Are accents being lost?

Glenster · 04-01-2017 2:47pm

bigpink wrote: »

Noticed that kids seem to have a neutral or faux accent nowadays
Known older people to travel and move away and accents have changed
Anyone else notice this

Whats a faux accent?

GreenFolder2 · 04-01-2017 2:52pm

Glenster wrote: »

Whats a faux accent?

It's like when someone says "faux" when they mean "fake".

mikhail · 04-01-2017 3:27pm

Glenster wrote: »

Whats a faux accent?

It's a French word meaning "false" adopted by someone who should really be speaking a dialect of the Queen's English as passed down from illiterate peasant to illiterate peasant since the 19th century like any god-fearing Irishman.

briany · 04-01-2017 3:31pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Anyone that pronounces charity as charidee deserves a swift kick to the crotch.

Along with people who refer to records they like as 'Popmongous' and play nothing but Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Glenster · 04-01-2017 3:32pm

mikhail wrote: »

It's a French word meaning "false" adopted by someone who should really be speaking a dialect of the Queen's English as passed down from illiterate peasant to illiterate peasant since the 19th century like any god-fearing Irishman.

I know what faux means.

I just meant, surely someone's accent is their accent.

Just because they aren't talking like their great uncle Pol who ate silage for breakfast lunch and dinner doesn't mean their accent is less acceptable surely.

Rightwing · 04-01-2017 3:37pm

It will be interesting to hear a young black man or pole from kerry, will they have that accent

me_right_one · 04-01-2017 3:40pm

Rightwing wrote: »

It will be interesting to hear a young black man or pole from kerry, will they have that accent

Well Sean Óg Ó Halpin sounds as Cork as any Corkman

Rightwing · 04-01-2017 3:43pm

me_right_one wrote: »

Well Sean Óg Ó Halpin sounds as Cork as any Corkman

I'm talking real african, the congo, nigeria type

blondeonblonde · 04-01-2017 3:46pm

Glenster wrote: »

I know what faux means.

I just meant, surely someone's accent is their accent.

Just because they aren't talking like their great uncle Pol who ate silage for breakfast lunch and dinner doesn't mean their accent is less acceptable surely.

Yes of course someone's accent is 'their accent'. The point however, is that accents have become increasingly homogenised and there is less regional variation. Whether or not that is 'acceptable' is just your opinion.

I think that the most annoying thing is the use of Americanisms such as candy, trash, movie etc instead of sweets, rubbish, film... I know that languages evolve over time but I think the evolution is becoming more rapid nowadays due to media exposure & the influence of American TV etc..

dd972 · 04-01-2017 3:56pm

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

I've spent the last 30 years in Cork, but I still sound like I've just "cum up from t' pit"

And why do certain Irish people insist on asking me if I'm "owrite moite" in an Eastenders accent? God, I hate that :mad:

Because all English people have an accent that's between Barking and Basildon even if they come from Pontefract or Plymouth.

Only Irish people have an accent or a variation of them.

GreenFolder2 · 04-01-2017 4:33pm

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

I've spent the last 30 years in Cork, but I still sound like I've just "cum up from t' pit"

And why do certain Irish people insist on asking me if I'm "owrite moite" in an Eastenders accent? God, I hate that :mad:

I was actually really annoyed when this random yank on an Irish train asked me where I was from. I said Dublin and he told me "you oughta work on your Irish accent buddy".

I told him he oghta work on his social skills!

(I wasn't even speaking to him! This was from over hearing me take phone call)

I hate that attitude. It's not an Irish themed part of Disneyland. Clearly I wasn't doing a jig while saying be gorragh and be jeepers to be sure to be sure

Hanwellian · 04-01-2017 4:46pm

Because all English people have an accent that's between Barking and Basildon.............

Ummm, no. Never heard anyone from the West Country, Liverpool, Yorkshire, Newcastle, Birmingham, I could go on. Not alike at all.

Even Londoner's have variations of accent, e.g. West London and South London are varied.

Winterlong · 04-01-2017 4:46pm

I was down home over the christmas and got an awful slagging for losing my accent. I left home 25 years ago.
But the dubs slag me for my non-dublin accent.

#Cantwin.

uch · 04-01-2017 4:46pm

Rightwing wrote: »

I'm talking real african, the congo, nigeria type

My niece was born in Uganda to a Tanzanian mother and speaks with a thick Wicklow accent.

leakyboots · 04-01-2017 4:56pm

Rightwing wrote: »

I'm talking real african, the congo, nigeria type

Sean Og (and his mom/mam/mammy) was born in Fiji, not Africa

Lt Dan · 04-01-2017 5:00pm

GreenFolder2 wrote: »

I was actually really annoyed when this random yank on an Irish train asked me where I was from. I said Dublin and he told me "you oughta work on your Irish accent buddy".

I told him he oghta work on his social skills!

(I wasn't even speaking to him! This was from over hearing me take phone call)

I hate that attitude. It's not an Irish themed part of Disneyland. Clearly I wasn't doing a jig while saying be gorragh and be jeepers to be sure to be sure

Please tell me you actually bluntly told him to work on his social skills. What a clown that Yank was. You should have asked him what did he really know about Irish life.

What was his reaction ?

troyzer · 04-01-2017 5:04pm

Slightly unrelated but a general comment on the power of media to influence accents. When I was living in Albania I was staying with a man and his family. I knew the man before but the only common language we had was German, he doesn't have a word of English. His daughter however, was born post-communism and so her English is excellent. I'm not joking when I say you could place her in the middle of the US and she'd be fine. Her accent is perfect American, completely indistinguishable. The interesting thing was that she lived in rural Albania and didn't get to actually speak the language frequently. She taught herself English just from watching American TV.

*Edit* Not just TV. There's a government sponsored organisation in America called the Peace Corps which takes college graduates and sends them abroad for two years to teach English in Indonesia, build houses in South Africa and that kind of thing. So she was largely self taught by American TV but also American English teachers.

Didas · 04-01-2017 5:34pm

Rightwing wrote: »

It will be interesting to hear a young black man or pole from kerry, will they have that accent

What about Donegal?

topper75 · 04-01-2017 5:42pm

Accents are revealing.

If somebody speaks in the accent of the place they are from regardless of context, chances are that you're dealing with a confident and self-assured person.

If their accent is an affection and bears no relation to their origins, I'll make the leap and assume that they have confidence issues and there are insecurities about how they are perceived by others - of course, we all like to be perceived well by others but changing your accent goes too far and is telling.

troyzer · 04-01-2017 5:45pm

topper75 wrote: »

Accents are revealing.

If somebody speaks in the accent of the place they are from regardless of context, chances are that you're dealing with a confident and self-assured person.

If their accent is an affection and bears no relation to their origins, I'll make the leap and assume that they have confidence issues and there are insecurities about how they are perceived by others - of course, we all like to be perceived well by others but changing your accent goes too far and is telling.

What if the accent of the area is in and of itself an affection? I'm thinking of the D4 accent.

schizo1014 · 04-01-2017 5:45pm

Didas wrote: »

What about Donegal?

I know a few Black people here that speak with a better Donegal accent than some locals.

One thing I find odd is people from Donegal who like to boost about the Donegal accent being "the best in the world" when they sound like something off MTV. Aye right yas fecking eejits

As for the OP I don't think they are being lost, not in rural areas at least. 10 minutes either direction of my home and people have nearly completely different accents I'm sure its the same elsewhere?

mikhail · 04-01-2017 5:56pm

Glenster wrote: »

I know what faux means.

I just meant, surely someone's accent is their accent.

Just because they aren't talking like their great uncle Pol who ate silage for breakfast lunch and dinner doesn't mean their accent is less acceptable surely.

That's pretty much what I said, but with 100% less sarcasm.

Hanwellian wrote: »

Because all English people have an accent that's between Barking and Basildon.............

Ummm, no. Never heard anyone from the West Country, Liverpool, Yorkshire, Newcastle, Birmingham, I could go on. Not alike at all.

Even Londoner's have variations of accent, e.g. West London and South London are varied.

The guy you are responding to was being sarcastic.

I'm beginning to think that accents aside, we have a national crisis in sarcasm detection.

topper75 wrote: »

Accents are revealing.

If somebody speaks in the accent of the place they are from regardless of context, chances are that you're dealing with a confident and self-assured person.

If their accent is an affection and bears no relation to their origins, I'll make the leap and assume that they have confidence issues and there are insecurities about how they are perceived by others - of course, we all like to be perceived well by others but changing your accent goes too far and is telling.

I'll make a leap and assume that someone who has a problem with accent drift is deeply insecure about their nationality and clings to audible signalling like a limpet. See, I can make **** up too.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 04-01-2017 6:17pm

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

Work that one out if you can.

tonycascarino · 04-01-2017 6:20pm

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.

topper75 · 04-01-2017 6:38pm

troyzer wrote: »

What if the accent of the area is in and of itself an affection? I'm thinking of the D4 accent.

I worked and lived near the D4 postcode for a while. People didn't talk like that.

If you are referring to the 'Dort' accent - that is purely an affectation and does not have any region as a natural accent would have.

Electric Sheep · 04-01-2017 7:08pm

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

It's really sad listening to people (mainly girls) only a few years younger than myself without a hint of their proper accent and having this horrible americanised accent.

It's clearly a deliberate affectation of an accent and not naturally occurring as I've watched 1000's of hours of American television and films and haven't picked up an accent.

Accents are good and anything different and unique in this increasingly homogenized world is good.

There are many influences on accent, region is not the only one. Who gets to decide what someone's "proper" accent should be? You?

Mister Vain · 04-01-2017 7:16pm

I've noticed it with the kids alright. My niece and her friends seem so have a slight American accent.

Cupcake_Crisis · 04-01-2017 8:27pm

McGaggs wrote: »

Work Snapchat?

I work in a salon, we have a snapchat! Fairly common practice.

Mr. FoggPatches · 04-01-2017 8:34pm

Daniel O'Donnell has ruined the Donegal accent for me

Yourself isit · 04-01-2017 8:36pm

Accents are as thick and incomprehensible in this country as ever. Relax.

steddyeddy · 04-01-2017 8:53pm

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

I've spent the last 30 years in Cork, but I still sound like I've just "cum up from t' pit"

And why do certain Irish people insist on asking me if I'm "owrite moite" in an Eastenders accent? God, I hate that :mad:

Since I've been in the UK all I hear is "top of the morning".

troyzer · 04-01-2017 10:43pm

topper75 wrote: »

I worked and lived near the D4 postcode for a while. People didn't talk like that.

If you are referring to the 'Dort' accent - that is purely an affectation and does not have any region as a natural accent would have.

Having spent four years in Trinity originally from a working class family the universality of the Dort accent and its association with D4 is staggering. You might be right that it's an affectation but if it is, it's persistent amongst an entire generation of people from that area. Which just means a new regional accent is forming.

Sam Kade · 04-01-2017 11:31pm

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

I think so, ease of travel and communication is blending accents and standardising our English.

A good thing, imo.

Really? even though they are still murdering the English language.

Sam Kade · 04-01-2017 11:38pm

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Accents are changing, languages evolve, that's just the way it is and always has been.

Do you ever wonder why young women in the UK don't change their original accents?

fryup · 04-01-2017 11:49pm

some middle-class dubliners want to be american for some reason...:cool:

2ygb4cmqetsjhx · 05-01-2017 12:20am

Has anyone ever heard the Drogheda accent? It's ****ing depressing.

Electric Sheep · 05-01-2017 12:38am

Sam Kade wrote: »

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Accents are changing, languages evolve, that's just the way it is and always has been.

Do you ever wonder why young women in the UK don't change their original accents?

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

me_right_one · 05-01-2017 12:46am

Putting on an American or otherwise posh accent, should be punishable by law. Having foul smelling slurry is punishable, creating noise pollution is punishable, so this should definitely incur a fine at the very least. I'm serious.

tonycascarino · 05-01-2017 1:16am

me_right_one wrote: »

Putting on an American or otherwise posh accent, should be punishable by law. Having foul smelling slurry is punishable, creating noise pollution is punishable, so this should definitely incur a fine at the very least. I'm serious.

I think we should be allowed put their head and hands into stocks and be allowed throw rotten vegetables at them until they admit that their accent is put on due to insecurities within.

Yourself isit · 05-01-2017 1:55am

tupenny wrote: »

I think kids get their accents from their parents. Maybe it changes as they get older but id say a lot of that is put on to fit in etc
My kid speaks in the exact same accent as I do. Two of her best friends are lads with 1 parent who's English (1 kids mam, the others dad) and u can hear the London accent in some words they say.
The nickelodeon accent kids must have parents who dump them in front of the TV all day

Kids get their accent from peers.

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?

Are accents being lost?

Comments