It depends where you live

Melwyn Bragg describes the need to get rid of one's Northern accent (I think he was from lancashire) in his book on the English language.

The introductory lecture given to all Teacher trainees (B.Ed.Hons) at Leicester Polytechnic (where I got mine in 1982- we were the last batch ever for Leics Poly), given by the Dean, was about accents, and how essential it is to get rid of one's regional accent to climb the ladder- was quite a surprise. Especially as he had a very clipped .... Afrikaan's accent!?!

When I was interviewed at Leics Uni- the Head of Langs said to me 'you are Swiss aren't you? I am not happy about that!' - when I queried his comment he said that as a rôle model for other students, if I had a Swiss accent it would be a bad example!?! (I was allowed to do 3 subjects instead of 2- eg French on top of the others as it it my MT).

(that was just before he told me he knew my OH, and asked if I knew that 'teaching is not a hobby for bored middle-class ladies' - charming)... hence my choice of the Poly instead!

My parents and teachers insisted on proper English albeit with a Scottish (but not too Scottish!) accent. I've been away from Scotland for 50 years and my DSs don't think I still have a Scottish accent! However, when I hear myself on an answerphone, I can hear it quite clearly. When I cross the Border, I immediately become more audibly Scottish!

I knew someone who called a bus a buzz. "I got the buzz here." Wonder what part of the country says that?

Isn't there a programme on about Melvyn Bragg this week? I loved his book 'Speak for England'.

Anno that is exactly the same with me. It is generally considered that I don't have a Yorkshire accent, and I can't hear it myself until, like you, I hear our answerphone message. DH is Welsh, but has been away from home for so long that he doesn't have the accent anymore - until he visits his family. Then it surfaces, usually for the duration of the visit and then it goes back in its box! It is not something he does consciously. Most people he meets 'up 'ere' don't consider that he has an accent of any kind - in short, that he is posh because he says paath and baath and never drops his h's!

mrsmopp reminded me that I have friends that say "uzz" whereas I say "us"

@GrandmaKT - Interesting to see the two terms in our list, lobby and scouse - I believe the original Scandinavian term is 'lobscouse'.

Nelliemoser's "Lobby" is obviously from the same origin.

DH is from Yorkshire (Bronte country actually) but has lived here in Geordieland for over 40 years. He speaks with a strange Geord-shire accent. He sounds Geordie to the untrained ear but then lets slip with the occasional word. For example he doesn't use the hard "A" as a proppa Geordie and never uses Geordie slang. "Like whot ah dey".

Dinner- Dinna
Tea- Tea (what ya have oot of a cup)
Sweet- something yer buy at the sweet shop
Pudding- puddn
Going to London- No thanks
Pet- love or lamb
Sandwich- sandwich or butty

Feetle. There was also blind scouse for when money was short.
The scouse had no meat in it.
It was a staple dish in our house, served with either red cabbage or beetroot separately.
Its great. I still make it!

A friend from Liverpool told me how to make Scouse when I was first married.

Her recipe was to put the ingredients from any tins you had, left over veggies etc., into a casserole dish and top it off with red cabbage. It was one of the first meals I made for OH - he loved it.

She did say to use a tin of minced beef but it was optional. It's one of those nourishing meals born from hard times. We need more recipes like this these days.

My mum made an apple sponge using cooking apples and sponge cake mixture. It was really quick to make. She also made a delicious Welsh Rarebit but I've lost the recipe. It involved custard powder and mustard and was absolutely lush (as we say down my way.)

@mrsmopp - I had forgotten about blind scouse - sounds almost as bad as Issy Bonn's Shadow Soup - you put a pot of water on to boil, then got a chicken to fly over it - Shadow Soup!

@Ana How do you feel about a Condensed Milk Sandwich?

And yes, sand-witch, not sammich or samwich...

That was a conny onny butty in our house.

If we had no conny onny we got a sugar butty. Now that was a treat, cos sugar had just come off ration!

Lifelong Brummie, never heard of a house with a 'vestibule' rather than a hall.
Wondering why the midday meals provided in state schools were, from the beginning, called 'school dinners'. On the other hand I've never heard of 'packed dinners' being brought to school or on school trips!

Oh, those tiny tins of condensed milk! Eaten with a teaspoon. Irresistible. A true childhood treat.

Re the buzz - I think it was Anne Diamond who said she realised she should modify her accent when when she saw her (presumably Southern) friends' faces at her cry of 'Come on, buzz!'

When we lived in Shropshire I used to catch the buzz to town and flipping hard work it was with a double buggy, a toddler and a really unhelpful conductor who tutted the whole time while he watched me struggle.

Melwyn Bragg describes the need to get rid of one's Northern accent (I think he was from lancashire) in his book on the English language


Oh dear!!
Melvyn Bragg, he of the hair, is from Carlisle in Cumbria!!

Here in Devon they say "Me beauty" and a girl is maid and cup of taa very difficult to write down exactly how it sounds but its very broad . When i lived up north it was brew the tea other places it's mash the tea and again seep the tea. when i was little and we came from the north to live in Devon my mother sent my sister and me to elocution lessons to get rid of our accents. But even i have to ask the local country folk to speak slowly or your can't understand them. I say bus but buzz is common too. Really interesting thread

sugar butties oh Yum. We also had Golden Syrup on bread and butter. My dad liked a Yorkshire pudding kept until he had finished his main course and served with Golden Syrup for pudding. He introduced my DCs to this. something they remember to this day.

When we first came back from Kenya, we spent 8 months in Devon where ex had a temporary job. Spending evenings at a country pub was like being in another country! When DS1 was born, the midwives addressed me as 'my lover'.

When I was in Cornwall in the 60s, the lorry drivers on the harbour at Par would address me, a bearded bloke in his mid twenties, as 'My handsome' or 'My lover'. Sometimes even 'My bird'...

Alea I think people of Melvyn's era did feel they had to de-accent themselves.
I heard Joan Bakewell, who grew up in Stockport, describe how when she went to Cambridge in the 50's she made the mistake of volunteering to 'do the pots'.
No-one else realised she meant she would do the washing-up, and you would never guess, listening to her now, that she had grown up in my dirty old home town.

@trisha - My mother - a Londoner who made wonderful Yorkshire puddings - would often make a sweet version, with dried fruit in it, as a dessert - scrumptious! She also used to make a variant on the bread pudding we all loved, steaming it in a basin, and serving it with butter and caster sugar...
Oh dear - just realising how I miss it!