Accents

[Patrick Bateman]

Why do some people lose their accents more quickly than others?

 

Reason being ... I was born in Southampton, grew up in the Waterside, always thought I had a New Forest(ish) accent. After having worked in and around London for so long, have been told I sound more London.

 

But, my Nan was a Geordie, she lived all over the country and mostly down here for her life and NEVER lost her accent. Likewise my Grandad, proper New Forest bloke (and played for Saints in 1947) never lost his Forest accent, despite living in Middlesbrough, Lancashire and Crawley.

 

How do people lose their accents so easily? Do Southampton accents sound more close to London now? I have noticed it's harder and harder to tell where someone is from now, unless you're a Scouser, Welsh, Geordie, Brummie etc.

[TopGun]

Mobility.

[Essruu]

I think someone was lying to you. You still sound like a bumpkin.

[Ken Tone]

There was some research publsihed a few years back that showed that kids with a strong accent lose it, unconsciously, when they are trying to get on in life/career, but that the accent returns as people grow older and retire.

[bridge too far]

My grandparents were both from Liverpool and kept their scouse accents all their lives. My cousins and I were all born and bred in Southampton, but one cousin, who now lives on Merseyside, has now got a very strong Liverpool accent.

 

My dad, born in Bishop's Waltham and living all his life on the east side of Southampton had a strong Hampshire accent as does my brother now (he's always lived on the east side). I don't really have an accent but then I've moved around a fair bit.

 

My children were all raised in Buckinghamshire but only the youngest has a 'Bucks' accent.

 

So I don't know the answer.

[Patrick Bateman]

I think someone was lying to you. You still sound like a bumpkin.

 

Thanks mate ... that was my first worry, I'd still rather sound like a bumpkin than a mockney! haha.

[supersonic]

because those from up north/wales/scotland are too bloody stubborn to let it go

[pap]

Accents are situational, in my opinion.

 

I've lived up in Liverpool for years, and although I haven't really gone scouse, I don't normally speak in my Hampshire accent either. I have also heard myself "scousing it up" when getting taxis - but largely to be understood - and nothing like the typical scouse accent - more of a lift at the end of a sentence which mirrors their pattern of speech. Most people will double take when they hear an accent they don't expect to hear, even if it's Received Pronunciation.

 

Southampton accent comes back the moment I'm around Sotonians. Mate is staying up here this week, so rocking the accent once more . Same thing happens when I travel down to Southampton. I used to work with a girl from Portsmouth, and she could tell when I'd been down south for the weekend.

 

Ms pap is mostly scouse, but she picked up a few Southernisms in the time we spent in the South. She says "water" like a proper southerner. Pretty much everyone on here would describe my kids as scouse, yet their contemporaries call them "posh" ( I know, it's a laugh ) on account of the inflection they've picked up from me.

 

If I had to say what killed my accent for everyday use, it'd be work, Uni and a perceived need to sound professional in those circumstances. Do love it when it comes back though.

[Thorpe-le-Saint]

Now that I've been living in Essex for about 4 years I'm starting to drop their mockney accent in now and again before correcting myself. Despite this my girlfriend would tell you that I still talk like a farmer, especially after I have returned from Southampton this weekend. My rule of thumb is, if "Southampton" comes out as "Svampton" then you haven't lost your accent.

[Wurzel]

. My rule of thumb is, if "Southampton" comes out as "Svampton" then you haven't lost your accent.

 

With a "t" in it ? You must be posh

 

Never really notice our own local accent until I hear it amongst other accents. Then it really stands out. I never realised I had one myself (broad 'Ampshire as it turns out) till first time I had to use a dictaphone in an old office job, and couldn't understand why my brothers voice was coming out of the machine. I guess accents change when we move around as we - often unintentionally - mimic what we hear around us. Listen to a Jan Molby or Dietter Hamman examples. Every time I go to Spain I find myself unintentionally speaking to locals in English but with some weird Manuel from Fawlty Towers accent.

 

One thing that also intrigues me, is there a local "look" as well as sound. I'll never forget after 86 semi, with 2 mates (both local) wandering the Tottenham side roads, 3 scousers approaching from other direction told us, without any other conversation, that we were going the wrong way and our coaches were in the other direction. Wasn't till later we realised we had no colours , weren't speaking at the time, so how did they now? (lack of afros and moustaches not withstanding). Similarly my daughter was with 3 other 19 year old friends in New York recently, was approached in Central Park and asked, more like told, " So you girls are from England". She said there was no way the guy asking could have heard them talking, and they were wearing nothing to indicate UK.

 

Good to see the BBC is using more presenters and newsreaders with regional accents instead of insisting it was trained out of them. Does any other country have so many strong and varying accents in so small a space?

[sotonjoe]

Accents change yeh?

 

[Sheaf Saint]

I was having this conversation with the other half over the weekend and it's my belief that it isn't your parents or your family origin that determine your accent, but where you go to school. It is during this time that kids develop their social habits and part of that is mimicking other kids in an attempt to fit in. For instance, my mum was born and raised in Bristol and you can tell from the way she speaks now even though she moved to Southampton in the 1970s. I, on the other hand, went to an inner-city school in Svaaamp'on (Bitterne Park) and through mingling with the kids from the local estates I developed my accent which I doubt I will ever lose fully.

 

The thing is though, I never realised I had any kind of accent until I moved to Yorkshire. It was only then that I noticed how broad and distinct the Southampton accent really is. I guess because I had grown up with it I just accepted it as the norm, but when I speak to my old mates now I really do notice their 'aaampshire twang. I certainly haven't lost mine, but then I haven't developed a Sheffield accent either as I was 29 when I moved up here. If I had moved when I was 10 and gone to school here I reckon I would now officially be a 'Dee Daar' (as Sheffielders are affectionately known around the rest of South Yorkshire) but my southern mates do notice the little colloquialisms that I have picked up, like saying 'Ey up' or Naaa then' instead of 'Oright mush'.

 

The thing that I do find strange is that if and when me and the mrs have kids, provided we are still living in this part of the world, they will no doubt turn out to be proper northerners!

[Turkish]

I was having this conversation with the other half over the weekend and it's my belief that it isn't your parents or your family origin that determine your accent, but where you go to school. It is during this time that kids develop their social habits and part of that is mimicking other kids in an attempt to fit in. For instance, my mum was born and raised in Bristol and you can tell from the way she speaks now even though she moved to Southampton in the 1970s. I, on the other hand, went to an inner-city school in Svaaamp'on (Bitterne Park) and through mingling with the kids from the local estates I developed my accent which I doubt I will ever lose fully.

 

The thing is though, I never realised I had any kind of accent until I moved to Yorkshire. It was only then that I noticed how broad and distinct the Southampton accent really is. I guess because I had grown up with it I just accepted it as the norm, but when I speak to my old mates now I really do notice their 'aaampshire twang. I certainly haven't lost mine, but then I haven't developed a Sheffield accent either as I was 29 when I moved up here. If I had moved when I was 10 and gone to school here I reckon I would now officially be a 'Dee Daar' (as Sheffielders are affectionately known around the rest of South Yorkshire) but my southern mates do notice the little colloquialisms that I have picked up, like saying 'Ey up' or Naaa then' instead of 'Oright mush'.

 

The thing that I do find strange is that if and when me and the mrs have kids, provided we are still living in this part of the world, they will no doubt turn out to be proper northerners!

 

I am amazed. I honestly thought you were a 22 year old girl.

[pap]

I was having this conversation with the other half over the weekend and it's my belief that it isn't your parents or your family origin that determine your accent, but where you go to school. It is during this time that kids develop their social habits and part of that is mimicking other kids in an attempt to fit in. For instance, my mum was born and raised in Bristol and you can tell from the way she speaks now even though she moved to Southampton in the 1970s. I, on the other hand, went to an inner-city school in Svaaamp'on (Bitterne Park) and through mingling with the kids from the local estates I developed my accent which I doubt I will ever lose fully.

 

Ms pap's family moved to the Wigan area about 15 years ago. Apart from her mum and dad, all of them now have Wigan accents.

 

Talk about a downgrade. I mean, you can say what you like about the scouse accent, but at least they still consider the definite article to be important.

 

"Going down pub" = super pap grrr!

Edited 3 April, 2012 by pap

[pap]

I am amazed. I honestly thought you were a 22 year old girl.

 

Fully paid up again, me ol' mucker?

 

Kept an eye out for you at Blackpool, but alas, no Nazis wearing foam hands.

[Turkish]

Fully paid up again, me ol' mucker?

 

Kept an eye out for you at Blackpool, but alas, no Nazis wearing foam hands.

 

Payment was taken automatically a month ago sir.

 

I was stood at the front in line with the penalty spot so had a great view of Billys penalty and the fans in red gimp suits.

[Patrick Bateman]

With a "t" in it ? You must be posh

 

Never really notice our own local accent until I hear it amongst other accents. Then it really stands out. I never realised I had one myself (broad 'Ampshire as it turns out) till first time I had to use a dictaphone in an old office job, and couldn't understand why my brothers voice was coming out of the machine. I guess accents change when we move around as we - often unintentionally - mimic what we hear around us. Listen to a Jan Molby or Dietter Hamman examples. Every time I go to Spain I find myself unintentionally speaking to locals in English but with some weird Manuel from Fawlty Towers accent.

 

One thing that also intrigues me, is there a local "look" as well as sound. I'll never forget after 86 semi, with 2 mates (both local) wandering the Tottenham side roads, 3 scousers approaching from other direction told us, without any other conversation, that we were going the wrong way and our coaches were in the other direction. Wasn't till later we realised we had no colours , weren't speaking at the time, so how did they now? (lack of afros and moustaches not withstanding). Similarly my daughter was with 3 other 19 year old friends in New York recently, was approached in Central Park and asked, more like told, " So you girls are from England". She said there was no way the guy asking could have heard them talking, and they were wearing nothing to indicate UK.

 

Good to see the BBC is using more presenters and newsreaders with regional accents instead of insisting it was trained out of them. Does any other country have so many strong and varying accents in so small a space?

 

Oh god, you're kidding, right? I can't stand them, all the Northerners on the national news, does my head in! But anyway, that's another topic ...

 

Poster above was right about saying 'svamtun' - one of my work colleagues in who Hungarian visited "South-hamp-ton" this weekend and I had to teach him how to pronounce it properly

 

I never really realised the little distinctions until I worked in London. Most people I work with are American or European with a fair few home-counties thrown in. We had a new starter a few months ago and I immediately picked up his accent from being from the Southampton area; not a strong accent, but little subtle things.

 

I do notice that when I go abroad, especially to our US office, when I listen to myself, I think I sound MORE English over there and sound like bloody Hugh Grant in my own head.

[Lets B Avenue]

Payment was taken automatically a month ago sir.

 

I was stood at the front in line with the penalty spot so had a great view of Billys penalty and the fans in red gimp suits.

 

Were you the one in drag?

[Turkish]

Were you the one in drag?

 

Damn, i didn't think people would notice it was drag.

[pap]

Payment was taken automatically a month ago sir.

 

I was stood at the front in line with the penalty spot so had a great view of Billys penalty and the fans in red gimp suits.

 

I was further at the back and didn't see a great deal Probably for the best, what with the football and red gimp suits. I didn't actually see any of the latter. Pulp Fiction gimp suits?

[pap]

Oh god, you're kidding, right? I can't stand them, all the Northerners on the national news, does my head in! But anyway, that's another topic ...

 

Poster above was right about saying 'svamtun' - one of my work colleagues in who Hungarian visited "South-hamp-ton" this weekend and I had to teach him how to pronounce it properly

 

I never really realised the little distinctions until I worked in London. Most people I work with are American or European with a fair few home-counties thrown in. We had a new starter a few months ago and I immediately picked up his accent from being from the Southampton area; not a strong accent, but little subtle things.

 

I do notice that when I go abroad, especially to our US office, when I listen to myself, I think I sound MORE English over there and sound like bloody Hugh Grant in my own head.

 

Ah, c'mon - there is no right accent - no matter what people would have you believe. I mean, people use the term Queen's English, but how many people actually speak like the Queen?

 

Having regional newsreaders is a good thing, a reinforcement of the country's diversity. Would rather have that than a plummy newsreader who sounds like no-one.

[Turkish]

Ah, c'mon - there is no right accent - no matter what people would have you believe. I mean, people use the term Queen's English, but how many people actually speak like the Queen?

 

Having regional newsreaders is a good thing, a reinforcement of the country's diversity. Would rather have that than a plummy newsreader who sounds like no-one.

 

Unless its a women in which case a plummy accent just makes you want to ruin her.

[pap]

Unless its a women in which case a plummy accent just makes you want to ruin her.

 

True, but you'd probably love and leave her if say, a lady with an Edinburgh accent was alongside her.

[Hatch]

I think it's an intelligence thing.

 

Those who are more intelligent, adapt their accents to suit the surroundings be it work or social life.

 

The thick bastards, ie Geordies, Scousers etc, don't have the intelligence to adapt and so keep their accents.

[Turkish]

I think it's an intelligence thing.

 

Those who are more intelligent, adapt their accents to suit the surroundings be it work or social life.

 

The thick bastards, ie Geordies, Scousers etc, don't have the intelligence to adapt and so keep their accents.

 

I agree with this. I've noticed that the thickest people on Jeremy Kyle tend to have the strongest accents which in definite evidence.

[pap]

I think it's an intelligence thing.

 

Those who are more intelligent, adapt their accents to suit the surroundings be it work or social life.

 

The thick bastards, ie Geordies, Scousers etc, don't have the intelligence to adapt and so keep their accents.

 

Heh, you fishing little fecker, Hatch!

 

[Verbal]

I've noticed that the thickest people on Jeremy Kyle tend to have the strongest accents which in definite evidence.

 

From this sentence, such as it is, I would guess that you were a recent guest.

[buctootim]

I deliberately tried to lose my accent to 'fit in' at mostly middle class Sussex University. My girlfriend at that the time always thought it funny when we'd get ****ed in a bar and the Socialist Workers Student Society members really broad mockney was replaced by their true Hampstead life / Westminster school education accent and my strong Suuffhampton crept back in.

 

People here in Sussex still reckon Ive got a Hampshire accent but when I go and see my sister or her kids (who never moved away) they sound really broad. My brother who spent most of his life overseas or in London has a generic mainstream unplaceable accent.

 

Remember seeing a lecture by a visiting professor talking about how in some places cities he could identify peoples background to not just an area of a city but sometimes to just a few streets. Briatain used to have 100s of accents but that very local difference is being lost quickly and being replaced by just a few regional accents. Real pity imo.

Edited 3 April, 2012 by buctootim

[Seaford Saint]

I think my accent has changed if not gone....been away too long.

 

Now settled and married to a posh bird, one does what one must to fit in, what, what, what.

[Verbal]

I think my accent has changed if not gone....been away too long.

 

Now settled and married to a posh bird, one does what one must to fit in, what, what, what.

 

One too many whats.

[buctootim]

I think my accent has changed if not gone. Now settled and married to a posh bird, one does what one must to fit in, what, what, what.

 

One too many whats.

 

Verbal's right. That sounds more like alzheimers than the Cotswold Hunt.

[Ohio Saint]

After 11 years here I think I've only lost my accent a little due to consciously changing the way I say certain sounds in order to be understood. My wife says I've lost it quite a lot.

If I'm asked what part of England I am from due to my accent, I tell them Southampton, the same town as Benny Hill. Then they say Aaaaah! I hear that now!

[pap]

Remember seeing a lecture by a visiting professor talking about how in some places cities he could identify peoples background to not just an area of a city but sometimes to just a few streets. Briatain used to have 100s of accents but that very local difference is being lost quickly and being replaced by just a few regional accents. Real pity imo.

 

Dunno. I still see plenty of evidence of variation where I am.

 

Scouse accents, obviously. Those over the water are different ( mostly softer scouse, like Nige ). Then you travel 10-15 miles in any direction, and you get stuff like St Helens, Wigan. Manc is only 30 miles away, and that has a completely different accent.

 

Remember meeting some scouse-ish people abroad once and correctly placed them in Neston

[bridge too far]

Rochdale has a very distinctive accent, I think.

[buctootim]

Dunno. I still see plenty of evidence of variation where I am.

 

Scouse accents, obviously. Those over the water are different ( mostly softer scouse, like Nige ). Then you travel 10-15 miles in any direction, and you get stuff like St Helens, Wigan. Manc is only 30 miles away, and that has a completely different accent.

 

Remember meeting some scouse-ish people abroad once and correctly placed them in Neston

 

Actually scouseland was one of the places the prof cited as being very diverse. Im not saying accents have disappeared but you only have to listen to audio recordings from the 1950s of people from different areas and classes speaking to realise most of them now are becoming softer, near to the middle and local words are being lost.

[Sheaf Saint]

Remember seeing a lecture by a visiting professor talking about how in some places cities he could identify peoples background to not just an area of a city but sometimes to just a few streets. Briatain used to have 100s of accents but that very local difference is being lost quickly and being replaced by just a few regional accents. Real pity imo.

 

This I can relate to. Even in Southampton, there is a subtle but noticeable distinction between accents on each side of the Itchen. I grew up on the east side in Bitterne, but I also have some friends from over Shirley way and I have always been conscious of the slight difference in their inflections and use of certain words etc...

[Turkish]

From this sentence, such as it is, I would guess that you were a recent guest.

 

Not as yet sadly, i'm waiting for the "i'm defined by my avatar on an internet mong board" edition. Maybe you could acompany me, i'm sure Jeremy shrink would make some interesting comments about you.

[dune]

I once pulled a crack head with a dodgy heart and she said I sounded Posh.

[The9]

I used to have great fun on the national software roll-out I worked on in '99 asking the various Register Office staff where they thought I was from. All over the country in a different location every week for 8 months and no-one ever guessed - meanwhile a colleague who was born in the same hospital as me was picked up on his "Welsh accent" every time.

 

I've never had a Newport accent because a lot of the local speech quirks were educated out of me when I was very young - it's only dropping my Hs like Tony Pulis, spa, that gives me away occasionally. That and saying "car park", and, as B Rabbit will tell you, for "year" I (used to) say "yurr" not "yee-uh" like you lot. I've switched now because the tedious tit picked me up on it every time I said it for about three yeaa-urs, but I do still say "baff" not "barth".

 

I can usually identify where other people are from though, it's another of my tedious academic tendencies.

[Verbal]

About ten years ago, I met the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann (the discoverer of the quark). Aside from being a brilliant scientist, he is a world-leading linguist, and has an extraordinary ear for accents. He could, for example, place a regional British accent within a few miles of its geographic origins. Even though my Hampshire accent faded in childhood, after moving to Kent and then London, he was still able to pick out enough detail to guess that I had grown up near Southampton.

 

He is, by temperament, a prototypical Dr Sheldon Cooper (and entered Yale at the same age -15). But his ideas about human language, dialect and linguistic origins are fascinating. His autobiography, The Quark and The Jaguar, discusses this, if anyone's genuinely interested in the significance of dialect (basically that different dialects provide different clues to an original human language).

Edited 3 April, 2012 by Verbal

[pap]

I once paid a crack head with a dodgy heart and she said I sounded Posh.

 

Corrected

[saintbletch]

About ten years ago, I met the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Murray Gell-Mann (the discoverer of the quark). Aside from being a brilliant scientist, he is a world-leading linguist, and has an extraordinary ear for accents. He could, for example, place a regional British accent within a few miles of its geographic origins. Even though my Hampshire accent faded in childhood, after moving to Kent and then London, he was still able to pick out enough detail to guess that I had grown up near Southampton.

 

He is, by temperament, a prototypical Dr Sheldon Cooper (and entered Yale at the same age -15). But his ideas about human language, dialect and linguistic origins are fascinating. His autobiography, The Quark and The Jaguar, discusses this, if anyone's genuinely interested in the significance of dialect (basically that different dialects provide different clues to an original human language).

 

A brilliant man - and a fan of James Joyce to boot. But I hadn't realised he had such an interest in language. I'll add that to my reading list.

 

As for accents, I think it can be partially explained by the need some people heave to belong and to not stand out from the crowd. As a result they unconsciously ape their acquaintances and the people that they see regularly. For others, the need to belong isn't as important and they are happy to be 'different' from their surroundings.

 

It's the difference between the "look at me" and "don't look at me" personality types. Social mobility also plays a role too I'm sure.

[Thedelldays]

the geordie accent sound really funny

[tpbury]

Nobody understood me and I understood nobody when I moved to Lancashuhr and worked in Yukshir. I ended up having to say things like 'buz' for bus and talk with a figurative flat cap on. I still feel unclean. In Australia, most people are ex-pats anyway, so I'm not able to throw another prawn on the barbie with any success. I guess you have to hang out with the Bogans to get the accent. As I work with lots of Indian blokes, I have started to develop the 'head shake' think, which was alluded to in a racist manner recently. You can see the guys really trying to mask it, but it is exactly the same as nodding your head in our culture, so I challenge you to shake your head in place of nodding for a day!