Accents..

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Originally Posted by Kind of Blue

Depends which valley and how far up I’d say. Risca, Pontypool, Cwmbran, etc. definitely have an element of the Newport accent. Rhymney, Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, etc. are unmistakably South Wales valleys to my ears and are as different to a Newport accent as a Merthyr one is from Cardiff.



Have often thought what her background must be when she’s on the radio!

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Sounds like an accent from the north of Ireland to me.....but it’s a bit of mangled one tbf.

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Originally Posted by Organ Morgan.

It transpired Wearside Jack, the person who sent a hoax Yorkshire Ripper tape to the police, was indeed from a small area of Sunderland that was pinpointed by an expert decades earlier. When I lived in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, everyone from that county sounded the same to my ear except for those from Barnsley who were completely different.

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I went to Doncaster to visit a married couple (the female possibly being from Barnsley) and when I got there she was home but he wasn't. However, when he (his name being Dave) arrived the first thing she exclaimed to him and in an animated fashion was:

"Dairve, Dairve, there were dead rat in't drive."

It made I smile (as they say in some parts of Somerset).

Corris in mid/north Wales have the Care-diff sound when they pronounce an A sound. It’s pretty much limited to one village/parish.

I heard a woman on 5 live once who was from Hereford and she sounded like a posh Cardiffian.

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Originally Posted by Tuerto

Have always fascinated me. How can a difference of a few miles make such a difference. From Thornhill over to Caerphilly is only a few miles, yet the accent is so different. And why is it the further North you travel the accent seems to become 'more Broad, if that's indeed true or the correct description. Is the UK unique in this way or do others have experiences of Accent change in other countries? I find it all very interesting and would love to know what peoples theories/knowledge of accents are, or their experiences.

Is accent determined by weather, geographic environment, industry, class etc. Interested to know peoples thoughts.

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I think you can adapt your accent to fit in when you are young. I had a sales job working in Barry at the end of the 80's early 90's and my accent changed rapidly, I soon as changed and worked in Cardiff it went back to normal with just the odd twang occasionally.

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Originally Posted by Bluebina

I think you can adapt your accent to fit in when you are young. I had a sales job working in Barry at the end of the 80's early 90's and my accent changed rapidly, I soon as changed and worked in Cardiff it went back to normal with just the odd twang occasionally.

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What is a normal Cardiff accent though? Rhiwbina is different to Splott, for example. And, is changing your accent conscious or subconscious?

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Originally Posted by IanD

What is a normal Cardiff accent though? Rhiwbina is different to Splott, for example. And, is changing your accent conscious or subconscious?

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Could be either or both. I still have my Welsh accent after leaving Cardiff in 1977 but:

1. It is less accentuated I am told: subconcious.
2. I modified some Cardiffian vowels that sounded grating even to me when speaking words such as banana, curtains, the name of Cardiff itself and even the word 'word': conscious

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Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

I too have always been fascinated by accents and love trying to pinpoint them when on hols abroad. Some can be tricky. For instance Suffolk and Bristol are both wurzely even though they're geographically over a 100 miles apart.

The Mid Wales accent is a real strange one. Have a listen to Ian Woosnam and convince yourself he's Welsh.

Accents are definitely not just a UK thing. For instance listen to a New Yorker and someone from the Deep South. Couldn't sound more different.

If you want a real challenge check out Lyse Doucet, who is a journalist reporting for the BBC occasionally. When you think you've nailed the accent, have a look at her heritage. It may surprise you.

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The same is true in Ireland, listening to 2 people one from Antrim and one from Dublin and you'd be in no doubt they were from different countries, but to a foreign ear a man from tipperary is a lot easier to understand than a man from Dublin

I've stayed in a lot of different places so may have had more exposure to thisthan some.
I learned to speak german mainly in Berlin and when I spoke it in other part f germany peaople used to call me an 'icky' berliner, because of the accent. I in gernam is Ich, normally rponounced eek, but berliners say Ick. Abviously there are other nuances i never noticed but everey german recognised the berlinerisms in my speech. yearsd later I was staying in an Hotel in Central berling whenre the had top hatter front of house managers. One morning I was waiting for something and picked up the London Times and started reading it. The Manager said, "Oh you understand English as well do you" Becuae my german accent had softened since leaving Berlin he though I was dutch. I had been some time on N West an the eiffel mountains.
I had the misfortune to live in the North East of England for a number of years and I was amazed how eays it wax to tell the difference between a novocastrian (geordie) and a Wearsider (Mackem) even though they were onyl a few miles apart. When I returned to Cardiff I was ina pub and in converstation commented on the stae of the Welsh rugby team. O chap Ididn't get on with said, "What do you know about Wales you have only been here a tomato season. It was the first time i realised i had picked up the geordie accent. I asked him where he was from and it transpired he was from goucester but said, "Nut I've lived here for years" I politely informed him I was born a mile away and asked him to retract his commnet. He left the piub and I've never seen him again. That was in 1997.

So I believe accents are noth less do with heritage and more to do with what you actually hear. On that nore I've notice inflection and pronounciation changing latesy. Listen to the lady on the new Dyson ad and hear how she pronounces the name. It sopunds odd to my ear. Ther isw one about cillit bang when the woman uses the phrse "I didn't care", its perfectly correct but the inflaction sound odd, asd if her voice is fading away at the end of the sentence. Then I began to notice it in younger people.

I lived in London for 40 years still got a strong Taff valley accent which I suppose has faded a little but certainly gets topped up when I return home.

The Cardiff accent often disregards the letter ‘t’ if it doesn’t start a word. ‘Wassa marrer?’ (What’s the matter’), the word ‘the’ is replaced with ‘sa’, Wha’ i is, rye, (What it is, right) and sometimes will use the ‘t’ to end one one but not others in the same sentence, Tha game was a right ba’lle (That game was a right battle), no ‘t’ on the end of That, as always, but it’s there on the end of right and I’ve got no letter for the sound between the a & i in battle:shrug: I’m happy with my Cardiff accent though, maybe slightly similar to others but the ‘mongrel’ in it makes it unique:thumbup:

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Originally Posted by splott parker

The Cardiff accent often disregards the letter ‘t’ if it doesn’t start a word. ‘Wassa marrer?’ (What’s the matter’), the word ‘the’ is replaced with ‘sa’, Wha’ i is, rye, (What it is, right) and sometimes will use the ‘t’ to end one one but not others in the same sentence, Tha game was a right ba’lle (That game was a right battle), no ‘t’ on the end of That, as always, but it’s there on the end of right and I’ve got no letter for the sound between the a & i in battle:shrug: I’m happy with my Cardiff accent though, maybe slightly similar to others but the ‘mongrel’ in it makes it unique:thumbup:

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'tidy' and 'Half tidy' :hehe:

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

'tidy' and 'Half tidy' :hehe:

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Erm.... Half???? Surely you mean ‘Arf:hehe:

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

I've stayed in a lot of different places so may have had more exposure to thisthan some.
I learned to speak german mainly in Berlin and when I spoke it in other part f germany peaople used to call me an 'icky' berliner, because of the accent. I in gernam is Ich, normally rponounced eek, but berliners say Ick. Abviously there are other nuances i never noticed but everey german recognised the berlinerisms in my speech. yearsd later I was staying in an Hotel in Central berling whenre the had top hatter front of house managers. One morning I was waiting for something and picked up the London Times and started reading it. The Manager said, "Oh you understand English as well do you" Becuae my german accent had softened since leaving Berlin he though I was dutch. I had been some time on N West an the eiffel mountains.
I had the misfortune to live in the North East of England for a number of years and I was amazed how eays it wax to tell the difference between a novocastrian (geordie) and a Wearsider (Mackem) even though they were onyl a few miles apart. When I returned to Cardiff I was ina pub and in converstation commented on the stae of the Welsh rugby team. O chap Ididn't get on with said, "What do you know about Wales you have only been here a tomato season. It was the first time i realised i had picked up the geordie accent. I asked him where he was from and it transpired he was from goucester but said, "Nut I've lived here for years" I politely informed him I was born a mile away and asked him to retract his commnet. He left the piub and I've never seen him again. That was in 1997.

So I believe accents are noth less do with heritage and more to do with what you actually hear. On that nore I've notice inflection and pronounciation changing latesy. Listen to the lady on the new Dyson ad and hear how she pronounces the name. It sopunds odd to my ear. Ther isw one about cillit bang when the woman uses the phrse "I didn't care", its perfectly correct but the inflaction sound odd, asd if her voice is fading away at the end of the sentence. Then I began to notice it in younger people.

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Most Germans do not pronounce 'ich' as 'eek'. It's more akin to 'eech' (pronouncing the 'ch' as in loch, chwarae etc). And it's the same in Hochdeutsch (Standard German).

Ich bin hier die ganze Woche :-)

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I feel sorry for my dad who is now in care in Dudley. Having come from Cardiff, before lockdown, I found it necessary to translate Black Country into something intelligible.
"Owamyubab?" (Ow-am-yu-bab) = she's asking "how you are". Just don't confuse it with a Brummy accent.

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Originally Posted by IanD

What is a normal Cardiff accent though? Rhiwbina is different to Splott, for example. And, is changing your accent conscious or subconscious?

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True, I went back to a normal Rhiwbina Cardiff accent, I was working Coldbrook and Cadaxton areas, so it was quite a harsh Barry accent a bit like Ely Cardiff!

I think it's mostly sub consciously, but some people want to fit and consciously learn to mimic the accent of the new area?

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Originally Posted by IanD

I feel sorry for my dad who is now in care in Dudley. Having come from Cardiff, before lockdown, I found it necessary to translate Black Country into something intelligible.
"Owamyubab?" (Ow-am-yu-bab) = she's asking "how you are". Just don't confuse it with a Brummy accent.

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Are people from Dudley classed as Yam Yams?

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Originally Posted by Bluebina

True, I went back to a normal Rhiwbina Cardiff accent, I was working Coldbrook and Cadaxton areas, so it was quite a harsh Barry accent a bit like Ely Cardiff!

I think it's mostly sub consciously, but some people want to fit and consciously learn to mimic the accent of the new area?

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I bet you weren't as proficient as this genius..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ZffIh0-NA

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Are people from Dudley classed as Yam Yams?

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Dudley the town or Dudley Borough? The answer is yes....probably. The southern part of Dudley Borough (Halesowen, Norton for example) may not like the idea. Northern part, bordering Wolverhampton, almost certainly would identify as Yam Yams.
One of the stewards at Luton turned out to be from Dudley, a Wolves fan and now living in Brum. Easy to place him as Dudley from his accent. When I explained that my dad was (then) in hospital in Dudley his response was "yo'm a yam yam ay yu", assuming I was from that neck of the woods. It took some convincing that my neck of the woods was originally Cardiff, although he did appreciate my impersonation of the way a typical (older) Black Country wench spakes.

Linguistic experts reckon that accents change roughly every 25 miles in the UK. Pretty interesting to work out how many unique accents that would add up to.

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Originally Posted by PhyllisStant

Linguistic experts reckon that accents change roughly every 25 miles in the UK. Pretty interesting to work out how many unique accents that would add up to.

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You omitted the word 'noticeably' from David Crystal's statement. That word makes a difference as it was not a reference to distinct accents occupying block areas, as it were.

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Originally Posted by Bluebina

True, I went back to a normal Rhiwbina Cardiff accent, I was working Coldbrook and Cadaxton areas, so it was quite a harsh Barry accent a bit like Ely Cardiff!

I think it's mostly sub consciously, but some people want to fit and consciously learn to mimic the accent of the new area?

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Strange how some people pick up accents easily and others don't. My dad moved to Cardiff in 1933 and has never had a Cardiff accent of any description. Similarly, my mum born in Loudon Square (Tiger Bay, arguably), moved to Splott, then Adamsdown and, with a brief spell in Nottingham, to Rhiwbina...never seems to have picked up (lost deliberately?) a harsh Cardiff accent you might expect. Her telephone voice was Hyacinth Bucket. Perhaps a deliberate attempt to distance herself from the accent of her youth as a way of social climbing. Somewhere, I have a tape cassette recording of me circa 1974 and it's pure Kairdiff. Must have been picked up from school and now largely gone.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Most Germans do not pronounce 'ich' as 'eek'. It's more akin to 'eech' (pronouncing the 'ch' as in loch, chwarae etc). And it's the same in Hochdeutsch (Standard German).

Ich bin hier die ganze Woche :-)

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But phonetically eech is eek or close as in my mind, and it is only my spelling of a word that doesn't actuallu exist. and I quite sure you knew exactly what i emant. Pedantry for the sake of it.

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Originally Posted by splott parker

Erm.... Half???? Surely you mean ‘Arf:hehe:

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:hehe: or aaarf

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Originally Posted by Bluebina

True, I went back to a normal Rhiwbina Cardiff accent, I was working Coldbrook and Cadaxton areas, so it was quite a harsh Barry accent a bit like Ely Cardiff!

I think it's mostly sub consciously, but some people want to fit and consciously learn to mimic the accent of the new area?

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I knew a guy from Llansteffan (Carmarthen) who moved to Nottingham in his late twenties, spent a couple of years there and came back with a broad (what I would consider) Yorkshire-type accent. I suppose it was a Nottingham accent.

I’d ordinarily consider that type of change a little bit put on but this guy wasn’t really “bright” enough to nail the accent the way he did intentionally. So he must basically have some innate ability to pick up accents. His mother was from Rotherham and never lost her accent despite having lived in West Wales for decades. Maybe this guy was just tuned into that type of english accent.

I’ve noticed that my own accent drifts between Caerphilly,Carmarthen,Welshie English and Cardiffy (for certain words). I feel like the use of “mun” is a bit valleys , which tend to use in sentences like “fockin al mun”.

As an english teacher I get stick for saying “year” and “hear” like “ear”. The english pronounce these words like “eeh-uh” .... which is apparently the right way. I also pronounce “tour” like “two-uh” and it should sound like “tore”.

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

But phonetically eech is eek or close as in my mind, and it is only my spelling of a word that doesn't actuallu exist. and I quite sure you knew exactly what i emant. Pedantry for the sake of it.

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I wasn't being pedantic, old fruit. I read your comment as the 'ch' being pronounced predominantly as a 'k' whereas it is pronounced that way in some places but it's not the predominant pronunciation. I just responded to what you wrote (rather than what is in your mind) and it's no big deal either way :-)

So for the last 30yrs I've lived in Senghenydd and when I moved up a lot of locals said they had older relatives that had never been out of the valley.Apparently there was no need as you could get everything you needed in the village so I guess that would be the reason behind their particular accent until I realised that when the pit was sunk(1890's I think) a huge percentage came from west country stock so made what was a new village.Work that one out.

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Originally Posted by Tuerto

I'd say that the gwent valley accent has an element of the Newport accent, The Swansea accent is a bit 'gruffy'. The Cardiff accent is influenced by generation. I know a few old boys from Grangetown and Splott and the accent the have is very different from the accents of the younger generation in the same areas. The younger generation seem to hold onto their words longer and slur at the end of a sentence, the older generation are quite direct and distinct.

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The Gwent Valley accent is very different from the Newport accent. Newport sounds like a harsher Cardiff accent to me, neither sound particularly Welsh.

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Originally Posted by CCFCC3PO

The Gwent Valley accent is very different from the Newport accent. Newport sounds like a harsher Cardiff accent to me, neither sound particularly Welsh.

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Agree, i can hear small elements of the Newport accent, probably as far as Pontypool.