Are accents being lost?

Yourself isit · 05-01-2017 2:03am

There's no loss of accents in Ireland. If anything accents have gotten stronger - the pleasant Eamon Andrews/Gay Byrne articulation is lost. Dublin working class accents are as strong as ever and I assume that those Cork rowers were incomprehensible to you as me.

The D4 accent used to be more grating too, a clipped English skin over a recognisable Irish accent. The new accent just replaces the overlay clipped Englishness with faux American. Not as bad and preferable to cavan.

Except for neutral Irish accents we all sound crap.

Lady Spangles · 05-01-2017 2:11am

It's an odd one. I've lived in the North of Ireland for 16 years now. I came over to study at Queen's and ended up staying here permanently. Even if I get talking to total strangers, they pick up immediately on my Scouse accent. They know it right away and, to be fair, it is very "distinctive". But when I visit Liverpool and get talking to strangers, they ask whereabouts in Ireland I'm from. My Dad (who still lives in Liverpool) has told me before that some of the phrases I now use make me sound Northern Irish. So, make of that what you will!

BeerWolf · 05-01-2017 3:39am

Was helping a friend sell Xmas trees last December in Dunshaughlin, and a LOT of people thought I was American... caught me off guard when one of them told me I had a 'lovely' accent, that was a first.

Always thought me sounding as such was due to the fact I had no notable accent.

JupiterKid · 05-01-2017 4:18am

Accents in my lifetime (nearly 42 years) have definitely become more homogenised but there is still strong local/regional variation and that will continue.

I and my sisters have pretty neutral accents - slightly Dub, slightly D4 but generally neutral. People tell us wherever we go that we are very easy to understand. We are the products of elocution in school. Our mum (notice "mum" not mam or mom) was adamant that we would not have strong Dub accents. She was from Tyrone and my Dad was from Belfast and had a strong Northern accent.

So accents are influenced by our parents but are shaped by our peers and the media we are exposed to (ie TV). That is why children of different races/ethnicities adopt the accent of where they grew up.

Sam Kade · 05-01-2017 9:25am

Electric Sheep wrote: »

I've met plenty of men and women in the UK who changed their accents.

The majority haven't unlike here. Also there's a big difference between accent evolving and changing your accent.

IamMetaldave · 05-01-2017 11:03am

tonycascarino wrote: »

IamMetaldave wrote: »

it's the influence of American TV on them.

I do not believe this theory at all. People born and bred in this country change their accent because they think it will make them sound more important and it is down to insecurities. I and many others grew up watching loads of American and British TV but it hasn't influenced my accent or others in the slightest.

You've taken that out of context. It's not my opinion, it's that of friends from Sweden..
I tend to agree with your post, however.
Actually having another think on this, I have a Danish friend that moved here about 3/4 years ago and has always lived in Dublin city centre and she has a heap of words that she sounds like an inner city person now, I would have thought her original accent was quite neutral for a European accent also.

me_right_one · 05-01-2017 11:11am

So, what do people think is a neutral accent? I think its whatever is most commonly heard in a country. In Ireland, that would be the midlands accent. So Ray Darcy, Ciaran Mulooly, Joe Little etc.

Under my "fine for fake" idea, that fella Conor Hunt would need a mortgage to pay for his accent.

Wibbs · 05-01-2017 11:21am

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Used to find that a lot of the bogger women down in UL developed D4 accents.

Work that one out if you can.

I recall reading somewhere that women are more drivers of language change on the ground than men. One reason put forward was to signal social inclusion and/or exclusion. Another reasoning being that they are/were more socially mobile so aping the language and accent of perceived status was advantageous. Men being generally less socially mobile in the past had less pressure to adapt. Within Ireland and living memory this old gender difference could be seen in schooling and elocution lessons therein. Far less common in boys schools, as was the notion of "deportment" itself. In the bad old days when one of the only options for advancement for women was to marry a "good catch", she had to look the part and sound the part to fit in to the highest social bracket possible.

I suspect the arms race of nasally twanged faux mid atlantic accents among some sections of young Irish women is an echo of that and of course fitting in with one's social peers(the aforementioned social inclusion and/or exclusion).

The_Captain · 05-01-2017 11:27am

There's a developing "normal" accent in Ireland. The soft Dublin accent (i.e. not noticeably working class or D4) that's spread through most of Leinster. As people are commuting to Dublin more and more for work, they're picking up a local accent from spending 8 hours a day dealing with locals, then their children get the same accent from their parents.

Something very lacking about people who find this a bad thing.

me_right_one · 05-01-2017 11:29am

The_Captain wrote: »

There's a developing "normal" accent in Ireland. The soft Dublin accent (i.e. not noticeably working class or D4) that's spread through most of Leinster. As people are commuting to Dublin more and more for work, they're picking up a local accent from spending 8 hours a day dealing with locals, then their children get the same accent from their parents.

Something very lacking about people who find this a bad thing.

Surely you mean there's something very lacking about those who do this?

The_Captain · 05-01-2017 11:48am

me_right_one wrote: »

Surely you mean there's something very lacking about those who do this?

No I don't. Accents are picked up naturally. If you find that threatening, it shows massive insecurity on your half.

Hector Bellend · 05-01-2017 11:59am

There is a noticeable increase in the "amercanisation" of certain accent.

I'm like so whatever

Omackeral · 05-01-2017 12:10pm

The_Captain wrote: »

No I don't. Accents are picked up naturally. If you find that threatening, it shows massive insecurity on your half.

If I moved to Drogheda and never stepped outside it again for the rest of my days I'd never drop my Dublin accent. You're insecure if you don't drop your accent? The opposite couldn't be more truthful.

Glenster · 05-01-2017 12:46pm

me_right_one wrote: »

So, what do people think is a neutral accent? I think its whatever is most commonly heard in a country. In Ireland, that would be the midlands accent. So Ray Darcy, Ciaran Mulooly, Joe Little etc.

Fook aff.

A spudmunching midlands accent is not a neutral accent. Its your stereotypical bogger accent.

A non-knacker Dublin accent like pat Kenny is the standard accent. Obviously.

_Brian · 05-01-2017 12:54pm

I was in Ardee recently and the accent it as broad and pronounced as ever :eek:

Lt Dan · 05-01-2017 1:08pm

Yourself isit wrote: »

There's no loss of accents in Ireland. If anything accents have gotten stronger - the pleasant Eamon Andrews/Gay Byrne articulation is lost. Dublin working class accents are as strong as ever and I assume that those Cork rowers were incomprehensible to you as me.

The D4 accent used to be more grating too, a clipped English skin over a recognisable Irish accent. The new accent just replaces the overlay clipped Englishness with faux American. Not as bad and preferable to cavan.

Except for neutral Irish accents we all sound crap.

Anything is preferable to Cavan

Badly Drunk Boy · 05-01-2017 1:22pm

Glenster wrote: »

Fook aff.

A spudmunching midlands accent is not a neutral accent. Its your stereotypical bogger accent.

A non-knacker Dublin accent like pat Kenny is the standard accent. Obviously.

Pat Kenny is what we should aspire to? Give me a gun!

The midlands examples of Ray Darcy, Ciaran Mulooly, Joe Little are fairly neutral, but not everybody in the midlands speaks like them. If you think they've stereotypical bogger accents, you've led a very bleedin' bleedin' sheltered life.

me_right_one · 05-01-2017 1:32pm

The_Captain wrote: »

No I don't. Accents are picked up naturally. If you find that threatening, it shows massive insecurity on your half.

So if you were born and reared in Navan, but work in Dublin, you should "naturally" start talking like someone from Seattle????

Riesen_Meal · 05-01-2017 1:37pm

My kids have lost their Irish accent, I actually put the blame on the amount of YouTube videos that they watch, and the likes of Jacksepticeye and other YouTubers sounding like yanks...

It's headwrecking but it is going to get worse with all kids IMO...

pilly · 05-01-2017 1:42pm

I have a nephew who speaks with a pure American accent, basically because he learnt to speak from the TELEVISION. Scary really.

It does my head in when people say an accent is horrible, an accent is as unique as someone's face, who are we to say it's horrible or not.

Glenster · 05-01-2017 1:49pm

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Pat Kenny is what we should aspire to? Give me a gun!

The midlands examples of Ray Darcy, Ciaran Mulooly, Joe Little are fairly neutral, but not everybody in the midlands speaks like them. If you think they've stereotypical bogger accents, you've led a very bleedin' bleedin' sheltered life.

I think Pat Kenny has a lovely accent. personally.

And those midlands people described just have incredibly irritating radio accents, the kind that if you heard in real life you'd beat them to death.

A proper midlands accent just screams out 18th century sharecropper to me.

The_Captain · 05-01-2017 6:05pm

me_right_one wrote: »

So if you were born and reared in Navan, but work in Dublin, you should "naturally" start talking like someone from Seattle????

And there's the insecurity.

me_right_one · 05-01-2017 10:46pm

The_Captain wrote: »

And there's the insecurity.

Where exactly? Navan or Seattle?

I wouldnt call it insecurity, Id call it daftness to put on a random accent that doesnt relate to anywhere you live or work.

DrGreenthumb · 05-01-2017 11:31pm

bigpink wrote: »

Are accents being lost?

NÒ

Mike Guide 69 · 05-01-2017 11:51pm

Glenster wrote: »

I think Pat Kenny has a lovely accent. personally.

And those midlands people described just have incredibly irritating radio dontaccents, the kind that if you heard in real life you'd beat them to death.

A proper midlands accent just screams out 18th century sharecropper to me.

Ah here, Laois man meself and i definitely dont scream out 18th sharecropper,mother is from Offaly and she still has the sort of soft Offaly accent. Interestingly enough i noticed , that even within some counties, you have your "townie" accent and then your "country accent", its like a sub accent to some extent :P

Yourself isit · 06-01-2017 1:15am

Glenster wrote: »

Fook aff.

A spudmunching midlands accent is not a neutral accent. Its your stereotypical bogger accent.

A non-knacker Dublin accent like pat Kenny is the standard accent. Obviously.

There isn't much difference between between a neutral Dublin accent and a neutral Midlands/southern or eastern accent.

Yourself isit · 06-01-2017 1:19am

This hysteria about the Americanised Irish accent had been around for at least a generation or more. Remember fab vinny.

None of the accents affected sound in the least bit American although the grammar and idiom can be American.

Are accents being lost?

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