Here's a divertimento for you all.
I posted that COMPAQ is relying heavily on radio ads in the UK. I hear them a lot on my car (auto) radio. I mentioned that the character in the ads has a strong regional accent -a "Geordie" accent from Newcastle, North East England. This piece from AOL suggest why COMPAQ chose that accent. Also note the practice of US and other firms selling in the UK setting up call-centres in Southern Ireland or Scotland or other regions where the accents are highly rated. (The only time I have called a PC call-centre in the UK was DELL's and that was an unfriendly, low-rated Southeast accent).
Professor Henry Higgins may have had a point. There's a lot you can tell about a person by the way that they speak. Accents can reveal information about our social and geographic backgrounds in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Most people in the UK can easily identify a person from Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow or Newcastle, just by the way that they speak. Locals can distinguish between a much greater range of accents, many of which may seem practically identical to the unfamiliar ear.
In the film My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw's famous play Pygmalion, Henry Higgins was able to tell which street a subject came from, based on their inflections, use of vocabulary and tone. Nowadays, pinning people down to a particular street is a little far-fetched, especially when you consider that families are much more mobile, and people are more likely to travel, and move about the country. However, it's certainly true that neighbouring villages or valleys may have completely distinct ways of speaking.
The UK is full of accents, each of which may be spoken by people in a very small area. In other parts of the world, such as North America, although accents and dialects certainly exist, they tend to cover a much wider area; sometimes even hundreds of miles. One of the other fascinating things about accents in the UK is that despite being close geographically, people from neighbouring regions may speak with an entirely different accent. In Liverpool, the traditional Scouse accent can be so strong that it cannot be understood by people in Manchester, only thirty-five miles away.
Often, accents can reveal a lot about our social background, too. Although on the BBC, the accepted way of talking is 'Received Pronunciation' or RP, most people in the UK don't talk like that. However, it has certainly become a standard to strive towards, at least for those who wish to engage in any sort of public speaking or broadcast. Although a strong accent can be useful in making a person stand out from the crowd, it can be a hindrance, too. We remember accents, good and bad, and make judgements about the speakers based on the way they talk.
Part of the reason for this could be the influence that strong regional accents have in British society. We can all think of soap operas which use strong accents. Eastenders, Brookside, Coronation Street, Crossroads and Emmerdale are all examples of popular shows which may have helped to shape the way we view people from a certain region, and identified them with their ways of speaking.
A recent survey of British accents discovered that the most well-liked accents in the country (based on trustworthiness and general appeal) were Edinburgh Scottish, followed by Yorkshire, Southern Irish and Geordie, as spoken in the North East. Accents which were perceived as 'ugly' or disliked, based on the same criteria, included those from Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, the West Country and the East End of London.
Based on this research, many companies using call centres are now choosing to move their operations to places where they can employ people with more acceptable accents, and thus improve the profile of their business.
A lot of young people in the UK, used to moving around the country for university, work and other commitments, have developed what is now known as the British Amalgam accent. Based on their social and geographical backgrounds, and drawing on the accents and dialects which they have encountered, this accent now represents the most common form of speech in the country. How long before we all talk like that? Will we ever lose our regional identities, marked by our patterns of speech?
Local Life has gathered some of the best web resources relating to accents and dialects in the UK, and they are listed on the right. Remember, sometimes it's not wot yer say, it's 'ow yer say it that matters... |
