Regional accents- the last straw.

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  • jean
    Late member
    • Nov 2010
    • 7100

    #76
    Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
    I may have bored you with this one before, but perhaps not:-

    My piano teacher at school in the 1960s originated from Blackburn, but she had a very refined speaking voice. There was a rumour that she had had elocution lessons whilst at the RMCM, but I remember finding this difficult to believe, so consistent was her RP accent.

    Then one day, she asked me to play fortissimo in a passage she thought I was playing rather lazily. I increased the volume, but apparently this was insufficient, for she added in a loud voice:
    COOM ON PLAY IT DOOBLE FOOERTAY.
    What fun it is catching people out in their pretensions!

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    • MrGongGong
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 18357

      #77
      So why is it the "last straw" ?

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      • Eine Alpensinfonie
        Host
        • Nov 2010
        • 20569

        #78
        Originally posted by jean View Post
        What fun it is catching people out in their pretensions!
        She was a very good teacher though.

        Comment

        • ferneyhoughgeliebte
          Gone fishin'
          • Sep 2011
          • 30163

          #79
          Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post
          You might
          but having met many people who contradict this assumption I wouldn't.
          I thought jean was addressing frenchie's point (the "you" directed specifically at her - or the people who expressed the opinion referred to by frenchie - rather than the generalized "we/one hear(s)") .
          [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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          • jean
            Late member
            • Nov 2010
            • 7100

            #80
            I was.

            I most certainly wouldn't.

            (I used to find it very interesting to realise how our assumptions about the ways people speak aren't shared by people in other countries. I remember once at a conference of English teachers, in the bar one evening we all decided to speak in the broadest version of our native accent we could muster. One of my Polish colleagues turned to me in wonder and said You sound human!)

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            • Padraig
              Full Member
              • Feb 2013
              • 4220

              #81
              Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
              I thought jean was addressing frenchie's point (the "you" directed specifically at her - or the people who expressed the opinion referred to by frenchie - rather than the generalized "we/one hear(s)") .
              Me too.

              Comment

              • MrGongGong
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 18357

                #82
                Originally posted by jean View Post
                I was.
                ok

                (I wasn't clear..... sorry)

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                • jean
                  Late member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 7100

                  #83
                  Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
                  She was a very good teacher though.
                  So why tell such stories about the poor woman?

                  She was doing exactly what you advise.

                  Comment

                  • doversoul1
                    Ex Member
                    • Dec 2010
                    • 7132

                    #84
                    Originally posted by jean View Post
                    So why tell such stories about the poor woman?
                    I think it is rather a nice story. She must have sounded human.

                    Regional accent may be a cultural interest to native speakers (of English) but to non-native speakers, even if English is their language of habitual use, it is not very much fun. When in the region or talking face to face, one could pretend not to understand English, RP or otherwise, then there is normally some help in various forms, but hearing it on the radio is a different matter all together. I’d expect a national radio station to ensure that its English would not cause extra problems to this particular group of its regular listeners.

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                    • jean
                      Late member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 7100

                      #85
                      Originally posted by doversoul View Post
                      I think it is rather a nice story. She must have sounded human.
                      But only to a foreigner.

                      Comment

                      • vinteuil
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 12765

                        #86
                        Originally posted by jean View Post
                        I used to find it very interesting to realise how our assumptions about the ways people speak aren't shared by people in other countries.
                        ... in my years working abroad, I often wondered whether one of the reasons I and others in the Foreign Service had chosen such a life was precisely to escape such class issues. As Shaw has it - " It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him." I cannot honestly escape the RP I grew up with...

                        Preface to Pygmalion: A Professor of Phonetics AS will be seen later on, Pygmalion needs, not a preface, but a sequel, which I have supplied in its due place.The English have no respect for their

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                        • Eine Alpensinfonie
                          Host
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 20569

                          #87
                          Some people's accents change according to their environments. Frau Alpensinfonie - born in London, emigrated to Australia as a £10 Pom, returned to England (Stoke-on-Trent), student in Wales, lived for Wiltshire before moving to North Yorkshire - changes her accent unconsciously, depending upon to whom she might be conversing. I can often tell who is at the other end of the phone.

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                          • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                            Gone fishin'
                            • Sep 2011
                            • 30163

                            #88
                            Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post
                            Some people's accents change according to their environments. Frau Alpensinfonie - born in London, emigrated to Australia as a £10 Pom, returned to England (Stoke-on-Trent), student in Wales, lived for Wiltshire before moving to North Yorkshire - changes her accent unconsciously, depending upon to whom she might be conversing. I can often tell who is at the other end of the phone.
                            I've been told that I do this, too. Partly, I suppose, to do with my North-East Lancs "burr" (which led to a friend from Hampshire thinking that I was saying "Blackberry" when I once pronounced the name of your piano teacher's hometown) and partly with teaching for thirteen years in Easts London and Sussex. ("Arrre we doingga prrooo-ject today, sirrr? Ah like doingg prroooo-jects, doan't you?" Little ... miscreants!

                            (And then, of course, I return t't'North - and am accused of "talking all posh"!!)
                            [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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                            • Eine Alpensinfonie
                              Host
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 20569

                              #89
                              Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post
                              I've been told that I do this, too. Partly, I suppose, to do with my North-East Lancs "burr" (which led to a friend from Hampshire thinking that I was saying "Blackberry" when I once pronounced the name of your piano teacher's hometown) and partly with teaching for thirteen years in Easts London and Sussex. ("Arrre we doingga prrooo-ject today, sirrr? Ah like doingg prroooo-jects, doan't you?" Little ... miscreants!

                              (And then, of course, I return t't'North - and am accused of "talking all posh"!!)
                              Same here (same 'eer). Born in Salford with something of a Lancashire accent, before moving to Cheshire. I went to a boarding school in Yorkshire, returning home in the holidays where my old friends mocked my "posh" accent. In my first teaching job on the Isle of Wight, the other teachers laughed at my northernness, but at least I could pronounce "Gluck". My next job was in Derbyshire, where I was shunned initially for being a "southerner".

                              Comment

                              • Eine Alpensinfonie
                                Host
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 20569

                                #90
                                Most regional accents blur into other ones. In Rhyl, for example, the Welsh accent is only slight, with a strong does of Scouse. Moving from Liverpool towards Birmingham, the modification of the twang changes very gradually; by the time Brum is reached, the change has not been at all great.

                                However - visit Southport, where the Scouse accent is quite significant, and travel along the road for a few miles until you reach Ormskirk. Here, you will experience a strong mid-Lancs accent. How can the accent change so suddenly? There's no physical boundary (river or mountain range) between the two.

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