Ive now been living among the infidels for five years, and I was just informed that even though I didnt have a strong Sheffield accent to start with, Im losing what little accent I had!

Im starting to use the word "The" and pronouncing my haitches and saying words like "Where" instead of using the "weyer" that us normal people use!

Does ANYONE know of any way that I can retain my accent???


HELP me! Or I`ll show you my glottal stop!

Have you got some emergency videos of Sharpe?

Try & copy Sean Bean :thumbsup:

I love the thought of Sharpe being used as an educational tool.

Ive now been living among the infidels for five years, and I was just informed that even though I didnt have a strong Sheffield accent to start with, Im losing what little accent I had!

Im starting to use the word "The" and pronouncing my haitches and saying words like "Where" instead of using the "weyer" that us normal people use!

Does ANYONE know of any way that I can retain my accent???


HELP me! Or I`ll show you my glottal stop!


a little off topic but it always niggles me that the letter 'h' is referred to as 'haitch' -

its 'aitch'. honestly, it is. point of fact.

what was the question again?

My accent's always been called "not typically Sheffield" by others over the years(what exactly that means?), but northern just the same.

a little off topic but it always niggles me that the letter 'h' is referred to as 'haitch' -

its 'aitch'. honestly, it is. point of fact.

what was the question again?

SEE? Im even using Aitches out of place! `Ow Orrifying!

err....run back to yorkshire every day?

oh, of course, you wouldn't be welcome here anymore with your leicestershire accent! it took me years of living in sheffield to ditch mine, and it still crops up when i'm tired or drunk.

Does ANYONE know of any way that I can retain my accent???

Take all your holidays in North Yorkshire and socialise with the broadest people you can find! The extremity of their accents should correct the southern contaminations in your accent and bring it back to normal.

I reckon you lost your accent in order to compel you to invent a machine which can convert anyone's accent into a yorkshireman's...

"Aw Naw Brahn cow"

"Get thi chops `raand this, it`ll pur airs on thi chest"

Im actually saying this as I type it, Im getting some very odd looks form the other half...
Business as usual there then...

Im still musing over using sean bean as a tool ........... but enough of my peversions :rolleyes:

na-then, wat tha on abat jabber?

ecky thump, tha losin tha roots? ... lad, jump in t'car un get yasen ear quicksharp. :thumbsup:

Spend enough time away and your accent will always tone down. Having said that, I've been away from Sheffield over 15 years and although my mum thinks I now sound posh, I think I still sound Northern.

I reckon although you lose a lot of the dialect and quite a bit of the accent, especially if you've been away a long time, you still retain the fundamentals ('laff' instead of 'larf' for 'laugh' etc).

However you approach the lessons, don't ask Viking (http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_feb2003/WannaBuyAVowel.jpg) :hihi:

It's still theer sumweer Jabber, I've been away for 36 years na, but wen I tork tu mi brutha's ont fone, it all cums bak reel qik, it's reyt nice tu eer em tork lyke that anall.

Interesting thought. It could be so easy to lose an accent, or dialect. When I went to USA, people just didn't understand me, so I just put on a fake 'poshish' accent when necessary, so I suppose if I lived there, I would have to stick with it.

I recommend regularly viewing the Full Monty. Although most of the accents on it are poor, you will at least retain a popular version of Sheffieldish. :confused:

Both me bloke and I are non-natives to Sheffield, but both of us now find it really hard to turn on our native accents again (although I do lapse into Black Country when I'm really angry, apparently).

In my case I'm quite glad not to speak in an accent that everyone else seems to think denoted me as stupid- but I think that's just because most people dislike the accent with which I started.

The thing is, when I get on the phone to my sister or daughter in Sheffield I talk in a perfect Sheffield/Parson Cross accent and the other half can barely understand what Im waffling on about. As soon as the call is over and Im back among the southerners the accent starts to go.
I personally cant see any change, Ive posted movie sections of myself on the forum and as far as Im concerned, the accents still there and as strong as ever, apart from the occasional "The" and the nasty, haunting Aitches.

Only talk to people who don't speak with the local accent and/or dialect.

Hopefully, Martha's Vineyard Principle will kick in and in the 'sea of changing accents' you'll make your own original accent more pronounced then ever.

Tada!