Regional accents, can other people place you?

[minestrone]

When I worked is shops the advice was always to ask anyone with a north American accent if they were Canadian. I believe asking a Canadian if they are from the states is a real piss off.

[Sysman]

Having said that I can just about place other Scottish people to a particular town or city and dare I say it social class. In Donegal where I visit as I have family there the accent can change in the distance of a mile or two and within a twenty mile radius there there may be twenty different accents.

I grew up in semi-rural West Yorkshire and could certainly tell which of the local towns people came from, and sometimes down to the village too. In those days almost every village had a local woollen mill where the majority worked, so accents were quite distinct from area to area. I gobsmacked someone who gave me a lift when I was hitching down to London in my student days by telling him which school he had attended. That one was easy, because my sister had been to the same school.

I have lost the edge now, because I have lived in Europe for so long, but I know the ability would come back if I had more exposure to a variety of accents. I long ago developed an accent which has folks assuming I am from the South of England, but I have over the years made a conscious effort to make it easy to understand for foreigners, using what I used to know as BBC English as my model (yes, I have always listened to a lot of Radio 4). About 10 years ago my team at work voted me as having the clearest accent of all the native English speaking contingent, which chuffed me no end.

I can lapse into Yorkshire if I come across a native speaker though, much to the amusement of my Swiss colleagues and friends when they hear it.

My Plan B accomplice is also from Yorkshire, but his accent is more Scottish, since he grew up near Paisley. That combination is weird, because he's been in Switzerland for over thirty years, has 2 Swiss ex-wives and three kids and throws in a lot of Swiss German.

I can also most of the time tell who has been in the military (any branch), since there seems to be an almost generic accent peculiar to them.

When I was in the UK I could pick out a Church Of England vicar a mile off, and probably still could. But you don't get many of them here

P.S. I know what you mean about accents grating the further south you get. One pet hate is that special version of Cockney that seems to thrive in the rock music world; I am sure that in your area of expertise you have come across it. More generally I don't like what I call the "London nasal whine". Neither am I enamored with the South West accent, largely down to a fellow contractor from Devon who was as thick as pigtulipe and ... spoke ... so ... slowly.

[Sysman]

When I worked is shops the advice was always to ask anyone with a north American accent if they were Canadian. I believe asking a Canadian if they are from the states is a real piss off.

Not a bad idea. I simply ask folks where they come from originally, because I have come across quite a lot of Europeans with good Canadian or US accents.

[SimonMac]

When I am back North people call me Southern, when I am down South I am a Northern, when I am back home in Belfast the accent returns, when I am in Somerset I just speak slowly and use small words

[BlasterBates]

Ee by gum, nay lad.

[SimonMac]

Ee by gum, nay lad.

Aye se thee lad

[cojak]

Regional accents, can other people place you?

No. But then I can't place myself either.

Received Pronunciation innit.

[cojak]

Regional accents, can other people place you?

With this non-accent accent I used to pride myself in effective communication when training non-native English speakers (there's more to effective communication than just the accent obviously, but it's a good place to start).

When training in Brussels I had to nod patiently as the PM advised me not to go too fast as not all the attendees where great English speakers. When I finished she said that I had given all of them much more confidence and the belief that they could converse better than before my course.

I was rather pleased with that.

[Gonzo]

I can almost tell the difference between Aussie and Kiwi but it catches me out sometimes.

Mrs Gonzo is a Kiwi so it is more than my life is worth to get that wrong.

I don't have much of the west-country burr that I should have based on where I grew up but my mother is not one of them and I didn't hear that accent much at home when I was growing up, I think that had an influence.

[Sysman]

Ee by gum, nay lad.

Don't mix it up.

I used to know a bloke who every time someone said "Ee by gum" would say "Manchester".

"Nay lad" works perfectly well in Yorkshire though, and can be a good deterrent when someone offers you a fight in the car park.

You do need to follow it up with a bit of humour though.