What's your accent?

[mjmooney]

26 minutes ago, bickster said:

I don't have a Scouse accent btw but I do use many of the colloquialisms.

That's like me with Leeds. I definitely had a Brummie accent when I came here aged 18 (nobody could understand a word I said), but over the years it's disappeared - not to become Yorkshire, just 'neutral' - but I do find myself using the odd glottal stop - going to t'pub, and so on. 

[villa4europe]

For kidderminster I have an unusually thick black country accent thanks to years of working in Wolverhampton and Dudley, strange how I managed to pick it up and change so much in my 20s, I now can't shake it despite trying 

[Stevo985]

I don't think I've ever been very Brummy.

I remember my mom (Irish) trying to sort of train me out of it when I was a little kid.

"nine hundred and ninety nine"

 

When I went to Uni in Leeds I pretty much lost all of my brumminess. I'd have people who genuinely wouldn't believe that I was from Birmingham because I had no brummy accent.

It's back now. I reckon I'm as brummy now as I've ever been. Working in Wolverhamtpon for the past 18 months probably helps add a twang.

But I still don't think I'm particularly brummy for someone who has lived their entire life (except for 3 university years) in Birmingham.

[AVFC_Hitz]

I always been told I had a very neutral accent growing up. I lived in Birmingham from the age of 3 and was always teased as being a bit posh. 

Here in sofia, I'll say something and my mates will say it back with a brummy accent and say 'i'm a brummy nob'. Which is only half true. I am a nob.

[Robtaylor200]

Mrs T has a party trick that she can take off most accents. 

She can speak French enough for us to get by when we have been to Paris and she actually sounds French

In Gran Canaria  this year she was trying out some Spanish, she sounded that good that the lady asked if she was Spanish Mrs T said " No I am English" the lady asked what country I was from

Mrs T replied  "He's from Cannock"

Ola

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by Robtaylor200

[mjmooney]

My wife speaks much better French than me. But whenever we're there I communicate with the locals much better. Basically I speak grammatically terrible French, but lay on a real Inspector Clouseau accent that makes her cringe - but it works. She speaks grammatically perfect French in her usual (mostly RP) English accent, and they look at her blankly. 

[Xann]

7 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

Everyone's voice sounds different when you record it and hear it back. Apparently we're missing the resonance around our skulls so our voices generally sound more bass-y to ourselves than they are. I'm sure @Xann will be the one to tell me if that's an urban myth though!

Aye. Lower frequencies carry more energy and suffer less from dispersion. It's why you hear bass through walls.

 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

My Brummie is still very bad after 20 years away.

British people know where I am from after I speak 2 or 3 words so maybe I have lost approx 20% over the years.

Combining Brummie with Dutch is something many people have not heard in the world.  The Dutch like it though.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2018 by Amsterdam_Neil_D

[snowychap]

3 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Unsure, you tell me, Telford raised, lived a lot in Lincolnshire, last 14 years in Stafford but worked Birmingham/West Brom the last ten years.

https://vocaroo.com/i/s0u5tj81rSGm

 

These are toiny.

[VILLAMARV]

2 hours ago, bickster said:

What do you call your grandparents?

That would be hilarious for me. Midlands accent and I'd instantly switch to mine too but here's the thing...

Welsh accent - I'd do that as well

They'd think I was taking the piss except I genuinely can't help it. Mixed Brummy / Scouse / Welsh company and my brain just fries

I don't have a Scouse accent btw but I do use many of the colloquialisms.

My normal accent is a complete hybrid

(If that was to me) All dead and gone now but I had Nan's, Grandad's and Step Nan's.

I always liked 'doing' accents. (not that I'm claiming to be any good!) but especially in my younger days I'd practice doing different accents, mostly to get a few laughs out of my mates I suppose.

As far as picking up the accent of whoever I'm talking to goes I remember my Mum being the same - especially on the phone. So I've always assumed it's either genetic or I must have 'learnt' it watching her as a nipper. Our family is all over the place (in a geographical sense.....well actually probably every sense!) so it was a running joke in our house that you could tell what Aunt or Uncle she was talking to by what accent she was veering towards. Her mate that moved to Newcastle was my favourite!

Scouse is one I can't really keep up. Certain words and phrases are easy (Calm down calm down) but I can't string a sentence together or chat away without losing it very quickly.

Never understood the distain for the Brummie and Black Country accents though. I love it. But then I suppose it reminds me of home and happy childhood memories so why wouldn't it?

[dAVe80]

Funnily enough, after spending last weekend in Birmingham, with my family, my mate has just told me I sound more Brummie than usual. I imagine that means I must sound like Carl Chinn.  

[mjmooney]

A mate and I are both Brummies married to Devon girls. When the four of us get together (as we will in a couple of weeks), our accents all go crazy, sending up ourselves and each other, pretty much continually. Confuses the hell out of the Yorkshire folk. 

[lapal_fan]

Just your normal accent I guess;

https://vocaroo.com/i/s0f2DkgaUOB5

[hogso]

Mine is a very typical Coventry/Nuneaton accent. And by that I mean it's more east midlands than west midlands. I sound a lot more like Leicester folk than Birmingham folk, but without the er..Leicester-ness. So maybe it's neither, actually. No specific brummy-ness, lots of glottal stops. WATER is WARR-AH.

[Risso]

When I say that I'm originally from Birmingham, I always get people saying things like "ah I thought I could hear a Brummie twang".  Well no you can't actually, I left there when I was 4, and in the 40 odd intervening years I've lived mostly in the South East or the North West. I did go back for three years at Birmingham University, but absolutely nobody else I knew was from Brum, so there was no picking up of the accent there.  I don't say 'mom' or 'buz' for bus, although I do tell the kids to wash their donnies before tea.

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, dAVe80 said:

Funnily enough, after spending last weekend in Birmingham, with my family, my mate has just told me I sound more Brummie than usual. I imagine that means I must sound like Carl Chinn.  

At Uni I lived in a house of 8. 4 of us were from Birmingham.

One of the non-Birmingham lads said when he went home (to York) his friends teased him for managing to pick up a Brummy accent whilst at university in leeds.

[StefanAVFC]

5 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I don't think I've ever been very Brummy.

I remember my mom (Irish) trying to sort of train me out of it when I was a little kid.

"nine hundred and ninety nine"

 

When I went to Uni in Leeds I pretty much lost all of my brumminess. I'd have people who genuinely wouldn't believe that I was from Birmingham because I had no brummy accent.

It's back now. I reckon I'm as brummy now as I've ever been. Working in Wolverhamtpon for the past 18 months probably helps add a twang.

But I still don't think I'm particularly brummy for someone who has lived their entire life (except for 3 university years) in Birmingham.

You have a tiny twang, a bit like me. Like I can tell you're from the Midlands.

[mjmooney]

Just now, Stevo985 said:

At Uni I lived in a house of 8. 4 of us were from Birmingham.

One of the non-Birmingham lads said when he went home (to York) his friends teased him for managing to pick up a Brummy accent whilst at university in leeds.

Funny how it works out, isn't it? In my final year at Leeds Uni, I shared a flat with four other lads - two of us were from Brum, two from Wolverhampton (the odd man out was from Lancaster). 

[Risso]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

Just your normal accent I guess;

https://vocaroo.com/i/s0f2DkgaUOB5

If you haven't clicked on this yet, do it now! 

[Paddywhack]

My parents grew up and married in Bearwood/Edgbaston and moved to Halesowen when I was one. So being born in Brum and growing up in a Black Country town (although that's disputed by many yam yams), I've never really known what my accent should be.

It's definitely more Brummie than yam yam though. I don't say anything like '"arr tis ay it" or "where yum gewin?", despite some of the kids in my street and school talking exactly like that.