"It's not what you say, it's how you say it"

[muckefuck]

Lest y'all think it's only an upper-class Oxbridge accent that can get me going, here's a sampling of some other dialects that rawk my sawks.

Irish English. A sizable part of my current marrow-sized man-crush on Irish comic Dara Ó Briain stems from the fact that I could listen to his pronounced Dublin-area accent until the Bailey's-yielding fairy cows march back beneath their tumuli under the silvery moonlight.

Much to the dismay of my Corkonian ancestors, gan dabht, I find a heavy Cork brogue as comic and culchie as most metropolitan Irishmen do, although still more pleasant in the ear than a raspy Ulster accent.

Northern English is a real mixed bag. Brummie and Manchester are no more easy on the ears than direst Cockney, but Yorkshire has some spectacular sonic treats. When I first played the following clip of Wakefield-born Ryan Jarman, monshu wanted to know what was "wrong with his mouth" that makes it all "sound like mush". I, on the other hand, want to know why I can't hear this on BBCAmerica.

(The episode of Buzzcocks it's excerpted from is a wonderful sampler of regional UK English, incidentally. The host is another Yorkshireman, Kaiser Chiefs' frontman Ricky Wilson, and the dark side of Northern English is embodied by Bez of the Happy Mondays, whose Manchester mumble is as impenetrable as his burnt-out brain. Representing Ulster English is Belfast native Colin Murray, and rounding it all out is Chesterian Jeff Green.)

West Country Unfortunately, Buzzcocks regular Bill Bailey has adopted Estuary English and only slips into West Country for the occasional comic bit, such as about 2:48 in this following video where he and fellow Bristolian Russell Howard trade impersonations of Somerset's finest farm folk.

(This episode, incidentally, also features legendary New Wave superstar Midge Ure and his glorious Lallans-inflected English.)

Comments

[areia.livejournal.com]

I miss England.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

I miss Wales - on that programme. Where's the Red Dragon's representation? Don't force me to watch Torchwood again. Please.

Seems like I've only ever heard the 'West Country' accent in jest. I don't think I've ever been exposed to it in-person.

[grahamwest.livejournal.com]

It's growing a bit less common, I think, but it is still there alright. When I go home to visit I notice how strong it is even in people younger than me. Go to Plymouth or Bristol if you want to hear it in larger cities in that area.

[thedeli.livejournal.com]

Noted. If possible, I will.

Thanks!

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend's family all have it, living in Devizes, Wilts. His uncle (tractor driving uncle Bob) actually says ARRR for yes.

Would you like some more peas Bob?
Arrr (satisfied nod)

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I grew up with that, too, plus the uniquely Cornish (I think) Azzn - another general affirmative.

[0595.livejournal.com]

Midge Ure
Woo-hoo!

You know it's not like I'm really a fan, but I totally still listen to that CD.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I was going to write bwa ha ha on your previous post, since I myself carry a lightweight RP around with me (souvenir of a small-time public school in the styx), but my "home" accent is Penryn, which is to West Country as lower-class Belfast is to Irish. I can barely do it these days, though. Even in the west country Estuarian is taking over since they adopted it on the BBC, so I find myself in a choice of two disappearing comedy minorities.

You do still find West Country in use, in Yeovil, or the less touristy bits of Devon and Somerset and, strangely enough, in rural Oxfordshire, which I think might be the true antecedent of that peculiar hay-chewing Mummerset that Panto folks like Iain McShane will lapse into, given half a chance. Bailey's is pleasingly unforced - half the time when people try yokel they end up sounding like Donald Sinden on Novocaine.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

So perhaps that episode of Lynley we caught Sunday night was more accurate than I supposed. It was allegedly set in Cornwall, but I don't recall a single Cornish accent among the cast. In fact, they even had to slip in a bit to explain away the local constable's Mancunian mumble! I said to myself, Bastards, they just hired everyone in a single London casting call and shipped them out to the seaside for a few days of filming.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

Depends where they were, but yes, it's quite believable - in fact, possibly an enlightened portrayal, rather than the kind of Cold Comfort Farm treatment everyone west of Southampton usually has to deal with.

If you go to St Ives you'll hear plummy Home Counties, while Padstow is more London boy holiday home; Costa Coffee and gift shops selling the same twee knicknacks you can get in Kensington Market. For me, the relationship between Cornwall and London can best be summed up by the spread of the Oggy Oggy Pastie Shop, and the markets it sells into: both in Truro (newly posh holiday home town on Cornwall's south coast) and on King's Road in Chelsea it shares retail space with the same trendy shoe-and-handbag shops. There are still Cornish in Cornwall, but you have to get out of the holiday towns, and away from the picturesque clifftop fishing villages, to find them.

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

See I thought Ryan Jarman come across as a proper twat on that episode of Buzzcocks, he's sort of drawly and pretentious but also Yorkshire at the same time. He's also going out with that Kate Nash, which is an unforgivable sort of thing to do. My housemate's from down't' road from Wakefield, and we were watching it, and she was getting well agitated at him.

Russel Howard in that video doing his west country impression sounds astonishly like my boyfriend's dad. Chris (my boyfriend) doesn't really have the accent except on the odd word, like castle, which sounds a bit odd. His mum sounds like Joanna Lumley, but her brother is a proper oooh arrr me tractor type (he IS a professional tractor driver), I have no idea how that happened.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I agree on all points, nonetheless it's more pleasing to listen to him make an arse of himself with his laid-back West Riding drawl that it is to hear Donny Tourette do the same with his obnoxious Mockney twang.