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English and Irish posters, step forward


Gonkboy

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Would a voice recording from an old Sony Ericsson work? My current smart phone is a tiny bit broken :cry:

 

I am interested in general in this though. I've been told my accent is generic, but I think the fact that I didn't live in England until I was 11 helps. Means I can, and quite often do, change it up depending on who I'm talking to.

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It's possible to debate that received pronunciation or the more modern equivalent estuary English is the standard for the UK, and general American is the standard for Northern America but getting recordings of these accents is next to impossible. The best I can do is play the cards I have.

 

 

Well, it depends what you mean by 'standard' and I'm not sure whether Estuary English should be considered to be an equivalent of RP. RP has probably evolved quite rapidly (maybe influenced by Estuary English) in recent times but it essentially maintains the same status within British society. Accents in the UK are still just as entwined with issues of class as geography and RP maintains a certain social cachet.

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I'm going to get some rest now so I won't be able to reply to any posts. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. I have enough English recordings but ideally would like one more Irish recording. If you are Irish and willing to help, please post here or send me a PM.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped.

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I am interested in general in this though. I've been told my accent is generic, but I think the fact that I didn't live in England until I was 11 helps. Means I can, and quite often do, change it up depending on who I'm talking to.

 

 

Yeah, similar story here- my dad was in the army while I was growing up so we moved somewhere different every two or three years- Nottinghamshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Germany, Kuwait, Liverpool and Berkshire from memory.

 

Add to that the fact that my mum is from Bristol and my dad is from Bradford, and that apart from 18 months in the US I've spent most of my time since back when I started university in various places around the midlands and I've somehow managed to end up with an accent that nobody can place. I hear a little of my mum's west country accent in my voice sometimes, and I think I'm prone to picking up a bit of however the locals talk depending on where I live, but it's ended up quite generic IMO.

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I grew up in Belfast so I'm familiar with the range of accents in NI and I'm well aware that locals are able to discern subtle differences between accents from certain districts of north Belfast, for instance. I still think it would be easier to find an accent that was relatively representative of NI overall though, certainly when compared to England. I think that outsiders would notice differences between accents from Northumberland and Oxfordshire. I don't know whether the differences between, say, Derry and Down would be as clear.

 

True. I wouldn't argue with that. I'm from Belfast (hello :wave:) and would find, say, a Ballymena accent to be very distinct from mine. However, compared to the difference between an east-end London accent and a Newcastle (Geordie) one, it's very small.

 

I noticed a few people talking about being able to tone down their accents here. That's something I've also had to do. Even when I went to university in Edinburgh, I had to tone it down very quickly, as a lot of people couldn't understand what I was saying. I've since lived in Spain and Taiwan for a total of 15 years and a lot of that time has been spent working or socialising with North Americans. These days I end up speaking like Loyd Grossman if I'm not careful.

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True. I wouldn't argue with that. I'm from Belfast (hello
:wave:
) and would find, say, a Ballymena accent to be very distinct from mine. However, compared to the difference between an east-end London accent and a Newcastle (Geordie) one, it's very small.

 

I considered mentioning the Ulster-Scots dialect/language but that would have undermined my argument slightly! I expect most people would just identify the Ballymena accent as Scottish.

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Hey folks,

 

I've almost got all of the accents I need. I am still looking for one more NZ recording though. Do we know anyone on the board from New Zealand that would be willing to help?

 

Thanks again to all the people who have helped me so far. It is going to be a great help.

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Hey folks,


I've almost got all of the accents I need. I am still looking for one more NZ recording though. Do we know anyone on the board from New Zealand that would be willing to help?


Thanks again to all the people who have helped me so far. It is going to be a great help.

 

 

You don't need another Irish one?

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