This Town

We find regional language differences and accents interesting, but they do evolve over times. Back in the 1980’s, I can recall some of the places we visited, if you quietly sat say in a pub and listened to true local folks conversing, it was often very very hard to keep track of a conversation.

My OH often spent the odd time working at different Fire Stations around just South Yorks, and despite being local, the accents and word pronunciations at the different towns was totally different. Sheffielders were known as Dee Dahs….to quote “ die awor reeght den dee?” ( are you ok, how are you) Barnsley folk put their vehicles in “caar paarks” and “shut dooers” to keep out draughts😁

For me, I love listening to the “aristo’s”. Tirribly tirribly neece🤣 They use parts of the face to say yes and no………”eeyes” (yes), “nowes” (no) Has to be done without moving your mouth and breathing through your nose🤣🤣

Ex Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell had the accents and language thing down to a tee!

I'm enjoying it. I suppose poetic licence has always been used to make a story more appealing, so nothing new there. Sound track also brings back strong memories as I'm 62. I'm picking up on song titles within a few notes at times.

I think the difficult to follow accents and dialects is down to a few things. My wife says it's my age, but I'm starting to think listening in HD may part of the problem. Every single noise seems amplified and the overall sounds seems to blur.

Colin

Can you remember The Beat EM? They were part of the Rock on the Tyne Festival, headlined by The Police, back in 1982. U2 were another of the support acts, but even then huge. It was a great day, if a bit chilly.

https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/gateshead-1982.html

Yes, local pronunciation is fascinating. Like Keswick &  Berwick that silent W. But did you know than Runswick and Saltwick follow the/same rule and also have silent Ws according to the locals there. Oh, speak to an old Cumbrian sheep farmer too and they to do the same with Herdwick as in the sheep. When in Rome and all that!

Oh yes Takethedogalong. I think it was 1980 for:-

Mirror in the bathroom, please talk free
The door is locked, just you and me.

Colin

Perhaps its easier to distinguish between accents when you don't have one? There is nothing to get in the way?

David

I think there are very few of us who do not have an accent. We may think we do not have one but most of us give away our identify in how we pronounce words or use dialect from an area where we have lived for some time.

I was born on Merseyside and lived for 35 years in Essex where I was known as a Scouser. I then returned to Merseyside for 5 years and was thought of as a Southerner.

I now live in Devon and confuse people when I first meet them. A couple of times I've managed to use a Jimmy Carr line I heard some years ago. "You may not recognise this accent, it's called educated"

Colin

Colin

Not quite sure why I don't consider myself to have an accent but probably something to do with the job I did which involved dealing with the public all my life, certainly wasn't down to education! Someone once told me I spoke like Stefan Buczacki of Gardeners Question Time if anyone is old enough to remember him! Margaret was born in the North East and moved to Southampton in her late teens. She never had a broad Geordie accent more of a lilt. People recognise she has a slight twang but don't automatically associate her with coming from where she did. Obviously where I live now is quite heavily influenced by a London accent although since we came here MK is now much more International! 

David

British accents have evolved hugely in the last three decades. Not so much class/education biased nowadays, and the influx of overseas residents of one sort or another are heavily influencing some regions. I think folks adapt as well almost on a daily basis around what they are doing, who they might be with. I was told I had a slight Lincolnshire twang at one time, no surprise as my first boss was from Lincolnshire🤭 Pakistani/Yorkshire is an interesting accent, heard a lot around Bradford, but some of the best “blends” are the overseas footballers that play for teams in the North West.

Being a Yellowbelly I know how many different accents and dialect melds we have in Lincolnshire. Listening to locals from on the Isle of Axholme you can hear South Yorkshire influences. From along the Humber near my home it’s East Riding ‘tones’ you can detect. Then go to our Deep South and there North Norfolk influences in accents abound. We always said that those from the flat lands of Lincolnshire suffered from fenitus, heaven knows what that was but it was a derogatory but friendly term. A rivalry has always existed between them and us that came from the mountainous Lincolnshire Wolds region.😉 Similar rivalries exist in those very different areas of Yorkshire.