UK Regional Accents

[Jim Lahey]

I know this has probably be done before, but it has just recently dawned upon me how awful the Brummie accent is. I've started listening to TalkSport in the mornings and Gabby Agbonlahor's voice is like listening to a dentist's drill on your teeth. I'd never really thought much about Brummie accents beforehand, now I'm ultrasensitive

Other shockers:

-NI culchie. WTAF are you trying to say? Just write it down (if you can write, that is).

-NI Belfast Schmick (chav). Just awful.

-NI Derry. Whingey.

-Scouse. Obviously.

My picks:

-Female Embra accent can be quite attractive

-Female Welsh. Pity about the male version.

-Geordie

-Cornish

[Dinsdale Piranha]

"Birmingham - 3 million people with the same speech impediment" - Mike Harding.

[assfly]

I find it one of the most endearing thing about the UK, the regional variations.

But then again, I don't have to listen to it on a daily basis either.

[Ymx]

I know this has probably be done before, but it has just recently dawned upon me how awful the Brummie accent is. I've started listening to TalkSport in the mornings and Gabby Agbonlahor's voice is like listening to a dentist's drill on your teeth. I'd never really thought much about Brummie accents beforehand, now I'm ultrasensitive

Other shockers:

-NI culchie. WTAF are you trying to say? Just write it down (if you can write, that is).

-NI Belfast Schmick (chav). Just awful.

-NI Derry. Whingey.

-Scouse. Obviously.

My picks:

-Female Embra accent can be quite attractive

-Female Welsh. Pity about the male version.

-Geordie

-Cornish

Here here. Brummie is an abomination, and the sole reason I just can’t watch Peaky Blinders.

[Ymx]

Controversial picks

Geordie female
Scouse female (due to Abbie Clancy)
Yorkshire

[tabascoboy]

Bad: "Estuary English" - because it's worsened to some extent by lazy articulation

[Ymx]

Bad: "Estuary English" - because it's worsened to some extent by lazy articulation

That would be Essex girls?!!

And it is horrid.

[assfly]

My wife is from Southend on Sea, ground zero of the notirous Essex accent.

There are variations to the Essex accent to, it's less harsh in the nicer parts. But a walk down Southend high street is an eye-opener in many respects.

[SaintK]

Like the Norfolk and Gloucestershire accents

[tabascoboy]

And to balance with good, as well as those mentioned previously:

Some other Scottish accents such as the North West/Highlands and Orkney and Shetland
The Dorset and Hampshire "burr" - not often heard now as being replaced by more generic south/SE accent.

[Kiwias]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

[robmatic]

I grew up with a strong Yorkshire Dales accent that got poshened up slightly from living in Edinburgh. It confuses the hell out of Americans and I've variously been accused of being Irish/Danish etc.

[Sandstorm]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

Sadly a lot of rural accents are dying on their arse in the UK. There used to be distinct town/rural accents but most won't survive.

I grew up in Surrey. There used to be a rural Surrey accent but that's pretty much gone. I also remember a trip to Jersey and assuming that the owner of the venue was a Saffa. Turns out it was just the rural accent. It's also not going to survive past the current older generation.

[Paddington Bear]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

Sadly a lot of rural accents are dying on their arse in the UK. There used to be distinct town/rural accents but most won't survive.

I grew up in Surrey. There used to be a rural Surrey accent but that's pretty much gone. I also remember a trip to Jersey and assuming that the owner of the venue was a Saffa. Turns out it was just the rural accent. It's also not going to survive past the current older generation.

Yes the old Jersey one is a cracker! My fiancee's grandmother has a hint of it (and also can speak Jèrriais), but it's basically gone unless you spend time with people that age. There's the odd 'never left the island' kind of bloke in their 40s/50s who has traces of it, but anyone younger sounds like they're either from Surrey or Essex depending on their upbringing.

I'm just about old enough to remember people with the old Buckinghamshire accent when I was growing up, now long gone.

[Jim Lahey]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

I'll fucking cut you.
So I will.

[Paddington Bear]

https://dialectandheritage.org.uk/sound-map/
This link is interesting for old regional accents (and gives more than a hint as to where, for example, the accents of the Deep South came from).

Can't find it now but a German academic did a remarkable survey of British accents by getting POWs in the First World War to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I found some of the English accents to be nearly unintelligible, and I wonder to what extent that was true for people at the time as well. Maybe I just pick up a bit less of the differences but some of the Scottish and Irish accents seemed closer to the present day variety.

Edit:
Here it is
https://sounds.bl.uk/categories/accents ... iew&page=1

[sockwithaticket]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

Pretty much.

Parts of the west country and geordie land can veer into unintelligible territory, but for the most part accents from round there are fairly pleasant.

RP is obviously superior to everything else /smug south-easterner

[SaintK]

I'm just about old enough to remember people with the old Buckinghamshire accent when I was growing up, now long gone.

Same applies to Hertfordshire or 'ertforshire as the old boys in the pub would call it when I moved locally 45 years ago!

[SaintK]

Double post!!!

[Sandstorm]

I'm just about old enough to remember people with the old Buckinghamshire accent when I was growing up, now long gone.

Same applies to Hertfordshire or 'ertforshire as the old boys in the pub would call it when I moved locally 45 years ago!

West Berkshire accent is also dying round here.

[Kiwias]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

Sadly a lot of rural accents are dying on their arse in the UK. There used to be distinct town/rural accents but most won't survive.

I grew up in Surrey. There used to be a rural Surrey accent but that's pretty much gone. I also remember a trip to Jersey and assuming that the owner of the venue was a Saffa. Turns out it was just the rural accent. It's also not going to survive past the current older generation.

It is indeed sad to hear.

[tabascoboy]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

Sadly a lot of rural accents are dying on their arse in the UK. There used to be distinct town/rural accents but most won't survive.

I grew up in Surrey. There used to be a rural Surrey accent but that's pretty much gone. I also remember a trip to Jersey and assuming that the owner of the venue was a Saffa. Turns out it was just the rural accent. It's also not going to survive past the current older generation.

There was an old Kentish accent as well, only ever heard 1 person with it who was born in late 1940s - now it's hardly any different to London.

This is very good archive of old accents in the SE corner

[weegie01]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

A weegie poster in the old place thought I (Perthshire born and raised then Edinburgh) was taking the mickey when I said I really liked the female West Glasgow accent. I had omitted to mention that I was referring to the middle class Kelvinside / West End middle class accent. Bearsden, Milngavie, Newton Mearns and similar are the same.

[Dinsdale Piranha]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

A weegie poster in the old place thought I (Perthshire born and raised then Edinburgh) was taking the mickey when I said I really liked the female West Glasgow accent. I had omitted to mention that I was referring to the middle class Kelvinside / West End middle class accent. Bearsden, Milngavie, Newton Mearns and similar are the same.

A couple of years back I spent far too much time fixing punctures while cycling from Glasgow to Troon. Several of the people who came up to talk to me? Not an effing clue what they were saying. At one point a good couple of minutes in to one conversation I just made out the phrase 'Curling Stones' and realised he was on about Ailsa Craig. Those were the only 2 words I recognised in a long stream of conversation!

[tabascoboy]

Scouse
Daylight
Brummie
Belfast
Cockney bastard

West of Glasgow is unintelligible - I'm not sure they even spoke English.

A weegie poster in the old place thought I (Perthshire born and raised then Edinburgh) was taking the mickey when I said I really liked the female West Glasgow accent. I had omitted to mention that I was referring to the middle class Kelvinside / West End middle class accent. Bearsden, Milngavie, Newton Mearns and similar are the same.

A couple of years back I spent far too much time fixing punctures while cycling from Glasgow to Troon. Several of the people who came up to talk to me? Not an effing clue what they were saying. At one point a good couple of minutes in to one conversation I just made out the phrase 'Curling Stones' and realised he was on about Ailsa Craig. Those were the only 2 words I recognised in a long stream of conversation!

I've found Ayrshire/Renfrewshire and parts of Aberdeenshire (Doric?) to be the most difficult to follow

[Brazil]

Stoke is a unique accent, as much as it pains me to credit the clayheads with anything. It's extremely difficult to mimic.

The diversity of accents in the UK is in decline, but you still get surprising variations even within a single polity - for example there's a very marked difference in urban and rural accents in Cheshire, you can always tell which ones are the farmers.

[TedMaul]

We spent some time in Salisbury and then the Poole area on the south coast on holiday and I loved the accent, the gentle burr mentioned by tabascoboy.

Sadly a lot of rural accents are dying on their arse in the UK. There used to be distinct town/rural accents but most won't survive.

I grew up in Surrey. There used to be a rural Surrey accent but that's pretty much gone. I also remember a trip to Jersey and assuming that the owner of the venue was a Saffa. Turns out it was just the rural accent. It's also not going to survive past the current older generation.

Yes the old Jersey one is a cracker! My fiancee's grandmother has a hint of it (and also can speak Jèrriais), but it's basically gone unless you spend time with people that age. There's the odd 'never left the island' kind of bloke in their 40s/50s who has traces of it, but anyone younger sounds like they're either from Surrey or Essex depending on their upbringing.

I'm just about old enough to remember people with the old Buckinghamshire accent when I was growing up, now long gone.

I used to live in Coleshill in Bucks - there's an old couple in their late 70s who've been in the village all their life and they have the Bucks accent, quite unique and rather nice.

[TB63]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

[Brazil]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

There's a band of accents across the South West that are very similar, but the Oxford accent (as spoken by the bar staff at college) is different to Somerset, which is much broader. It's a bit like comparing accents form the industrial north, they're all of a type, but somebody from Leigh would kick the fuck out of you if you said they sounded like they were from Sheffield. Actually, they'd just kick the fuck out of you anyway, they don't really need a reason.

[Paddington Bear]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

There's a band of accents across the South West that are very similar, but the Oxford accent (as spoken by the bar staff at college) is different to Somerset, which is much broader. It's a bit like comparing accents form the industrial north, they're all of a type, but somebody from Leigh would kick the fuck out of you if you said they sounded like they were from Sheffield. Actually, they'd just kick the fuck out of you anyway, they don't really need a reason.

You get a lot of people in their 40s and 50s who have a distinctively Oxfordshire accent still, in a way that isn't true across Bucks/Berks/Herts etc.

[Sandstorm]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

There's a band of accents across the South West that are very similar, but the Oxford accent (as spoken by the bar staff at college) is different to Somerset, which is much broader. It's a bit like comparing accents form the industrial north, they're all of a type, but somebody from Leigh would kick the fuck out of you if you said they sounded like they were from Sheffield. Actually, they'd just kick the fuck out of you anyway, they don't really need a reason.

[weegie01]

I've found Ayrshire/Renfrewshire and parts of Aberdeenshire (Doric?) to be the most difficult to follow

When I worked in Aberdeen I had to up the coast to one of the fishing towns, Peterhead or Fraserburgh, I can't remember which. When I went into a bakers to get a pie for my lunch, I could not understand a word. What's more, it was mutual.

[tabascoboy]

I've found Ayrshire/Renfrewshire and parts of Aberdeenshire (Doric?) to be the most difficult to follow

When I worked in Aberdeen I had to up the coast to one of the fishing towns, Peterhead or Fraserburgh, I can't remember which. When I went into a bakers to get a pie for my lunch, I could not understand a word. What's more, it was mutual.

Met a guy from Fyvie who had moved to the south, I'm sure his accent may have mellowed a bit but it was still bleeding near incomprehensible

[Margin__Walker]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

I grew up in South Oxfordshire and that raised a smile.

'Old Boy' was ubiquitous to describe pretty much anyone. This Old boy this and this Old boy that etc.

Live in Southport now and quite like the soft scouse here.

Remember the first time I went to Glasgow and went out drinking in my 20s. I couldn't understand a word a few people were saying. The blank face got some work in that weekend .

The oddest experience though was going out with a girl from just outside Worksop. Stayed there a fair bit and never got used to fully grown ex miners calling me duck.

[Uncle fester]

Spent a summer working with a lad from Liverpool so for tuned to the accent.

Was in Liverpool for a weekend and had no bother understanding most of them. Could they understand me though?

[Niegs]

Kind of related, I recently saw a clip of an American couple in their 90s interviewed in 1930. Couldn't help but think their accent was closer to something 'British' than typical Americans today. (They could have been immigrants from, of course...)



While looking for it, found this old feller...


This is from a longer 14 minute video. Jumping around it, a lot of people seem to have that accent and meter that seems incredibly rare now. Maybe to do with the way they were educated?

[weegie01]

Kind of related, I recently saw a clip of an American couple in their 90s interviewed in 1930. Couldn't help but think their accent was closer to something 'British' than typical Americans today. (They could have been immigrants from, of course...)

Sorry to be vague about this, but it was a long time ago and I am getting old.

I read an article about an area in the US bemoaning the loss of the traditional accent as it became more homogenised with the surrounding area. The older accent and dialect were a preservation of what had come from the UK generations before. So long ago that the older residents of the area in US were preserving a form of speech that had largely died out in the original area of the UK.

[sefton]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

I grew up in South Oxfordshire and that raised a smile.

'Old Boy' was ubiquitous to describe pretty much anyone. This Old boy this and this Old boy that etc.

Live in Southport now and quite like the soft scouse here.

Remember the first time I went to Glasgow and went out drinking in my 20s. I couldn't understand a word a few people were saying. The blank face got some work in that weekend .

The oddest experience though was going out with a girl from just outside Worksop. Stayed there a fair bit and never got used to fully grown ex miners calling me duck.

I’m in Churchtown, C69 owns Formby.

[GogLais]

Spent the good part of 30 years living in South Oxfordshire, some of the old boys accents were very similar to Somerset..

I grew up in South Oxfordshire and that raised a smile.

'Old Boy' was ubiquitous to describe pretty much anyone. This Old boy this and this Old boy that etc.

Live in Southport now and quite like the soft scouse here.

Remember the first time I went to Glasgow and went out drinking in my 20s. I couldn't understand a word a few people were saying. The blank face got some work in that weekend .

The oddest experience though was going out with a girl from just outside Worksop. Stayed there a fair bit and never got used to fully grown ex miners calling me duck.

I’m in Churchtown, C69 owns Formby.

Formby? That’s Footballer Central isn’t it? He must be loaded.