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One for the Brits (and Irish)... where are you??!


Live R Perfect

What part of the UK or Ireland do you live in?  

1 member has voted

  1. 1.

    • North-West
      19
    • North-East
      13
    • West Midlands
      7
    • East Midlands
      8
    • South-West
      22
    • South-East
      52
    • East Anglia
      7
    • North Wales
      0
    • South Wales
      8
    • Northern Scotland
      4
    • Southern Scotland
      7
    • Northern Ireland
      1
    • Southern Ireland
      9
    • Other? Please specify!!
      1
    • By request: I DON'T LIVE IN THE UK!!!
      37
    • I wish I lived in the UK!
      16

This poll is closed to new votes


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Ah well, that;s where my family is from and they don;t like the title. But if you listened to my Unlce's you'd expect them to be straight off Byker Grove

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Hehehe, bayk'er groooaave

Northerners are highly entertaining. Their accents are fascinating! The South sucks, everyone speaks with almost exactly the same accent, just in varying degrees of poshness :P but compare someone from Liverpool with someone from Manchester: they're not far apart at all, but they sound completely different!

The West Country is quite interesting too, as are the various regions of Wales and Scotland and Ireland :lol:

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Are people from Durham Geordies? They don't have the accent... :?

I wouldn't think so. I mean, they are further south than Sunderland!

I'm a Geordie/South Yorkshire mixture myself, at least my accent is. I don't think I sound VERY Geordie, but Yorkshire people tell me I do.

See, this is why I hate the term "British accent" - there's hundreds of them!

Not to mention that stereotype British accents sound, well, English to me, more than anything else!

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*hates his stereotype "British" accent, hopes living in Edinburgh will change it* :P

Geordies are particularly cool, any culture that could give birth to Sting deserves special recognition.

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Hehehe, bayk'er groooaave

The South sucks, everyone speaks with almost exactly the same accent, just in varying degrees of poshness

*Pisses self laughing*

Sorry....Posh?!

You haven;t been south enough.

*clears throat*

'Mush! Yeah, gah-in' daan Gspor' park innit!'

We have a weird southern/cockney hybrid and it is not pretty.

Luckily it is a forced accent and I speak nothing like that.

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Yeah, it definitely depends on what part of the south of England you're referring to. I've discovered that I tend to like certain accents that English people generally don't--like a Hampshire burr or a brummie accent. I have a difficult time understanding people from North London for some reason and I remember not being able to understand ANYONE on East Enders for a long time, though now I don't have a problem as long as no one does that rhyming slang thing, which just does my head in.

There are certain English accents--based on Essex and Kent--that I can't hear at all. Like, someone has to tell me the person I'm listening to has an accent. It's difficult to explain and I have no idea why that is.

Oh, and I can't understand people from Glasgow. People from Edinburgh (Edinbergers? Edinboroughers?) I can understand fine, but go over to Glasgow and...I got nothing. They're not even that far apart! Like someone was saying about the differences between Liverpool and Manchester, which sound nothing alike to me.

Cate

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My housemates struggle to understand my parents.

....I don't undertsand it.

My parents both moved down south around the age of 18 and have been there since (but also spent a few years in Gib and Plymouth) so their accents have dies down, but my housmeates find it hilarious!

Hampshire has a few posh spots if you avoid the coast.

Sadly I was raised on the coast...

Am common

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I tend to like certain accents that English people generally don't--like a Hampshire burr or a brummie accent.

Oooh, be careful! Call someone from the Black Country a Brummie and you're likely to get your lights stoved in :wink:

For non-Englanders (or those who haven't been here much), the Black Country being the old industrial area west of Birmingham: that's Dudley, Tipton, Wednesbury, etc. What most people think of as a "Brummie" accent is actually the heavy Black Country accent (think actress Julie Walters). Locals in the Black Country also tend to use a lot of dialect which is well nigh impossible to understand if you're an outsider. A true Birmingham ("Brummie") accent is much softer in comparison.

Wolverhampton is unique (can't think of anyone famous with that accent at the moment), and then you have Walsall ("that's good, ay it?") and then the accent changes roughly every two miles all the way up to Cannock. I used to commute from Cannock into Birmingham, and on the train each day I could tell which stop we were at just by the accents of the people getting on. And it's only an 18 mile trip.

Edit: Incidentally, I'm from the south but I lived in the Midlands / Staffs for a number of years.

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Ah the joys of local accents!

I reduce a colleague at work to laughter every time I phone my Dad, I suddenly slip into country yokel when I talk to him.

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Sorry....Posh?!

You haven;t been south enough.

Lol! OK, OK, what I actually meant by "varying degrees of poshness" was ranging from not posh at all (in fact the differences within London itself are huge, my family lives in a really posh area which is half a mile away from a very... er... not posh area) to extremely posh (think "absolutely smashing to see you") :lol:

I don't think I even know most of the northern accents. I need to spend more time up... er... I mean down there (can't get used to being north of the North)

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I can't understand people from Glasgow. People from Edinburgh (Edinbergers? Edinboroughers?) I can understand fine, but go over to Glasgow and...I got nothing. They're not even that far apart! Like someone was saying about the differences between Liverpool and Manchester, which sound nothing alike to me.

Yeah, it's crazy how strong a Glaswegian accent is. Really really strong. Like, I always imagine a Glaswegian using very strong language (I heard a Glaswegian say "oh poo" today -- almost pissed myself :lol:). An Edinburgh (what is the adjective for Edinburgh?) accent is a lot less heavy. It's like I said about Liverpool and Manchester. But in the South, the accent varies more to do with social class than region, I think. I know people from Brighton who speak almost exactly the same as me. Or Cambridge.

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:) Where are you from originally Sazandra?

I'm Oxfordshire born and bred.

It's tempting to say "think Pam Ayers" but my accent isn't quite so country yokel as hers. I get accused of going posh when I'm at work but if I didn't half the world wouldn't understand a word I say.

Any Archers listeners? A few years ago there was a character called Martha Woodford, she was played by Molly Harris who lived much of her life in the village where I live.

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Live R Perfect

So then, only 34 of you Brits / Irish have voted in the poll. I need MOOORE! I wanna get a map put on my wall and stick little pins in it to represent you all! I....am coming over as a bit weird now, aren't I?... :oops:

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Liver, you always came across weird.

But I;m sure that;s why we love you.

Or maybe we just want to be cool and you have status and so we cling to that in hopes that we may oneday acheive the amazingness to stand alone in our own superbness....

Or somthing.

c",) <-- that is my friend Bill.

yes, Yes, I know. I should really not stay up with a fragile mind.

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Heeeeeyyyy, I have a map of the UK and Ireland on my wall...now I want to get little stickers to put where everyone is on it. Thanks for the idea, Liver. :D I think that's a fun idea.

Cate

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I guess it's official then...you're more likely to be an asexual if you live in the South East of England!!

*prffft*...lol :D gosh eight years can really change a woman :D

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Actually, I clicked East Anglia, but that's just where I live now. For the first 35 years of my life I lived in Croydon, so I s'pose I should have clicked South East. I don't suppose there really are more asexuals in the SE per se, its just that people are much more densely packed down there!

Sil

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You can't generalise re: Glasgow and Edinburgh accents. 'Trainspotting' was set in Edinburgh/Leith. Ditto use of gratuitous coarseness - again it's to do with level of education, social bracket & c.

The old style Kelvinside (Glasgow) and Morningside (Edinburgh) accents (sadly now almost extinct except among old ladies of the Miss Jean Brodie type) were the last remnants of the old genteel Scots of the late 18C. (According to which, 'sex' was what coal was delivered in!) I find it deeply depressing that the main Scots accents one hears on TV are generally 'keelie' ones - associated with low-lifes. You'd think there were no educated, professional people here, judging by the media profile. Glottal stops annoy me because they're just laziness. My father had never heard (or never *not* heard?) a glottal stop until a lot of Glasgow keelies got evacuated to Bute during the war, and he couldn't understand them.

And one hears very few Highland accents outside Gaelic broadcasting and one or 2 newscasters. It always cracks me up when Hollywood films and popular novels have allegedly Highland characters speaking mock-Glaswegian!

There are also distinctive Aberdeenshire, Fife and Borders accents and speech patterns.

I think my pet-hates linguistically (besides keelies who use f___ in every sentence) have got to be Estuary English (oh-so-trendy, oh-so-ugly) and Scouse.

People from Edinburgh are usually just that. Or (semi-satirically) if of the middle classes, Edinbourgeois.

love,

Unicorn Lady

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Sorry, I realise you can't really generalise about accents like that. As I've already said, even within small regions of London itself the differences in accent are very noticeable (this depends mostly on education and upbringing). However, it is true that even the standard "educated" Glaswegian accent is rather stronger than the equivalent Edinburgh accent, or certainly in my experience, and in both cases there are certain telling characteristics. For example, Glaswegians tend to roll their Rs more, whereas in Edinburgh they tend to be pronounced more or less as in England or the US (although, unlike in most of England, they are pronounced before a consonant). I can certainly recognise a Glaswegian accent quite easily, rather more easily in fact than an Edinburgh one (despite living here) or a Stirlingshire one, or indeed a Dumfries one. Northern Scottish accents I find particularly difficult to place, mainly because I haven't heard many.

I think my pet-hates linguistically (besides keelies who use f___ in every sentence) have got to be Estuary English (oh-so-trendy, oh-so-ugly) and Scouse.

So true. A really strong Scouse accent really gets on my nerves for some reason. An educated Liverpudlian accent I quite like though (I also have Liverpudlian friends).

People from Edinburgh are usually just that. Or (semi-satirically) if of the middle classes, Edinbourgeois.

:lol:

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I thought i might just requote myself, because i'm very funny and have forgotten how funny i used to be

Thats me right at the bottom in the middle of Britian, eating my copious amounts of cadburys chocolate bought from the factory outlet shop in Portsmouth (25 mile south from me), melting some of it to pour all over my self-home-made scones and in my cups of tea, and eagerly waiting for the invention of chocolate-chip cheese, cursing about the rain, wearing bowler hats (well, my friend has one) and reading my 'Times' newspaper held over by black briefcase which is on my crossed knees, while wearing a black suit with my black umbrella perched apon the side of the red leather wing chair in which i sit. My wife picks up the telephone reciever and says "Air-Hair-Lair" (<-- go on, say it) down the candlestick reciever to the snooty woman on the other side. The British bulldog waddles into the room of the london house and sits on the mat infront of the expansive fireplace, with the fire playfully dancing inside. As i sit beside the windo, i look out to see Black taxis and Red Double Decker Busses roll along the cobbled street while the conductor jovially waves at the passers by.

Funny man.

Bored Boy

Tired Human.

Night night

Ben Ken

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  • 1 month later...

*wavies*

coo-eeee.... I'm over here :)

No, not there - here, where it says South East.

*hands Karl a small pin to stick in his map*

Brian

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Heehee!! This is one fun conversation about accents!!!!!!!

My area is Hatfield (Hertfordshire)!! which is basically a rather run-down place - Here is a pretty summing-up by the public on knowhere.co.uk - http://www.knowhere.co.uk/3274_goodbad.html

So in the 'Posh Bit' right in the north, there is quite a strong 'Oh yarss, smashing...' traditional kind of oh-so-british, and then two miles away in the south you get 'Oy! Dwaayyne!! Get your fuckin' ass in 'ere rat nah, o' yall feel the back me 'and!' I live in between the two, having just moved from aforesaid area around hill-top opposite all the council houses to an intermediate bit which is still near to the play park, so you hear the fireworks going off at two in the morning.

We have a nice university by the way. Good for astronomy, physics, maths, geography and art I have heard.

:twisted:Evil idea comes to mind...:twisted:

Does anyone else dislike townies(or know what they are)? They can also be known as a race as chavs. They must wear designer sportswear, a lot of nearly-gold jewellery, be homophobic, smoke, be anti-social. Often they live in all those council houses and tend to be the under-aged pregnant. There is an example of an adult (chav) up there, but a teenager (townie), who must additionally like hip-hop and rap speaks like this. A prize goes to the one who understands it first.

Well wassup? Andya like me boks I fink deyre lak sick blud! Wanna gafag!? Tha' biatch wo' suspend me i tol'er 'yer mum!' anshe lak ignod me blud! This fickin' sick lak awwwsum innit!!!!!

The people who speak like this are either the most poor, or the quite rich ones. Funny world.

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