is the way in my opinion she consistently uses the wrong words. My brother in law and sister in law both come from the same northern English town and both have parents from the same area too. Yet my brother in law manages to use the correct words whilst speaking in his own northern accent. My sister in law will say things like “The train what got me in at 2pm” instead of that and I find it grating as what is a question.

I don’t think people actually give a crap, isn’t it just lighthearted banter between the north and south? I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone that actually cares how “bath” is pronounced

I have ASD and one of my challenges is understanding spoken words in general. I often look at people’s mouths and read lips as they are talking. I have no idea why.

accents are hell for me. I can’t understand people at all. That is my problem though.

I love that subtitles are now so easy to get in media and even now in conference calls at work. It helps so much.

I love hearing different dialects. I think different dialects are part of British history, and part of our culture. On holiday when you meet another Brit, almost everyone loves to guess where you are from based on accent. Your vernacular is part of your heritage and shared cultural references in your area. I actually think it's quite an important part of your identity (just like it is elsewhere, such as African American vernacular!). It's great when you are away from home and find that one person from your hometown who sounds the same as you.

And it's also ridiculous to equate accent/dialect to intelligence. I'm from Derbyshire and I'm probably quite broad (not in my own mind, but people not from Derbyshire would think I have a strong accent!). I certainly greet people with 'ayup, your rate?' without a second thought. But I have two degrees from good universities, and I am well educated. The fact that I have a distinct vernacular doesn't tell you anything about my education or intelligence. I also think slang/dialect is unfortunately still associated with being lower class, which I presume is a historical remnant from living under a very strict class system. It's a great shame, as I truly enjoy hearing some of the weird and wonderful words from different regions, and I love teaching people random words/phrases from my area!

I also think the media doesn't help, as we don't often see people with strong regional dialects on the TV.

I just can't imagine caring about someone's dialect/accent. Also, just because someone uses an incorrect grammatical pattern in speech, it does not mean they do not understand grammar. Again, it is simply dialect. I will say things like 'I'm goin' t' tahn', or 'When I were on't bus other day'. I absolutely know the latter statement does not make grammatical sense. It's just my dialect 🤷 I would never write it that way because it's wrong, but it would also absolutely feel very weird/unnatural to say 'When I was on the bus the other day'. It's weird, but it's just how it is for me 😂

My in-laws have some reverse snobbery going on. When I say things like 'dinner' instead of 'tea' my FIL corrects me every single time.

I think it is because I am not a native speaker.

I think people genuinely forget their accent is not the default, particularly if they're surrounded by it. I'm in a Northern city with an even more Northern accent, I can't bring myself to care about it on a personal level. I do know some people have more of an ear for accents in the same way some people have an ear for music, so it's possible that affects people too. I will say I've noticed what you have OP, that some folk will swear on the pronunciation of a word despite its regional variances. Maybe some of them are doing it to wind others up.

Technically it is grammatically correct, all the parts are in the right place, just shortened. I know what you mean though 😁 i love accents too! My old neighbours are Glaswegian, I miss them.

That's rude of them, innit? I come from a land of 'tea' meaning evening meal but realised a while ago I started saying 'lunch' instead of 'dinner' meaning midday meal, I think it's because it reminds me of school dinners though, so it feels childish. More than that, I avoid the word tea or dinner at night and just ask whether anyone is hungry instead 😆 even the dog knows the word 'food' and not 'dinner'! Ha! Talk about avoiding the debate. Nobody even cares in my house!

Bizarre post - a throwback to the last century. Does anyone care about accents these days?

You should come down to the South West. I grew up saying drore. After many decades living in other places I've sadly mostly lost my native accent but I do still say drore. In any case, the name for a thing that you pull in and out of a piece of furniture is a drawer, not a draw.

Thanks everyone for their responses, it has been interesting.

@MasterBeth , There isn't a standard southern accent. If you are so convinced, what is it?

ETA: That link is to some random's person's blog.

@Piglet89 , the link was mine. It was to show the area that is southern England, not to prove the existence or non-existence of a standard southern accent.
The area will have many regional accents.

Not to do with accents, but your use of "west country" has reminded me. When I first lived in the UK, knowing it was made up of several countries, I thought "the west country" was one of the UK countries situated in the west (geography is not my strong point!) And I was super shocked by what I saw as the racist use of "the black country"!

(I do know what it means now 😃)

I know that, I still pronounce the two the same way! 🤷‍♀️

Don't you have in family jokes? Well, one of ours is that I find it amusing that my husband and children can't pronounce the word "loch" - they try to dobit and we all laugh and they are impressed when I can do it. They try to say "with" and they can't make the "th" sound at the end so it cones out "wiv" and they try and try and can't do it and again they wonder at my ability.

I don't see why you think this is wierd or inappropriate.

My father was from Lancashire and had a Lancashire accent.

In the 1950s he moved to Somerset and played rugby for Bath. At his first match he thought the crowd was booing because they were shouting what sounded to him like “bah”.

One of his teammates had to point out that that was how locals pronounced Bath (obviously normally with a “th” at the end)!

You misunderstand.

I am not saying all southern English people speak the same with one standard accent.

I am saying there is a common accent in southern England called Standard Southern (British) English. It's the accent I have. It's Holly Willoughby or Naga Munchetty or Amanda Holden. It's modern BBC. It's all explained on that blog post.

I didn't say it was weird or inappropriate.

I said it was tedious and not fun.