Your accent?

[Daisy]

I think one's ear just adjusts to the accent around one... and it ceases to be noticeable at all.

[Daisy]

I'm interested you thought I had a slight accent, Katharine, as I tend to feel it's pretty neutral. I am aware I pick up the local one when with someone with a more pronounced accent though.

[Rob Houghton]

Regarding 'Melbourne', we have a Melbourne Road here in Ipswich and as far as I am aware, everyone pronounces it as Melborn.

Its interesting to hear about different pronunciations! I don't think I've ever heard anyone say 'Melborn' - always 'Melb'n' - it never occurred to me until this discussion that it would be pronounced any other way!

I've spoken to both Eddie and Daisy in the past (bet they don't remember but I do lol!) at Enid Blyton Days - and I didn't find either of them to have an accent...but maybe that is because Daisy has lived in various areas, and Eddie originally came from my part of the world (almost). I do think we mainly notice accents if they are very different from our own. Just my theory!

[Daisy]

I think your theory is right Rob. No, I can't say I remember speaking to you - well not knowing it was you, if you know what I mean!

[Eddie Muir]

I do remember speaking to you at Enid Blyton Days, Rob. I don’t recall that you had an accent and certainly not a Birmingham one. I moved from the Midlands to Sussex when I was nine years old, although I return to my home area frequently, and so I now have a ‘southern’ accent.

[Rob Houghton]

I think your theory is right Rob. No, I can't say I remember speaking to you - well not knowing it was you, if you know what I mean!

Yes - I was usually a bit overwhelmed by all the books and so didn't do much speaking to people - I regret that now, but back then the forums were quite new and I didn't know everyone as I do now!

I do remember speaking to you at Enid Blyton Days, Rob. I don’t recall that you had an accent and certainly not a Birmingham one. I moved from the Midlands to Sussex when I was nine years old, although I return to my home area frequently, and so I now have a ‘southern’ accent.

Although you have a 'southern' accent, I don't think its really a pronounced one - just 'normal' whatever that might be!

Its also perhaps to do with the fact that you have both been teachers (I think?) and so maybe you learned to speak more clearly because of that.

[John Pickup]

Where I live we pronounce water as "watter" and potatoes as "taytees". Nobody can murder the English language better than someone from Lincolnshire.

[Daisy]

Oh I don't know, John. I can think of a few other candidates. Speaking with you and Erika when we met in Beaconsfield, I was transported back to my 4 years in Huddersfield from the age of 8-12... Lincolnshire accents must be rather akin to a Yorkshire one!

[Chrissie777]

I am just wondering what peoples' accents are like.

I have a mix: I'm an eighth Scottish, half southern and the rest East Anglian.

So, are you all Scottish or Irish. Or do you (like me) have a mix?

I speak English with a German accent, but most Americans who became aware of my accent guessed that it's Swedish or French.
I'm German with Polish and Swedish ancestors on my parents sides.

Years ago I've read that only if you have spent one year in a foreign country BEFORE you were 18 years old (for instance a German spending one year on an exchange program in the US) you can speak the language accent-free.
I was already 33 years old when I first visited the US on a long trip and realized that my Oxford English that I had learned at high school for 8 years and 6 days a week didn't prepare me for American English at all (BTW I was the best in English lessons in my class).
Even today when my husband says "salad" and I repeat it excatly the way he pronounces it, they don't understand me at the super market at all. I have to repeat every sentence twice or three times, before they can guess what I'm saying. Sometimes it's frustrating...

[Chrissie777]

I think one's ear just adjusts to the accent around one... and it ceases to be noticeable at all.

Daisy, my husband got used to my accent and understands me. It probably helped that he took two years of German lessons at high school in the 1970's.

[Rob Houghton]

Where I live we pronounce water as "watter" and potatoes as "taytees". Nobody can murder the English language better than someone from Lincolnshire.

I didn't realise 'watter' was a Lincolnshire pronunciation. We had a caravan at Fradley Junction, South Staffs, and many people came from the Dudley/Walsall area, and they also tend to say 'watter' instead of 'water'. One man always used to say 'nippy a it?' (meaning it was a bit chilly!) - and as the caravans weren't plumbed in at that time, he often said 'I'm goona fetch some watter'

[Daisy]

I've known 'nippy' as meaning chilly all my life. To some extent it must be the influence of how your parents speak, that gives you your first vocabulary and dialect.

[John Pickup]

Oh I don't know, John. I can think of a few other candidates. Speaking with you and Erika when we met in Beaconsfield, I was transported back to my 4 years in Huddersfield from the age of 8-12... Lincolnshire accents must be rather akin to a Yorkshire one!

They are very similar, Daisy, especially if you live in North Lincolnshire as I do. My father used to say people from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire were the same except Yorkshiremen were meaner!

We use the word "nippy" to mean chilly too.

[Katharine]

I use the word 'nippy' for cold too. One turn of phrase which I don't think I've ever heard outside of my family is:-

'You'll catch the pip', which I think translates into getting a chill from not wearing a coat. Anyone else heard that?

[Daisy]

That's a new one on me, Katharine! I wonder what the derivation is.