Accent

And it's a shame the elocution turned out not to be an instrument.

Oh what a shame pen what was your accent pre-RP?. Oh I don't mean your accent now is a shame!! Just that you must have lost one.

I have an RP accent. This is a result of my stupidity. When I went to a boarding school my father said I could choose to do an "extra". Thie list included piano, clarinet etc and elocution. As a curious child I thought I would learn the little known instrument the " elocution" and spent the 3 yrs I was there learnign and reciting poetry according to the RADA expectations as they set the exams!

I have the same problem as FarNorth - Scots hear me as anglicised and English hear me as Scots. I was born in Edinburgh but travelled with RAF father for 14 years from age 4. I've lived in Scotland my entire adult life but in different regions from Edinburgh northwards, so I have ended up with a mixture of accents with an overlay of north Aberdeenshire! I also tend to mimic - not a good idea sometimes.

The general consensus of opinion is that, having lived away from South Yorkshire for twenty odd years, I had lost most of my accent by the time we moved back here, and rediscovered all my aitches! People used to say to my sister "isn't your S posh!" But, having lived back here now for some thirty years, I do seem to have gone a bit native (though I have retained most of my aitches!) - and am happy with it! DH is Welsh, but you wouldn't know it - until he goes back home, where the twang noticeably returns! Love it!

I think it's surprising that accents have been maintained despite all the access to media that we are subject to these days and all the travelling we do.

Like some other Grans I have to be careful not to mimic the person I am talking with. A prime example was at my elder sister's Catholic funeral last summer when I was chatting to the Parish Priest after the service and could hear myself coming over all Mrs Doyle (Father Ted)! I could hear it in my voice but couldn't seem to stop doing it (Will you have a cuppa tea Father? Aw go on).

I have n Ulster Scots accent softened somewhat. Think Jimmy Nesbitt.
We also speak naturally very quickly.
I love accents.

Depends where I am. If I go to visit family in S Wales , the sing- song valley Welsh comes out. Otherwise it is Hertfordshire. Cockney, Essex and posh all mixed up.

Lived in Stoke for several years - locals always insisted on 'teaching' me proper Stoke. A looouk in the boouk. The char lady at work used to put her head round my office door every day and say 'come on chuck- say it, say it' - and wouldn't leave until I said 'oh go away your silly boooger' - tickled her pink, lol.

And of course picked up Lesta from some students over the 34 years I lived there- kids loved teaching me their language, instead of learning mine, lol.

Always remember meeting 2 lads late at night coming back a country lane- after I had been badger watching. I slowed the car and one of them said ' going home Miss, we was dead frit' - 'dead frit? what do you mean? the other replied ' to tell ya the truth Miss, I were shitting bricks like- sorry Miss'.

Oh and our youngest DGD who goes to nursery in Yorkshire says things like "toast", "arm" and "hokey Corey" with a Yorkshire accent.?

BadenKate- lol agreed ;) Mind you, strong Scouse can be very similar, with lots of gutural 'rrrr'.

As in:

I'm sturrrrr on a rorrrr and I want'o get barrrr

(I'm stuck on a rock and I want to get back)

I do that too, I'm a bit of a mimic so I have to be careful not to copy the accents of others.
I LOVE hearing accents from different regions. Sadly, they do seem to be dying out.
I was brought up in Stoke on Trent but have lived away for many years now. My paternal Grandad spoke with the dialect using "thee" and "thou".
DH is greatly amused listening to me when we're in France. At the end of the day when I'm tired he hears me when interpreting speaking French with a Stoke accent and then English with a French accent-and I don't drink either!

Mix of sw England and Black Country

I think that having dropped the RP posh accent, (think Brian Sewell) many people at last seem to be showing some pride in their local accents.

Mine is a complete hotch potch. About three years in Leicester. four in Northamptonshire. Then ten years in the very different accent of Bristol which did not really rub off on me.

I also have a stong but unconscious tendency to adjust my accent to someone I am talking to. Particularly the more marked ones like Welsh and Scottish.

After about 28 yrs in Cheshire I realise I am using quite a lot of Potteries grammar and expressions. We are just ten miles from Stoke on Trent.

As Ana says, Received Pronunciation (otherwise known as 'posh' English), was what the BBC insisted upon at one time - think 1950s radio - but in more recent years they have actively encouraged regional accents - think Ant and Dec, Tess Daly and the like. Much better and more interesting, too.

Well, I originated in Yorkshire, left aged 12 for Lancashire, where they said they couldn`t understand my accent, then left there in `77 for Lincolnshire, now I don`t think I have any particular accent, although hubby has never lost his Lancashire accent, but our kids all have Lincolnshire accents.

Ha. I must have some sort of Forces accent. Someone told me the other day I sound like Jenny Agutter so I have just looked her up. She was born in Taunton in the English West Country. The daughter of a British army officer, she spent her childhood visiting and living in many different countries, including Germany, Singapore and Cyprus.

Other than being born in Germany and my father being in the RAF that could almost be my childhood!

I think a 'posh' accent is probably like the Queen's (although she has modified her cut-glass vowels a bit since her early years!) and what used to be known as RP (received pronunciation). At one time all tv presenters had to talk like that, it sounds so old-fashioned now...

I could be being oversensitive because this reminds me that I don't belong anywhere and have no roots [sob]

There seems to be a bit of one-upmanship about having a regional accent. I can't help not having one anymore than anyone who has one can. Does not have a regional accent make people "posh" or is that actually a particular southern accent. And again ... does it matter? Surely it is just important to be understood.

I have a tang of west country. Switzerland certainly has less 'appreciated' accents in the Swiss-German speaking area.

In which language lol?

In English my accent is just ... weird. Have been 'accused' of beint Welsh or South African in the past- hiliarious as my MT is French.

That's OK Bellanonna. ?

Scottish people often think I have an English accent.
English people often think I have a strong Scottish accent.
I think I have a mild Central Scotland accent.

Maybe there's a difference between "posh" and "pure" when it comes to accent. When I was studying French we were told the Loire valley had the purest French accent ...... maybe because all French kings hung out there.

I have a London accent through and through.