County watch...

[ian gibson]

Yes, but it doesn't then explain the Kairdiff accent at all, which is hardly influenced by the Valleys or the Vale of Glam!

I always thought it was due to the mass migration to Cardiff in the 19th century when the docks was thriving, English and Irish settlers must have accounted for nearly half the population of the city back then.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Hereford is 45 miles away. Herefordshire borders Gwent.

Life on Mars is absolutely correct that the Newport accent is influenced by the Herdordshire/West Country borders

Is it really the case that the accent is 'influenced' by that of a nearby accent or is it merely that Newport is located in Monmouthshire, which has its own accent, in the first place? Another factor could be the extremely low ratio of Welsh speakers in that area. I reckon that the inflections in the Welsh language must be partly responsible for some of the characteristics in English as spoken by the Welsh, something that would have been less present historically in the Monmouth area.

When accents change considerably over short distances it is usually due to a division of some kind: social class, geographic feature, political borders etc. - and we know the political influences in Monmouthshire were more English too, which would have had a further influence regarding the Welsh language.

I know a married couple from the Northern Midlands with very different accents who were brought up 5 miles apart. Each lived in the end of theor respective valleys but with a mountain dividing them. She sounds Brummie and he has more of a Northern accent.

Funnily enough, last Saturday I did a walk just over the Devon border on Saturday (just 20 minutes from Taunton) and the accents of the locals was incredibly thick. Taunton seems to have one of the mildest Somerset accents, probably due to the fact that many people from elsewhere have moved here over the decades.

God, I'm boring myself now.....