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ArishMell · 70-79, M
I've never heard of anyone who doesn't have an accent of some sort!
We don't notice our own when surrounded every day by local people in our native towns or regions; but visit somewhere else and we'd notice their accents, and they'd notice ours.
I picked "British" but that covers a remarkably wide range of dialects and accents, firstly as Scots, English, Northern Irish and Welsh, then as regional voices within those countries; then even across single, large cities like Bristol and London. Though you'd need be a true local to identify accent differences as subtle as cross-city ones can be - I'd not spot them.
I sound nothing like someone from the Black Country, nearly 200 miles North from my home area, a bit nearer one from Derby some 20-30 miles further NE, or from my ancestral Nottingham another 20 or 30 miles beyond again. The locals there would all say I am a Southerner, and they be right!
And by many visits to friends in Yorkshire, 300 miles from home, I've picked up some dialect mannerisms like were instead of was, and right as a stressor. Even occasionally the were that suffix, also stressing the point. Though I'd not go as far as, "It were a right good do, were that." Coming from me, that would be as much an affectation as larding my speech with French bon mots, or American slang. Or Latin if I'd had a Classical education!
I used to know a native of one of the Black Country towns, Dudley I think, not far from Birmingham. He told me at one time a Dudleyan would find it hard to understand someone from one of the others of that compact group of English Midlands towns, or indeed from Birmingham. And vice-versa. Even though all these towns are only a few miles apart! The accents are similar but the region is rich in dialects.
A shopkeeper in the Yorkshire market-town of Settle once gave me directions to another:
"Cross the main road, go past the cafe then down the ginnel..."
I found the second shop without trouble, thanks to knowing summat o' local language. Though the ginnel was more a narrow street than the twitchel I'd thought the word meant.
We don't notice our own when surrounded every day by local people in our native towns or regions; but visit somewhere else and we'd notice their accents, and they'd notice ours.
I picked "British" but that covers a remarkably wide range of dialects and accents, firstly as Scots, English, Northern Irish and Welsh, then as regional voices within those countries; then even across single, large cities like Bristol and London. Though you'd need be a true local to identify accent differences as subtle as cross-city ones can be - I'd not spot them.
I sound nothing like someone from the Black Country, nearly 200 miles North from my home area, a bit nearer one from Derby some 20-30 miles further NE, or from my ancestral Nottingham another 20 or 30 miles beyond again. The locals there would all say I am a Southerner, and they be right!
And by many visits to friends in Yorkshire, 300 miles from home, I've picked up some dialect mannerisms like were instead of was, and right as a stressor. Even occasionally the were that suffix, also stressing the point. Though I'd not go as far as, "It were a right good do, were that." Coming from me, that would be as much an affectation as larding my speech with French bon mots, or American slang. Or Latin if I'd had a Classical education!
I used to know a native of one of the Black Country towns, Dudley I think, not far from Birmingham. He told me at one time a Dudleyan would find it hard to understand someone from one of the others of that compact group of English Midlands towns, or indeed from Birmingham. And vice-versa. Even though all these towns are only a few miles apart! The accents are similar but the region is rich in dialects.
A shopkeeper in the Yorkshire market-town of Settle once gave me directions to another:
"Cross the main road, go past the cafe then down the ginnel..."
I found the second shop without trouble, thanks to knowing summat o' local language. Though the ginnel was more a narrow street than the twitchel I'd thought the word meant.
