# Accents



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

See me, I'm a Highlander I am, though you wouldn't know it to hear me speak. Normally I sound English. I know, I know, it's shameful, but hey, I didn't grow up in Scotland and I've been in Sarf Lundun for more than 20 years. However, I've just been on the phone to one of my oldest friends (we met when we were about four) and after five minutes talking to him I have my old West Highland lilt back.... For a few minutes anyway. Maybe once I'm up home, it'll stick. I hope.


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

hi alison im the same i lived in west london from 18 to 23 and then moved back up north , i dont think i ever lost my accent not even for a second , when my dad used to visit though my geordie accent really came out and my o/h had to have it translated what we said  once me and my dad got into a convo.


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

Heh, heh. If I ask you "who hung the monkey" will you thump me?


----------



## Pigeon (Sep 23, 2009)

Aren't monkey-hangers from Hartlepool? It's a whole different kettle of fish to being Geordie! 

Anyone read "Pies and Prejudice" by Stuart Maconie? It's a great book on Northern dialects and what makes people proud to be Northern. It explains the whole Geordie/Mackem/Sanddancer/MonkeyHanger origins very well!

I've lived in 9 different places (and I'm only 28!) so my accent's a tad mixed! I'm currently a cross between Yorkshire and Geordie!


----------



## HelenP (Sep 23, 2009)

Lol, I used to have a Scottish friend (who had moved down here, souf of the river!) who I could hardly understand at times cos her accent was so strong, and yet when she phoned home, or visited her folks back home, they'd say she'd lost her accent!!

xx


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

That's because many of us don't actually speak English. Below Perth it's usually Lallans (or Weegian if you're from Glasgow), on the East coast they speak Doric and on the West it's either English or G?idhlig (that's gah-lech not gaylick).

My dad was a Doric speaker, even I couldn't understand him when he got going.

As for that poor monkey, the version I heard had Newcastle as the scene of the dastardly deed.


----------



## Northerner (Sep 23, 2009)

AlisonM said:


> ...As for that poor monkey, the version I heard had Newcastle as the scene of the dastardly deed.



No, he was a 'French spy' hung in Hartlepool - I went to uni with a guy from there, which is where I first learned the legend!

When I return to Yorkshire, my accent becomes much broader, although they all say I sound posh!


----------



## katie (Sep 23, 2009)

ive got a hugely strong southern accent


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

Northerner said:


> .../When I return to Yorkshire, my accent becomes much broader, although they all say I sound posh!




Me too! "Can you not cultivate a decent accent" they say, "you sound like such a Sassenach".


----------



## rossi_mac (Sep 23, 2009)

I think everyone slips into home accent when around home folk. Not that I've moved far from home! I'm a south londoner and I never thought I had an accent, then I went to Newcastle to uni, boy did the Geordies have an accent and they all thought I had a right cockney one, I guess it depends what your used to hearing!? Mother always disparse at me, she says it's I was brought up down east end compared to me bro who's talks proper like!!


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

AlisonM said:


> Heh, heh. If I ask you "who hung the monkey" will you thump me?



no id be ok with that some one from hartlepool might have a word like ha x


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

definiton of monkey hanger


Person born in the town of Hartlepool. Allegedly, during the Napoleonic wars, a French ship called the Chasse Maree was wrecked on the coast at Hartlepool. There were no survivors, with the exception of a lone monkey, wearing a French uniform (dressed as such to amuse those on ship). The monkey was found by some locals and questioned in a beach based trial. Obviously, the monkey could not answer. The locals concluded the monkey to be a French spy, as the locals did not know what a Frenchman looked like. The poor animal was thus sentenced to death and hung from the mast of a fishing boat. To this day, this has remained a source of embarrassment for people living in Hartlepool and it is best not to call anyone from Hartlepool by this name, as some regard it as a term of offence


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

I have this irresistable urge to go out and find someone from Hartlepool. If I'm not back in three days, send a search party.


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

AlisonM said:


> I have this irresistable urge to go out and find someone from Hartlepool. If I'm not back in three days, send a search party.




or a monkey ?


----------



## am64 (Sep 23, 2009)

i took my family to scotland from west London whilst I did some work up there 2001-2002 We lived between Thurso and Wick in Caithness, My kids came home one day from their tiny primary school (25 Pupils) and said " mum they don't have cows up here they have coooos " wonderful accent up there, but You have to hear a true orkney accent to believe it!


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2009)

am64 said:


> ... but You have to hear a true orkney accent to believe it!



Oh yeah that's such a sexy accent. I love it.


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

am64 said:


> i took my family to scotland from west London whilst I did some work up there 2001-2002 We lived between Thurso and Wick in Caithness, My kids came home one day from their tiny primary school (25 Pupils) and said " mum they don't have cows up here they have coooos " wonderful accent up there, but You have to hear a true orkney accent to believe it!



where in west london?


----------



## am64 (Sep 23, 2009)

steff09 said:


> where in west london?



We lived in the centre of the universe...isleworth


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

am64 said:


> We lived in the centre of the universe...isleworth



woooooooooooooooooo small world lolz


----------



## am64 (Sep 23, 2009)

steff09 said:


> woooooooooooooooooo small world lolz


not there now went to scotland came back and ended up in leafy bucks as hubby got job with tied house....loved Isleworth, hub from Hounslow area ... now your talking accents...Weeeeeeest Laaandan


----------



## Steff (Sep 23, 2009)

yes well used to shop in hounslow and feltham


----------



## am64 (Sep 23, 2009)

rossi_mac said:


> I think everyone slips into home accent when around home folk. Not that I've moved far from home! I'm a south londoner and I never thought I had an accent, then I went to Newcastle to uni, boy did the Geordies have an accent and they all thought I had a right cockney one,
> 
> I went to newcastle uni in the 80's and it amazed me the amount of accents just in one city...if lost (or p*****d) you could work out where you were by the different call of the newsaper sellers...Cronicle..


----------



## katie (Sep 24, 2009)

http://environment.uk.msn.com/wildlife/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=9853277&ocid=today

haha


----------



## insulinaddict09 (Sep 24, 2009)

katie said:


> http://environment.uk.msn.com/wildlife/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=9853277&ocid=today
> 
> haha



PMFSL


----------



## Caroline (Sep 24, 2009)

I like hearing accents. My father is from Devon and still retains a West Country accent, even after living in London for more the 50 years. I have picked upa slight accent from him, which is more prononced when I see my aunts.

My mum is from South London, but her decided to make his home in Devon. To hear him speak, you'd never know he'd been anywhere near London.


----------



## Corrine (Sep 24, 2009)

I've got a definite Sarf London accent - and I've even been mistaken for a cockney before!  Never really lived anywhere else unless you count a year in Northampton (I didn't) and 18 months in Gibraltar - which was so long ago I can't even remember it!


----------



## AlisonM (Sep 24, 2009)

Hi Caroline. Does your dad like being surrounded by Grockles? I have a friend who comes from Exeter and that's what she calls all us foreigners.


----------



## randomange (Sep 25, 2009)

I have a Glaswegian accent. I don't think it's particularly strong, but the people I work with down here beg to differ! 

It definitely gets stronger when I go home though, but I think a lot of that is the dialect coming out!


----------



## Metal Man (Sep 28, 2009)

*Accent*



AlisonM said:


> Oh yeah that's such a sexy accent. I love it.



Ha Ha!!  That's me, an Orkney accent!! Left Orkney just over 8 years ago but everyone knows the accent as soon as I talk!!


----------



## Caroline (Sep 28, 2009)

AlisonM said:


> Hi Caroline. Does your dad like being surrounded by Grockles? I have a friend who comes from Exeter and that's what she calls all us foreigners.



I think my dad came up to London for the work and to get away from his mum and sisters, he was surrounded by women until he got married. My mum keeps telling everyone she is the best man she knows....


----------



## Caroline (Sep 28, 2009)

randomange said:


> I have a Glaswegian accent. I don't think it's particularly strong, but the people I work with down here beg to differ!
> 
> It definitely gets stronger when I go home though, but I think a lot of that is the dialect coming out!



We don't hear ouserlves as others do. I hate listening to tape recordings or watching old videos with me in...


----------

