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?

@MasterBeth , I cba to read a random blog. The three you mentioned don't have the same accent. If you meant 'BBC English' or RP why not use those terms.

What amazes me is that there are people on MN who don't realise that people in other parts of the UK speak differently.

I have been shouted down because I pronouncd R in words and told that I'm wrong, however much I defend the fact that it's a regional variation.

@RaraRachael , do you mean a rhotic R or an intrusive R?

Because they don't speak RP. The King speaks RP. They speak Standard Southern English.

(Of course they speak differently within the same accent, just as people with a Birmingham or Geordie or West country accent do.)

BBC English is no longer a useful term when Graham Norton, Brian Cox or Sara Cox are modern BBC voices.

If reading a blog is beneath you, try this book by a doctor of linguistics from UCL:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-04357-5

@MasterBeth , you come across as patronising.

The King actually speaks a version of RP, which is closer to heightened RP, as did his mother before him (though her accent changed during her lifetime).

I explained my point myself and you didn't get it .

I shared a link to blog that explained it and you wouldn't read it.

I've pointed you to a book about it and you insult me

If you just had it in yourself to understand a pretty basic concept, we wouldn't be here.

I was keeping it as simple as possible for @PleasantPedant.

Spelling is either right or wrong, and the spoken accent is irrelevant when you come to write it down. In the UK it is preferable to use the regular English spelling and not the American English one.

Grammar is grammar. It varies with the spoken word, but in writing, it should be correct unless you are writing dialogue. Likewise punctuation.

Pronunciation varies according to people's accents, but some things are still a no-no. It doesn't matter what your accent or dialect is, 'miss-cheevious' (for instance) is still wrong.

@PleasantPedant I speak with a rhotic accent

@RaraRachael , are they criticising you for sounding the r in Lorna or Carter? That would be weird, it's just your accent.

I don't like the Laura Norder or drawring type of intrusive r.

Yes I was told I was wrong for saying Ox-ford. Apparently it should be Ox-fud.

Judgemental or what! As it happens, my daughters both have additional needs. One has a moderate learning disability. They love our family in jokes. You can't go around telling other people their family banter is "tedious"!

@RaraRachael , who corrected you? I'd say Oxfud because I've only heard it that way. Isn't it a bit like saying Edinburgh as Edinberg?

I've been corrected on place name pronunciation but they've been something like Teignmouth (Tinmuth not Tain-mouth), but that's me being wrong not my accent. I can't say it bothered me.
If someone made fun of me in front of others I would mind.

@PleasantPedant just some poster who couldn't understand the difference between regional variations and mispronunciation.

No matter how hard I tried to make the point, I got shouted down so eventually left the thread.

There is prejudice in the UK in general about regional accents even in Scotland we now have this new Pan Scottish Posh accent that seems to have developed in the Westend of Glasgow / Glasgow Uni in the past few decades and is now at large as far as Edinburgh and Dundee. If it weren't considered so awful to have a Glaswegian or Dundonian or Edinburgh accent it wouldn't exist.

@RaraRachael , Some threads attract them. The phonetic spelling of names is often confusing.
I took Ox-ford to mean you say it as Ox Ford, but you probably say it as ˈɒksfəʳd.

@Arran2024 , scroll past her posts. I do.

I’ve always said and heard it as Ox-f’d

It's confusing, I mean there's a west Midlands which is Birmingham and across to the Welsh border. East Midlands which is Nottingham to East Anglia....so where actually is the Midlands?

@NotAnotherScarf, Midlands - Wikipedia

What the fuck was a Yorkshireman doing in Leicester???

@HoppityBun Most Scottish people pronounce all the letters in a word

@PleasantPedant sorry I don't understand what the phonetic squiggles mean but I pronounce it exactly as it's written - Ox then ford

He'd been to university there and stayed after he met his (native Leicester) wife. He was very upset that his kids wouldn't have a Yorkshire accent, but a Leicester one. Honestly, he was such a boor!

@RaraRachael , it's IPA.
Your explanation makes it look like you are mispronouncing Oxford.

The phonetic squiggles as you call them say something like
Oxford is pronounced as one word with the stress on the first syllable.

The first syllable sounds like ox and the second one like fuhd (or fuhrd in a rhotic accent). OX-fuhrd.

For comparison: Bearsden is /bɛərzˈdɛn/ or bairz-DEN not BEHRS-dun.

Fuhrd, ford, whatever.

I certainly wouldn't say Bears-dun