Free firty (3:30) - is this an accent or ignorant speak?

Correction: some classify others by their speech.

And it goes on to say something about how we classify others by their speech which is also probably true!

Do you remember the song'why can't the English learn how to speak' from My Fair Lady? I think it was Henry Higgins singing the line which goes something like 'the moment an Englishman opens his mouth to speak , he makes another man despise him' '! I've always thought there was something in that. Even someone with a beautiful RP accent is thought to be posh and probably a snob by some people!

The importance of speech is that you get your message across and understood. Your accent might OK locally in the ordinary course of events, but in other cases I find it irritating especially when I can't understand a person dwelling within this island. If you work in communications you must be clear concise and understood and that includes broadcasters.

It's a mispronunciation, tolerated in the south as it has become very common - in both senses. Strong accents and regional quirks from other English regions are denigrated and discouraged - although I have the impression that Scots, Irish and Welsh variants of English are accepted. I grew up in Lancashire and learned that clarity and grammatical correctness are necessary. I wish all English speakers strove for clarity and correctness.

I am from London's east end and everyone I know says free firty and yella and Lange and flaers, so not ignorance. Just because someone speaks with forked tongue does not mean that they are stupid or ignorant. I personally think it is great that wherever you go in this country there is definitely a marvellous difference in us all. Wot ar can't stand is when Idris Elba on the Sky advert says Haitch D and not aitch D there really is no excuse for this especially as he is a trained actor. Oh dear me!!

Loved your posts, Nannarose !

It's nothing to do with class or regional accents, it's just lazy speak or ignorant, same with glottal stops. anything else is fine, just what you are used to. there are some regional accents I can't bear but that is their heritage, so what.

I never try to change my foreign friends accents - it is all part of their charm. However we do have fun teaching our French friends to say 'In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly every happen'. They think it is hilarious. and again laugh (with us) at our strange accents - partly Parisienne, partly English and partly Ariegious.

I watch a programme called "The Chase", which is sponsored by a bingo site. and for ages I thought it was sponsored by some thing called "galloping go". That is the pronunciation by the continuity person, apparently that is how she says Gala Bingo!!

I totally agree Grey duster.

I was brought up in S.Yorkshire until I was almost 13, then went to live in Lancashire. People at school mocked my accent. When I left school I became a GPO telephone operator and had to speak correctly, which came automatically whenever I plugged in to answer a signal, but away from the switchboard I reverted to my normal, by then, mix of Yorkshire and Lancashire. I have lived in Lincolnshire for the last 40 years, my kids all ended up with Lincolnshire accents, what mine is I don`t know anymore, but I can`t help using the word "the" whereas my Lancashire and Yorkshire relatives miss it out most of the time. My youngest son, by the way, has never pronounced "th", it`s still "f" or "v" depending on the word, and he`s now 46.

There's currently an advert for Currys/PC World that proudly announces that they sell 'Haitch P' computers. People now seem to work in 'Haitch R'. They normally proceed to drop the H in the rest of the conversation though. Also when did Chile become Chillay? Have a missed something?

I have no problem with most local accents (won't say which one I do have a problem with). Lazy speech is a different matter. I remember years ago a neighbour's son told me his ball had gone into the 'gu'e'r. I asked him what the 'gu'er'was and got the reply "wot the wa'er comes aht of'"? A friend of mine has a surname beginning with H and when asked to spell it on the phone often gets corrected by people who insist it should be 'haich'.

...and another thing, with so many cookery programs on TV, flower is what grows in the garden Flour is what you use to make a cake.

I love to hear somebody who can speak properly. My idol was Margot from The Good Life... wonderful.

It's like 'text speak' - the language changes and evolves - I hate some of the changes, but it is what it is.
I transcribe old documents as part of my work, and in some eras they use no punctuation whatsoever, and random capital letters, and I have be very careful how I interpret them - just in case I give a wrong meaning....... things change - I hate the 'free firty' but maybe eventually that is how it will be spelt and then it will be correct....

My father had a prominent national role in a sport's governing body. One of the other members of the body would come to sit next to him, saying "Rosesdad, I do love listening to your .......shire accent"
I asked my dad if he minded being patronised, and he said "not ser long as 'e's payin' fer the drinks I dorn't".

P.S. how somebody speaks is no reflection on their understanding and use of written English.

I think there is more justification in correcting bad grammar than accents. I don't like to hear "I done" or "we was sat" but even grammar seems to change. At one time if you were asked "how are you?" you might have said "I'm well" but now it's "I'm good" which we would have had corrected when I was at school.

My grandsons speak beautifully. That's despite someone telling me once that I sounded as if I should be looking out from under a manhole cover!

Dare I say, I do think there is a hint of snobbery all in this.

Ducks below the parapet.

I do think children should be taught how to speak in more or less RP, or at least being able to pronounce 'th' when required, not dropping their Ts all over the place, and not using 'we was' or 'I done it', at least on more formal occasions.
How they may speak informally among friends and family is another matter.
Because whether anyone likes it or not, whether anyone thinks it shouldn't matter, the fact is that it can easily affect their job prospects later. Ditto spelling and writing more or less grammatical English. I know people like to say it shouldn't matter, and that only grumpy old pedants care any more, but it's just not true.
I have heard more than once of a pile of very similar CVs, qualification-wise, being weeded out on grounds of basic mistakes, and the weeders were not grumpy old pedants, far from it.

Imperfect 27.I find this what we say/not how we write can be very irritating.
Surely it must effect the young, maybe the not so young or those learning our language when it comes to writing certain words as to how they should be pronounced.
Who then started this particular trait.
For instance Duchess all one word is now pronounced
Dutch ess.
When did kitchen become kit chen?
We are not watching football we are wat-ching football
very much so.

Live and let live! It’s just the way some people speak. In the grand scheme of things, does it matter really? I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s lazy or uneducated.

Sorry meant Devon!