How to pronounce Talia

[GemLooper]

Would you say Tah-lee-uh or tar-lee-uh?

@Geamhradh

Crossed with *@JassyRadlett* Mornin'

Always a pleasure, @Geamhradh. Depending on how the thread goes, it might be before long…

@TwinsandTrifle

Everybody has an accent! There isn't one standard or default accent around which everyone else varies you know.

What accent(s) do the following have? Because it seems that people are just adding a location (eg London) to imply there's some sort of accent, when they mean "cockney" which does not apply to most Londoners.

Piers Morgan
Simon Cowell
Kate Middleton
Freddie Mercury

(I know a bizarre mix, but trying to pick nationally famous people who's voices are easy to repeat in your head)

I'd say Kate Middleton has a received pronunciation accent. It's not necessarily linked to a region or location, but it's still an accent. Piers Morgan is from Surrey and his accent does sound to me like people I know from Surrey so I'd say he has a Surrey accent.

Of course English people have an English accent. Just like Americans have an American accent or the Irish have an Irish accent. Or Scots a Scottish accent.

These are all encompassing terms for people that come from that location. People in America have an "American" accent. People from Scotland all have Scottish accents, but they are eg Glaswegian, or Edinburgh accents, which have very different sounds.

I know what I mean, it's hard to explain. Sort of, that being able to identify someone is English, by their voice, doesn't mean they have an accent. The country isn't an accent within that country?

Tah-lee-uh or tar-lee-uh

Those would surely sound exactly the same in any English non-rhotic accent? Certainly would for me!

Ok I have said both in my head multiple times and they both sound exactly the same in my head!!

Is it a Yorkshire thing?

@OhLordyWhatNow

I'm southern. There's no R in Bath, grass, or father

No 'r' in grass??

I'm SW and we pronounce the long 'a' so Barth, farther, grass, arse.

@flowery

Tah-lee-uh or tar-lee-uh

Those would surely sound exactly the same in any English non-rhotic accent? Certainly would for me!

I assumed that the "Tah" was intended to mean an 'a' sound rhyming with cat

Yes, I agree that KM’s accent is markedly different from Morgan’s (he’s done a Prince William with his accent). And Cowell is different again, in the eastern Home Counties split where it has slightly more of an Estuary sound in some vowels.

I can’t bring Freddie Mercury’s speaking voice to mind but it feels fairly safe to suggest that (like me) it wasn’t the accent he was born with.

Tah lee ah

"I'd say Kate Middleton has a received pronunciation accent. It's not necessarily linked to a region or location, but it's still an accent.*

That's sort of what I mean. She just pronounces her words properly.

A Glaswegian person speaks words perfectly in a Glaswegian accent. KM speaks words perfectly with no geographical link.

@TwinsandTrifle

Imagine ‘barley’ said in an Irish accent. It really doesn’t sound like Bali.

Christing Christ. Facepalm at some of these comments. Please go on the basic foundation that most of us have left our twee villages and seen the sights of the town next door

Yes, Barley in an Irish accent, doesn't sound like Bali. It's because it's in an Irish accent!!! Remove the accent. Irish, Glaswegian, or whichever. Now how do you say it.

😂😂😂😂

How can you remove an accent? Are you seriously saying you have no accent? I bet if you spoke I could guess roughly where youre from.

Yes, I agree that KM’s accent is markedly different from Morgan’s

See, with these two, the underlying accent (or no accent) is the same to me. They speak the same, but he is more loud, and she is more "posh". Does that make sense? If Morgan was less foghorn, he'd sound akin to KM.

@TwinsandTrifle

"I'd say Kate Middleton has a received pronunciation accent. It's not necessarily linked to a region or location, but it's still an accent.*

That's sort of what I mean. She just pronounces her words properly.

A Glaswegian person speaks words perfectly in a Glaswegian accent. KM speaks words perfectly with no geographical link.

Ah, good, we know where we are now. You’re not stupid, you’re a crashing snob, and trying to mask that by pretending the accent you see as superior/‘proper’ isn’t an accent at all.

(KM has a strong geographical link; RP and SSE are both strongly associated with Southern England. Even the dictionary (the Concise Oxford in this case) says so.)

Tal-ee-ah

See, with these two, the underlying accent (or no accent) is the same to me. They speak the same, but he is more loud, and she is more "posh". Does that make sense? If Morgan was less foghorn, he'd sound akin to KM.

Their vowels are quite different; I’d say he used to be closer to hers but has shifted; she’s stayed much more old(er)-school RP rather than SSE.

With a long A. I prefer the spelling Thalia.

Yes, I don't have an accent, in the sense that if you heard me speak, you could eliminate the places I'm not from, but you would be left with a very long list from which you would then have to guess.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it. I would say it's a 50/50 split of who does and who doesn't, from the people I know. My father does, my mother doesn't. You'd know I wasn't from Edinburgh, Manchester, Derry, because they are very distinctive. My voice is pretty non descript. Like DM.

I could be from Surrey. London. Nottingham. Suffolk, a load of places (simply picking those 4 because I have friends born and raised in each, who all sound the same, as do I, and I don't live in any of those)

@TwinsandTrifle

Of course English people have an English accent. Just like Americans have an American accent or the Irish have an Irish accent. Or Scots a Scottish accent.

These are all encompassing terms for people that come from that location. People in America have an "American" accent. People from Scotland all have Scottish accents, but they are eg Glaswegian, or Edinburgh accents, which have very different sounds.

I know what I mean, it's hard to explain. Sort of, that being able to identify someone is English, by their voice, doesn't mean they have an accent. The country isn't an accent within that country?

By definition, if you can identify that someone is English from their accent then they have an English accent. Now, you can break that down into Yorkshire/Mancunian/London etc. But they are still accented.

The English aren't some special snowflakes - if there's no English accent (because there are multiple variations) then there's no Irish accent and the Irish are pronouncing words in their raw form too. Irish accents can be divided into North Dublin, Belfastian, Cork, Derry etc etc. Exactly the same as the English.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it.

I’m certain you don’t! I’m sure you work very hard to not have a regional accent.

I know 2.

One is a long A sound - Taah - lee - uh

The other is a short A sound Ta- lee - uh.

(in your OP, I would say Tah and Tar the same? Both represent a long A sound? - assuming you are not rolling the r)

I think the long sound is nicer actually

@TwinsandTrifle

Yes, I don't have an accent, in the sense that if you heard me speak, you could eliminate the places I'm not from, but you would be left with a very long list from which you would then have to guess.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it. I would say it's a 50/50 split of who does and who doesn't, from the people I know. My father does, my mother doesn't. You'd know I wasn't from Edinburgh, Manchester, Derry, because they are very distinctive. My voice is pretty non descript. Like DM.

I could be from Surrey. London. Nottingham. Suffolk, a load of places (simply picking those 4 because I have friends born and raised in each, who all sound the same, as do I, and I don't live in any of those)

But then you still have an accent. I have a similar Irish accent in that I'm sure you could place it as Irish but you'd struggle to pin down the exact location. That doesn't mean that I don't have an obvious accent. Just means it's not immediately obvious to outsiders.

If someone can clock you as English - I'm sure they do - then they'll class you as having an English accent. And they'd be right to do so.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it. I would say it's a 50/50 split of who does and who doesn't, from the people I know. My father does, my mother doesn't. You'd know I wasn't from Edinburgh, Manchester, Derry, because they are very distinctive. My voice is pretty non descript. Like DM.

Just because you’ve adopted/retained an accent that isn’t dominant in your area doesn’t mean that the accent doesn’t have a regional association. Accents bleed all over the place in a mobile society and shift quite quickly over time (and even within individuals over their lifetimes.)

You have an accent. You might think it’s the ‘proper’ one because that’s what you’ve always been told by people who think that accent as a signifier of class is important, and that’s why RP/SSE do exist as minority accents outside the South East - because a class obsessed society dictated that it was ‘better’ and parents of a certain class (or with aspirations to that class) ensured their children spoke with that accent. I know people of my grandparents’ generation who wouldn’t send their kids to the local village school because ‘heaven knows what sort of an accent they’d develop.’

You’d also never guess where I’m from by my accent as mine is pretty much now the accent of where I live. That would probably make you happy as it’s the one you think is special and neutral. It’s not, it’s an historical quirk that people have been brainwashed to think is somehow ‘neutral’.

@TwinsandTrifle

Yes, I don't have an accent, in the sense that if you heard me speak, you could eliminate the places I'm not from, but you would be left with a very long list from which you would then have to guess.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it. I would say it's a 50/50 split of who does and who doesn't, from the people I know. My father does, my mother doesn't. You'd know I wasn't from Edinburgh, Manchester, Derry, because they are very distinctive. My voice is pretty non descript. Like DM.

I could be from Surrey. London. Nottingham. Suffolk, a load of places (simply picking those 4 because I have friends born and raised in each, who all sound the same, as do I, and I don't live in any of those)

You still have an accent, I'm assuming a generic SE/modern RP accent. Just because you don't come from there, it doesn't mean you don't have the accent.

Lots of people have accents that are different to where they came from. I know a girl with an (fairly subtle) Irish accent who has never lived in Ireland, because her parents are Irish. There are also accents that people deliberately train themselves into having that are not associated with any location (more of a historical thing but not totally - for example, middle class try-hards deliberately training their children to have SE/modern RP accents rather than a regional one)

@TwinsandTrifle

Yes, I don't have an accent, in the sense that if you heard me speak, you could eliminate the places I'm not from, but you would be left with a very long list from which you would then have to guess.

The place I live in does have a regional accent, but I don't have it. I would say it's a 50/50 split of who does and who doesn't, from the people I know. My father does, my mother doesn't. You'd know I wasn't from Edinburgh, Manchester, Derry, because they are very distinctive. My voice is pretty non descript. Like DM.

I could be from Surrey. London. Nottingham. Suffolk, a load of places (simply picking those 4 because I have friends born and raised in each, who all sound the same, as do I, and I don't live in any of those)

You do have an accent. Everyone has an accent. It's impossible not to have an accent. An accent isn't necessarily strongly regional. An accent is just a way of pronouncing a language. If you speak, you have an accent.