Moving away and how it's changed your speech.

I still live in the village i grew up in, so my accent is still the same. The north antrim irish accent can be mistaken for a scottish accent by visitors from england, (aka ulster scots). My youngest brother lives in israel, been there for 7 years now, speaks fluent hebrew and arabic but still has his northern ireland accent. But another brother lives in sligo in the republic of irelland, he has been there for 6 years and when he's home i notice quite a difference in his accent.
 
I moved from essex to south wales. Moved when I was around 10, I'm now 32

My accent seems to have toned slightly. But I think if I stick a VHS or home video from back in the 80's 90's it would be super deep Essex.

Waiting for my brother to convert some old home movies so I can see how much my accent has changed since living here, I think iv lost loads of it
 
DXP55 said:
Do you now say Barth or Baff ?? Can never understand people saying Barth when it's Bath - There's no R in Bath. :rolleyes::rolleyes:
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I don't understand why any people think such an obviously strawman argument is of any relevance to anything, let alone a compelling argument.

If you ever find anyone who claims there is an 'r' in Bath, then your statement would be a relevant counter to their claim. But I doubt if you'll ever find anyone making that claim.

You must understand the concept of a vowel having a long form and a short form because you wouldn't be able to use English if you didn't. For example, do you pronounce the 'i' in 'bite' the same was as the 'i' in 'bit'?

You must be aware of the fact that regional accents exist in English.

So how can you, or anyone else, not understand that the use of long and short forms of vowels might sometimes be different in a different accent?
 
On a slightly related note, last week someone said I have a Yorkshire accent.

I learnt to speak in Surrey and lived my later childhood in Kent. I've lived in Stoke for years, but I've retained my original accent to such an extent that I sometimes have a little difficulty communicating with people here. There are probably some native Parisians who sound more Yorkshire than I do!

Oh, and the "right" name for every meal is snappin' :)

A few bits of local dialect still seem wrong to me. Around here, "stiff" doesn't mean "stiff". It means "fat". Also, "ignorant" doesn't mean "ignorant". It means "rude". I have no idea why those words have a different meaning here than they do in the rest of the country.
 
Grew up in north Essex, (fortunately) never really picked up much of an accent, then spent five years in Edinburgh, which made my accent even more like a kind of 'neutral' English.

Now been in Taiwan for 3 1/2 years teaching (mostly) American English, I don't think my accent has changed that much, but my vocabulary has. I want to punch myself in the face every time I say cellphone or garbage.

My accent has rubbed off on my wife though, which is entertaining. Nearly everyone here speaks with an American accent, so it's nice to know there's at least one Taiwanese girl speaking like a Brit, even if she does get mocked for it :p
 
I have a wierd mix of colloquialisms that I have picked up from over the years. It sounds wierd hearing someone who for all intents and purposes has an American accent saying "sure it'll be grand" or "it were dead good" within a few sentences of each other. I'm a mess!
 
Moved to Norfolk from West Yorkshire about 10 years ago. I still have enough of a Northern accent to have the pee taken every time I open my mouth but when I talk to friends from my home town they say I 'talk posh' hmm. I have started saying 'lunch' for the mid day meal when I always used to say dinner, although I still refer to the meal you eat on an evening as tea, I don't think I will ever call it dinner. I've also started calling tea cakes rolls, I think that's just to avoid the blank looks I get when trying to order a teacake though.

I do not think I will ever lengthen an 'a' though. That's a step too far.
 
I grew up in London (east of London but not the East End) and have lived in Surrey for about eight years. My brother also grew up in the same location but moved to Norfolk about 15 years ago. He swears his accent has remained unchanged but I do tease him that I can hear a slight Norfolk slant in it nowadays.
 
zophiel said:
we moved from central lancashire to somerset five years ago. My accent is still very northern.

These southerners dont understand half of what I say.

Go to a bakery and ask for a t-cake.

So you want a currant bun (souther t-cake), bap or roll.

NOOOOO I want a t-cake

Or the same at the fish and chip shop. Fish chips peas and a t-cake....
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Haha, I get this a lot. I do try to say the correct name for that region as I have ended up with a current bun chip butty before today. Although saying that it wasn't bad :o.
 
Hedge said:
Its going against everything I've ever believed in. Dinner ladies work in schools at that mid day meal time. So I figure it's dinner right? And don't say lunch ladies back at me! Haha.

I have a bit of pride in my home town so the transitions like this are a big deal to me :D
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Dinner should always be the main coarse of the day, regardless of when. At school dinner at lunch time was the biggest meal, hence dinner, then tea (smaller meal at dinner time) in the evening. See, easy. :p

So dinner is normally in the evening, but on a Sunday your dinner will be in the early afternoon and you'll have tea later on, but on all other days tea is what you drink. ;)
 
I've been told I have a slight Manchester accent before, now considering the first time I visited there was in January, my family are Irish and I grew up in a town with a predominantly Scottish accent that was a weird one!
 
Half the people here cant understand my burnley accent. I have to say trash instead of rubbish. Also peple dont seem to know what a garage is, until i say gaaararrgeeeee.
 
Can't comment personally, but my mum was born and grew up in Great Yarmouth but has lived in SE London for a good portion of her life. Her accent is what I suppose is 'Received Pronunciation' (although not full on Queen's English, just fairly well-spoken) until she gets on the phone to her mum or her sister, and it then shifts somewhat noticeably into Norfolk/East Anglian. It's not like hearing two different people but I still find it amusing (as someone who's always lived in/around London and only has the one accent/dialect).
 
I was brought up with the Breakfast/Dinner/Tea and didn't really think about it until I went to Uni when I was duly treated as a witch. Asking for a T-cake at Dinner time. I was forever unclean to them.
 
doofski said:
Half the people here cant understand my burnley accent. I have to say trash instead of rubbish. Also peple dont seem to know what a garage is, until i say gaaararrgeeeee.
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gosh a move from dingle land to america there is really no hope for you :P ;)
 
After moving to Australia i had to change the way i pronounced Router. Pronouncing it rooter has sexual connotations.
Oh and now it 'warder' instead of 'water' and everyones 'mate'.
 
Its took 10 years of living away from t'up north to retrain my brain into saying lunch/dinner.
Dont half confuse my daughter who's lived here all her life when it slips into dinner/tea mind!
Then my Dad comes along and i confuse him by asking what he wants for dinner who then explains he had a butty on the way down :o

Ask for chips and gravy round here and its as if you just asked them curl one out over the chips.

doofski said:
Half the people here cant understand my burnley accent. I have to say trash instead of rubbish. Also peple dont seem to know what a garage is, until i say gaaararrgeeeee.
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Your doing well if half of anyone from anywhere other than Burnley can understand you :p I'm from Accy and find it almost another language!
 
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