Accents in the UK

[karohemd]

This is quite interesting, the nation voted Sean Connery's accent to be the most pleasant.

They're trying to build a "map" of accents across the UK, there's loads of info on the BBC Voices website.

Accents are a peculiar thing and in my mind quite important that we keep them alive. However, people should also be able to speak a standard version of their language as some accents are sometimes very hard to understand for non-locals.
Especially people who speak in public, on TV or on radio should have a rather average accent. I always think it's a sign of low education if someone can't express themselves in a standard way that is understood (and liked) by all.

I'm proud to be able to speak my local dialect (although quite far from being as perfect as that of my grandparents) as well as High German and I like the dialect. I still have a slight accent in terms of intonation and pronunciation (e.g. very few hard consonants like t or p) but not as harsh as some people I know. Having lived outside my hometown for 15 years has certainly something to do with it as our dialect is very confined and only spoken in a small area about 30 km across on the German side while reaching quite far into the Czech Republic. Even people from just outside this area will have some difficulties understanding it, as it's not just an accent but a proper dialect with its own vocabulary, pronunciation, usage and even grammar.

While some sort of standard language is important, it's also important to keep local variations alive as the language constitutes a large part of what defines people. Sadly, dialects are dying out, at least in Germany. In middle school, I was one of two or three pupils who could speak dialect properly, despite being brought up in reasonable High German, I only learned dialect when I was in my early teens. I even used to correct my grandparents if they used a particularly strong dialect word. ;o)
It's cool to go the local butcher's and ask for a "Väiering Gstandns", though. :o)

Comments

[mobbsy.livejournal.com]

I've found that several Germans I've spoken to have found German regional accents to be quite a source of amusement. This might be because most of the time I've spent in Germany in the past few years has been in Swabia, working mostly with people who aren't locals.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[deborah_c]

I don't know about Sean Connery's (although it's very distinctive and not at all unpleasant), but I've somehow always found the Edinburgh accent one of the most pleasant regional accents on the ear. I think it may be the way it's so gentle and melodic.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Could you explain to me this High German business please? Was there a Low German as well? I find dialects quite interesting, having grown up in Reading where everybody spoke a sort of bastardised "Eschery Inglish" because it made you sound hard. There was a bloke who lived around the corner from me who was one of the few people alive that spoke with a proper Berkshire accent, and my brother and I used to call him "Oiiivorrrr".

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I'm not a real expert, vyvyan can explain it probably in more detail than me (I'm not a historic linguist, I just use languages ;o). Variants of Low German is still spoken in some areas, particularly the North Sea coast. There's a wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German) that explains it far better than I could.

"High German" is simply a name for a standard German.
The people from and around Hannover are supposed to speak the cleanest German.

[lsur.livejournal.com]

One difficulty is that one has to speak a language pretty well to hear the true extent to which a dialect or regional accent is used. I overheard some Germans in the Pickerel at the weekend and guessed they were from the south. A few references to Munich provided a clue. But, for all I know, they could have been Austrian. Whatever, it is a topic which makes language learning so interesting. Somehow, one is hearing the remnants of historic speech.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Austrian has to be one of the most awful accents (and indeed dialects, as it has quite a few differnt words).
Obviously, you do need to know them to be able to place them.

Historic speech is definitely more alive in dialects, true. My dialect, for example, contains quite a number of words derived from French, stemming from the occupation during the 30 Year War. Many old people will still use "trottoir" for pavement, for example, whereas younger people tend to use "Gäihsdeich", i.e. Gehsteig.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I always think it's a sign of low education if someone can't express themselves in a standard way that is understood (and liked) by all.[...]I even used to correct my grandparents if they used a particularly strong dialect word.

I suspect this sort of attitude may partly explain this!:

Sadly, dialects are dying out, at least in Germany.

Many of my OU students tell me that they have deliberately changed the way they speak to a more RP, Standard form - not because other people could not understand them, but because they felt their accent or dialect suggested stupidity, laziness, incorrectness, low social status, lack of education etc. to other people whom they wished to impress. Those students who retained their non-standard home varieties of language often did so as a deliberate reaction against the perceived upper-middle-class snootiness of RP and Standard English (which they certainly did not like!) - not because they were incapable of imitating it, or had not been exposed to it during their education.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

*nods*
It's a bit of a two-edged sword.

I love being able to speak my dialect when I'm at home (or with people who understand it somewhere else, it's almost a secret language ;o)) while at the same time I'd like to show that I'm reasonably capable of speaking my language properly when I'm elsewhere. I think that's how it should be.

[astatine210.livejournal.com]

I'm in a similar position. On the one hand, my 'everyday' voice is the slightly-Northern 'University' accent I grew into for communicating with most English speakers; place me with members of my Mum's side of the family and I'll switch to (Rotherham) Yorkshire dialect.

One of my annoyances with 'standardising' English is that I was brought up being told that my 'native' Yorkshire dialect was in some way 'lazy' or 'degenerate' compared to standard English - which it isn't. It's got its own set of subtleties and quirks (a familiar and unfamiliar case being the most memorable part) that make it no better or worse a mode of communication. The only difference is that it isn't spoken in the South-East of England, and is therefore somehow 'wrong'.

[slev.livejournal.com]

You seem to be confusing accent (how a word is pronounced), whith dilect (different words having different meanings in different areas).

Nothing wrong with accent, thoug I agree that for transmision, nothing too thick should be used.

Dialect is generaly valid, but can lead to confusion.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I've gone off on a tangent a bit but I do know the difference. However, a dialect usually comes with an accent.