Are you any good at impersonating accents? I can do some, but can't think about it, have to...

Captain · 61-69, M

West country is one I’ve learnt to do with years in Plymouth and Swindon but there are local differences between old Swindon, Somerset, and Devon I used ot be able to mimic better than I can. Before that I had about 7 or 8 Glasgow accents plus an idea of a highland accent and an Edinburgh west coast accent I could kind of mimic, and then of course the pictish fifer accent. When I worked in Newport I got to do the sing song Swansea area accent the harsh Cardiff accent and a bot of the dourness Newport accent s have, but sadly these all wear off. I can still do my natent Leicestershire one, and unlike Russel Crowe and BBC presenters I do know the difference between Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Sheffield (a pretty unique “wet” sound - sorry old Sheffield but you know what I mean). Through Jasper Carrot I could do posh and economically challenged Brumie once upon a time. I used to be able to do western Australian from Eastern Australian thanks to dear old Richie Benaud, Then we all know the Texan drawl made famous by John Wayne, The list goes on. My conclusion is we do pick up but then forget accents depending on how useful in identifying the people around us they are at the time. Hats off to the Newyorker (which Bloomberg has thought me) accent ed actor who played Samwise Ganges - and go the accent spot on.

My favourites accents are Devon and Somerset, Brumie with the dour sense of trench humour, Newcastle with a posh lilt, Eastern Australian with a posh lilt, and the fifer accent. I observe in the UK almost all west coats accents are bouncy song like, and all Eastern accents are more flat and prosaic. Does anybody else agree with that summary ?