Accents

geordie
yorkshire
cockney
scoucer
mackem
brummie
mancunian
etc

its weird if you think about it *scratches head* if we are from the same country why do we sound TOTALLY different to each other??

if you heard a scoucer speak next to a geordie, you'd think they are from 2 different countrys LOL.

i can go 5 miles down the road and people in the next town sound SLIGHTLY different to me!!

so yeah why do we have an accents? and where do they come from?


[edit on 25-3-2006 by st3ve_o]

Honestly I don't know, but I suspect accents develop origonally in an area, and it sticks, even if it's close to another GeAccent area.

If you go back in history to around 600AD or thereabouts you will see that there is no England, Scotland and Wales, but instead there is Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria etc, go back before the Romans and Britain is even more fractional with tribal nations dotted all over the place. All these areas had their own languages or dialects that were different from each other, modern accents such as Geordie or Yorkshire etc are the last remaining traces of those ancient dialects, as are the slang words you would associate with each region, like me and thee saying gi'ower' for 'give over' or a Geordie's stereotypical 'wye aye' for Oh yes.

The English language gradually evolved over time from Frisian roots with regular influxes from Danish, French, Latin etc but also different regions adopted different words from those languages, for example up here in Yorkshire we used the Danish words 'They, Them, Thing, etc centuries before they became 'standard English' as we think of them today when they spread throughout the whole country around the 11th century.

That is just one small exampole but there are many more. With central Rule over 'Britain' and a conscious decision to introduce a standard English in the late 1400's began the linguistic 'snobbery' that lasted until quite recently that our local dialects were somehow inferior or even a sign of ignorance among the general populace. Our dialects are more rich and worthy than the artificially imposed RP and at last this is now recognised.



[edit on 26-3-2006 by waynos]

And why is that an american or englishman can live in Australia for over 20 years and still retain the same accent, yet when an aussie goes to live over there for under a year - he already half sounds like an englishman or american!
Thats a true mystery.

Everone but Southerners have weird accents....I dont know how yall understand each other

Very interesting topic, I asked my mother-inlaw's opinion on why in America there were so many different accents, she concluded it was due to all the immigrants that came from Europe and that together formed different accents.

Also it's only 6 hours away from me where they call Bags, Sacks and Pop, Soda!

In the Netherlands we have the Friesian dialect, I can't understand crap they say! they are quite proud of their dialect but I think they sound like some drunken farmers to be honest! lol

Edit to add that my Dutch accent turned into a mostly American accent under a year! probably took a few months, accents are very infectious to me, also word ussages are quite contagious to me.

[edit on 3/29/2006 by GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Have you noticed how Essex people now have the cockney accent? The cockneys have been pushed out of east london into Essex, so now the new generation of essex now speak cockney, and if you go to east london they now speak bengal, turkish, arab etc...

I love accents tho, it just depends on where you are brought up

i have a strong accent, where people can tell i am from London but in the central part of London is it pure Cockney, and yes i 100% agree Dodge that there is not as many pure cockney people in London.

And when i was young i loved going into a Black Cab because the driver would speak in pure cockney. But now it is mostly asians, etc. No problems what so ever.... it made me laugh i got into a cab and this asian man was driving and when he spoke he had more of a British accent than i did. Just goes to show... never judge a book by it cover... read the first few pages.

Oni x x