Your comments

milz hull
it's really anoying when i go to other places because i ave to say coke a cola,because many people don't know what coke means and i'm really used to say the word coke(anoying anoying anoying!)

Daren /Burbank, Calif
First thing I noticed about Californians' accent is we say 'min' instead of 'men,' 'ind' instead of 'end' and 'melk' instead of 'milk.' My father's family were all from Ohio, in our midwest. Words like enchilda are pronounced enchiladee, and words like Hawaii are pronounced Hawaya! They also say rensch instead of rinse. Haven't a clue why Ohioans do this. I feel our strangest accent in the US is Pittsburghian : "You'uns goin' duntown fer a coak 'n a hoegy?" Tidewater Virginian(Southern Chesepeake) is very interesting. as well.

Roger Townsend, Suffolk
Yorkshire born and spent nearly all of my primary school years midway between Pudsey and Bramley and then all of my secondary schooling in Bury, Lancashire. I then joined the R.A.F. and I think that I had a lot of dialect(s) smoothed out, in that multi dialect arena and despite having finally settled in Suffolk and been here for the best part of 25 years, I still retain a "northern accent" which I believe is an amalgam of Yorkshire/Lancashire. It isn't until I hear my voice in a recording that I realise how northern my accent is.

Peter from Nottingham
The worst thing that has happened recently to young people's language is that they all seem to have learned to speak by watching East Enders. What ever happened to the subtle changes of sound and expression that I used to hear?

Jeremy from Alabama
I have moved around considerably as a youth throughout the Southeastern US, and I am amazed at the variety of "Southern" accents that still exist. For the first eighteen years of my life I lived on the coast, known for it's interesting blend of several American English dialects (Southern, Gullah, African-American English, Northern), including the Spanish language. I tend to enjoy this mix and I've become fond of the way I speak. Now living in Alabama, I consistently get "where are you from?" Unfortunately the American media has been a constant enemy to regional dialects. We have a tremendously rich language, and to have any of our dialects (from the UK, US, Canada, Africa, etc) labeled in a negative light is terribly sad. They should be cherished and not discarded.

Debbie Stevens. Vancouver
We have a strong Birmingham accent. When we moved to Canada 4 years ago was stunned to have people we talked to tell us "you have a lovely accent". At first we thought they were making fun of the way we talk, but they actually find our "sing-song rhythm" interesting. It made a change from being vilified and portrayed in the English media as having the worst accent in the UK. Mind you, we still have to repeat things for them.

Haran Rasalingam, BA Hons Lingusitics from London
While speaking with a regional accent or dialect is less stigmatised now than it was during most of the 20th century, I still think we have a long way to go in terms of being proud of it. In Italy, regional dialects are very much alive and kicking, though they still play second fiddle to "standard" Italian. In Spain, Catalan is an example of a very successful regional variety of a language with over 90% percent of people in Catalonia using it both in spoken and written communication. Of course, Catalan is not a dialect of Castilian Spanish, it is a descendent of Latin just as Castilian Spanish is. The same applies to Geordie or Cockney or Yorkshire or Scouse - they are descendents of the same parent languge as "standard" English. It seems that the best way to keep a language variety alive is a) not to call it a dialect and b) establish a formal written form.

Colin Rogers, Burnham, Somerset
My Father and I used to refer to pieces of masonry etc. in the decending sizes: Boulder, ku:nit, rock, stone, pebble. Does anyone else use a word like Ku:nit? (The 'u' is like the German 'u umlaut').

Jordan from Sheldon
In Birmingham there are different types of accents because its a big city, there are areas such as Sutton Coldfield which have a very posh accent or Sheldon which has an old fashioned english accent. Yardley, castle brom, small heath and other areas in birmingham have a very brummie accent. its fascinating how accents can change within a couple of miles.

Chris H from Hull ('Ull)
I think dialects in my family have been distorted a lot. All of my family are from Hull, but my relatives in Chesterfield have started to speak posh for no reason whatsoever...my uncle has taken my aunt from down south's accent I think. Also, another aunt, on my mother's side, married my uncle who is in the army. My aunt has a true Hull accent, my uncle has a sort of hybrid of Irish, Hull and dialectlessness, but their children both have no accent whatsoever. I don't get that. I never noticed the Hull accent until I tried talking to people from other areas, who had no idea what I was saying to them.

Chris Bainbridge from Bury
I spent the first few years of my life on Tyneside, so am still able to understand and speak Geordie. We moved to just north of Manchester when I was little, so I had to learn a new way of talking, because nobody could understand me at first. I thought I was putting on my best B.B.C. newsreader voice and thought I sounded like Richard baker, but in reality I sounded more like Jimmy Nail. Most of the other kids at school thought I was "Scotch" (to use their term). The local accent in Prestwich was a bit like today's Manchester twang, a bit nasal. But just three or four miles up the road they talk Lancashire, like Peter Kay (as I found when I went to secondary school). The Mancunians used to deride the Bury lot, and call them "Farmers", or "Yonners" (why? Because they come from "over yon"!). I live in Bury now, the very name of which is a one-word linguistic test. You can tell a Manc by the way they pronounce "Bury" as "Berry". My old compadres the Geordies (as well as the Scots) say "Burry". The locals, however, pronounce it somewhere in between, with a vowel sound like a shortened version of the French "beurre", or a German "o-umlaut". So now you know!

Ian Borwell from Friesland
Page 3 mentions the importance of the Frisian language in the history of English. I have been living in Friesland (a northern province of the Netherlands) since 1981. Although they are very close to each other on the language family tree modern Frisian bears little resemblance to modern English, but some of the words used are striking - the Frisian word for child is 'bern' (bairn has stuck in Scotland); the Frisian for sky is 'loft' (in English this is still found in the word lofty); cheese is spelled 'tsiis' but the pronunciation is much the same as in English (the Dutch word is 'kaas') and there are many more examples. But Frisian is under threat from Dutch and English. For example, the Frisian verb for to phone is 'skilje' but these days most young use 'belje'. Attempts are made to stop the rot, but there doesn't seem to be much which anyone can do about language change.

Guy Wise from Belfast
In Northern Ireland we use a soft 'a' in words like 'David' and 'gate'. The same sound is heard in 'eight'. It resembles the middle of the word 'hear' in standard English. We are aware that it is very distinctive, so when someone from Northern Ireland transports to England it is, probably, the first linguistic casualty in the effort to suppress the, perceived, inferiority of one's dialect. One finds the alteration in the speech of Gloria Hunniford who has excused her speech on the weak grounds of necessary clarity. It is probably true to say that most people in Northern Ireland hate to hear this linguistic submissiveness.

David Andrews BA-status, PgCertSpEd, in Finland
Interesting, all this! In Finland we have - as one would expect - dialect areas and identity is connected strongly to dialect. An example: in Kotka, where I live, the word for "me" or "I" is "miä"; in Helsinki, it is "mä"; in Turku, it is "mää" (sounds actually akin to a sheep with a blocked nose!); and up the road in Imatra, it is "mie" (pron. "mee-eh"). The actual word, in official Finnish language is "minä". Just from someone saying one word, it is possible to tell where they come from in the country. Compare this with saying "I" in the UK.... in the north (above, say, Derby), it's likely to be said as "A", and there seems to be a spread of this across the board in the north of England and in Scotland. I like this... or should "A seh"... "A think it's greight"?! :)

Allan Horne grew up in Carlisle
Having just listened to the first Word4Word I was particularly interested in the word 'chav' / 'charver'. I grew up in Carlisle which used a mix of Cumbrian, Scots and many words which I thought were derived from Indian - Charver = child or as we usually used it in Carlisle as 'larl charver' = small child. Parni = water (mainly used as a dunking e.g. throwing someone into a river at Scout camp) Cushy = easy, as in got it cushy or got things cushy (e.g. given an easy job to do) Cushty = good Flardy = (ditto but more in a flashy / fashion way - e.g. clothes would be flardy but a new bike would be cushy) Brahma = Very good or best. Pagger = fight Bint = girl (possibly of Arabic origin rather than Indian (?) perhaps because Bint was a common girl's name c.f. Sheila in Australian) Another expression I thought particular to Carlisle was the use of the word 'Potter' = settled traveller, similar to the derogatory use of pikey today.

Clare from Warwickshire (originally)
I grew up about 20 miles from Birmingham and I guess had a local accent, which to many sounds like mild Brummie but to my ears is quite specific to the North Warwickshire mining (or ex-mining) towns. I moved to the south coast when I was 18 and within a year or so had picked up a bit of a Dorset accent. I heard a lot dialect words and phrases still in use in Dorset and Somerset and apparently the Dorset dialect has linguistic links to German and Dutch. In the accents of people who've lived locally most of their lives, there are pronounciations that I found really distinctive - for instance, "ow" as part of words such as 'now' or 'cow' has a sound that I almost can't write - maybe "niew" ? I've heard an almost identical vowel sound from Dutch people when speaking their own language. I'm living in Australia at the moment and it amazes me that some other Brits out here barely pick that I'm from Britain, where as a few of the Aussies say "oh, you're from Dorset aren't you?"!

Robert McArtor from Virginia
Even though most people in America recognize my accent as being Southern, some have thought me to be Canadian! The trouble comes from my pronunciation of words such as mouse, house, out, and route. In the Southern States those words are pronounced (by my ear) as mause, hause, owut, and root. Is there any hope for me?

Christiano from Kidderminster
I believe an accent is something you should be proud of. It gives you your own identity about where you come from, and accents are what makes us all individuals, and each and everyone of us special in our own way. Thanxs

Helen from near Leeds
I know that I have a northern accent, in fact I lived in Hampshire for a while. Everyone in the local area except my driving instructor was from the south. My driving instructor's wife rang me and said 'Guess who?' I didn't recognise her accent, and then she realised that it was because I was a northerner too. I don't have a Leeds accent as I wasn't brought up her, but my daughter has a really strong south Leeds accent.

Nima from Ohio (USA)
Why is it that Persian (Farsi) is not listed among the languages spoken around the UK? At least in the greater London area (and some other major urban areas around England and Scotland there are large to small numbers of Persian-speaking British residents and citizens! Am I mistaken in "assuming" this?

Helen Robinson from Kingston upon Hull
The Hull accent is quite a mixture of many other accents and I never really noticed it; until a friend who had moved to the other side of the country commented on the sound of my voice. He was overjoyed to hear someone say 'werk' instead of work and 'phern' instead of phone. I've also noticed that my brother is losing his accent(but won't admit it) after living in the south of the country for over twenty years; I find myself over-compensating for this by becoming 'broad Yorkshire' in his company. I'm also teaching his son to say "Ey Oop", "Ecky Thump" and "Where's Me Whippet?" a bit drastic, yes, but he needs to learn.

Emily from California
It's my belief that the media has quite a damning influence on the variety of the English language all over the world. We either have the boring, tinned and processed variety of Standard English that the British media gives us, or the harsh, maddeningly popular General American accent. The American, in particular is sweeping across the world -- online, I see British people spelling American and using conventions which are definitely American, a fact that saddens the Anglophile that I am.

Davyd (Broadstairs)
I used to live in Brum, I was born in Erdington and had a 'Brummie' accent when we moved to Margate in 1970, but I've lost my accent now and people can't tell where I'm from, even when I tell them they don't beleive it.

muhammad shakir from grays,essex
As a child born and bred in a former British colony,Nigeria,I learnt English as a matter of course,picked it up in school actually.But,like the other non-native varieties of the language,my spoken English,an individual form of 'Nigerian English',was clearly influenced by my mother-tongue(Yoruba) as well as the local language spoken in the area of Nigeria where I grew up(Hausa).But rather early in life I started to make semi-conscious efforts to take my English closer to what was considered the finest and most prestigious form of the language commonly identified as Queen's English.It was spoken by a very tiny percentage of the educated elite in the country-mainly first generation Nigerian politicians who had been educated directly by the British at,especially,Katsina College in Nigeria and some who had gone on to Oxbridge.To most Nigerians it was a way of speaking that was greatly admired but not so desired,like the proverbial elephant.Since QE or what I also learnt was more appropriately called RP was virtually non-existent as a spoken form in Nigeria I had to acquire my own share of it by learning the pronunciation in my Oxford Advanced Dictionary of Current English and the ubiquitous BBC World Radio.But in the areas of syntax,stress pattern and,to a much smaller extent,grammar my speech continued to be influenced by local languages and varieties of English but,interestingly,it could not be easily localised to a particular region-it had become 'international','cosmopolitan'.I won epithets such as 'Londoner','Shaks of England'etc in obvious reference to my different English.Even though as a freelance student of English I had discovered that there were different accents and brogues of the most widely-spoken language on the planet even in its country of birth I was appalled when I arrived in the country a couple of weeks ago to encounter very unatttractive accents emanating from the mouths of native speakers - some of them almost unintelligible and definitely a far cry from the finely-clipped,crispy,serenading English of BBC.

Kathryn from Bolton
Everyone thinks they know what a Bolton accent sounds like through the likes of Peter Kay and others who have found celebrity status. I have been told that I do not have a typical Bolton accent. My mother calls it a telephone voice. I suppose she is right I have spent so much time on the telphone talking to people all over the country my accent seems to been obliterated. My mother can still speak perfect Lancashire dialect as this is how she was brought up. I can still remember looking at my great aunts as though they were speaking a different language. I never could understand them very well. As they got older one of them became a little confused. I saw them on the bus or buzz as we say here and was informed by the other aunt not to worry cos shez waz all mucked up. Sadly neither of these lovely ladies are with us now and the true lancashire dialect seems to be a thing seen in books only ( do you pronounce that buck or book???)

Anne Foster from various counties
People say that I have a go anywhere accent. I was born in north London but brought up on the west coast of Scotland til I was 13 then moved to near Portsmouth then moved to Plymouth. My Dad was from north London but his Dad was from Durham, my Mum was born near Manchester but brought up near Liverpool and also North Wales. Her Dad was from Bristol. My Dad's mother was from South Wales. It get more varied - my husband is from nr Durham and our kids were born in Plymouth but brought up in west Scotland then central Scotland then finally a return to nr Durham. We sound neither one thing or another. As it is my various influences come out in individual words and syllables, some words I find very difficult to say ('chassis' is impossible), even the pattern of speech (apparently I sort of sing). Friends have been known to use me as entertainment at parties by asking me to say things. Sometimes I'd loved to have just one main accent and to be able to identify with just one region but I quite like having so many different links. When I says that I am from Britain I truly mean the whole of Britain.

Rob from Oxfordshire
I have lived in quite a few different parts of the UK, but the last 25 years were spent in Oxfordshire. I have what I would call a regionless accent - I seem to have had this at least from my teenage years. When I went to university, a friend commented that I did not have any kind of accent. Maybe it is because my parents did not have regional accents - they had both been to university, and if they ever had a northern accent, it must have been educated out of them.

Symon Price from Herts
My father originated from the Midlands. Around the age of ten, he moved down to Hertfordshire and curbed the more pronounced aspects of his accent in order to avoid being bullied. Since I've been born, he's always spoken with a (posh) Southern English accent, and has avoided using Midland type expressions. However, even though I've been living in the South East all my life, and also possess a posh South East accent, I sometimes catch myself using expressions such as: 'Me socks.' Neither my father or mother use this expression, and I haven't visited the Midlands for any long period, or recently. Perhaps it is some form of 'inherited' language tick?

SJ living in Birmingham, born and bred in Derbyshire
I'm not sure whether to be sad that older dialects are dying out or fascinated that new dialects are evolving. The vastly increased movement of people around the UK and from elsewhere is making millions of different permutations of micro-changes all over the place. I was born and brought up in Derbyshire but have lived in Birmingham for 20 years and have stopped using a whole list of dialect words like nesh (a bit weedy - feels the cold), skrate (cry), mardy (childishly stroppy), chelp (backchat), myther (annoy), because people here don't know what they mean. At the same time, I have picked up the odd Brummie vowel and often use words like bostin. My husband is Birmingham born and bred but often uses dialect words like lonning (alleyway) from his mother's native Cumbria. I work for a South Asian arts company in an office made up of Punjabis, Bengalis and white British from various parts of the UK and we almost have our own lingua franca - there are often conversations going on in 3 or 4 languages. I also have some SOuth African friends and have picked up the words of Africaans that they use - lekker, meaning tasty, is my favourite. My grandparents were Latvian and picked up English with broad Derbyshire accents and I acquired some of their turns of phrase. In today's urban Britain, it is more or less the norm that a high proportion of people will be from other parts of the country as well as other parts of the world, so if my network of connections is typical, we should be in for some interesting times.

r from romford
having lived away from the area for several years i have noticed a huge change in both accent and employment of language. when i was young there were broadly two types of language identifiers: cockney and general southen english. today cockney has been displaced to a degree by 'black english' amongst both whites and people of colour. from prince naseem to clinton morrison, this form of regional language has entered into a once strongly cockney area. i think it is sad as it lacks the creativity and expressiveness of cockney, although i have never been inclined to speak in either forms and have a general southern english accent, which i have found easier to live with as employers, when one enters academic, middle class arenas tend to reject and look down on it.