tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post6627824371214450196..comments2024-03-13T07:34:24.149+00:00Comments on The Age of Uncertainty: A Touch of ClassSteerforthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-42214100239773078592013-02-28T16:34:10.867+00:002013-02-28T16:34:10.867+00:00Luke - I'm torn between a desire to break down...Luke - I'm torn between a desire to break down barriers and a love of diversity of accents. Ideally, we'd keep the accents but remove the negative associations with some of them.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-90618151044908180442013-02-28T13:22:41.136+00:002013-02-28T13:22:41.136+00:00This is a really interesting thread, thank you to ...This is a really interesting thread, thank you to everyone. I learned to talk as a toddler in Australia but then on returning home was brought up speaking rp. I have tended to be a people pleaser and now I can't control what has become a hotch-potch with a bit of all the accents of everyone I've known.<br /><br />I think if everyone did this it would be better since it levels ad counteracts all the sociological boundaries that separate english speakers.Luke Dunnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01818570106993325018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-7428315027671562222010-01-24T09:30:40.152+00:002010-01-24T09:30:40.152+00:00Good honest post, Mr Steerforth. You're not th...Good honest post, Mr Steerforth. You're not the only one with accent 'issues'.Bev https://www.blogger.com/profile/04640812762955604592noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-85236605390089403232010-01-23T09:53:48.131+00:002010-01-23T09:53:48.131+00:00There are some interesting voices in your list - t...There are some interesting voices in your list - there are two that really grate on me, but I'm not going to let on which! <br /><br />I hail from the Surrey/Greater London borderland that is Croydon. I tend towards the Sarf Lunn'n, but can go a bit Surrey if needed. My Mum's from Belfast, and there's not much left of her native accent these days, but when I was little I was always amazed at her RP telephone voice.Annabel Gaskellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12210341270502698508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-66758971402524691952010-01-22T22:24:40.107+00:002010-01-22T22:24:40.107+00:00It is agony, although I'd say that the pain wa...It is agony, although I'd say that the pain was English rather than British. <br /><br />Reading the comments above, it's interesting to note how both Lucille and Brett naturally change their accents depending on who they're talking to. I caught myself doing the same thing in the warehouse this afternoon, talking to the "lads" (I can never quite bring myself to say "mate" though).<br /><br />I'm glad that Depesando has the Peel/Lennon accent, which always makes people sound as if they have a deadpan humour and highly developed sense of irony (that's a compliment, by the way). Scouse isn't nice. Add that to South African and Estuary. <br /><br />Does Paul Merton have a nice accent? I think people like him and have positive associations with the voice.<br /><br />Kirsty - I think everyone likes a Scottish accent, whether it's Morningside or the Gorbals. <br /><br />On site - I sympathize with your plight. I remember being in Los Angeles when a sleazball complimented a girl on her lovely British accent. She replied "That's really nice, but I'm Australian." <br /><br />I think Estuary is a halfway house between RP and the full-blown Bob Hoskins <i>Laaaahhhndun</i> accent. I don't like compromises.<br /><br />If I had to put my cards on the table, these are the voices that I regard as aesthetically pleasing:<br /><br />Paul Schofield<br />Gore Vidal<br />Tom Paulin<br />Ken Stott<br />Kirsty Wark <br />Jack Hawkins<br />Charlton Heston<br />Alec Guinness<br />Jenny Agutter<br />Trevor Eve<br />Barry Humphries<br />Eve Myles<br />Peter O'Toole<br />Rowan Williams<br />Burt Lancaster<br />Penelope WiltonSteerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-27920536146728380512010-01-22T20:54:58.498+00:002010-01-22T20:54:58.498+00:00well, being from western Canada we don't have ...well, being from western Canada we don't have accents of course, although I was pilloried for my insufferable 'English' accent in Texas and am asked where in the States I am from everywhere else. <br /><br />I thought that Estuary English referred to a craven attempt to lay a populist accent over some version of RP, rather than any accent spoken in estuary land, thus the original post about Gerry Johnson's accent indicated to me that there was a certain inauthenticity about his interest in the book business -- rather more business than book. <br /><br />It must be agony to be British, as every time one opens one's mouth three generations of class embarrassment leaps out.on sitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05425470382973371065noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-89198763196533883432010-01-22T09:55:32.217+00:002010-01-22T09:55:32.217+00:00To be fair to you though, the gentleman in questio...To be fair to you though, the gentleman in question does have a very particular way of speaking. I don't think it is the estuary accent that is wrong (Paul Merton for instance is a pleasure to listen to) rather it is the pitch, tone and delivery that clangs.<br /><br /><br />(By the way, when I updated my blog to the gorgeous retro theme it is now I lost all my links and have only just seen I inadvertently left you off when I replaced them. I've been reading you in my google reader so hadn't noticed. Have rectified now!)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00597852661913928616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-43271874813753391452010-01-22T09:52:31.045+00:002010-01-22T09:52:31.045+00:00I have a mixed accent that has become steadily mor...I have a mixed accent that has become steadily more mixed as I've got older. I'm Glaswegian, but with English parents. When I was very young I had a perfect RP accent but I picked up more Glasgow as I went. I think that was a reaction to kids at school who thought that English automatically equated to posh, and I tried to fit in.<br /><br />Now I live in England, with my Scottish fiance. When I'm at work I sound English. At home I sound Scottish. It's not even a conscious switch, and I only really notice when people remark on hearing me speak to my fiance on the phone.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-9683362804940554002010-01-22T07:59:14.804+00:002010-01-22T07:59:14.804+00:00hmmm....
My parents tried everything to engineer ...hmmm....<br /><br />My parents tried everything to engineer myself and my siblings into perfect, middle class versions of themselves - it was their way of escaping the working class environment they felt they didn't deserve and had failed to escape from, 'we' dressed better - had better manners and spoke better than all the other kids - but forgot the most important part - they failed to give middle class 'aspirations' - it worked with my brother, he has a big house - a holiday home - cars and everything is 'nice', but I've never been interested in any of those things. The traditional 'middle class' of old - reading, appreciation of art, understanding political dialogue etc - they are - I'm probably nieve enough to believe - now universal luxuries available to all - and despite the fact I have a 'middle class' career - I still think of myself as 'just' working class.<br /><br />Because I'm from that specific point in the North West where Liverpool, Manchester and North Wales collide - my accent could have gone any way - to my parents relief I have the, flat, atonal drawl of John Peel or the old style Lancastrian like John Lennon, and not the phlemy scouse screech of our neighbours ( my sister speaks Welsh ) - and I've always loved regional accents - it's not the sound of the voice that bothers me, it's the content - I was brought up to speak 'properly', and I can't abide lazy, poorly constructed written or spoken language - don't get me started on 'upspeak' or Australian Dipthong.<br /><br />Mind you - I absolutly cannot read anything that's written to mirror regional speech patterns - it's just nonsense to me and makes me angry.Grey Areahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18240869670530738753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-23177397347061216282010-01-22T06:37:29.843+00:002010-01-22T06:37:29.843+00:00You remind me of Professor Higgins in "My Fai...You remind me of Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady": "Why can't the English learn how to speak?" I think also of Alan Sillitoe.<br /><br />Like Lucille, I move between two accents, my mother's Midwestern, college accent, (An American equivalent to your BBC accent), and my father's Alabama country doctor accent, as the situation demands. Language coaching came with table manners at supper. Don't say "graveyard", my father would correct me, "say cemetery."<br /><br />When a workman came to look at our central air unit this week, I could hear myself sounding more like Jed Clampett by the minute as I spoke with him.<br /><br />I think of myself as being about as "bookish" as they come, having spent my life in the trade as a bookseller and a librarian. But when I read John Self's blog, I feel like a fraud. I have to plead that my background is in history, not literature.<br /><br />Librarians, unlike authors, book reviewers and English professors, do not have to account for themselves.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09389916070547430075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-22808015332353660252010-01-21T22:06:02.576+00:002010-01-21T22:06:02.576+00:00I had two accents and moved seamlessly between the...I had two accents and moved seamlessly between them. One for home and one for school. I picked up the school accent pretty quickly and was told by one girl with casual frankness that she didn't used to like me because I spoke posh but now I was alright. Unfortunately my accent still swerves slightly to accommodate whoever is speaking to me. I can't help it. I am generally more averse to impoverished language than to any specific accent.Lucillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14414527658216916537noreply@blogger.com