Yankees allowed?

[oncewaslost]

ooo! we're talking accents! cool

in the states i can hear the different accents between new york, new jersey, and texas. regionally i can hear midwestern, northern, and southern. isn't that fun!

 

[Wypadek]

especially when you make fun of me for it!!!!

But I think accents are fun

 

[mlbb_drummer]

there's too many accents especially in the north west! even gtr manchester there's Salfordian, Mancunian, Boltonian, and then broader accents and i think ppl from cumbria sound a bit like newcastle ppl!

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

there's too many accents especially in the north west! even gtr manchester there's Salfordian, Mancunian, Boltonian, and then broader accents and i think ppl from cumbria sound a bit like newcastle ppl!

Yuh buht thuh uhll suhnd thuh suhme duhn't thuh?

 

[Arnold_Philips]

Usually. Some very talented voice actors can do it. But generally they just use Dick Van Dyke Not Quite Cockney or an exaggerated RP.

I wouldn't like to say how many accents there are - it depends on the hearer. I can tell the difference between Barnsley and Wakefield, but a southerner wouldn't be able to tell the difference between any Yorkshire or Lancashire accents.

Main groups are probably:

Scots
Welsh
Irish
North East ("Geordie" - IME Cumbrian accents and some NE Yorkshire accents are of this type)
Northern - Lancs, Yorks, East Midlands
Liverpool (Scouse - distinct from other NW accents)
West Midland - (Brummie)
East Anglian
South Western (Get off moi laaaaand!!!)
South East (incl. Cockney)
RP - not regional. Spoken mostly by ex-grammar school people and public/private school educated individuals.

Depending where you come from, you will see different subgroups. An Essex girl sounds pretty similar to a Kentish Maid to me, but I suspect someone from round there would say "rubbish - they sound completely different".

For the record, there are only three US accents I can distinguish. The one used by Homer Simpson, the one used by Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel (isn't that a southern accent?) and the one used by Bill Gates, makers of IT training videos, and Kermit the Frog.

I just find that mindboggling that there can be such a disparity of pronunciation in such a small area. I can tell the difference between an English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh accent . . . I think. I have a friend who is Cornish and his accent is awkward.

It's funny that you can only think of three American English accents. I can think of various just now:
New York "This is my dawta from LawnGUYland (Long Island)."
New Jersey "How ya doan?"
Chicagoan "Iyad some sassages yestaday."
Atlantan "Fast as Ah was hard at mah job Ah was fard."
Cajun "Where y'at? Gnawlins (New Orleans)?"
Southern Drawl "Begger pardon? Naw, Ahm frum San Tone (San Antonio)."
Southern Twang
Bostonian "Pahk tha cah in tha Hahvahd yahd."
Wisconsinian "Doun't y'knouw."
Ebonics
Spanglish "Chare with your sister."
Valley (SoCal) "Wanna goah, like, ohver here?"

That probably doesn't even cover half of it.

 

[Cragg]

Apparantley I can sometimes sound slightly brummey, tho I normally speak too fast for people to notice!

 

[ej]

You may speak fast, you also type in white!

 

[Cragg]

sometimes the forum thingy decides to make my post go white

 

[Martin]

In the North of England there are different accents for different towns. For example it is quite possible to distinguish someone with a Burnley accent from someone with a Blackburn accent (12 miles away) or a Rochdale accent (15 miles away)

 

[catch22]

I gotta go to the UK sometime! It's on my list of places I want to see the most. My family used to live there...in 1649.