UK Regional Accents

[sefton]

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.

One of those minted NHS types with their gold plated pensions holding the rest of us on contempt whilst he eats caviar from the warm crevices of freshly mown down peasants.

[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.

I’m in Churchtown, C69 owns Formby.

Hey Seft. Moved to Birkdale just prior to covid, as my better half grew up here.

My eldest goes to primary school your end of town, so we do a fair bit of shuttling back and forth.

It's a nice spot

[sefton]

Birkdale is a nice spot, have you tried the French restaurant by the station?

[Margin__Walker]

Birkdale is a nice spot, have you tried the French restaurant by the station?

Yeah, it's nice. Tends to be a go to for wider family meals for various occasions when nobody can be bothered to go too far. My lad prefers the popcorn chicken in the Fisherman's Rest though. He's a boy of simple tastes.

[GogLais]

I bet you all wished you lived on the Wirral. On the correct side of the M53 of course.

[C69]

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.

Afraid not and I don't live in Formby.

[sefton]

I bet you all wished you lived on the Wirral. On the correct side of the M53 of course.

Birkenhead central.

[Woddy]

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.


If you listen to recordings of US politicians in the late 19thC, even into the 1920s, their accents are much more clipped and British-like than you’d expect.

But in terms of accents merging, the National Geographic did a report on it and chose an area which would most naturally show how it was happening with working populations mixing from one area to another - either side of Highway along the US/Canada border. They had a preconceived idea, but had to ditch it when they discovered that the accents either side were diverging - especially vowel sounds.

[TB63]

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.

Don't get me wrong, but the 70 year old boys that used to drink in my pub, who'd worked all their lives on the farms, wouldn't be serving pints to students...

[GogLais]

I bet you all wished you lived on the Wirral. On the correct side of the M53 of course.

Birkenhead central.

We tell people we live between Liverpool and Chester, which has the advantage of being true and it isn’t Ellesmere Port.

[TB63]

So nice to see a Gog and a Scouse Gog getting on so well...

[C69]

So nice to see a Gog and a Scouse Gog getting on so well...

Peas in a pod. Rhyl is basically a Liverpool borough tbh

[GogLais]

So nice to see a Gog and a Scouse Gog getting on so well...

Peas in a pod. Rhyl is basically a Liverpool borough tbh

It’s the Mancs in Abersoch that are the big problem.

[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...)

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.

I think it was The Story of English documentary that found a place like this on the east coast of the US.

... a wee Google ... is it this one? https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/2018 ... ish-accent

[Calculon]

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?

I only listened to bits of those but it seems both the old man and woman have non rhotic accents, dropping the r in father like most brits, and unlike most Americans who pronounce it. Non rhotic accents were fairly common on the East Coast and in the South around mid 19C to early 20C. Non rhotic has largely disappear, except maybe amongst African Americans. Wiki has good info on this.

[mat the expat]

So nice to see a Gog and a Scouse Gog getting on so well...

Peas in a pod. Rhyl is basically a Liverpool borough tbh

It’s the Mancs in Abersoch that are the big problem.

All of Clwyd is Scouse

I do miss accents a lot living in Oz now - the same accent, just different speeds.

[Line6 HXFX]

I get the word "Sorry" thrown at me a hell of a lot, from English people when I speak, as a extremely passive aggressive form of racism.

Happenned yesterday.

I arrived...welshed up the place (by chatting to someone I knew)..english persons (usually female) ears prick..

I can see i am going to be "sorried at from 25 yards now.

Hi, I am here to s..

"Sorry"!!!!!!!!! (+ self satisfied grin)

They usually come with big signs saying "rudeness to receptionist will not be tolerated".

[Jim Lahey]

I get the word "Sorry" thrown at me a hell of a lot, from English people when I speak, as a extremely passive aggressive form of racism.

Happenned yesterday.

I arrived...welshed up the place (by chatting to someone I knew)..english persons (usually female) ears prick..

I can see i am going to be "sorried at from 25 yards now.

Hi, I am here to s..

"Sorry"!!!!!!!!!

They usually come with big signs saying "rudeness to receptionist will not be tolerated".

Racism really is the scurge of modernity. The fact it can now happen between two sets of white folk down at the dole office shows just how dangerous it has become.

[Paddington Bear]

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?

I only listened to bits of those but it seems both the old man and woman have non rhotic accents, dropping the r in father like most brits, and unlike most Americans who pronounce it. Non rhotic accents were fairly common on the East Coast and in the South around mid 19C to early 20C. Non rhotic has largely disappear, except maybe amongst African Americans. Wiki has good info on this.

Meanwhile large parts of England had rhotic accents at the same time, and even in the deepest South West you’ll struggle to find too many people below 40 who have one now