Regional accents- the last straw.

[jean]

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!

[MrGongGong]

So why is it the "last straw" ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What fun it is catching people out in their pretensions!

She was a very good teacher though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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)") .

[jean]

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!)

[Padraig]

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.

[MrGongGong]

I was.

ok

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

[jean]

She was a very good teacher though.

So why tell such stories about the poor woman?

She was doing exactly what you advise.

[doversoul1]

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.

[jean]

I think it is rather a nice story. She must have sounded human.

But only to a foreigner.

[vinteuil]

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...

http://www.bartleby.com/138/0.html

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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"!!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

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.