2 more people found we where Australian today in France and they where from the UK

Slightly off topic

We are scouse but think we have very little accent at all compared to some of our fellow Liverpudlians but as soon as we hear other family members in conversation with other holidaymakers the accent is immediately identifiable

The opening conversational gambit from other UK travellers often refers to LFC only for me to tell them that we are a Blue family!!!!

You want to try telling people your from Northumberland a stunning part of this countries coastline & beautiful countryside.

But have to settle for telling people we're from Northumberland which is north of Newcastle and they think that's Scotland.
Worse think is in recent years when they learn your from 'Newcastle' they reply with the words: Cheryl Cole X-Factor,

like she's the most famous ever person from the North East, and how many times 'were not from Newcastle'... :duh.

However to the sports/football fans once I mention my football team, the famous Blyth Spartans suddenly get that look of realisation.

most people havent a clue where we are from as I have this Yorkshire/Nottinghamshire mix..and Rob has abit of a Yorkshire Chesterfield twang..

so when we explain ( as no-one has ever heard of our village) we just say "Robin Hood" and near to Sherwood Forest...or we say south of Doncaster...we try and say the nearest big place. Depends how far you are from home I guess...

as we travel abit, we tend to be not too bad with accent guessing...

Val, years ago we were on a coach holiday and my dad said 'Oh we are just at Sherwood Forrest'

I though he was kidding me I didn't realise it wasn't a made up Robin Hood place.

Helen

Now, I was the one who started this thread and am glad its been re-erected, as its made me laugh, but , if you remember me saying in my first post about the jamaican lady mistaking me for beeing mexican and me saying i'm cumbrian as they get, with green eyes, blonde hair and pale skin ? wel, get this, whilst at the night show at xcaret in mexico, the lady sat next to me ( american , whom i'd been chatting to for a little bit ) asked me if I lived in mexico and a local I mean, c'mon, getting daft this !! ok, to be fair, hubby looks like a mexican ( his nickname at work actually !) but he's from bolton !!! now, not a problem, quite like it really, but does make me laugh

We are from Darlington in County Durham and people always call us Geordies when we are away....we are most definately not Geordies...we sound nothing like a Geordie. We have also been mistaken as Scottish, which always tickles me!

I'm from the Boro Chilligrape so know what you mean re Geordie although I've also been told Liverpool

Hi

We are from Stockton and are called geordies, mackems and even scouse occasionally. This drives my boro mad husband, round the twist and confuses me as i think we don't really sound alike.

but when i hear i southern accent, i haven't a clue on the regional differences...so it just goes to show

Quirky

How can anyone North of Watford possibly confuse Boro with Scouse??????

That is like confusing Australian with Chinese....

I guess to me as a Northerner, all southerners sound pretty similar..and the first instinct is to call everyone a cockney..but I am getting better at picking up accents..I can get the Essex ones and I work with a lad from Portsmouth, I know someone from Ipswich ( I have learnt to tell subtle differences through experience)..but initially, they all sounded the same.

In your own neck of the woods, I bet any of us can tell local variations..I can tell the difference between Doncaster/Barnsley/Rotherham/Sheffield/Worksop/Retford/Mansfield/Nottingham etc..and even more locally between the villages.

Doncaster/Barnsley/Rotherham/Sheffield/Worksop/Retford/Mansfield/Nottingham etc..and even more locally between the villages.

This is absolutely true....when I was in Spain in April, I got talking to a chappie in the hotel and not only did he recognised my Yorkshire accent fairly quickly, but he also pin pointed it down to the nearest town (Rotherham)...that was scary because I don't think I speak in a broad Yorkshire accent, I certainly don't speak like the Barnsley crew...that's like listening to a foreign language and I can't understand them sometimes, and I've heard them speak for over 55 years.

My OH foxes everybody....born in Richmond -Upon- Thames and been in South Yorkshire approx 35 years.
Even now after all this time, straight away people will say "you're not from around here" , yet he doesn't sound like a southerner to me anymore and he doesn't sound like a Yorkshire bloke either, but he can revert straight back to the "London twang" when we get passed Watford Gap and he gets with the family....people everywhere have difficulty trying to figure out where he comes from.

Justval wrote:

How can anyone North of Watford possibly confuse Boro with Scouse

Ahhh that's because sometimes here in the Boro there can be a difference in pronunciation of certain words depending on how you're parents corrected you in childhood. Though I doubt if Northerners would confuse us with Scouse.

Purse can often be heard as 'perse', work as 'werk' and even (my biggest hate) first as 'fest'
There's no way we sound like Geordies though even I can't tell the difference between a Geordie/Mackem/South Shields

that was scary because I don't think I speak in a broad Yorkshire accent,

you are kidding rayt??

The first time I ever spoke to you I guessed where you were from....

we met a bloke on holiday in Malta recently, an ex pat of 25 years we got chatting to said he recognised my accent as being a mix of Nottinghamshire/Yorkshire and asked where I was from....turned out he was from Nottingham and had missed hearing the accent! The accent we have here is probably more Yorkshire than Nottinghamshire but definitely different to Donny, Sheffield and Rotherham.

We often get mistaken for Geordies but being Mackems we can see why when speaking to someone from the south of England but to have someone pin point your accent down to the village you are from is amazing.
This happened to us several years ago in Singapore.
We were walking down a side street in China town when I saw some lovely material in a shop window.We went inside but the owner didnt understand us so asked his son to serve us.
The moment he heard us speak he said he knew where we were from.Thinking he would say England or even Northern England we were amazed when he said the village my husband was born.
His girlfriend was a Doctor at the local hospital on the edge of the village and he had lived in England for a while.

I would have quoted you Glynis but I'm having an off day and couldn't fathom out how to do it...lol..x


Anyway regarding your post on Boro pronunciation, I know a few people from Boro and I do hear a slight Scouse twang to some words....eg. Shirt pronounced Shert (if you see what I mean). It's funny how people 15 minutes down the road from from me have a differentish accent!

Hi Sanjii. Didn't know you were a Rotherham lass!? People usually get my accent right but never been pinpointed to Rotherham

I'm from Liverpool and when abroad I can usually guess straight away who is also from Liverpool just by looking at them. I don't have a particularly strong accent but it's very easy to distinguish. A lot of foreign people also look rather blank when talking to me as well, must remember to speak slooooooooowly.

chilligrape wrote:

Anyway regarding your post on Boro pronunciation, I know a few people from Boro and I do hear a slight Scouse twang to some words....eg. Shirt pronounced Shert (if you see what I mean). It's funny how people 15 minutes down the road from from me have a differentish accent!

That's exactly what I mean chilli - never mind the 15 mins down the road I'm in the same town as them

Yep!!
We're from Cornwall, and people think we come from Somerset!!
"'tis most annoying me 'andsome".