Judging People by How They Speak…?

When I first went to the NE with MrA to meet his family I couldn't understand a word the family said when they were all together. Individually they seemed to slow down a bit and I could understand most of what was said when they spoke to me. But when they all got together talking to each other it was just a noise. Especially on a night out. It took a few visits for me to tune in - BiL told a joke one night and I laughed. Later he told MrA it made a change to hear me laugh, normally I was very quiet. MrA laughed and said 'Two weeks ago she wouldn't have known you were telling a joke. Soon you'll have no secrets'.

When my DGD was 7 and living in Australia, speaking to her mother she had my Thames accent although her mother (DD1) grew up in France. Speaking to her friends she had an Australian accent and when she read out loud she spoke with an American one because her teacher was from the states.
She adapted without thinking, so that she could be understood by the person she was speaking to.

The Scottish owners of bed and breakfast house I was staying in could speak how I could understand them whereas when speaking between themselves I couldn’t. They chose to adapt.

Love all of your accents. The accents in America are not, in my opinion, as distinguishable or different from the others as yours. Here in Kansas, we have a bit of a flat accent; but, generally, this part of the country has the least distinct accent of all.

When my mother was training to be a teacher back in the late 1940s the principal of her college tried to suggest she lose her Lancashire accent. My mother told her that as she intended to teach in Lancashire she thought it made sense to retain the accent to be more easily accepted and understood. Back then everyone on TV spoke without regional accents but that changed a couple of decades later.
Personally I think regional accents give character, but it can be tricky when they are so strong that they are difficult to understand. I went to Uni with a Geordie whose accent was so broad that no-one understood him. That was very isolating I imagine.
Despite living in the South of England since leaving for university I can still be recognised as a Northerner, though people often place me on the wrong side of the Pennines as my accent has mellowed somewhat.

I am a Geordie born and bred and have the accent to go with it.
My grandmother was also a Geordie, but her father came from Holy Island were the locals speak what is called broad Northumbrian which is different altogether.My grandma, having grown up hearing her father speak, could instantly revert to Northumbrian accent when amongst his relatives ie during her many visits to Holy Island. When she came home she could just as quickly go back to Geordie.
My oldest DGD is presently living in New York, after being in Hong Kong for a few years.and previously London. She has what some people call a ''high flying'' job, so when at work looses her Geordie accent and speaks RP so she can be understood, but when I speak to her on the phone now I can her developing an American accent. She speaks Geordie when she is visiting us.
I am not ashamed of my Geordie accent but sometimes it sounds terrible when heard on the television by local celebrities who tend to rub it in. I am thinking of one in particular who makes me cringe when I hear her and think''Do I sound like that?''

I overheard myself on radio and boy did I sound posh. I'm originally from the Vale of Glamorgan and that is known as posh Welsh then I moved to North Somerset and it seems that there two accents merge to something like RP.

Some people seem to think there is such a thing as incorrect grammar. Different dialects can have differences in grammar. So standard English will have its grammar and different regional dialects will have their grammars. One is not correct and the other incorrect. They are just different. Both are equally grammatical, that is, they have consistent pattern. If they were not, they could not operate as language at all.

People may have been taught at school that variations from standard English grammar are “incorrect” so it is understandable that they believe and repeat this but it is a misleading way to look at language.

It would be better to say, “I don’t mind people speaking in regional accents a long as they use standard English grammar” than “I don’t mind as long as they use correct grammar”.

Every aspect of any dialect of English is as valid as that of any other dialect from a scientific view.

No one’s mention Suffolk I went as a day pupil to a boarding school so there were children from all over, consequently I have no accent at all but Suffolk always gets it in the neck for sounding backward and unintelligent It is a fairly slow accent but real Suffolk is so rich in words and some of the expressions are very funny There are so many people from other counties that you don’t hear so many strong Suffolk accents in the towns now but in the countryside you still do
I had a Suffolk granny and grandad and a Leicestershire Nan and grandad so I went from ‘me ducks’ to ‘ole gal’

Recently I was reading with my DGD. I'm from the South, DGD is from NE Midlands.

DGD is learning to read using phonics. How do schools teach phonics when there are local accents? I had the expected a dilemma with 'baath' and 'bath' but DGD wanted to know how to write 'rucksack' using phonics.
How are teachers taught to use phonics with a regional accent and do they take account of children moving from another area? Have I misunderstood the way phonics are used in schools?

I also wonder how children can learn to read and write using phonics when they only hear language rich in glottal stops, dropped endings and the 'noo' way of sayin thinks.

Please don't think I am 'anti-phonics', I am genuinely puzzled

I enjoy our rich accents and dialects (most of them - but dislike the sound of my Essex vowels when I hear my recorded voice) - I just wonder how accents are catered for when children learn to read and write.

henetha

I'm Devonshire with a Devonshire accent. I think the general opinion is that we are all as thick as clotted cream.
But we are not! Not all of us, anyway.

I thought it was the cider that caused the drawn out slurring of the vowels. ?

Judging people because they are different is wrong. Having a different accent is no different than having a different language, skin color, religion, or nationality. No one is better than the other, they are just different.

But they are all judged Imaround especially colour and religion

BlueBelle

But they are all judged Imaround especially colour and religion

Sadly, yes they are. But it us wrong.

That too, Joseanne. We need something to wash down the clotted cream. ?

I've certainly been judged for my accent, in fact it happens rather a lot as I don't live where i was born

BlueBelle

But they are all judged Imaround especially colour and religion

And gender as well.

And size, this happened to me recently, I felg unfairly judged, this person knew nothing about me but thought it ok to pass a comment,
We all make judgements about others on all sorts of things. It’s sort of natural but it’s when these judgements are acted upon is when people get hurt, physically and emotionally.

My family are all born in Scotland - with slightly different accents - as some of our children were born in Edinburgh and some in Dundee. We have an English son in law, and an Irish one; and our younger son is dating a girl from Wales - and we all manage to talk to one another. We take the mickey out of each other on occasion, but still manage to get along. I enjoy the mix of accents.

I was born and grew up in Wiltshire, and despite not having lived there since I was 18, still get asked where I'm from. (People usually think it's Somerset). Have lived in Hertfordshire, London, Singapore, Northampton, Cyprus and Australia, and still have that trace of Wiltshire. I find that if I go back toy home town, I will revert to broad Wiltshire!

Well said

But also, if folk were understanding and especially on the phone, you are ‘talked at’ not talked to, and at speed as no doubt they have targets, But saying ‘can you repeat that’ regularly defeats the object. They don’t talk to you as if the person is in there in front of you
Rude really, do they talk like that at home or out with friends ??
Newsreaders, royalty. phil & Holly get it right & polite. Why cant they be example, No fun for hard of healing or borderline autistic to keep explaining disability

…I don’t judge anyones accent critically, it’s just flippin frustrating when it’s your phone call medical appointment or anything important for that matter, and you can’t decipher the words ( & especially with masks on at a specialist appointment I had ?)!!
Embarassing

It makes me laugh when English friends imitate and make fun of my Scottish accent. They are especially amused by the unvoiced Scottish wh sound as in whales. One daughter in law has whale watching trips to Scotland and called whales "Wales".

I’m from South Wales and I lived in London in my early 20’s
Most people couldn’t understand me so I had to tone down my accent and speak more slowly than I normally would.
I got so used to speaking like this that when I’d go home for holidays and breaks my friends and family used to rib me for “ talking posh”.
I didn’t think I was talking any different but they detected the slight accent which even though I’ve been home now for 30+ years I still revert to when on the phone.

A university tutor told me to lose my accent - bet that wouldn’t happen today. It made me very self conscious and I did lose my accent because of it.

My father was very snobby about accents. He thought that if someone spoke with a strong regional accent it showed that were not very bright - because if they were, they’d have got rid of it. He also thought that it was acceptable for someone like a cleaner or garage hand to have a local accent, but not for a teacher or doctor.