Judging People by How They Speak…?

Yes, Kevin has a beautiful voice.
(And Beckinsale a beautiful face.)

Kevin Whatley went to an independent school, but is still definitely a Geordie.

I’m sure I’ve heard Alexander Armstrong do a genuine Northumbrian accent - different from Geordie. He also went to Durham School, but as he was born ‘quite posh’ so I suspect his speech is natural. DD1 is quite well spoken, but DGS1 has picked up a lot of Geordie from his day care workers - Mummy is now Mammy and lots of words end with an A rather than ER. The dog is now Baxta!!
I love a regional accent, as long as it’s grammatically correct. I’m a bit like Redhead.
Can you remember when people used to adopt a telephone voice?

I agree re Tim Spall. The worst was Richard Beckinsale (bless him) in Porridge. Dear me.

It's strange isn't it? My parents were from Southern Ireland and lived in Birmingham from their early 20s until they died -mother aged 58, father aged 69. They never lost their strong Irish accents.

Funny that you mention AWP, Richmond, I was thinking of that myself.
Tim Spall’s Barry did Brum no favours!

My parents moved to Bristol with my 2 brothers and sister in the early 80`s.
Within 2 years my siblings sounded nothing like a brummie,and when my brother visits for a while his friends back in bristol can tell as he goes back with a little twang of brummie ness.

People do tend to judge others by their accent and to feel free to make fun in a way they wouldn't about other aspects of one's identity.

I have a strong Bristolian accent and have had grown people sing Wurzels songs. quote Vicky Pollard or 'copy' my accent back to me.

When I was younger regional accents on TV were rare. TV Shows like Auf Wiedersehen Pet, EastEnders and The Outlaws are much richer because of the accents and create a great sense of place.

I too love accents.
A brummie born and bred and find it amusing when i am on holiday and get told "ooh your from birmingham then,i can tell when you speak".
My answer is "yehhh great eh ",we all laugh and go on our way.

Alexander Armstrong was a chorister at St Mary’s Cathedral inEdinburgh, though he comes from Northumberland. ‘Classical’ singing uses RP. It can be quite funny to hear a choirboy or girl speaking to their friends in a strong local accent, and then singing in perfect RP.

I love hearing different accents. I think I have a somewhat muddled Northern accent due to moving around a lot.

I love regional accents, it’s good to be forever attached to wherever you were brought up. The only accent I struggle with is Northern Ireland, not because I don’t like it, but they speak very fast, and my ear just doesn’t pick it up well. I’ve got a SIL from there, who I still struggle to understand first time quite often, which is a bit embarrassing.

We have many regional accents in the U.S. I sometimes have a difficult time understanding people from the southern states of the U.S. Somtimes I'm told I have a "Chicago accent." It varies across the U.S. When I'm watching a program where people have southern accents, I sometimes wish there were subtitles. The closed captions bother me.

People do equate a northern accent with a lack of intelligence, why do others think its funny to mimic our mode of speech. My children say barth & parth whilst I say Bath and path. Like the old song really.
I did write to the BBC and complain about Tim Wonacott who often rather cruelly would mimic Northern accents. I love to hear regional variations.

You are so right Witzend.

I love the Geordie accent. Just saying.

Silverlining I don’t think actors are expected to enunciate any more. Especially on TV, dialogue is supposed to be ‘realistic’, which often means someone mumbling with their back to you. And despite so many complaints, the TV powers-that-be apparently don’t care whether we can hear or not.

You only have to watch some old TV drama, e.g. Upstairs Downstairs or The Pallisers, to hear the difference.

I think regional accents make English more interesting.

However, I also think it is courteous to moderate an accent (and dialect) when speaking to someone who isn’t accustomed to it. You want them to understand what you’re saying after all. I don’t mean that everyone should use RP - heaven forefend!

Same here. Fanny. I have a broad Brummie accent. You can imagine how intelligent people think I am! Personally, I love to hear accents.

I’ve actually had people take the mickey out of my accent to my face, ie speaking to me in a comedy Black Country accent.

And Lenny Henry, with his ‘Dud-laaay has much to answer for!

Posted too soon I come from a poor working class background but I am very well educated. I have no interest in changing my accent to appease to other people.

I have a regional accent, from Derbyshire although often mistaken for Yorkshire to me bemusement.
I have never tried to lose it but I do speak very grammatically correct English and I hope the content of my speech is reasonably intelligent so that I am not judged.

Exactly Grandma70’s, regarding social status.
I’m pretty certain that Armstrong went to public school hence his accent.
In fact I’ve noticed a ‘public school’ accent.
Nick Ferrari has it, as does Jeremy Clarkson and many other men of a certain age and class.
PM Johnson springs to mind too.
Clarkson is from Doncaster and went to Repton School.

There are hard to understand accents in every country certainly those in Bavaria are not understood by Germans further north but accent has nought to do with intelligence. Accents are really rather nice, interesting. Imagine if we all sounded the same.
I often have to put subtitles on tv even when they speak English because of loud background, slurred and mumbled speech, thats what does bother me. Surely actors are taught to enunciate. Clearly. Or is it me and my poor old ears.

I actually like regional accents I try to ascertain where someone is from. It’s very interesting and accents do vary even in the same region. I am a Liverpudlian the accent differs so much here some people have a strong accent some a softer accent.
Of course there are some who talk posh I have a few in my family. It’s funny if you meet someone not seen for ages they talk posh but always trip themselves up.
There is bias and the more north you live in this country the more your accent is criticised IMO.

The problem is that in England speech is associated with social status and education, like it or not. RP (Received Pronunciation, standard English) is the same all over the country.

I am trying to think of examples…..Alexander Armstrong, for instance, comes from the north east. Not a hint of that in his speech. I’m sure there are many others.

When I was young, if you had a local accent you tried to alter it, to speak with an RP accent. Now, people don’t do that so much. I think the change came, like so many other social changes, in the 1960s. The Beatles were partly responsible. They kept their Scouse accents and were not ashamed of them. Their accents are quite mild - I have encountered incomprehensible scouse accents. It’s really embarrassing when you can’t understand peoples speech.