Accents

[jobo]

It was interesting the other week to hear Chris Ashton and his new accent, especially after the way Jason Robinson changed his. Was surprised though to hear Andy Farrells new sort of Wigan/mid atlantic speak. Is it money that makes your accent change or the need to fit in, or even a feeling of inferiority???.

[KOOCH]

Anyone without a Wigan Accent should feel inferior!!

[josie andrews]

Anyone without a Wigan Accent should feel inferior!!

[gpartin]

Its different for different people and usually affects younger people more but when you move, the accent people around you speak in becomes the norm and you tune into it. When this happens you start to recognise the strength of your own accent more than that of where you are living. Some people are oblivious to having an accent and these type of people in my experience tend to keep talking how they always have done but if you are aware of the fact your accent is different you notice all the differences in what's being said to you in your new town. Everything you are told, if you're one of these people, becomes more memorable because of the accent its said in and you find yourself repeating it in your head over and over as if you are from your new town.

Before you know it you start picking up odd words in the new accent but you're aware you're doing it because you're still 'tuned in' to your own accent because until recently you had been mixing with people who spoke that way. Eventually this diminishes and the new accent becomes the norm. When I moved to Hull I hated the accent and made a determined effort to avoid picking it up but within about six months I'd go back to Leeds and it'd sound like all the people I'd ever known were exaggerating their accents. You start to realise that if you speak a certain way in your new town you get picked up on things or keep having to explain yourself and your accent becomes far less broad very quickly as a result. From this point you start to pick up the new accent more and more and realise it less and less. The Hull accent still seemed ridiculous to me but I didn't notice it as much, it seemed less strong unless it was somebody on television or speaking on the phone where I tended to notice it even more.

I lived over there for about 7yrs and had a much milder yorkshire accent than I went with with the odd flat vowel that you get in Hull but less of the 'going to t' shops' that I was brought up with.

Going back the other way the same thing happens in reverse and within three months I feel like the accent around me is normal and I'm talking pretty much as I was before I moved. Clearly everyone is different for example a 40 odd year old woman from Bolton works in my local chemist and has lived in Morley for 30yrs but still talks in the broadest lancs dialect I've ever heard. When I asked about it she was unaware she spoke any different to anyone else.

Robinson, Faz and Ashton will feel they sounded thick with the accents they had, will have had it pointed out several times meaning the process is accelerated in comparison to mine where I was trying to avoid a thick accent but there change will more than likely be as a result of not fighting the change rather than deliberately changing. All imo of course.

PS when I went to uni I stayed in an all boys hall and was surrounded by public school posh gits. Proud of where I was from and the fact that I'd done better than most of them despite going to a crap school I ended up leaving with a broader accent than I went with they hated me with a passion :p

The programme about families deciding to emigrate down under is an interesting one when they go back and see how a family settled. A 15 year old kid can have any british accent wiped out and replaced with full on Aussie in about 12 months.

[josie andrews]

When I came back home to Wigan after living in Aberdeen for several years, I was once told to get back to where I came from.

I just replied I have, I'm from Pemberton lol

[Kittwazzer]

When I came back home to Wigan after living in Aberdeen for several years, I was once told to get back to where I came from.

I just replied I have, I'm from Pemberton lol

Well get thi bloody sell back Pem then. Social climin i Kitt Greeun!!!

[ancientnloyal]

I don't have an accent you can pin down.

[endoman]

I had to change as no one in Sheffield could understand me, nor me them.

Edwards is about the only one who hasn't changed a great deal,

[trotski_tgwu]

I can understand everyone apart from them fae St Helens, but then im Scottish and live in God Ain Country where we dont judge people bye there colour, creed, religion nor sexual orientation, UNLESS the come fae St Helens

[josie andrews]

When I came back home to Wigan after living in Aberdeen for several years, I was once told to get back to where I came from.

I just replied I have, I'm from Pemberton lol

Well get thi bloody sell back Pem then. Social climin i Kitt Greeun!!!

Ha ha I thought Kitt Green was a little village in Pemberton