What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

9/2/2018

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Geography Story: What is normal in your country but weird in the rest of the world?

England is fairly small. Because of this, you’d expect that we all sound fairly similar, wouldn’t you? Maybe there might be a bit of a difference between the North and the South, but not much more that that.

Wrong!

Everywhere you go, we sound different. Basically every county has its own accent. And there are 48 counties!

You’ve got the West Country accent, where everybody sounds like a farmer.

You’ve got the cockney accent, which you should use if you ever need to look ‘ard. ‘Yeah, alright geeza, ‘giz a minute an’ I’ll be there.’

You’ve got the Birmingham accent, which is quite hard to describe, but let’s put it like this: I found an article in which 51 English cities were ranked by ‘sexiest accent’, 51 being the worst.

Birmingham came last…

You’ve got the Essex accent, which can be summed up in ‘yeah, ‘e was well owd, innit!’

Then you’ve got the Northern ones; the Geordie accent, the Liverpool accent, the Manchester accent, so many accents!

Northern accents are basically just (sometimes big) variations of ‘Ayup lad, can ya tell me the way t’ Sainsbury’s?’

On that ‘sexiest accent’ thing, the Manchester accent was ranked as #1, but that’s when I realised.

The website it was on was called ‘lovinmanchester!’

I won’t say what my city was ranked, because, you know, potential stalkers and/or murderers, but it was in the mid-to-low 40’s, which would be fine, except the Newcastle accent is #39! How?!

This map sums it up pretty well, although these regions could probably be split again into even more accents.

And as for the Newcastle thing, I’m only joking, please don’t kill me! I know what you Northerners are capable of!

This information was taken from Quora. Click here to view the original post.

Have you ever been to Great Britain? If yes, did you notice the diversity of accents?

#Geography #Society #language #Quora

What are your thoughts on this subject?

60 Comments

Ian Swindale

As someone brought up on Tyneside (Newcastle and Gateshead you can tell a Northerner from a Southerner by the way they pronounce Newcastle - Newcassle for those who live there and Newcarstle for those who live in the South. My Mother's definition of a Southerner was anyone who lived south of the River Tees and when I moved to London she thought I'd gone to live on the Moon. When I then moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands I might as well have left the Solar System. Obviously she was a Newcasstle lady born and bred

Avril Van Wamel

Linda Evers, Agree, I came from Hull and the people from Leeds and York had completely different accents

Gillian Bennett

Actually, I know we don't have 2 West Country areas, definitely East Anglia above Cockney!

Gillian Bennett

I think you have a west country over on the right that should read East Anglia. The other West Country area the thigh, leg and foot of England/UK is correct. Who checks these questions. So often bad mistakes.

Steve Tingle

Having lived and worked in a number of areas in the country, I have to agree there are many more some from just one town, for instance while a student I shared accommadation with a Geordie (from Newcastle) and a Wearsider (from nearby Sunderland) and for many years after could tell the difference, much to the surprise of Wearsiders who were used to being called Georgia's (much like Canadians being called Americans). My late wife's family come from Ilkeston (Ilson) in Derbyshire (between Derby and Nottingham) who not only have a distinct accent, but a whole dialect to go with it. I could go on for hours, my own favourite accent is Scouse, should be my own but having lived in too many places all people can say now is it is Northern.

Tina Marie Haddad Rhodes

I have only known one person from the UK and he spoke with a very proper accent. Best way I can describe it.

gillysamy

Born and live in Scotland and no I have never ever heard anyone with an accent like Mrs Doubtfire. Would be a hoot to have her as my Housekeeper though!

jack patti go

Very interested!

Lorena Arias

Where are people who pronounce “f” instead of “th” from? For instance they say teef instead of teeth.

Linda Evers

That map is ridiculous. There are far more accents in the UK than it shows. For instance there are great differences in Yorkshire accents dependent on which part of Yorkshire one comes from. The Barnsley accent is nothing like the Leeds accent, then there are the rural accents in North Yorkshire and yet a different one in Hull!!

Laurette Pearlman

According to your map --------Your West Country stretches all the way to Suffolk and Norfolk,completely different AND on the East Coast. As a proud Geordie, our wonderful accent(should be number 1 of course!!!) does not go across to Cumberland, although they do sound similar to a naive ear.

Michael Sydney Brighouse

the statement SAYS England not the U K.. mike.

papacorndog

I'm sure you could split America into far more categories than that.

Christopher Brownbridge

PS: Which part of the West Country is East Anglia in, I wonder?

Christopher Brownbridge

It is not true that before the Industrial Revolution people did not move far from their home villages, surprisingly. In following my family tree, I have found many examples suggesting otherwise. As these are usually Agricultural Labourers, I suspect that the reason is that they were hired on at a particular fair, and the new employer farmed in the opposite side of the county from his new employee. There are other reasons, but this would seem to be the main one, at least in our area.