The Virtual Rambler

Number fourteen: 11^th April 2011

Regional Accents

Before “BBC English” came on the scene, regional accents were the norm. Jane Austen spoke with a strong Hampshire twang and Sir Robert Peel’s Blackburn accent was mocked by Disraeli. During our multicultural times it’s commonly assumed that the last , lingering pockets of people who stubbornly associate Asian accents with take-away curries and taxis are located in towns such as Oldham. When I was growing up there in the 1950s , a strong northern accent like mine remained a staple of radio comedy. It was available to gormless comedians and could be used for satires on intransigent Trade Union leaders. In ‘light entertainment’ T.V. shows from north of the border , there were men in tartan kilts singing songs with impenetrable lyrics and other men with accordions accompanying formation dancing. A Glaswegian accent was heard in interviews with small footballers known as ‘Wee Willie’ , whose tricky ball skills had rescued them from an otherwise gruelling occupation in coal-mining or shipbuilding. So too for the native son of Tyneside or Durham , seemingly known to loyal supporters as ‘Wor Jackie’. Broad Yorkshire was associated with stubbornness of character , as exemplified by Fred Hoyle⁽¹⁾ A Welsh accent often meant black-faced choral singing on the way home from the pit-head , look you. Alternatively it might be delivered in melodramatic lilt by an intemperate poet/actor before he drank himself to an early death. Brummie tones signified a future member of Judas Priest or Black Sabbath. A West Country delivery was promoted by the Wurzels' “Blackbird I’ll ’ave ee.” The Singing Postman’s hit song “Hev Yew Gotta Loight Boy ? ” was delivered in Norfolk dialect.

Now every loom has fallen silent in the Yorkshire and Lancashire mills. Active coal mines and shipbuilding yards , along with their intransigent Trade Unions , are no more but despite several generations of broadcasting in ‘standard English’ and a mass production line of American films , young people from Land’s End to the Shetlands still speak in the idioms of their native heath. The roots of regional accents go deep into their various soils , out of which grew an equal variety of distinctive cultures. Modulations periodically came about under the influence of outsiders. Any acquaintance with the history of our island home introduces a large cast of ‘illegal immigrants’ to these shores. Some of them came to trade , some to pillage or conquer , and many of them settled here. Their languages , like the genetic pools of their eventual speakers , were in constant flux. For evidence of this , try reading the original version of The Canterbury Tales ⁽²⁾ before its translation into modern English.

Seeking to relax after another taxing day at the office , we flick through the thousand and one T.V. channels and register an impressive number of folksy accents from across these scepter’d isles. There’s a Reverand Ian Paisley impressionist doing some sports commentary , chat-show banter with a Kenneth Williams lisp , hisorical battlefield exposition as Bill Shankly⁽³⁾ would have delivered it. Advertising now employs regional accents to connote no-nonsense sincerity , straight-from-the shoulder folk wisdom. There cometh a news bulletin whereon two reality show comperes - Ant and Dec without the Geordie accents and with more expensive haircuts - are standing behind their dual lecterns. They’ve been trained to convey a sense of frequent contact with their audience , of shared interests and mutual trust , as they exhort the nation in the posh diction of toffs from a previous age , to accept collective responsibility for discharging the debts largely incurred by a gambling syndicate of their chums in the City. Candour in politics , like probity in banking , has long been avoided by those speaking in the best public school tones available.

Wig.

⁽¹⁾ English astronomer and mathematician (1915-2001) , a Yorkshireman who obstinately maintained his controversial rejection of both the Big Bang theory and evolutionary accounts of the origin of life.

⁽²⁾ A collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century , a time when the dominant literary languages were French and Latin.

⁽³⁾ Born in Ayrshire , he was Liverpool F.C.’s manager from 1959-74. Famously observed “some people think football is a matter of life and death but its more important than that.”

The Virtual Rambler

Number fourteen: 11th April 2011

Regional Accents

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Number fourteen: 11^th April 2011