Accents - a privilege to hear them

Yes - some of the people who ring up trying to sell things are extremely difficult to understand. I have no idea where they come from but it isn’t local. I politely say, sorry, can’t understand you, and hang up.

I love the Australian accent, it sounds so easy going and happy go lucky.

I married ‘up’ as they say. moved away and lost my regional accent. An friend introduces me and says “She sounds posh, but she isn’t really”😁

I think David49 had a point. It’s not necessarily snobbish to want to understand what someone is saying. Haven’t we all been frustrated on the telephone or having medical treatment etc.when you just can’t make out what is being said?

David49

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

Desirable to whom David49?

I found, as a girl, my friends from public school found my accent funny and teased me about it... But I went to a state grammar school and my schoolfriends there thought I talked "posh" and teased me about that. Obviously it was the sane accent. Too posh and not posh enough.

We always went to the same place on holiday and it was nice to be in a very mixed accent group there.
Mine was, and is, quite a muted one I think - so on holiday mine was totally ignored.
It was the same when I went to university. I did have an accent but not broad enough for anyone to comment on.

That’s why a lot of call centres were set up around Newcastle Magenta. The so called Geordie accent is perceived as honest and trustworthy. There’s a spoof call centre skit on YouTube - a bit OTT, but quite believable.

Sorry David got out of the wrong side of the bed today?

I find that if I use my London accent people treat me differently and feel the need to simplify their language and to mansplain or womansplain things to me far more than if I use my RP accent. I think they are probably more likely to check to see if anything is missing after I've gone if I have spoken to them in my London voice.

I don't think this applies to all regional accents, some of which seem to add to the speaker's perceived honesty, common sense and intelligence.

I used to be able to pick the different Northern town accents when I was at Manchester uni. Now, to my shame, I can’t tell the difference between Yorkshire and Lancashire. My husband, from Manchester, can still. I used to like the Somerset accent, lovely. We do have slight differences here, Queenslanders speak a little more slowly ( I think ) but it is pretty similar. Different words,though, for things.

That’s interesting Jaxjacky. My son is told at work that he talks ‘posh’ although he has only ever lived in Berkshire. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t have a Berkshire accent whatever that is .
I particularly like the Geordie accent as it reminds me of my father and grandparents who came from South Shields.
I sometimes find the Glaswegian accent difficult to understand. On one occasion I was working in the area and while booking into the hotel I was approached by a youth uttering something quite incomprehensible to me. While looking at him blankly someone else said that he was asking me where the football ground was!

I’ve definitely got a Hampshire accent, but have been told over the years I talk ‘posh’ whatever that is, I consciously pronounce my h’s. MrJ is N Irish, his family say his accent has anglicised, it does become broader if he spends time there, a few people think he’s from Scotland.
I love our range of accents across the UK

My parents were from Surrey but had no accent. You might say they spoke RP, but not with the posh vowels.
I have moved around the country and can speak like my parents, or Yorkshire where I lived for a lot of my life. I’m a bit of a chameleon. I don’t always realise.
I enjoy hearing different accents, but some are a bit tricky to understand.

I am Liverpool born but I began to lose my Scouse accent then I went into a profession. My family speak with a noticeable LIverpool accent. I lost it completely when I went into academia and began to speak received English so the international students could understand me. I sometimes slip into broad Scouse when I answer the phone to an unknown caller (usually someone selling) and pretend to be the "housekeeper" to put them off. I can also do a very convincing mid west accent from my time in the USA.

Hours of fun with cole callers and would be scammers.

I'm originally from Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria, but moved here to Whitby in January 2026.

I have an ex-work colleague who was born and raised in Worcester, but her voice, not her accent, sounds more like Kent or London! She's never been to Kent and doesn't like London, only being forced to go yearly to London for school trips, so she has no idea how she obtained such an accent!

I understand that there is a North/ South accent difference in Spain. A friend who lives in Spain runs holiday lets on the Costa del Sol. A local born member of staff, ringing a Madrid firm regarding a purchase, was incensed to hear " Is there anyone there who speaks better Spanish"?

Isn't it strange how we have so many accents in the UK in a relatively small area? As nanna8 says, in Australia, a massive country with many remote areas, there is hardly any variation, yet in the UK we can often tell what town someone is from by their accent. We are from northern England. My son used to work in Glasgow and then moved to New Zealand. He found the Kiwi accent much easier to understand than the Scottish ones!

David49

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

In your rather snobbish opinion David49

tanith not sure how many but I'm sure lots do ...

I think the Netherlands must have accents. My mother lived there, in Holand, as a girl. In her 60s she said, "do you speak Dutch?" in Dutch, to a man who she'd just met.
"Yes, he said - and you are from Amsterdam!"
She was amazed as she had no idea thar she had an accent from her schooldays.
From what he said it was quite "thick" - I have always thought it must sound like Liverpudlian or Brummie English.

Today I just found this article...
dutchreview.com/culture/dutch-accents-and-dialects/#:~:text=The%20Amsterdam%20accent%20is%20fast,at%20about%201.5x%20speed.


To my ears northern and southern Italy sound different.

I love accents too, find them all interesting, am particularly fond of a Scottish, Welsh, or Irish accent and am not bothered how broad it is, I think is ok to ask someone to repeat what they said/slow down. Interesting to hear that about Australia, though am wondering if the influx of people from differing parts of the world will impact upon the language, causing accents to develop in the fullness of time.

Some regional accents are difficult to understand.

tanith

Not obsessive but I do enjoy hearing them and the fact that in the U.K. we have so many distinct different ones. I’m now wondering if other countries are similar?

Yes, they do. Well, at least the French do. We had a holiday home in Normandy for many years and not only is the accent different they speak faster and have a whole vocabulary that is different to main stream French.

I think the same applies to German, especially as Germany is an agglomeration of lots of small and large states. I can remember a girl at school, whose parents were living in Bavaria finding that bavarians said it different .

It's a pity that David had to attempt to spoil this thread with his complacent offensive comment.
I love different accents. There are so many different accents from such a small country

I love listening to different accents, and I love listening to people talking in different languages, particularly Welsh. It's a joy to try to work out their origin

David49

Nothing wrong with a regional accent as long at it can be understood, broad Glasgow, Newcastle or Aberdeen is hardly desirable.

Did you mean to sound so snobbish? 🙄

I lived in Bath until I was twelve when we moved to Fife, then Edinburgh. In my mid twenties we moved to N Cheshire, where I have lived for nearly forty years. In Scotland I quickly picked up the local accent (to avoid be identified as English). Despite all that I am often asked where I’m from and listening to myself I can plainly hear the West Country accent in my voice. I have clearly returned to the accent that influenced me while I was a young child.

My dear husband was a true Cornishman born and bred, we went to a wedding in London once and the wedding registrar after the ceremony came up to us. She asked him to talk to her as she loved the sound of his accent.

My cousin who went to Oxford, worked in the treasury and retired from the IMF - lived in the USA and now Canada still has a broad Cornish accent.