# Please explain different UK accents to me. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 13, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888 "2005-11-13T20:58:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/41 "2005-11-15T07:51:41Z")
Ian McKellen’s Lancastrian, born in Barnsley. Patrick Stewart was born in West Yorkshire. While they might sound the same to you, don’t tell anyone from either county that! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/42 "2005-11-15T07:53:12Z")
Errr, make that born in _Burnley_ ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/43 "2005-11-15T10:52:56Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Do people have work accents and home ones? It makes sense to me that someone would have a stronger accent when on their home turf, so to speak. Not necessarily just a change in strength. I grew up and went to school in (ahem) Sarrf Landon. At school me and my brother and sister picked up the local accent with dropped aiches glottal stops and all. At home we were constantly corrected back to our parent’s middle-class RP. In consequence when I’m at my brother’s place I’ll revert to the old junior school London accent. At my parents and in everyday conversation I’m mostly RP with probably the odd lapse. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart normally speak RP, it was quite strange to hear Patrick Stewart talking in his “real” accent on Top Gear. I don’t think he would have got the Next Generation job sounding like that. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/44 "2005-11-15T10:55:56Z")
One of my friend’s (well actually my husband’s friend) has a voice recording on the BBC site **GorillaMan** linked to. She’s the marine biologist from Ballycastle in Northern Ireland. My husband has a middle class, neutral Northern Irish accent (the interviewer on that website), as do I when I’m talking to him. Apart from the interviewer, there are no other examples of that accent on the site. **John Mace** , my accent “floats” between RP tinged with Zimbabwean and Northern Irish, and usually mirrors the accent of whomever I speak to. It comes from growing up with a mother from Zimbabwe and a Northern Irish father who has lived in London and Dublin, and then going to the local primary school where Ulster Scots (complete with “scran”, “thran” and “sculpin”) is the default. You have to adjust to avoid teasing, but it’s not conscious. If you listen to the Northern Irish accents you’ll hear that although you can tell they’re from Northern Ireland, on a piece of land about 100 miles by 100 miles you’d be hard pressed to find more accents and local dialects anywhere else in the English speaking world. Northern Irish people can identify your hometown, class, and probably political and religious beliefs just by hearing you speak. It’s a little scary sometimes. **BrainGlutton** -the lucky charms Leprechaun is about as authentically Irish as Dick van Dyke is authentically cockney. There are far too many regional and class distinctions in Irish english to even mention. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/45 "2005-11-15T11:34:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Ian McKellen’s Lancastrian, born in Barnsley. But grew up in Wigan. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/46 "2005-11-15T12:27:29Z")
I remember when I was at university (in the south of England) friends from the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were told they sounded like ‘posh southerners’ when they went home for the holidays after the first term. Their accents also sounded ‘stronger’ when they were on the phone to friends/family back home. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/47 "2005-11-15T12:45:02Z")
> [@teela brown](#): > > It’s fun to listen to the accents in the Aardman _Creature Comforts_ shorts. We like to try to place each one as we hear it, with varying success, I’m sure. > > My favorite characters are the dog and the cat on the couch (probably a husband and wife IRL) as they bicker very mildly. I’m guessing - Manchester? According to the **Lancashire Evening Telegraph** : \*A COUPLE from Penwortham are set to be catapulted to fame as Preston animator Nick Park launches the next instalment of his Oscar winning classic Creature Comforts. Richard and Pamela Wareing are the voices behind two of the film’s lead characters – Captain Cuddlepuss and Trixie the dog, respectively…\* Link to the article: [http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2003/09/25/530106.html](http://archive.thisislancashire.co.uk/2003/09/25/530106.html) ---
**Author:** ![wayward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@wayward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wayward)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/48 "2005-11-15T13:24:35Z")
> [@Martha](#): > > I remember when I was at university (in the south of England) friends from the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were told they sounded like ‘posh southerners’ when they went home for the holidays after the first term. Their accents also sounded ‘stronger’ when they were on the phone to friends/family back home. My first flat at university (in South wales) was made up of two people from Devon, one from Cornwall, one from Dorset, one from Somerset (me), one from North Wales and one from Warrington. The six of us used to mercilessly tease the Northerner (all in good spirits of course) for his accent, while back home he was ribbed for sounding Southern. Meanwhile, the Welsh bloke spoke about as close to RP as I’ve ever heard, which is apparently normal for that area. I’ve been living in Swansea for just over four years now and I’ve noticed myself that I’ve picked up a definite Welsh tint to my (fairly light) Zummerzet accent, and several people have been surprised to find out I’m actually English. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/49 "2005-11-15T13:36:44Z")
Brad Pitt’s character in “The Devil’s Own” is a painful example of a Northern Irish accent (sounds like he’s from Belfast whereas he is meant to be from a small town in the middle of the country that somehow has a coastline :rolleyes: ) But Irishgirl’s right, there is a curiously strong variety of accents it seems for such a small country, I can’t replicate them but I can notice a difference sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/50 "2005-11-15T15:34:42Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > True. If only Daphne had a real Manc accent in Frasier, things could’ve been different (trivia quiz: which Frasier actor was actually born in Manchester? no Googling) What about the rough accent of Daphne’s brother, was that authentic, and if so, from what region? Radio producer Roz was…er…enchanted by that accent, thinking it very sophisticated. Not all Americans would have “gotten” that joke, but most of the _Frasier_ audience probably did. Since Daphne and the brother would presumably have grown up speaking the same way, does Daphne’s accent represent an attempt to sound more middle class, for professional purposes? ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/51 "2005-11-15T16:31:51Z")
Okay, enough with the bleeding commoners. What about the royals? Their accents seem pretty varied to me (I’m excluding people who’ve married in, BTW), but seem largely to be characterized by a certain laziness in their speech. The ultimate, I’d say, was Lord Mountbatten, who sounded like, well, “I’m just too damned important to even bother moving my mouth when I speak.” Where does this whole thing come from? Do any other than the royals speak this way? ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/52 "2005-11-15T16:57:54Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Since Daphne and the brother would presumably have grown up speaking the same way, does Daphne’s accent represent an attempt to sound more middle class, for professional purposes? Whatever accent Daphne was using - and it certainly was nothing like Manc - it did not have any middle-classness about it. If you want a proper Manc accent, try listening to one of the Gallagher brothers from the popular beat combo Oasis. They’re from Burnage (their mam used to work in McVitie’s Biscuit factory in Crossley Street). And, yes: proper Mancs do swear that much. Don’t be fooled if you ever see “Coronation Street” on TV. Although it is set in a fictional suburb of Salford (which is adjacent to Manchester), few of the characters speak as a native would. Perhaps the most authentic are the likes of Les Battersby (actor born in Colleyhurst), Kevin Webster or Ashley Peacock. “Foreigners” include Vera Duckworth (actress from Leeds) and Audrey Roberts (actress actually the daughter of a former member of the House of Lords and whose accent has no basis in reality). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/53 "2005-11-15T17:16:56Z")
> [@kelly5078](#): > > Okay, enough with the bleeding commoners. What about the royals? Their accents seem pretty varied to me (I’m excluding people who’ve married in, BTW), but seem largely to be characterized by a certain laziness in their speech. The ultimate, I’d say, was Lord Mountbatten, who sounded like, well, “I’m just too damned important to even bother moving my mouth when I speak.” Where does this whole thing come from? Do any other than the royals speak this way? See earlier comments about ‘ **RP** ’. This diction is still common among the traditionally rich (aka ‘the upper classes’) partly due (I’m guessing here) to the fact that they were less tied to a region (schooled elsewhere) and so didn’t develop a regional accent. There was also a pressure to conform to a ‘standard’ and ‘elocution’ lessons may have been part of life. Then to a certain extent, like any accent, it self perpetuates with children echoing much of their parents’ speech patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/54 "2005-11-15T17:24:24Z")
Tony Blair’s accent changes with the wind. The other day he was on Football Focus and he started to slip into Estuary. I think he does this so people think he is “one of the lads”. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/55 "2005-11-15T17:35:52Z")
Facinating thread! I actually lived in London for about 6 months and traveled a lot through the country. I have several friends in various parts of the UK and in Ireland and they tell me all about these subtle (to me) differences. The only accents I could tell the difference between were the larger variation…Northern/Southern England, Welsh and Scotch (and Irish of course). I could kind of hear some other variation, but American accents still give me trouble and I’ve live here for years. Did anyone answer the question from the first page about the various characters in the Harry Potter movies? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/56 "2005-11-15T18:02:48Z")
Regarding _Bridget Jones_ - Bridget’s accent, as played by Renee Zellwegger, was a pretty-close-but-not-quite attempt at R.P. by an American. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are natural R.P. (I don’t know what Firth sounds like in ordinary life.) What I am wondering about is **Perpetua** ’s accent – is that the one people are calling Sloan? That sort of lazy drawl? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/57 "2005-11-15T18:03:53Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Did anyone answer the question from the first page about the various characters in the Harry Potter movies? **Hagrid** speaks in a modified version of Robbie Coltrane’s Scottish accent. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/58 "2005-11-15T18:09:35Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > If you listen to the Northern Irish accents you’ll hear that although you can tell they’re from Northern Ireland, on a piece of land about 100 miles by 100 miles you’d be hard pressed to find more accents and local dialects anywhere else in the English speaking world. Northern Irish people can identify your hometown, class, and probably political and religious beliefs just by hearing you speak. It’s a little scary sometimes. George Bernard Shaw made the same point in Pygmalion, about English accents in generaly. He was pretty pissed off about it, as he felt that class prejudices were being enforced via these accents. Still true? (Pygmalion was written in 1914, so I suspect there has been some change in class consciousness, but it’s kinda surprisingly to hear that accents are still so regionalized in a country that has mass media and would barely make a decent sized state out West.) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/59 "2005-11-15T18:33:17Z")
> [@wayward](#): > > My first flat at university (in South wales) was made up of two people from Devon, one from Cornwall, one from Dorset, one from Somerset (me), one from North Wales and one from Warrington. The six of us used to mercilessly tease the Northerner (all in good spirits of course) for his accent, while back home he was ribbed for sounding Southern. > Meanwhile, the Welsh bloke spoke about as close to RP as I’ve ever heard, which is apparently normal for that area. > I’ve been living in Swansea for just over four years now and I’ve noticed myself that I’ve picked up a definite Welsh tint to my (fairly light) Zummerzet accent, and several people have been surprised to find out I’m actually English. How Welsh does Anthony Hopkins sound? Terry Jones? How about Ray Milland? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888/60 "2005-11-15T18:35:28Z")
One of the reasons I get shy when I travel is I acquire any accent that talks to me–it’s creepy. Not only the accent, but the slang! I always think that the people will think that I am aping thm… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-different-uk-accents-to-me/330888.md?page=4)