Castle Aching

[Nearholmer]

Those sorts of things do help. I attended one about how to deal with questions in court as an ‘expert witness’, with a barrister who could tune his style wonderfully in an attempt to either gull or bludgeon answers helpful to his case out of one. It was very useful, and actually quite good fun at a ‘battle of wits’ level.

[Nearholmer]

Only really, really rough people accuse me of sounding posh, and even they know they’re only trying it on.

[Donw]

20 hours ago, runs as required said:

I've just delighted in listening to you James - you got a good long bite of the apple there in Jenny's back garden shed in Bolton.

 

Yes, its true, I could hear a slight trace of Boris somewhere in there as you spieled away to her.

It must be about Oxbridge having to talk to the man on the Clapham omnibus. 

Might your offspring have a trace of Dominic Wotsit in adopting a future Teeside/Durham accent?

 

It is indeed very shocking seeing and hearing yourself:

I once had an opportunity of starring on EU Erasmus night time TV. I'd watched the chap who organised it at the outset (0100- 0300h GMT transmitted free) from a studio in Newcastle.

He'd prepared a script to play safe, but all anyone could see were blue/white flashes from his bald head as he read woodenly looking down at his typescript on the table.

"I can do way better than that" I said to myself - but I couldn't.

A couple of hours (with a half-time break) of rambling repetitive estuary English as I tried to draw my way expansively through about 8 (previously rehearsed  Magic Marker diagrams communicating Patrick Geddes's 'Evolution of Settlements' across some large screens. 

 

None of our total of six 2 hour teaching videos made it into being canned.

 dh

 

 

It is even odder to see an interview done while you were somewhat the worse for drink on TV

 

Don

 

Much later as part of training at work. I was involved in making presentations to camera both a the speaker and also working the camera (very useful as you can see how it looks different on camera).

Edited March 23, 2020 by Donw
Adding to it

[uax6]

In work all the signalbox phones are recorded, and as some sort of punishment you have to listen to some of the calls as part of your yearly development.... 

l hate it, as I sound like that voice you put on when you are impersonating a jobsworth.... l’m sure l don’t sound like tha5 in real life....

 

Well back to work tonight, to see what is left of the service, and how few are using it.

 

Andy g

[runs as required]

There are/were two announcers on Radio 3 whose accents converged in opposite way in .

First  

Rob Cowan - a wonderfully knowledgable guy who came from being a musical journalist (for I think 'the Gramophone') and started 'Essential Classics'.

Over the years his accent went from Estuarial Ruislip/Pinner to [contemporary*] BBC

Second 

Petroc Trelawny - still around - who has gone from squirearchy plummy when I first listened to him regularly while driving to work in the last century - to unrecognisably [contemporary*] BBC when I heard him presenting proms last year.

dh

 

*contemporary BBC - extraordinary how the BBC accent changes from decade to deciade

 

[teaky]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Yes, well, I've never done anything like the Jenny Kirk thing before, and I was horrified at the result.  Perhaps to be avoided in future, but if I do find myself thrust again into the limelight, perhaps, as suggested, some ironing out of the hesitant verbal mannerisms in advance would be a good thing.  Quite what I do about my absurd accent I'm none too sure. 

Perhaps you could cultivate a Yorkshire accent?

 

For example:

 

Aye, well, i've nivva done owt li' t' Jenny Kirk thin afowa, 'n ah wor 'orrified a' t' result.  'appen ta be avoided i' future, bur if ah doa finn' missen thrust agin intoa t' limeleight, 'appen, as suggested, um ironin art o' t' 'esitant verbal mannerisms i' advance 'ood be eur gran' thin.  Quaart wha' ah doa abaht uz absurd accent ah'm none tooa sure.

 

[CKPR]

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 As a teacher, I've been accused by pupils of "sounding posh". My standard reply is that I'm from Birmingham, I speak with a short "a" (grass) and to me their southern long "a" (grarss) sounds posh.

 

Long a's posh, innit?

I was born and bred in Cumbria with parents from Hull, went to the local schools and despite my affected dialect when writing about the M&CR, I have a neutral  accent with a slight but discernible generic Northern burr. Needless to say, I am frequently described as sounding posh, especially by Mrs-CKPR-to-be. Who is originally from Coventry   an urban conurbation in the the West Midlands that isn't Burr Ming 'Am. And who never ever sounds just ever so slightly like a female Noddy Holder. Absolutely not. Never. No sirreee.

Edited March 23, 2020 by CKPR

[rocor]

5 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

It wasn't that bad, apart from the slight resemblance in manner.  Your  comments were informative and without windy repetition or hesitation. It was interesting  to listen to.

 

As for accent, most people think their  voices are horrible  when they hear a recording played back, that's  what  I feel when I listen to MINE!

 

On another tack, I went down to my bank this morning and it's  shut  until  Wednesday. Are they expecting panic withdrawals?

 

 

A banking spokesperson has stated 'Panic withdrawals are totally unnecessary, unless you have found yourself making an unsecured  deposit'.

 

I shall collect my anorak on the way out.

[RedGemAlchemist]

I was born in Norfolk, but I've definitely not got a Norfolk accent (though I do use quite a bit of Norfolk slang and am frequently mocked for my use of East Anglian pronunciation). My accent takes more after my late Grandad, who was of Irish stock, and I've had quite a few people comment on my having quite an odd voice.

Edited March 23, 2020 by RedGemAlchemist

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, rocor said:

A banking spokesperson has stated 'Panic withdrawals are totally unnecessary, unless you have found yourself making an unsecured  deposit'.

 

I shall collect my anorak on the way out.

 

Wash yor mouth out!

 

Or in other words "Get off at Edge Hill"....

 

[monkeysarefun]

From down here ya's  all sound posh.

[CKPR]

51 minutes ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

II've definitely not got a Norfolk accent (though I do use quite a bit of Norfolk slang and am frequently mocked for my use of East Anglian pronunciation). 

 

When I went to Durham University in the early 1980s, I soon discovered that my West Cumbrian idioms and slang rendered my conversation incomprehensible and sad to say I stopped using them soon after. That said, the fact that I sounded even a tiny bit northern meant that I was usually the one sent to the bar in the city centre pubs on the grounds that I would get served...

[Clearwater]

7 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ignore it. As a teacher, I've been accused by pupils of "sounding posh". My standard reply is that I'm from Birmingham, I speak with a short "a" (grass) and to me their southern long "a" (grarss) sounds posh.

 

Long a's posh, innit?

 

With one parent a Brummie, the other from Yorkshire and growing up in the Black Country, I’m definitely a short “a” person.  However, my overall accent has slightly drifted south through University and subsequent work.  My school friends think I’ve lost my accent.  In the days when I used to get a lot of late night cabs home front the City, one of my standard conversational gambits, to avoid the casual racism, sexism etc of your average cabbie, was to respond to the “where you from then Guv” with the “well where do you think?”  Very very few correctly placed me as Black Country born.  Oddly I sound most Black Country is I try and speak French given the 15 yo Clearwater had more of an accent, I’ve retained it for the language I learnt but not used!

 

David

[Hroth]

18 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

From down here ya's  all sound posh.

 

Thats just inverted snobbery... 

 

Me, I open my mouth and everyone decides I'm not posh at all..... 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Hroth

[RedGemAlchemist]

19 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

From down here ya's  all sound posh.

Please. I'm about as far from posh as possible.

[Buhar]

Listening to tapes (reel to reel) I had quite a strong Manchester accent when I was a lad, not the rasping Gallacher brothers, more Neville brothers, but it was teased and beaten out of me very quickly at school after we moved to the west mids.  The northern "a" remains along with more rounded "u" for bus and butter.  Of course, up here I'm simply English, although in the border area there are loads of us (even before the panic exodus). 

 

Alan

[Compound2632]

I have to confess that "Birmingham" is a bit of a of a fib - it was actually Sutton Coldfield, where sex is what coal was delivered in. 

 

Apologies to those from the far side of Barr Beacon but I'm afraid I found the Black Country accent ideal for Eeyore when reading Winnie the Pooh out loud to my children, when they were at the age. Appalling cultural stereotyping. 

 

Aynuk sees Ayli (Enoch sees Eli) fishing in the cut.

"Yow catch anything, our kid?"

"Oi caught a whale"

"A whale? Wur iz it thun?"

"Oi threw it back."

"Wy you do that then?"

"It 'ad no spokes to it."

 

[Clearwater]

Boys at my school lived in Sutton.  Probably also helped mould my accent away from Black Country!

[jcredfer]

A few days into Teacher Training we met with the Head of the Drama Dept.  We were there to discover how to speak with clarity, project our voice and with a manner designed to encourage attention to the topic being taught.  The first session included accents, which were considered fine - with the obvious limit that there must be comprehend by the recipients.  To illustrate, he asked the assembled rabble to introduce themselves without mention of their birthplace, which place he proceeded to identify from the few words spoken.

 

There were only two, whose birthplace he could not identify.  At this point, it might be of note that within London, he could identify to within 4 streets of the student's origin and did so, with 180 examples to demonstrate the location skill.  For the two he struggled with, he asked them to speak about a couple of more subjects, but still didn't feel he could point to the location.  Once more with answers to disconnected subjects, but no closer to giving a location.  A bit of head scratching and a few moments later, he asked if either had parents who were teachers.  Both of us put our hands up.  178 students birth places identified and two whose teacher parents had denied them their heritage.

 

Ummm!  I just have wonder how many other similar channeling of ideas, teachers might have led to pupils being fed some strange attitudes to guide them to their future.  

 

Julian

 

[Clearwater]

A bread roll is of course properly known as a cob.

[webbcompound]

11 minutes ago, Clearwater said:

A bread roll is of course properly known as a cob.

Well that is the first three weeks of lockdown sorted as the small baked goods naming discussion begins.

[runs as required]

I noticed the word Coventry crossed out posted somewhere above.

My wife went to a very Commie College of National Education there - now her 1950s dormitory block is physically part of Warwick University.

Question:  How do you pronounce Coventry?

Her posh Lecturers said Cuvventri  the locals seemed to sing Cov-en-tree

After weekend visits to see her I use to hitch back up the A5 to the East Lancs road on a rigid 8 wheeler Glue lurry that did a regular Sunday overnight trip Watford to Carlisle.

dh

[mullie]

A lot of my family speak with a genuine Essex country accent, living in Dorset most people don't believe such a thing exists as their only experience is TOWIE not that I've ever seen it. Parts of the programme are filmed in Brentwood where I grew up, the locals are not pleased.

 

My brothers, sister and myself sadly don't have that accent, my father put it down to the influence of going to school with to many people who had moved out from London.

 

In Dorset some of my students think I have a posh accent, I am anything but  I suppose I am articulate especially when annoyed.

 

Martyn

[jcredfer]

4 minutes ago, runs as required said:

I noticed the word Coventry crossed out posted somewhere above.

My wife went to a very Commie College of National Education there - now her 1950s dormitory block is physically part of Warwick University.

Question:  How do you pronounce Coventry?

Her posh Lecturers said Cuvventri  the locals seemed to sing Cov-en-tree

After weekend visits to see her I use to hitch back up the A5 to the East Lancs road on a rigid 8 wheeler Glue lurry that did a regular Sunday overnight trip Watford to Carlisle.

dh

 

You have remarkable powers of survival against the odds...

 

Julian

 

[runs as required]

Please Sir! Smee aigin.

 

Son has just rung from Oxford (lucky B's had the virus) complaining that because a few bad  Comp. lads were caught out on the street misbehaving The Whole School has been put in Detention for 3 weeks !

dh