What accent do you really hate? and which one you love?

Going back to the original thread topic;

ACCENTS I LOVE

- Eastern Canadian (Nova Scotian, Newfie, etc)
- Ontarian Canadian.
- British Columbian Canadian (Vancouver area)
- Southern Irish
- Highlands Scottish
- New England US (From Boston to Maine).
- Pacific North West (from San Fran to Seattle)
- New Zealand (Distictly different to Australian if you listen carefully, vowels heavily tinted by 'i' sound.

ACCENTS I DON'T LIKE

- Liverpool and Merseyside (sorry)
- Birmingham and West Midland (Sorry)
- North East England (my own!)
- English 'Radio' (formed from a London area accent but neutralized and 'T' pronounced as 'D's.
- Glasgow / West Coast Scottish (sorry).
- Welsh (North or South, sorry !!)
- Texan area (sorry).
- Alabama area (sorry).
- Over Italian influenced New York City accent. (sorry).

Apologies if I offended anyone ! If it's any consolation, I dislike the accent from my own native North East England probably more than any other (with the honest exception of Scouse! sorry again!).

David R

Well Adam, Welsh isn't the only inflected language you know. Plenty of languages have suffixes denoting possesion, plurality, case and so on. The spelling difference between "careg" and "y gareg" sounds like a quite common case of the preceding word affecting the pronunciation of the word which follows, by assimilation, palatalization, insertion etc. English does this quite a lot, it just isn't accurately reflected in the spelling system. There are plenty of similarly odd features of english spelling, such as the way that by adding and "e" after most consonants you change the preceding vowel - e.g. the "a" sound in "mad" changes when you add an "e" after it - "made." When you think about it that is abit of a bizarre spelling rule, although fairly consistent.
Now you have gone and made me stick up for welsh as a language but don't confuse that with support for the people themselves, who often tend to be irritatingly touchy and with a chip on their shoulders. Although of course not all of them. And to finally get back to the topic of English accents I find the Welsh accent one of the worst. Scottish accents are great though, especially Edinburgh and Borders accents spoken by girls.
I have never heard a Manx accent, and am curious.
The best English accents are North Eastern, including Yorkshire. I include Yorkshire in the North East because otherwise where is it supposed to be? North Midland? East-North-East? Manc and Bolton accents make me anxious about my car, until I realise I have never owned a car. South eastern accents are only bearable when divorced from a know-all tone, which is rare. South western accents are great, and Brummie accents are funny. French people speak English very nicely and rarely affect an American accent, which is nice. Most foreign accents add a pleasant touch to English except when they try to sound American or use stupid phrases like "take a rain check" and "wite me next toosday." I seem to have lost the power of punctauation, but that is merely an attempt to convey the stream of conciousness nature of this waffle. And all Southerners are soft as "shite", not "shit." By that I meant southern English, before the Latin mob get onto me. Not saying I am hard like.

That was odd - I posted a reply to Adam and someone else appeared in the several hours I spent writing it, tap by painful tap, using my one functioning nose muscle. Or something.
David R - what do you mean by North east accent? Do you mean Geordie/Mackam/Durham or do you concede that North Yorkshire and Teesside are also geographically to the North East of England?
And the New Yoyk accent is great, although it is doomed to die out I think.

Stefaniel - Sorry to interrupt ;-)

Yes, I was referring to "Geordie" (Newcastle, my own accent), "Mackam" (Sunderland) and the Teeside accent (Middlesborough).

I wouldn't say there is a specific "Durham" accent. I am from Newcastle but live in Durham now and find the Durham accent to be a hybrid of Mackam and Geordie. (Probably clearer to understand than both).

I would include North Yorkshire in a description of the North East, geographocally but I think there is a marked 'border' 10 miles South of Middlesborough in terms of the accents. From that point I find the accent more in the general 'Yorkshire' categories rather than the 'North East'.

D.

....by the way, I included the areas in brackets for the sake of others, clearly you know the area !

D.

So England can be divided into South West, South East, East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East and Yorkshire? Thats big props for Yorkshire, perhaps the compass should be modified...

I agree about the borderline between Yorkshire and "North East" to some extent, although I am not sure if I'd lump Teesside in with Geordies, Mackams and other "plastic geordies". Have you heard of the "purple shirt" test? I am from part of the borderline you talked about at the customs post in Saltburn. Perhaps just over the border on the Teesside side, although a generation or two ago it was definitely North Yorks. As soon as you get to Brotton you are definitely in North Yorks territory, but they do still say "mate" after most sentences, a la Teesside. (As opposed to "man.")

I am a Russian and I hate the Polish accent. :)

I love the American accent ever and ever and ever

I like David R's list of accents...favoured and not favoured. I take issue with one or few....eg the North East England accent (Geordie)...I quite like it, man! Wa hey! I enjoyed my time in Newcastle even if it was only two days and one night.

He mentions English radio....another good example is the TalkSport station.....an independent commercialy financed station (with the most inanely irritating advertising slots) which concentrates on sport interspersed with talk in shows with a variety of presenters...some so irritatingly right wing and reactionary you wouldn't believe it. Anyway, there seems to be a sort of TalkSport accent among many of the callers to the talk-ins....I call it the Toke Spote accent as many of them are mega macho types from the London/South East of England area described so well by David R......full of glottal stops and Estuary extremis - with is wiv and think is fink etc etc.

I'm glad the Edinburgh and Borders accent is appreciated by Stefaniel.....even if it is just the girls'! It is fair cliver I agree but I'm biased.

The Manx accent....I have checked this out and it doesn't really exist...the Isle of Man is a bit of a maverick...it can't be identified with any region, perhaps because it's position right in the middle of the Irish Sea is more or less equidistant from Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. Also, it's population is now made up of people who have gone to live there from all parts of the UK, many of them very wealthy and taking advantage of the Isle of Man's tax haven status, like the Channel Islands. The Manx accent therefore must be some sort of bland hybrid.

Hi Damian,

I think you're generally right about the Isle of Man.

I have a DVD with a guy who states he was born and bred in IOM and his accent definately sounded like it hard North West England roots .... it sounded like a gentler version of the scouse accent (a Wirral accent?), almost (you could say with some embarrassment and lack of credibility), like Les Dennis :-)

I work with a fella from Fife and I once wrongly referred to his "East Coast / Edinburgh Accent" and he called some other guy over who works in our office who is from Portabello, Edinburgh and demonstrated how different their accents were ! .... and they were really different when you listened closely.

I do dislike the North East English accent mainly because it's my own. I don;t have the strongest "Geordie" accent (not Jimmy Nail level) but you can certainly tell where I'm from.

Fot those who don't know the accent well, we're pretty much at the opposite pole to the North American type accents, in that we neutralize our 'R' sounds. We also heavilt over-emphasize the 'ee' sound.

Here are some examples:-

Corner = Cohnah
Leader = Leedah
Register = Registah
You = Yi

We also use a LOT of coloquialisms !

Whey aye = Yes, for certain
Whey Knarr = No, for certain
Gannin = going (very broad)
Git = Bizarre term used by some to emphasize a point. Loosely means 'very'

"He was git big this bloke"

"He said he couldn't come for a drink 'cos he's git skint"

Most of the above are only used by those with a VERY broad North-East accent though. I suppose you could probably compare my own accent as closer to Kevin Whately (of Inspector Morse fame)

All North American accents are the most grating followed by the South African and New Zealand versions.

Most pleasing are the accents of most Australians, most southern Irish, most of the southern English counties, and some Scots.

Hi David R:

Why don't you like your own accent? I really like the way Geordies speak, and as Edinburgh is only a wee bit over 100 miles from Newcastle we get a fair number of Geordies here....accent instantly recognisable as I see them gannin doon Princes Street...or more usually doon parallel Rose Street as it's lined with pubs and clubs all the way along on both side...even get Newcastle Brown in a fair number....whey aye, man!


In 2000 I went for an interview at Newcastle uni (ended up at Leeds as it turned out) and the lady in reception at Castle Leazes halls of residence
had a fantastic Geordie accent...even the characteristic rising pitch at the end of every sentence, as well as the "ah" bit in words like "corner" - "cohnah!" LOL I thought it was so funny even though I was familiar with it.....when I smiled I hope she thought it was just because I'm a happy guy. She was so nice and helpful and put me in a room with a fantastic view of St James' Park NUFC ground across the fields which had cows grazing on them.

Kevin Whately is actually a Newcastle guy born and bred and now that he's no longer Morse's sidekick Sergeant Lewis he has one of his own as Inspector Lewis...Laurence Fox, who is definitely not a Geordie.....a Southerner through and through.

Robson Green is another local guy to you but from Hexham, so technically not a Geordie but with a distinct NE England accent. Hexham is a really nice place and I've been there twice, both on trips to Hadrian's Wall, including Vindolanda.

What about Alan Shearer?

You're in good company with loads of famous Geordies:

http://www.geordie.co.uk/articles/famous_geordies.htm

I like this site.....just type in anything you like, click on the spot and you get it back in Geordie. LOL

http://www.geordie.org.uk/

Fife does have a different accent from Edinburgh even though we are just across the Firth from each other....cross the Forth Bridge and you're in a different "Kingdom". You have to be familar with the area to recognise the differences in the accents I reckon, but as you say you managed it by listening closely. It's even more obvious to us in the variations in stress and use of words and we can usually tell a person who comes from Dunfermline or Kirkcaldy, and definitely from Glenrothes, all in Fife, but as the crow flies no more than 20/25 miles away.

Portobello is on the other side of Edinburgh from here.....it's on the east side of the city, while we are on the west, and if you are used to the area you can identify with fair accuracy if a person comes from the Leith/Portobello districts. As for Morningside, that's well known for being a wee bit posh and it's where posh elderly ladies live and who go out to lunch together. The "Morningside accent" is a bit of a joke here in Edinburgh, and it's not always meant in a respectful way! :-)

Hi Damian,

Ah aye, ahve been doon princiz street loadz i teyms man. its canny and yee scots a nehly as frendly as us geordies, well yi knarr, not qweyt but nehly.

[Geordie to English Translation]

Oh yes, I've been to Princes Street [in Edinburgh centre] many times, old fellow. It's rather good I'd say as the people are almost as friendly as those of the North East of England. Not quite of course but almost!

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I think I've grown to dislike the accent Damian because everytime theres a News report on national TV, that's from the North East, they get the thickest accented person (who normally looks like Vicky Pollard from 'Little Britain') and you just cringe with embarrasment that they are representing the region - and even worse that people wil think that everyone in Newcastle talks like that!

Just a correction on the Hexham bit mate - Hexham is indeed 15 miles West of Newcastle, however the River Tyne runs in that exact direction (the source is about a further 7 miles upstream from Hexham). And as the definition of a Geordie is "someone born within 2 miles of the River Tyne", most Hexhammers are indeed Geordies.

(albeit they are regarded as 'posh' geordies!).

David.

PS. That Geordie web-site site is great, never seen that before !

" and you just cringe with embarrasment that they are representing the region "

That's the accent of the region, so how's it embarrasing?

On Granada news (which is North West England's and North Wales TV channel, just like North East has Tyne Tees or Southern England in the Hampshire area has Meridian) we have newsreaders and weather girls speaking in mostly a Manchester accent. The Manchester accent is slightly different from the Bolton accent (the Mancs "round" their vowel sounds more than we do) but it's not much different and it doesn't embarrass me.

The thing that embarrasses me is when I hear OTHER accents, from elsewhere in England, not on TV, but in real life.

If I'm in a pub and I hear a person speak with a London accent or a Norfolk accent, that makes me cringe, but the strange thing is that if I hear them on the TV, I hardly notice it.

"That's the accent of the region, so how's it embarrasing? "

Adam - Each to their own. I personally don't like hearing it as explained above. Can't explain that's just my view.