Which county accent do you love/hate in the UK?

RPG · 14-06-2003, 20:36

What County's accent to you love in the UK and which do you hate?

for it its:

Love Cornish/Devon accent

Hate Cockney/ "Savvena" accent

kittykat · 14-06-2003, 21:37

I hate the birmingham accent cos its so drawn out and sounds a bit thick.
Id like to have a french accent cos it sounds sophisticated, but having said that i wouldnt want to be french.
I dont really love any accents, except for my native yorkshire

Jon · 14-06-2003, 21:46

I Love all accents of the world like we all should

The Clangers were a little hard to understand and maybe pingu

RPG · 14-06-2003, 21:54

if we are talking world i love aussie accent as well

t020 · 15-06-2003, 00:18

I DESPISE the following accents:

-Liverpool/Scouser
-Birmingham/Brummie
-Newcastle/Geordie
-Scottish

I DISLIKE the following accents:

-Lancashire
-Yorkshire
-Welsh
-Cockney
-West Country
-East Anglian

Basically, I don't like any accents if they're noticeably strong. I much prefer people who pronounce their vowels correctly and don't use strong dialects with regional words, and don't totally misuse certain words, e.g. 'while' as opposed to 'until'.

kittykat · 15-06-2003, 00:39

Whos to say what is 'correct?'
Yes, standard english is regarded by some as the correct way to speak and write, but each county has their own dialect, with its own little rules and regulations. They arent necessarily wrong, they just arent the same as 'standard english' which was brought it basically to avoid confusion between different dialects, ie, a way to write things that will be read throughout the country that everyone will understand. The country would be a very boring place if everyone spoke the same.

t020 · 15-06-2003, 00:51

Doesn't mean I have to like them though.

max · 15-06-2003, 08:58

I'm pretty ambivalent about regional accents but what I can't abide are the professional accents. Those like Cilla Black who, despite not having lived in L'pool for many decades, still maintain a scouse accent. Do you think she takes un-elocution lessons to keep it up?

robh · 15-06-2003, 09:54

Quote:

Originally posted by "kittykat"

Whos to say what is 'correct?'
Yes, standard english is regarded by some as the correct way to speak and write, but each county has their own dialect, with its own little rules and regulations

No there isn't a "standard english" there are some people arrogant enough to believe that their version of English is the correct one and everyone else is wrong.
There is RP and "the queen's english" but even the respected references like Fowler's allow for variation. I'm sure there are those who think Brian Sewell's usage is "standard", I think its a very funny caricature.

Everyone uses at least 2 versions of english, your written english differs from your spoken english. The English you use in a job application differs from that you use in an email. In spoken english use of aposiopesis is quite common in written English... (sorry, feeble elitist joke).

The english used by a doctor or computer programmer speaking with his peers can be incomprehensible to the outsider, that's good, it speeds the dialogue and develops mutual understanding. When they use the same terminology in conversation with someone outside their profession it becomes a way of emphasising their authority - "you can't argue with me because you don't even understand the terminology".

Embrace end enjoy the variety of regional speech variations, let it enrich your life - in the same way as I go to the Fat Cat because the beer is different every time, the standard national/multinational beers get boring (I'm getting a bit off topic but the success of Guinness is the variation it is subject to, drinkers still speak of a good or bad pint of guinness).

The underlying function of language is communication. If you wish to communicate successfully you must be sensitive to the linguistic capabilities of your audience.

To get back to the question - as a generalisation rural accents are relaxed unhurried and florid: urban accents are more likely to be rapid-fire and the dialect elements effectively abbreviations intended to speed the dialogue. (Dialect is the use of different, possibly regional, words to convey the same concept, accent is pronouncing the same word different ways.) If you are a townie in a hurry, you may get frustrated with with rural speech. If you are a yokel, you might not be able to keep up with a rapid fire townie (is "townie/yokel" politically correct? Do I give a damn? No I'm using a short cut for effective communication, I'd get away with it in speech, maybe not in writing.)

What accents do I like/dislike? I find (broad) Birmingham and Newcastle intrinsically funny but those of the strange folk who live on the wrong side of the Pennines are well dodgy. I think Scouse and Cockney accents have criminal associations - probably just because of familiar TV soap/comedy characters.

robh · 15-06-2003, 10:03

Quote:

Originally posted by "t020"

Basically, I don't like any accents if they're noticeably strong. I much prefer people who pronounce their vowels correctly and don't use strong dialects with regional words, and don't totally misuse certain words, e.g. 'while' as opposed to 'until'.

I struggle with that little local speciality too: "Don't put you hand in the water while it's boiling hot" - what is the correct action to be taken here? Do the Sheffield Hospitals have a special burns unit for the linguistically confused?

max · 15-06-2003, 10:27

A friend, freshly arrived in Sheffield, went to WH Smiths early one morning before the main shop was open. He asked if he could buy an A to Z and was slightly surprised to be told 'Not while we're open'.

Confused? He was.

Neo · 15-06-2003, 15:58

I like most accents apart from the heavy ones that make things hard to understand what people are saying.. The worst thing is you don't like to keep saying "wha..?" in case they take offense to it.

RPG · 15-06-2003, 16:14

yeah, thats why i dont like cockney accent, cos they talk too fast

Neo · 15-06-2003, 16:17

I met an Irish family on holiday in Ibiza, and the daughter was an absolute hottie, she was about my age, but I couldn't understand what she was saying alot of the time..

Unfortunately, she never kept in touch.. I wrote to her and never got a reply

Andy · 15-06-2003, 16:27

Quote:

Originally posted by "maxt"

A friend, freshly arrived in Sheffield, went to WH Smiths early one morning before the main shop was open. He asked if he could buy an A to Z and was slightly surprised to be told 'Not while we're open'.

Confused? He was.

I'm told there was a terrible accident in Barnsley once, when a car drove onto a level crossing when a train was coming. Apparantly the sign said "Do not enter while the lights are flashing", so the car driver waited for them to start flashing before entering...

Mo · 15-06-2003, 16:37

I think that accents are wonderful but the Birmingham one does get on my nerves.

Any of you 'outsiders' recognise the different accents within South Yorkshire

Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield/Rotherham are all very distinct and different. When I lived down south they seemed to think that all northerners spoke the same with the obvious exceptions of Liverpool,Birmingham and Geordie.

t020 · 15-06-2003, 16:42

I can't really tell the difference between Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley accents. They sound pretty much the same, all awful if too strong. A Rotherham friend of mine used to call Sheffielders "dee dars" because of how Sheffielders supposedly say 'the' as 'de' or something. I didn't really understand it, but they always chanted it at derby matches too.

Michael_W · 15-06-2003, 18:25

The Sheffield Accent topic is here for anyone interested :
http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=695

halevan · 16-06-2003, 14:36

The best of all is a posh one, the queens english is so educated, pleasant to listen to, correct, grarss instead of grass, barth instead of bath, larf instead of laugh.

Tony Ruscoe · 16-06-2003, 15:06

Quote:

Originally posted by "halevan"

The best of all is a posh one, the queens english is so educated, pleasant to listen to, correct, grarss instead of grass, barth instead of bath, larf instead of laugh.

The "Queens English" is a dialect, not an accent.

"Received Pronunciation" (RP) is the accent you're talking about...

But even the Queen has changed the way she speaks over the years though. Her "posh" accent has become much more relaxed over the years. (For my English Language A-level we watched clips from many of the Queen's Christmas speeches from over the years, comparing how she pronounced certain words.)