Do country people have difference accents?

Coffee Fulled Runner wrote: »

In fairness you people from every town in Ireland who have never lived anywhere else with the same outlook.

You people ! ?

You people ! ?

to answer the question very much so. in fact each town and village in Ireland has more then one distinct accent if you are not from that town or village you might not be able to tell them apart but usually residents will easily spot them.

in my town (ballina co mayo) there are 2 distinct town accents, there is also a middle class accent as well, in fact i would argue there are 2 (subtly different).

i spend most of my day on the phone and i can usually tell which part of the town some is from by their accent, i can usually tell which of the local villages a person is from from their accent and pronunciation.

once you move away from ballina and its environs i can't spot the difference in other mayo accents. i can tell south mayo from north mayo but i would not know claremorris from ballyhanius or ballinrobe, where as i am sure a local would.

when people move away and then come back they tend to have developed a type of generic culchie moved to dublin accent (usually its dublin, london etc would be different, then its usually less change or complete change), if and when they move back again this diminishes with time and they revert to the more local lilt.

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

They certainly do. I grew up in rural Galway. It’s only when I head back there for a few days that I notice how strong some of the accents are. Some of them are almost animalistic in their intensity and I’m often forced to ask someone to repeat themselves just so I can begin to understand them.

My brother has a friend who is a classic case in point. It’s almost impossible to understand what he is saying. Considering the calibre of my brother’s friends this might be a good thing.

“Musha, how da phuc are you there, Aongus”. “How’s all over in Berlin or wherever da phuc you’re stationed these days?”

I’ll normally just nod and smile at him rather than try and get involved in a conversation where I’ll struggle to comprehend what he’s trying to say. His appearance is distracting enough. Big red beetroot face, Champions League trophy ears and hair growing out his nose. Yes, hair out his nose, and he’s not even 30. What is most depressing is that he’s very proud of his unfiltered mucksavagery. An accent that sounds like someone is interfering with them from behind is part and parcel of this ‘bullthick bogger’ persona.

Getup ya boy ya.

There's a huge contrast between accents in Galway city and accents in rural Galway. I'm from East Galway, in college in Galway and the townies speak completely different to me or anyone I know from rural Galway. The Galway culchie accent has more thickness to it. In fact Galway has sometimes been referred to as "G4" (equivalent to Dublin's D4) due to some of the accents! The townies definitely have a posher accent than us culchies anyways!

What about the townies???

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It's normally accompanied by the person saying 'Well'

I can kinda see it, if I squint. I'll stick to Dublin's curt, and hardly noticeable, nod of acknowledgement. Or if you really respect the person you throw them some kind of half-arsed salute.

From Cork and serious difference between country and city - particularly those from North Cork I find.

Also a difference between northside and southside.

Peter Stringer has what I would call a C4 voice whereas I am more like ROG and I love it

It's funny, we have these discussions between ourselves about if accents within the one county differ from each other and to foreigners we all sound the same throughout the whole country.

Dub, Corkman, Kerryman, all sounds the same to a Yank.

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

They really don't, I work with a Cork and we sound like we're from different countries. He sounds more Welsh than he does Dublin.

Yet I've had people straight-faced tell me they can't tell one Irish accent from another.

Of course I can hear the difference, but to someone outside Ireland, we just sound Irish.

Obviously some people can tell the difference but a lot of them can't.

Benevolent Misanthrope wrote: »

I love how Dublin folks who have never lived anywhere else think it's the centre of the universe. Very parochial worldview.

Coffee Fulled Runner wrote: »

In fairness you people from every town in Ireland who have never lived anywhere else with the same outlook.

It can happen anywhere yes.

There is something particularly intense about the Dublin myopia though, as illustrated to me in an encounter in Dublin in the 1980s when I wasn't very familiar with the place.

I was in the Henry St. area (I now know). I enquired of an older lad with a grey mustache (no fool like) as to how I might get to Connolly station from where I was. Without a shadow of a smile on his lips, he "helpfully" informed me that it was over by Amiens St. and walked off.

I have since travelled over the western world and some of Asia and never in that time have encountered a place with such a "sure doesn't everyone know that" attitude.

People tend to be obsessed with their own little bubble. That is human. It just seems at times that Dublin's bubble is made of highly reflective soap.

beach_walker wrote: »

This. I remember being absolutely shocked at the ignorance of even Irish geography from Dubs when I lived there for a bit. Now I'm talking fairly basic things like say not knowing Galway city (town ) is on the coast, no idea of times to travel to pretty much any of the major towns in Ireland from Dublin, that the Shannon is a wee bit of a bigger beast than the Liffey (and don't even ask what towns if any lie on it). There's so much on their doorstep, yet shockingly enough plenty have never set foot out into it. Sad really.

I know Galways is on the coast :P

That said there's a tonne of counties I couldn't label on a map.

It's about necessity really. Living in Dublin you don't ever need to leave for any reason. Outside of Dublin you're probably going to have to travel to neighbouring counties for certain things.