View Full Version : Different Accents
Chris_2k11
18-11-2008, 23:07
Ok this might sound a bit daft but i was thinking the other day :p why is it that like everyone from a certain part of the UK talks in a certain way? like geordies, scousers, cockneys, and irish, scottish, welsh etc ? like why do people up north speak differently from southeners? same with Australians, Americans etc, we've all got our own accent depending on where were from. but WHY? Howcome there isn't just one single accent? this is something im genuinely interested in btw! lol :hmm:
Im doing accent and Dialect in english language at the moment
I have a geordie accent although strictly Im a Mackem! :cheer: :p
Its all to do with the pronuctiation of the vowels that make accents more distint and because of different settlers and have had a n influence on our language and different parts of the country, like in the north, they still have many Anglo saxon pronunciations I think its them anyway, or possibly some other settlers
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:13
Omg Chris. That's weird... I thought the same the other day. It just baffles me!!!!!!
It's like okay back in "the day".... how come like they did? If we are stemmed from one person, then surely we'd all speak with the same accent?
It's just SO weird. I really don't get it!!
Its because we have all spread out and have different influences from all our neighbouring areas so accents spread out.
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:15
Hmmm okay Abbie.. but where did they get the accents from :hmm:. It's just weird. I still don't get it :lol:.
As a Welshie.. I can say I don't think I have a Welsh accent.. most of my mates say I have a posh accent :S god knows where that came from lmfao!!! but then again.. if I went to England, you'd probs say I sounded Welsh..
I'm nowhere near as strong as the Valleys people though... unfortunately :(
Pinkbanana
18-11-2008, 23:17
I've got a english accent :p Seriously though...I live up north and I dont have a northern accent...
Chris_2k11
18-11-2008, 23:18
Abbie im afraid thats gone through one ear and out the next with me :lol:
Right here is the thing, Its like people from other countries in the past have invaded England and some have settled here, but not ALL OVER the country, just in a certain part, in some cases you could describe them as isolated areas and over time and through generation the combination of the new and the orgainla settlers pick up different accents if you like and different and new ways of pronouncing words. SO cos different settlers didnt settle all in the same place, the variation of accents is wider
Make sense?
Pinkbanana
18-11-2008, 23:19
Abbie im afraid thats gone through one ear and out the next with me :lol:
Tabbie never makes sense :lol:
Abbie im afraid thats gone through one ear and out the next with me :lol:
:lol: Let me get my class notes
Lol is it wrong that im really happy that you brought this up, im like a giddy little girl, I love a good old proper discussion and well a debate :p
:cheer:
:o
Abbie im afraid thats gone through one ear and out the next with me :lol:
Tabbie never makes sense :lol:
eee, how very dare you, Ive clever I'll have you know, my englsih teacher says my work is oftern A grade standard :ninja: now back to accents and my notes... :lol:
Kirsty :]
18-11-2008, 23:22
Hmmm okay Abbie.. but where did they get the accents from :hmm:. It's just weird. I still don't get it :lol:.
As a Welshie.. I can say I don't think I have a Welsh accent.. most of my mates say I have a posh accent :S god knows where that came from lmfao!!! but then again.. if I went to England, you'd probs say I sounded Welsh..
I'm nowhere near as strong as the Valleys people though... unfortunately :(
Woo go Welshies :D
Haha I'm the same. Sometimes my Welshy words linger in school and my friends make fun lol but I don't notice it, and my accent isn't as strong as the valleys people either.
However, i do have a uhhh friend we could say, who lives in England and says how much of a Welsh accent I have.
Abbie, I do English Language too.. and I would help you explain, but I can't remember at all, I'll get my Thorne book out when I can be bothered but Abbie has this covered being the brainbox she is :cool:
DaVeyWaVey
18-11-2008, 23:22
I am from Wales but like Lea, I don't have that strong Welsh accent.. my friends say I speak posh too :s which is weird!
It's weird though because I went well into Wales for this school trip.. and I was surrounded by loads of people who had the strong Welsh accent.. and by the end of the weekend, I ended up picking up their accent and speaking in a strong Welsh accent without meaning too! It is so weird!
I do love the sound of the Geordie accent though! It has to be my joint favourite accent along with the Welsh accent :p
:lol: Kirsty believe me Im far from brainbox, I get called blonde call the time and Im a brunette! :p
Omg I keep going off topic.
Most people here, in posh cheshire called me a geordie when I moved, well they are close another, what a different a river or two makes?
Im a mackem but for the sake of the people round here Im might as well be a geordie, they get me to say ' Day 8 in the bog brother house' and 'nooooo' and 'why aye' ALL the time. Its been nearly 5 years and they are sill not over it! :lol: oh well....
you know Ive lost track of what you didnt understand? or do you get why we have different accents now :p
I could talk about the different accents :p I love to talk :lol: plus this is very good practise for my exam in january :angel:
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:33
Yeah some words I speak are really Welshy.. I dunno it's weird.. I think I pick it up from some of my mates who do have a Welshy accent..
and okay.. abbie.. I hear what you're saying.. but where did it stem from originally? Where did those people get their accents from??? Where did it all begin?? And how??
JustJodi
18-11-2008, 23:34
American accents are different all over the USA.. partner and I went from Northern part of the USA all the way down to the deep south of Mississippi,, and HE said most of them had a twang,, ( don't ask me cos I am the deafie here ) I have been told I speak with a lilt in my voice but I have an accent all of my own.. its called Jodispeak LOL
here is a forum on American accents:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2&tid=1299002
this one is about Regional accents of English:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accents_of_English
this one is more the Q and A format:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070504105137AAq3dzl
Ok I can stop feeding you guys sites:rotfl:
Kirsty :]
18-11-2008, 23:35
:lol: Kirsty believe me Im far from brainbox, I get called blonde call the time and Im a brunette! :p
Lol yes you are! You're throwing out all of this stuff from English Language... I'm struggling to remember it and I did this last year! Haha
Basically in my "Thorne" book it goes on about how people pronounce things differently. That's all I understand!
Abbie...feel free to elaborate on that lol :ninja:
But thats the thing lea, what your really asking goes deeper into where did language come from, cos lets say the french came over (some of our words are actually from the french langauge) in language we do a lot of borrowing words and also our words are germanic.
Lets say the french came over to the norht east of england and stayed there for years, decades even, over time people pick up things from each other, its like how Ive moved and lost my accent. You following?
Cos we naturally pick up sounds from our environment, so lets say the french and people in the north east, you know breed and have generations then children pick up on different sounds, and in a way its like they merge and a new accent is formed.
Does it make sense? Cos thats my way of explaining it
Kirsty what does your book say
Most of my notes focus of the differences between accents, rather than orgins, I cant find my notes on that, but ive found some stuff on the internet that makes sense
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:42
Yeah it makes sense. And I don't know about Chris.. but I want to know, where it originally came from though. It's all very well saying about languages.. but where did the languages come from? Who made them up? etc...
;626234']
:lol: Kirsty believe me Im far from brainbox, I get called blonde call the time and Im a brunette! :p
Lol yes you are! You're throwing out all of this stuff from English Language... I'm struggling to remember it and I did this last year! Haha
Basically in my "Thorne" book it goes on about how people pronounce things differently. That's all I understand!
Abbie...feel free to elaborate on that lol :ninja:
Lol oh, we do different specs you see, Im doing accent and dialect for my coursework as my chosen subject and in module 5 in january exams, we still have finished all the accents so Ive done it every recently.
:lol: its mainly vowels that change an accent, E.g. the northerner will typically pronounce the 'a' in 'grass' as you would in 'maths' while the typical southerner will pronounce it as in 'marsh'.
Kirsty :]
18-11-2008, 23:45
Woo go Abbie!
My book rambles about how spoken language changes alot faster than written language does, and then it goes on to say about exactly what you've just said Abbie lol.
Basically, we don't actually know where language comes form... we know how and why it develops, but that's not the quetion. So for the question to be answered everything needs to go deeper into the history of language, I'm too tired lol.
Can we do this more often? It's making me learn stuff I should already know :D
Yeah it makes sense. And I don't know about Chris.. but I want to know, where it originally came from though. It's all very well saying about languages.. but where did the languages come from? Who made them up? etc...
wow! I thought we were just on about accents, where language comes from is very hard.
Ive learnt about pigeons and creoles. A creole being a pigeon which combines two or more languages lets say the english and africans met for the first time, and the combination of the languages, which will both be limited so tey can understand each other, enable them to communicate. But then they can go under creolization where, these pigeons develop more into a language and the first language of children as they develop grammatcial rules
;626240']Woo go Abbie!
My book rambles about how spoken language changes alot faster than written language does, and then it goes on to say about exactly what you've just said Abbie lol.
Basically, we don't actually know where language comes form... we know how and why it develops, but that's not the quetion. So for the question to be answered everything needs to go deeper into the history of language, I'm too tired lol.
Can we do this more often? It's making me learn stuff I should already know :D
Aww I love this :cheer: I feel really clever :p And so far Ive said everything from memory and put it into my own words, I find text book use too many big words :p
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:49
Yeah but languages and accents same thing.. it all stems to one thing though.. where did it orignally come form? you get my point? you can say about people coming over etc.. but where did they get it from? does that make sense?
Kirsty :]
18-11-2008, 23:52
;626240']Woo go Abbie!
My book rambles about how spoken language changes alot faster than written language does, and then it goes on to say about exactly what you've just said Abbie lol.
Basically, we don't actually know where language comes form... we know how and why it develops, but that's not the quetion. So for the question to be answered everything needs to go deeper into the history of language, I'm too tired lol.
Can we do this more often? It's making me learn stuff I should already know :D
Aww I love this :cheer: I feel really clever :p And so far Ive said everything from memory and put it into my own words, I find text book use too many big words :p
Haha see! You are a brainbox!
Lea, I suppose it's jsut one thing we'll never actually know, I suppose it jsut came form the cavemen and dogs and that, sort of advancing from grunts into spoken words. I don't know... I'm so babbling my way through this. No wonder I'm resitting lol
I know what your saying but the truth of the matter is we dont have records that go far back enough to know how it happened. Its like we dont know have cavemen communicated we can only learn about their diet cos of science, but we just cant go back in time
And ok lanuage and accents, well not really the same thing. Think of language as the words we use, an strictly an accent is the way we pronounce them.
Cos lets face it there are often many ways which we can pronounce a word or a letter.
Its like how accent and dialect are different too
CrazyLea
18-11-2008, 23:59
Yeah exactly. It's so annoying. And I think that because of accents and language... we can discredit any proof of Adam and Eve.. and if Adam and Eve don't exist.. how can God? Yes I know this is very controversial.. but this is one reason out of many I don't believe.
Found this:
Where did the English language come from? Why has it become so popular? To answer these questions we must travel back in time about five thousand years to an area north of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe.
Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European. That language is no longer spoken. Researchers do not really know what it sounded like.
Yet, Proto-Indo-European is believed to be the ancestor of most European languages. These include the languages that became ancient Greek, ancient German and the ancient Latin.
Latin disappeared as a spoken language. Yet it left behind three great languages that became modern Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English.
The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe.
The first invasions were by a people called Angles about one thousand five hundred years ago. The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes.
These groups found a people called the Celts, who had lived in Britain for many thousands of years. The Celts and the invaders fought.
After a while, most of the Celts were killed, or made slaves. Some escaped to live in the area that became Wales. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.
Old English is extremely difficult to understand. Only a few experts can read this earliest form of English.
The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about one thousand one hundred years ago. Fierce people called Vikings raided the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and other northern countries. They were looking to capture trade goods and slaves and take away anything of value.
In some areas, the Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. These temporary bases sometimes became permanent. Later, many Vikings stayed in Britain. Many English words used today come from these ancient Vikings. Words like “sky,” “leg,” “skull,” “egg,” “crawl,” “ lift” and “take” are from the old languages of the far northern countries.
The next invasion of Britain took place more than nine hundred years ago, in ten sixty-six. History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror led it.
The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time. It was the language of educated people. But the common people of Britain still spoke Old English.
Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include “damage,” “prison,” and “marriage.” Most English words that describe law and government come from Norman French. Words such as “jury,” “parliament,” and “justice.”
The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by eight hundred years ago. English became what language experts call Middle English. As time passed, the ruling Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Middle English.
Middle English sounds like modern English. But it is very difficult to understand now. Many written works from this period have survived. Perhaps the most famous was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet who lived in London and died there in fourteen hundred. Chaucer’s most famous work is “The Canterbury Tales,” written more than six hundred years ago.
“The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of poems about different people traveling to the town of Canterbury.
English language experts say Geoffrey Chaucer was the first important writer to use the English language. They also agree that Chaucer’s great Middle English poem gives us a clear picture of the people of his time.
Over time, the different languages combined to result in what English experts call Middle English. While Middle English still sounds similar to German, it also begins to sound like Modern English.
The English language was strongly influenced by an event that took place more than one thousand four hundred years ago. In the year five ninety-seven, the Roman Catholic Church began its attempt to make Christianity the religion of Britain.
The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. Latin was not spoken as a language in any country at that time. But it was still used by some people.
Latin made it possible for a church member from Rome to speak to a church member from Britain. Educated people from different countries could communicate using Latin.
Latin had a great affect on the English language. Here are a few examples. The Latin word “discus” became several words in English including “disk,” “dish,” and “desk.” The Latin word “quietus” became the English word “quiet.” Some English names of plants such as ginger and trees such as cedar come from Latin. So do some medical words such as cancer.
English is a little like a living thing that continues to grow. English began to grow more quickly when William Caxton returned to Britain in the year fourteen seventy-six. He had been in Holland and other areas of Europe where he had learned printing. He returned to Britain with the first printing press.
The printing press made it possible for almost anyone to buy a book. It helped spread education and the English language.
Slowly, during the fifteen hundreds English became the modern language we would recognize. English speakers today would be able to communicate with English speakers in the last part of the Sixteenth Century.
It was during this time period that the greatest writer in English produced his work. His name was William Shakespeare. His plays continue to be printed, acted in theaters, and seen in motion pictures almost four hundred years after his death.
The development of the English language took a giant step just nine years before the death of William Shakespeare. Three small British ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean in sixteen-oh-seven. They landed in an area that would later become the southern American state of Virginia. They began the first of several British colonies. The name of the first small colony was Jamestown.
In time, people in these new colonies began to call areas of their new land by words borrowed from the native people they found living there. For example, many of the great rivers in the United States are taken from American Indian words. The Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Missouri are examples.
Other Native American words included “moccasin”, the kind of shoe made of animal skin that Indians wore on their feet. This borrowing or adding of foreign words to English was a way of expanding the language. The names of three days of the week are good examples of this. The people from Northern Europe honored three gods with a special day each week. The gods were Odin, Thor and Freya. Odin’s-day became Wednesday in English, Thor’s-day became Thursday and Freya’s-day became Friday.
Britain had other colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and India. The English language also became part of these colonies. These colonies are now independent, but English still is one of the languages spoken. And the English language grew as words from the native languages were added.
For example, the word “shampoo” for soap for the hair came from India. “Banana” is believed to be from Africa.
Experts cannot explain many English words. For hundreds of years, a dog was called a “hound.” The word is still used but not as commonly as the word “dog.” Experts do not know where the word “dog” came from or when. English speakers just started using it. Other words whose origins are unknown include “fun,” “bad,” and “big.”
English speakers also continue to invent new words by linking old words together. A good example is the words “motor” and “hotel.” Many years ago some one linked them together into the word “motel.” A motel is a small hotel near a road where people travelling in cars can stay for the night.
Other words come from the first letters of names of groups or devices. A device to find objects that cannot be seen called Radio Detecting and Ranging became “Radar.” The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is usually called NATO.
Experts say that English has more words that explain the same thing that any other language. For example, the words “large,” “huge,” “vast,” “massive,” and “enormous” all mean something really “big.”
People often ask how many words there are in the English language. Well, no one really knows. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about six hundred fifteen thousand words. Yet the many scientific words not in the dictionary could increase the number to almost one million.
And experts are never really sure how to count English words. For example, the word “mouse.” A mouse is a small creature from the rodent family. But “mouse” has another very different meaning. A “mouse” is also a hand-held device used to help control a computer. If you are counting words do you count “mouse” two times?
Sorry for the last of my posts I found it on a website and Ive copied parts and hightlighted the points which shows the mian ideas how english has developed and changed as we borrow and merge
Lea :I suppose that explains where our current language itself, but language itself no one knows
Abbie im afraid thats gone through one ear and out the next with me :lol:
Hmm ok, if what Ive said you dont undertand and I dont blame you :p I went on some webistes to try and get stuff to explain it better
The English language, or its ancestor, was brought to Britain in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries AD by raiders, mercenaries, invaders and eventually settlers from the North Sea coasts stretching from what is now the Netherlands to what is now Denmark. The Germanic dialects they brought with them - which were the ancestors of Dutch and Frisian as well as English - were already then differentiated according to where on the North Sea coast they came from. In some cases, settlement patterns led to dialect differences from the continent being transplanted to Britain. This is true of the northern dialect word oxter ('armpit') in the Anglo-Saxon period the word ocusta was confined to the same northern area of Britain where we still find oxter today.
In most other cases we need different explanations for regional variation. It often happens, for instance, that geographical patterns of dialect variation are due to the replacement in a particular area of an older, long-established word by a newer, incoming one. For example, the word autumn is normal in most of southern England, but in parts of the Southwest and in Lincolnshire the traditional dialect word is fall. This reflects the introduction into England in late mediaeval times of the originally French word autumn. This eventually replaced the Anglo-Saxon word fall in Standard English in England and in some of the dialects, but not in others. It is obvious that at one time the use of autumn must have been much less widespread than it is today, since fall was the form which was carried by settlers to North America. (In much of the north of England and Scotland another word, backend, is used.)
Chris Ive got more notes and more info from webistes you want to know.
Hope you get it now.
And Im so sorry everyone I didnt mean to take up the thread, Im just...lets say enthusiactic about this subject, Ive too much already I think :lol: Im off to bed!
I know for the Irish we have a mix of Gaelic, Norse and English (due to invasion)
I love different accents, i think its really strange how like you could be 5 minutes away from someone like just on the border of England and Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Merseyside and MAnchester and two people can speak so differently. Its weird.
I love my friends accent its a bit like my dads its very mancunian with a touch of irish due to the irish parents, and saying that about accents changing when you hear them my grandparents kept there very strong Irish accents even though they hadnt lived in the country for 50 years and the same with the Scottish side of the family.
It certainly is an interesting topic, and Abbie, i think you've probably got an a grade of you remembered all that in an exam!
Im from West Yorkshire and so have the accent that people seem to call 'common'. People from others parts of the country always say that our accent is the easiest to understand. Different accents are sometimes hard to understand but i think my Yorkshire accent is quite plain and thats why people understand us easier.
Is funny that youve mentioned Manchester and Liverpool Katy cos thr scouse accent is getting stonger, where as everywhere else, well pretty much accents are spreading, well thats not a good way of putting it more its basically dilate levelling, where dialect vocab is shrinking and the diversity of the accent is started to disspaear, and its like we are all merging closer to one dialect, but the scouse accent and dialect is getting stronger.
I mean It may not seem like we are loosing our accents but I bet i you asked you gradnparents or great grandparents, they'd be able to tell you a word from the dialect that isnt used anymore
Hollie-x
19-11-2008, 16:59
Me and my mum were on about this last night watching most haunted cos they were in Bolton where she's originally from, and the place they were at was called Hole i'th' wood so like when Yvette was saying it, it didn't sound right but if my nan or grandad said it, you'd know what they meant lol.
i'm going down to runcorn in a couple of weeks (16days today! woo) to stay with my best friend for the weekend and she has a scouse accent :D i love it lol.
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