dialects and accents

[kiwipom]

One of the pleasures I recall are listening to the accents and dialects of, not only my relations but, people I have met from my youth until now.
Most of the rich accents are sadly gone. How can I recreate these senses in my research.

My Father in Law who spoke with the strongest Somerset or Gt Uncles from rural Devon or Lincolnshire and Yorkshire or my Gt Gfather from Guernsey.to me how they spoke was as interesting as any factual information. Even when they said the same phrase it was always so different.

[arthurk]

I don't know of a way to incorporate this in your own research, but you might like to have a look (and listen) at the British Library's collection of regional accents and dialects, at http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/

Arthur

[kiwipom]

I don't know of a way to incorporate this in your own research, but you might like to have a look (and listen) at the British Library's collection of regional accents and dialects, at http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/

Arthur

Thanks for that Arthur, collectbritain is a great source, I particularly like the gentleman from Weare Gifford in Devon but I have trouble following the man from Cowbit in Lincs (didn't listen enough to unc when i were a little ole boy) and the man from Bath hardly has an accent at all.
Perhaps I could copy them to CD, to play as one reads? Might be the only option.
Thanks again
Tony

[busyglen]

I wondered about a similar thing a while back. My grandfather had a lovely brogue although he came from Kent, and he died in 1973. I often wished I had a copy of his voice which was great.

My mother's voice was different, but I do have a tape of her recounting some of her early days as a cook in a large house, which I play now and again. I am in the middle of writing her life story and intend attaching this tape to the book. The only problem is.....in time the tape will deteriorate and the batteries in the small hand set will probably not be available. It is only about 5 minutes long, so even if it could be transferred to CD, it would be over before it's begun!

The CD option seems a good idea Tony, for want of something better.

Glenys

[MarkJ]

That is interesting Glenys - my wifes grandmother was a cook in a large house too! She worked at Belvoir Castle and, even when she was quite elderly she loved to cook.

On the accent side of things, here in Cornwall it is often easy to identify the area of Cornwall from which a person comes - depending on the speed of the speech or the intonation of the words. Does the same thing occur in other regions? I would imagine so, but perhaps it is less easy for those people from another totally different region to pick up these slight differences.

Mark

[busyglen]

That is interesting Glenys - my wifes grandmother was a cook in a large house too! She worked at Belvoir Castle and, even when she was quite elderly she loved to cook.

Mark

Something else we have in common then Mark....my mother was loaned on a few occasions to both Walmer and Deal Castles, by her employer.

Regarding local accents.....it is very difficult to recognise true Islanders these days, as we now have people from almost every County, and many Countries as well!

Glenys

[kiwipom]

It's MY Grandchildren that miss out.
I have the memories of all those wonderful voices, saying the same thing but sounding so different. My Gkids were born in NZ and have never and probably will never experience the melodic voices I recall.
Even strong accents of Welsh Scots and Irish seem to be deminishing.

[Mythology]

perhaps it is less easy for those people from another totally different region to pick up these slight differences.

Yes - although, down your way, I can tell roughly. I wouldn't confuse, say, Camborne with Liskeard, and (probably due to the amount of time I've spent in East Cornwall) I can, for instance, guess which side of the moor someone is from the way they pronounce Launceston. Also, across the Tamar, Plymouth people sound different to anywhere else in Devon - if they sound as if they're spitting nails, they're from Plymouth.
(That'll get me banned from the Devon forum )

Does the same thing occur in other regions?

In cosmopolitan London, not very often, but...
About twenty years ago, I walked into the central London pub that I used after work, and noticed that we had two new barmaids. I commented on this when ordering my pint and was informed by the barman that they were "from Torquay". It took about ten seconds of listening to deduce that while their last job may have been in Torquay, one was from Yorkshire (turned out to be Huddersfield) and the other was a Londoner.
And less than five minutes before I said to the Londoner, "So, what school did you go to then - Tylers Croft?"
Which (once she'd stopped using her mouth as a fly trap) brought the response of "How did you know that? !!!"
"Well, it had to be that or Kingsbury Grammar, and you don't sound posh enough for Kingsbury Grammar."

[Edit - or, actually, it might have been the other way around with the schools, and not "common" enough for Tylers Croft, it's difficult to remember a casual remark from twenty years ago, but you get the idea?]

I guess she was about ten years younger than me, and she'd been all over the place working in the years between, but our local twang was still obvious to me.

[suedent]

On the accent side of things, here in Cornwall it is often easy to identify the area of Cornwall from which a person comes - depending on the speed of the speech or the intonation of the words. Does the same thing occur in other regions?
Mark

My maternal grandmother was brought up in St Mabyn and Bugle and her accent was certainly different to that of grampy who was brought up in the Liskeard area.

I now live in Sunderland and the accent here is definitely different to that of Newcastle, South Shields, Gateshead & Washington. Newcastle's accent is different to that of Northumberland even though it was part of the county till relatively recently.

Sue

[kiwipom]

I found the answer to this. I began using Family Historian which allows the user to add ALL types of multimedia, including sound clips

Tony