Question about British accents

The Liverpool accent differs all over some people have a strong accent others don't it depends where you live. The business we ran was on the Wirral it's the same there the accent differs. Halewood is the outskirts of Liverpool it actually comes under the borough of Knowsley.

I was born in north Liverpool and I still find some of the accents very difficult to understand! Our family never had a very strong accent. However when I left the city and returned to education and began to take tutorial groups I had to speak "received" English for my overseas students to understand me. So my Liverpool accent went away. I can still do broad Liverpool when I need to.

I still miss the people and the humour.

There are some UK accents so strong that I can't understand the speaker - Glaswegian and Liverpuddlian are the worst.

I’m from the Wirral and when I went to university in the late 70s, one or two of the young women in my halls of residence found it difficult to understand me. I didn’t consciously change my accent, but over the years it has become less obvious, although the vowel sounds learned as a child are still there. I lived in many different places during my career but recently moved back to my birthplace. I love going over to Liverpool; it’s such a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, although sadly it has more than its fair share of poverty and crime, for example. Some Liverpudlian accents are stronger than others. Accents can change over time depending on the influx/exodus of people to/from a place. What I find unfair, though, is the amount of snobbishness that still exists about the ‘Liverpudlian’ accent. Just because someone has a strong accent doesn’t mean they should be judged as ‘common’, ‘thick’, ‘lazy’ and other derogatory terms I’ve heard.

Maybe she wasn’t born and bred in Liverpool and move there sometime in her life that could account for it but having said that different parts of Liverpool have stronger accents it’s the same in every county in the UK. I am the same i NE England, now Newcastle Geordies, very very hard to understand but other Newcastle people have an accent but I can understand them. I suppose it’s the same in the US, Different state, different accents. Hope this helps. X

i rather miss the traditional London accent, very rarely heard now, occasionally in a few elderly emigres to essex perhaps.
it seems to have been pushed out by other cultural influences and the jafaikan affectation among the youth/yoof/youngers.

Hollysteers I agree with the raucous, loud change in not only a Liverpudlian accent but accents all over. People seem so uninhibited when speaking nowadays basically shouting all the time. Eg. Mobile phones in public. Sure we will have a nation with high level of hearing impaired in a couple of decades.

We all have our likes and dislikes. Anyone remember Janice on the ‘Six Five Special’ in the 60 s ? She had a strong Birmingham accent I thought was dire. Others probably loved it, no doubt. I don’t really like accents like Jacob Rees -Mogg’s, it makes me cringe but thankfully no one speaks like that here.

I’m a south west Londoner and you’d be amazed how many accents are in this one city. Even just south of the Thames the accent changes the more east you go within just a few miles

Startingover I'm from the Wirral too and I don't think anybody has ever said they don't understand me, although my accent was never strong and I've lost most of it now. Every so often, people ask me if I'm from the Wirral because they've identified my vowels.

I can understand most Merseyside accents, although a few years ago, a bus driver in Liverpool city centre spoke to my son (born in Essex) and my son hadn't a clue what he was saying.

An academic linguist told me years ago the UK has more regional accents than any other country in the world. She had recently been to a wedding which proved this - Glasgow groom, West Country bride, and at the reception there were times when the two sides literally couldn’t understand each other. They got through with goodwill, smiling and plenty of drink.

and after all that drink they all understood one another, right?

I love regional accents

Me too JaneJudge. It will be very sad when they disappear under a cloud of generalised Estuary English.

17:58Grandma70s

I have lived on the outskirts of Liverpool for a long time, and I can’t understand the accent if it’s strong. How anyone can find it pleasant is beyond me. I think it’s hideous!

I find some peoples behavior hideous, never accents. Many years ago I was at Disney land stuck on a whitewater raft with a loud, sweary, 'look at me' Brummie, the first time I'd really heard the accent in real life so that put me off the accent a little....until I had a manager with that same accent and he was as sweet as can be and now I think of him when I hear it and love it.

yggdrasil

I lived for a while in Worcester. It was clear where people came from, the south of the city was Gloucestershire while the north was pure Black Country.

The north of Worcester city is about 25 miles south of the Black Country, which is recognised as having a rather singular dialect. Worcestershire has a Midlands sounding accent but Tay Black Country, believe me.

A fascinating question CanadaGran, London has always had several accents. My grand parents from North London had very clipped fast speech having no truck with those ‘saaf’’ (south) of the river, often mispronouncing words by changing the consonants: ‘nussink’ for nothing or ‘eswebody’ for everybody. The most noticeable vowel change was a long ‘ar’ for ‘ a’ as in ‘larst’. Granny spoke so quickly that she tripped over her tongue frequently. You never hear it now, Estuary English has taken over, which us north of the river disparagingly say comes from Essex!

I recently read an article which said that the stronger accents associated with inner cities could well have developed due to the environment people lived in. Cities were noisy places with heavy industry going on all round, so people had to shout to he heard.

Also the pollution led to people’s nasal and lung passages being congested, hence dropping their ‘t’ and making the more guttural sounds connected to city accents. I thought that was all so interesting.

I live in Scotland, although was born and raised in Kent. I don’t really have much of an accent, which led to a Scotsman calling me a ‘White Settler’ the other day. Nice.

Abso-bloomin- lutely!!! I'm originally from Manchester but had elocution training as ma was Scottish and hated the manc twang! Needless to say I've lived all over north west so now I have a "northern" accent but rarely identified as a Manchester gal. Liverpool has miriad accents too depending on which area as Manchester they have connotations of what type of person you are depending on where your accent puts you! Some snobbish some well dodgy! Is it not the same 'dahn sarf'?? In that londinium?

Canadagran, I think you must be quite fascinated by the variation in British accents. Our first visit to Canada started in Toronto, followed by Calgary, the Rockies and finally Vancouver. All the people on our tour noticed that the Canadian accent didn't seem to change at all! We were quite mystified as it is such a huge country.

SueDonim

I recently read an article which said that the stronger accents associated with inner cities could well have developed due to the environment people lived in. Cities were noisy places with heavy industry going on all round, so people had to shout to he heard.

Also the pollution led to people’s nasal and lung passages being congested, hence dropping their ‘t’ and making the more guttural sounds connected to city accents. I thought that was all so interesting.

I live in Scotland, although was born and raised in Kent. I don’t really have much of an accent, which led to a Scotsman calling me a ‘White Settler’ the other day. Nice.

Well your article appears to have completely missed the facts about "mill speak" ! A method of exaggerated miming of words to avoid screeching to be heard over ear splitting mill machinery! Was used all over in the industrialised North and when we were young all the older gen ladies used it, see Les Dawson's character when she "mimes" sensitive conditions!?

My father's family was from the North side of the city and my mum's side, the South.
There was a difference in accents....all Liverpudlian but I'd suggest the 'Southern' contingent was stronger.
I moved away from Liverpool 40 years ago but still have my accent which causes great amusement to my Geordie colleagues especially when they use every trick in the book to make me say 'chicken'!

Nantotwo

17:58Grandma70s

I have lived on the outskirts of Liverpool for a long time, and I can’t understand the accent if it’s strong. How anyone can find it pleasant is beyond me. I think it’s hideous!

I find some peoples behavior hideous, never accents. Many years ago I was at Disney land stuck on a whitewater raft with a loud, sweary, 'look at me' Brummie, the first time I'd really heard the accent in real life so that put me off the accent a little....until I had a manager with that same accent and he was as sweet as can be and now I think of him when I hear it and love it.

I worked with people mainly on phone for decades and could pinpoint most accents, Liverpool was not the best when very strong but very lilting and almost Irish sometimes:Brummie? The least intimidating ever! Even when dealing with an angry Brummie , they sounded as if they didn't really mean it! (Couldn't watch peakie blinders, all sounded too cuddly even when slicing and dicing!): Geordie men....aaah....could listen all day.bristolians? Pirates! And frequently mistaken for Americans!!: Welsh? Not a fan.: And my favourite from both sides of the border? Irish men......liquid seduction down the lines....they got away with murder so etimes because I couldn't say "no" in business that is! Then I am half Irish,

I'm from just outside Edinburgh, and I can confirm that there are definitely different accents in different parts of the city.

What a fascinating thread,Canada Gran, many thanks.

Listening to a radio programme I heard that Liverpool's the only accent where male and female speak differently: a man would pull his lips stretched wide and say "weark",for "work" while a woman would a woman would purse her lips, pushing the lower one down a little to make a sound more like the standard,"work".
Older Grans may remember the girls in,"The Liver Birds" their accent is different from the Beatles.

I've discovered from TV shows that a long "O", as in "down" or "out" can help tell a Canadian from an American, Canadian says it like an Ulsterman with the "0" like in "flown"

'Diversity' is now the watchword. Celebrate - even emphasise - your differences.

Fine. But there was a lot to be said for 'BBC English'. It meant everyone could understand what you were saying!