Fred.

[valda]

"Erm , because it`s a rather fasinating phenoneon." Billy that is complete rubbish and you know it it is not that fasinating to study accent`s as no colledge I know run`s a course about it . Walsall maybe a town in it`s own right as many place`s are, but it`s still in the county of Birmingham. and as for not understanding ,(why does that not surprise me Billy ? ) why you and walsall and Birmingham should be proud of Sue Nicoll`s for saying she`s a brummie. and I know a lot of Wolverhampton folk and they certainly are not mortally offended if you ask them is that a brummie accent? so I doubt very much if Noddy Holder would be mortally offended either lay off Patsy Billy I know what she mean`s and I agree with her ok. I,m a Cumbrian and my accent is likened to a Geordie`s (Newcastle ) which is not that far away from cumbria but am I or any of the Newcastle people offended by that? no we are not we are proud of it.

[BillyNiblick]

valda said:

"Erm , because it`s a rather fasinating phenoneon." Billy that is complete rubbish and you know it it is not that fasinating to study accent`s as no colledge I know run`s a course about it .

Well, I'm sorry if you were being strictly literal, Valda. I was not. When I referred to the study of regional accents, I was not talking about college faculties, but I was quite serious about finding it fascinating - I've always been very interested in the way that accents can vary enormously in the space of what is often just a few miles.

Walsall maybe a town in it`s own right

It is.

as many place`s are, but it`s still in the county of Birmingham

The county of Birmingham? Actually Valda, Walsall is in the county of West Midlands. As is the City of Birmingham.

. and as for not understanding ,(why does that not surprise me Billy ? ) why you and walsall and Birmingham should be proud of Sue Nicoll`s for saying she`s a brummie.

I don't think she did say she was a Brummie, did she? That was Patsy - Sue is from Walsall.

and I know a lot of Wolverhampton folk and they certainly are not mortally offended if you ask them is that a brummie accent?

You clearly don't know the ones I do.

so I doubt very much if Noddy Holder would be mortally offended either

I rather think he would.

lay off Patsy Billy I know what she mean`s and I agree with her

Lay off Patsy? I'm not attacking her, just disagreeing. Isn't that allowed?

ok. I,m a Cumbrian and my accent is likened to a Geordie`s (Newcastle ) which is not that far away from cumbria but am I or any of the Newcastle people offended by that? no we are not we are proud of it.

You might be mildly annoyed if I incorrectly described you as a Geordie, though. Particularly as you yourself identify yourself as a Cumbrian.

[valda]

when I meantioned colledge`s I wasn`t being strightly literall I leave that to you Billy, I was being Sarcastic but you obviously don`t understand that either! I`ve no doubt you do find studying accent`s fasinateing but I,m afraid I and a lot of people do not share your enthusiasm for it and accent`s do not vary that much how ever few mile`s there are.
Walsall and Birmingham are both town`s in the west midland`s therefore the accent`s are the same. belive me Billy I am sincerly pleased that I do not know the same Wolverhampton people as you do as clearly the people I know are not like you and your friend`s. and if you care to read anything about Sue Nicoll`s she has said a few time`s that she is proud to be a brummie so it wasn`t just Patsy saying that. I beg to differ with you about Noddy Holder have you ever met Mr Holder Billy? a friend of mine has and no way was he mortally offended by that, maybe you would be but please do not judge everyone by yourself Billy. excuse me Billy but your way of disagreeing is very much like a attack on a person . disagreeing is allowed but do you have to do it so often?. LOL you really do not know me Billy do you? if you think I`d get mildly annoyed if you incorrectly described me as a Geordie though . please read above I also stated and meant it that does not bother me in the slightest way at all ok and a lot of people are like me lol .

[RitaLittlewood]

No Billy, I'm not a Scouser. I said family, not me.

In my experience people are defensive of where they come from if you say "Oh you're an Aussie" to a New Zealander but generally laugh it off with good humour. Yes accents vary depening on where you love, like the oo-arrs of the West Country and Norfolk but to most people they all sound the same. My next door neighbour is from Plymouth but could easily have been born and bred in Hampshire because their accent is similar. Mine is more London even though I wasn't born there but close to it so people think I'm a Londoner.

Patsy

[BillyNiblick]

valda said:

when I meantioned colledge`s I wasn`t being strightly literall I leave that to you Billy, I was being Sarcastic but you obviously don`t understand that either! I`ve no doubt you do find studying accent`s fasinateing but I,m afraid I and a lot of people do not share your enthusiasm for it and accent`s do not vary that much how ever few mile`s there are.
Walsall and Birmingham are both town`s in the west midland`s therefore the accent`s are the same. belive me Billy I am sincerly pleased that I do not know the same Wolverhampton people as you do as clearly the people I know are not like you and your friend`s. and if you care to read anything about Sue Nicoll`s she has said a few time`s that she is proud to be a brummie so it wasn`t just Patsy saying that. I beg to differ with you about Noddy Holder have you ever met Mr Holder Billy? a friend of mine has and no way was he mortally offended by that, maybe you would be but please do not judge everyone by yourself Billy. excuse me Billy but your way of disagreeing is very much like a attack on a person . disagreeing is allowed but do you have to do it so often?. LOL you really do not know me Billy do you? if you think I`d get mildly annoyed if you incorrectly described me as a Geordie though . please read above I also stated and meant it that does not bother me in the slightest way at all ok and a lot of people are like me lol .

Of course I don't know you. I'll be perfectly honest with you Valda and say that I find your postings rather difficult to read - so I'm going to stop disagreeing with you - which I gather may suit you.

[sallywebster]

Well im from Wales and Welsh accents vary from a North to a South Wales accent. Im definately a South Wales accent!

[BillyNiblick]

ritalittlewood said:

Yes accents vary depening on where you love, like the oo-arrs of the West Country and Norfolk but to most people they all sound the same.
Patsy

Actually Patsy, it's quite remarkable just how much regional accents can differ - sometimes over just a few miles, and I do find that quite fascinating. I do take your points about similar sounding regional accents but people from certain parts of the country can often spot a different accent in someone from literally just up the road which may sound very similar to someone from the other end of the country with an untutored ear.

[sallywebster]

Well I have a Swansea accent and its quite different from people in the Welsh valley's! lol

[RitaLittlewood]

What do you think of Proper Chat, Billy? How would you define that? Norwegian and Swedish all sound the same to me. Looks the same written down as well. LOL!

Patsy

[valda]

you`ll stop disagreeing with me ("Yippee that`s the best thing you could say to anyone" too right that suit`s me ) because you find my posting`s(the word is post`s Billy not Posting`s ) difficult to read? funny no one else has the same problem do they?.

[BillyNiblick]

ritalittlewood said:

What do you think of Proper Chat, Billy? How would you define that? Norwegian and Swedish all sound the same to me. Looks the same written down as well. LOL!

Patsy

I'm afraid you've lost me there. What's Proper Chat?

[RitaLittlewood]

A regional accent.

Patsy

[BillyNiblick]

ritalittlewood said:

A regional accent.

Patsy

Which region? I've honestly never heard anything referred to as that.

[RitaLittlewood]

My great-grandparents used to speak it. I don't remember at all because I was young when they died and we didn't live there. It's an area of Kent.

Patsy

[BillyNiblick]

ritalittlewood said:

My great-grandparents used to speak it. I don't remember at all because I was young when they died and we didn't live there. It's an area of Kent.

Patsy

Thanks for that, Patsy - I'm off to google for some more on it now.

[RitaLittlewood]

I don't know if they still use the term but they did at least in the early 70s when we last visited them before they died. My dad said he had trouble understanding what they were saying at times. Mind you they probably couldn't understand him either as his Scouse accent was much thicker back then. LOL!

Patsy

[Nick]

Blimey this has got indepth and heated hasn't it........I am from the midlands originally (South Staffordshire) but don't talk with a midlands accent..if i had been born 5 miles further south the chances are I would have,once you get to Sutton Coldfield/Lichfield you start to detect a midlands accent....

I must admit i find it interesting to read or see programmes on where regional accents come from..it all ties in with the history of the country...Scouse apparantley is a mixture of Irish Gaelic and Scandinavian

I'm not sure of the history of the Midlands acccent...so if anyone can enlighten me..I would be interested

[RitaLittlewood]

A friend of mine in Tyne & Wear doesn't have a very strong accent at all. Her mother's is stronger even though she lived there all her life. I think parentage has a lot to do with it. When you're young you copy how your parents speak. None of my friends have ever had the country accent associated with Hampshire but then none of their parents were born in the county even though they were. Also a lot of the time you end up speaking where you live. My aunt married a GI from Louisiana and ended up with a Scouse/southern accent after living there since the late 50s. It was very strange to hear. Yet the one who emigrated to South Africa kept her Scouse accent.

Patsy

[Nick]

Tis true Pats..my Dad was from the Midlands village where I was brought up,but my mum was from Yorkshire and her Mum was from Leicestershire...we moved to Lancashire when I was 14..Geoff is from Warrington...so I do talk with a Northern accent...so you do pick up on accents around you...when i lived in London I started saying things like 'leave it ahhrrtt'...

[RitaLittlewood]

You do. Sometimes I even find myself saying something with a slight Scouse twang. But generally I talk common. LOL!

Patsy

[BillyNiblick]

Googling Proper Chat didn't yield much, alas. The best connection was with Chatham Town Football Club, which of course makes sense with Patsy's Kent connection.

Nick - you're absolutely right about the way in which the Brummie accent kicks in more noticeably as you go southward from Stafford. The Stafford accent is actually noticeably different from the typical "Brummie" accent, and it is truly fascinating that this should be so. I perhaps should add that I am in fact Scottish, and came to Birmingham from the west of Scotland some 23 years ago. I don't speak with a Brummie accent, but am sometimes accused by friends on visits home of "talking funny" - an inevitable consequence of having to moderate a natural regional accent in a different region simply in order to be understood. Birmingham, of course, has a historical record of welcoming people from all over the world, all of whom happliy become Brummies on settling here. I'm currently lobbying to have the term for Scottish Brummie officially recognised as "Scrummie". ;D

[Nick]

Stafford tends to come under a sort of Stoke on Trent-ish accent (Robbie Wliiams,Jonathan Wilkes,Nick Hancock)..

I think I was in an accent no mans land ..8 miles south of Stafford and 5 miles North of Lichfield


I like the sound of a scrummie accent lol

[RitaLittlewood]

Perhaps they don't use the term these days, Billy. Could be trying to go highbrow. Although from what I've heard Essex girls would be considered too posh for Chatham these days. LOL!

Patsy

[CG Wendy]

Sorry to butt in late an all. I haven`t been well lately and there`s some other stuff going on in my life that I won`t go into right now.
I agree with Valda on this. And it`s not just because she has the most gorgous Geordie accent. Sorry Val...is Geordie a pc term to use these days? With all the political correctness going on in the world, it`s hard to figure out.
Jez...I`m from South Wales too, and I bet my accent is different to yours. Even in Newport, the dialect is different!!

[valda]

I,m so sorry to hear you,ve been ill Corriegirl :,( but your ok saying Geordie there is no pc on that yet