Accents. Have you got one?

[Potter]

My kids have public school accents, the middle one is the most plummy, that's probably because she went straight into a posh job afterwards though.
The other two have softened after leaving school/uni and the youngest made a very conscious effort to drop it deliberately once he joined the army.

A lot of people I know got their accent from school, especially the boarders.

[JackyJoll]

Everyone’s got one.

Some of you bastards probably sound English!

[Noggin]

I’ve had an interesting few days on accents.

Firstly, it did feel weird to be somewhere that everyone was speaking english (regardless of the accent!!)

My first couple of nights I spent with friends, one english and one Mexican. The Mexican has really worked to lose his accent when speaking english and whilst it’s still there, he is definitely much clearer on the english

He made a comment that reminded me of this thread, he said he loved listening to me because I have no accent to speak of, I speak really clearly, almost the old bbc style of not posh but very clear (his partner remembers that accent, I don’t think Jesus knew what it was but that was T’s way of explaining!). I was pretty flattered (my mother would be very proud!!)

I’ve spent the last three days with Bristolians!!! Staying with and at a Bristol wedding. O. M. G. . Even i could hear the Bristol coming out after 24 hours!! And after three days/nights, eek!!!

Today I’m staying with a lovely friend with a full on Zummerzet accent. My Bristol is softening towards Somerset as a result but easing off a bit overall!

Tomorrow I’m staying with friends who, last time I saw them, had fairly neutral accents so I hope that by the time I see my mother on Tuesday I am back to an accent closer to the old bbc than Brizzle!!

If this thread hadn’t been here I doubt I’d have realised just how much my accent changes depending on who I’m with

[MyLittleStudPony]

I'm all Channel Four talking and posh and full of myself, like one of Tolkein's high elves.

It's ideal for turning up the Home Counties accent and threatening to have people thrown out of their cottages.

[Potter]

I'm all Channel Four talking and posh and full of myself, like one of Tolkein's high elves.

It's ideal for turning up the Home Counties accent and threatening to have people thrown out of their cottages.

I waft in on a wave of sartorial splendor, so I don’t have to say a word, one look at me and they know I mean business

[Taipan]

I confess to having a phone voice. I suspect I'm not alone...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Very occasionally Mrs D has to man the incoming phone lines at work when it's all hands on deck.

Her phone voice doesn't even sound like her. It's the only time she ever uses the full long version of her forename too.

[Potter]

My gran would speak with received pronunciation to people she didn't know, she was quite good at it but it was entirely put on.

The funniest one I heard though was my friends gran, she came from a very working class background, real salt of the earth stuff from the back streets and terraces - absolutely lovely lady....I'm just making the point about her background for the purposes of the story.

Anyway, her son (my mates dad) had done well for himself by starting a business and they lived in one of the nice Victorian houses on the main road, the granny had moved in with them and she obviously thought that she should talk with a grand accent, and god bless her she tried, but she sounded ridiculous and always got it wrong, she'd sometimes sound like she was trying to speak with a foreign accent

[Skub]

I confess to having a phone voice. I suspect I'm not alone...

Try talking to one of those phone bot bastards in a N.Ireland accent. One needs a phone voice for those occasions,one does.

[Bigjawa]

I confess to having a phone voice. I suspect I'm not alone...

Try talking to one of those phone bot bastards in a N.Ireland accent. One needs a phone voice for those occasions,one does.

I lived in Essex for a couple of years and can pull off the accent so I just go full Basildon on those things.

My ma was a telephonist in the civil service for 20 odd years, ahe was born and raised on thr Shankill Road, but on the phone she's like something from Downton Abbey.

[Potter]

I get accused of being posh because I say things like "spectacles" instead of "glasses" or "bicycle" instead of "bike".
I also try and pronounce words in standard Kings English without an accent, but that's because I've spent a lot of time being the only native English speaker in any group of people, so I needed to be understood clearly.

It's funny watching people with strong accents trying to be understood by people who learned very standard English.
The differences in Arabic are even more pronounced, if you learned Arabic in some local dialects then you might struggle to be understood in others.

[ajlog]

Again for me it depends on who I'm communicating with, and swaps about subconsciously.

When at home or with friends where I now live, here in the midlands its an attenuated version of my Welsh accent, enough so that my origins are obvious, but not so strong or using colloquialisms as to need explanation or rephrasing.
Then when talking to friends and family from Port Talbot it's like I haven't been away for the best part of 30years.

Finally like Potter says when I'm working overseas, presenting or in meetings with overseas colleagues, I adopt what I call Fisher Price English, talk using standard pronunciation and simply, I am often told that I'm easy to understand. My thoughts on it are if you can take the effort to speak my language the least I can do is try to speak it properly.

[DefTrap]

I adopt what I call Fisher Price English, talk using standard pronunciation and simply, I am often told that I'm easy to understand. My thoughts on it are if you can take the effort to speak my language the least I can do is try to speak it properly.

I do it to amuse / annoy my US colleagues, depending on how I'm feeling. And if I feel particularly malevolent I throw in as much british or cockernee slang as possible to confuse and amuse.

Of course sometimes it's just by mistake. I told a canadian lady colleague who was coming down with the COVIDs that she " ... didn't sound too clever ... ". She just thought I was being a bit of a twat initially, but luckily I know her quite well ...

[Yorick]

When I'm with Mrs Y and come across another Wezzy (West Yorkshire lad) we can slip into proper broad Yorkshire with all the slang and it's indecipherable to SSSDs like here

There's a quiz somewhere but can't find it's. Here's a few of them

Tintintin
Midadzgorrajag
Eesezitintis. Burraberritis.
Wheers thi barn?

Etc....

[The Afterburner]

Dunno. Depends who you ask. Born and raised in Rural North Bucks, went to school with London overspill kids, spent a decade in the Army with lads from all over, and have subsequently lived in Bletchley, Somerset, Isle of Wight, and the last decade in North Yorkshire. To me, I have a non distinct Southern accent. If you ask the Wiganers, Boltoners, and Prestonites that I work with I might as well turn up to work as a pearly king doing the Lambeth walk