Well spoken areas - Accents

[arizonagirl]

Hi there,

We currently live in Surrey and I have to admit - the accent is really nice and the children speak so nicely. Always gets comments.

Ok, so we are looking at preps in another home county (probably Hertfordshire/Bucks/Berks). I am going to probably get really slated for this thread but hey...I am intrigued and really do wish to know people's thoughts. Which areas within an hour of London could we go to where people are very well spoken eg. 'yes' instead of 'yeah' etc. Not too impressed with Kent, Essex, Epsom tbh. Looking at Bishops Stortford - any thoughts.

Thanks!

Hey roadkillbunny, glad you replied. Not so sure about some of the others. We are seriously homing in on Oxfordshire - schools look good, good location, houses not too badly priced....and a place with no real accent - perfect

Could you advise which are the best places to live. Someone advised against Didcot - any advice? Dh needs to commute to London. Looking at St Hughes prep - any thoughts, or other suggestions.

Glad to see you are enjoying the thread - knew it would give people something to get wound up about. Lots of tongue in cheek - actually my favourite accent is the Geordie accent - very sexy!!

I think parts of Oxon have a very strong regional accent. South Oxon - Henley less so but other parts have a distinct burr in the voice, rather like West Berks. Where we are it is pretty neutral/RP so non-local accents stand out.

I'm Dutch, living in Suffolk. DH American - I've been told I sound like Fiona Bruce (aaaaaargh!) but have no trace of a Dutch accent (so I damn well shouldn't, been bilingual for the last 31 years!). Anyway, you can imagine what my daughters sound like. They sound well spoken because they have enormous vocabularies, say 'yeah' when not in polite company, adopt weird Valley Girl accents when playing wti their Barbies (why must Barbies have American accents???) and occasionally drop their middle consonants just because it gets on my nerves.

And this is the most hilarious thread I have ever read.

Just to add - I have been reading Terry Pratchett's 'Wee Free Men' to them, and have been told I do a really good Nac Mac Feegle (read: extreme Scots) accent too.

Hertfordshire is definitely to be avoided, I come from Berkhamstead - they have a public school yet the local oiks still call it Berko!

Some of the older folk who are born and breed over generations that have never left Oxfordshire do have a more of an accent of sorts but the younger folk (under 60-70) just don't seem to, well spoken yes but not what I would call a regional accent.

I love Oxfordshire I have to say, would never leave now, we came because this is where dh is from, better quality of life and education for the dc etc etc.

We live in a rural location about 10 miles from Oxford it's self, very good, very nice area on the whole, I wouldn't personally go for Didcot, handy for the commute but not the best, not the worst either though!
There are some fantastic preps about, loads of them, I have friends who send their dc to The Dragon school and are happy with it, Abingdon prep is also meant to be good but from what I have heard I would avoid Copethorpe. There are also some fantastic state primary schools also, the one in our village that my dd (and in time my ds) attends if fantastic, only Oxfordshire school to achieve outstanding in all areas from Ofsted, normally in the top 100 for SATs results (although being a small school and often only having a SATs cohort of 16-20 means that each child represents a high percentage, this year for example there where more children with extra education needs that pulled scores down somewhat, still almost half achieve level 5s and in previous years 100% achieve level 4, this year one child didn't quite make it but it was a great result even though the head is not keen of SATs at all) and the pastoral care at the school is amazing, all the staff know all the children (140), their parents and their younger siblings, we feel blessed to live in catchment for this school, several people I know have taken children out of prep for the school not because they were unhappy with prep or struggling with fees, they just realised they were paying for something available free in the village!
If you where to move to Oxfordshire I would recommend west Oxfordshire and a good part of the vale of the white horse, I would avoid Oxford it's self, there are a few bad areas and the good areas are extremely expensive, the out laying villages are on the whole lovely though, train links to London are great although if you want to live near enough to a branch station to be able to walk you will pay a premium, Long Hanbrough is nice and has a station but really you can drive to Didcot parkway or one of the branch stations with ease from almost anywhere.
Sorry for the epic post, I love my adopted county lol!

What a bizarre thread!

OP your 'neutral' accent would not be considered in the least bit neutral (whatever that means) here.

Although having said that, I'm as RP as they come and DP is a Londonder. We live in Glasgow, and our v Glaswegian neighbour commented that she'd realised DP had a 'bit of an accent' but hadn't realised that I was not a Glaswegian. I do not have the faintest whiff of a Scottish accent.

Nowt so queer as folk.

My nephew lives in Oxfordshire (parents not from thereabouts) and sounds like a wurzel. The average inhabitant of the Blackbird Leys would have something of an "accent" too I'd imagine.

What I want to know is where have all the "well-spoken" regional accents gone. You know, how regional news presenters used to speak, kind-of-RP, clear diction, but you can definitely place the locality. On the telly such types are all old or middle-aged, but my kids and most of their friends seem to speak in such a way.

aging5years 'however, once your kids get to around 10 they will stop pronouncing ts in the middle of words ( water, later) and try their hardest to sound as common as possible. '

This is very reassuring - my 10 yr old son has recently started doing this, even though we live overseas and pretty much the only English speakers he comes into contact with are well-spoken adults. It's obviously genetic. :)

On the plus side, my kids are so far immune to using 'like' as a form of punctuation.

'Please call Stella'.

accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=145

accent archive

Bishops Stortford is a little too close to 'Arlow isn't it?

The accent in Wigan is lovely.

I have a very neutral accent - you would not be able to place where I come from. I certainly do not have a Devon accent (where I come from).

DD sounds like Worzel Gummidge (Gloucester accent).

She also has a friend who she plays Rugby with who goes to Cheltenham College (v expensive private school for thick rah types). She also has a defined west country accent. Her parents must fret and worry and wring their hands about all those thousands of pounds spent on procuring a middle class child and ending up with one that sounds like Vicky Pollard.

Yes it is Ski - we used to go to B. Stortford on the train and gape open mouthed at the nice houses and better class of Charity shopping available!

When I went to 'arlow college we could also tell which students were from Stortford and environs by their tatty clothes and plummy accents!

Oh dear you've really dropped yourself in it. So Surrey has a 'nice' or should that be 'neyce' accent. I was born in Nigeria, went to school in Devon and have lived in Brighton, Tokyo, Thailand and London. It seems to me that accents are a particularly British concern particularly of those who are keen to 'place' people and thus 'keep them in their place'. Surely, what matters is what is said, that it can be understood and successfully communicating. Language is endlessly fascinating because it lives and develops. Without accents, I think we would also lose so many idioms and expressions that are part of speaking with that accent because one is from a certain area. Language and how and why it is spoken are an important part of understanding the culture of any country.

I DO understand your concern as even in the 21st century, lives in this country can still be destroyed or limited because people's chances are limited by assumptions about their status made on the basis of the way they speak. This cuts both ways - a friend who speaks posh in terms of both accent and expression ('Oh my hat!') always gets fawning attention in posh shops but I've also seen the 'who does that posh cow think she is?' hackles rising.
I would say a neutral accent is a Scottish or Irish one in the British isles, which might explain why so many adverts are voiced over with these accents.
Back to well spoken - remember that programme The F....ing Fulfords - good accents? Many would say yes. Well spoken?...... every other word was swearing.

mavienrose, what a great post. Particularly "lives in this country can still be destroyed or limited because people's chances are limited by assumptions about their status made on the basis of the way they speak".

I have a "posh" accent and will not say "some might say" before that as I know it and like it. If it pisses people off then thats their problem as far as I'm concerned. I do know that in a job interview situation if I were to sit against someone with a local accent (Bedford) with the same skills and experience, I would probably get the job, as has been born out quite a few times in the past.

There is nothing wrong with wanting your children to speak nicely. Send your child to Oakham School or Stamford, Uppingham or Oundle and you can almost guarantee it.

I totally agree with you BigusBumus.And I guess Mavienrose is right in some ways - accent is very important in many professional circles in this country. And let's face it - this is where we are now living for the foreseeable future.

Having said that, I do sometimes wonder whether speaking with a 'posh' accent in today's times might actually have its own negative consequences. As said previously, Surrey does seem to be a bit of a bubble and one might struggle on leaving. Oh, and Mavienrose - don't worry, I am LOVING this thread. Thank you everyone - only problem is it is distracting me from my studies and my dh is constantly moaning that I am spending too much time on mumsnet

How fascinating.

We left Surrey because we didn't like the accents - far too much new money and footballers' wives or people with city money but very few manners - where we were living at least.

We've now moved to a place where everyone is 'disgusted'; the accents are all top notch, everyone is impeccably well mannered and we love it. And the bonus is that because that's the case, we aren't currently having to pay school fees - and despite being at the local primary, all of my children sound as though they are heading for Eton.

Good luck with the search - on a more serious note, friends of ours are outside Banbury, and are educating at Winchester House. My SIL also used to teach at Chandlings, but the head has recently changed, and it's caused a few problems. (She's left there now....)

No such thing as an accent , i don't think. i mean all my friends who grew up in devon talk totally differently depending on ..... not sure. how their parents talked aswell ?
now i am in surrey and quite frankly they all talk like 'barrowboys'. i rib dh over this, something chronic. he says i talk like the famous five, 'lashings of ginger beer'. tis totally embarrassing. have no idea where that plummy accent came from.

op where in surrey are you ? makes a difference.

'We currently live in Surrey and I have to admit - the accent is really nice and the children speak so nicely. Always gets comments.'

I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, but I find that accent sounds like fingernails being scraped across a chalkboard to me.

Everyone I've met who says they have a neutral accent doesn't.

My children speak like lower Western Highlanders. They regularly come home with words I don't understand.

I'll bet some twats out there might think they sound like yokels, it probably won't limit them in their lives, though, because I doubt they'll even stay here a day past their 16th birthdays.

And anyone who thinks less of them because of their accent can get tae . . .

Move to Glasgow and pay for elocution lessons. Problem solved.

I think you'd have to move somewhere non-english speaking to find somewhere where the kids say 'yes' instead of 'yeah'. Or to the 1950s. Do you genuinely say 'yes' instead of 'yeah' all the time? I went to a posh school and know some uber-posh people. They all say 'yeah', or worse, 'yaaaaah'.

And even if you move to a non-English speaking country, even 'oui' has a 'yeah' version.

rofl @ ellen/helen

I don't agree it depends on what they hear at home.

I speak dead posh and my DC ( 4 and 6 ) have picked up the Kentish Estuary accent. They say oight instead of eight and coik instead of cake. Most alarming.

Eddie Mair. Now he's well spoken. So Dundee it is!

Oh, yes, nothing beats strong Tayside except maybe Glesga schemie - straight outta Shettleston.