General Chat

Caroline, I'm not saying my Southampton born mother was a snob, or, as her own mother would say 'acting above her station', but when I called 'Southampton', 'South-ampton' (you know, the way it's pronounced), she told me off, and informed me it was 'South-Hampton'. I, being a bolshy teenager pointed out that it only had one 'H', so it was either 'South-ampton' or Sout-hampton, never 'South-Hampton'!
.....and departed the room, very quickly!!

I mean, there's not pronouncing 'H's, and there's adding them on for effect :-S

Been in Australia since 1982 and still have my Lanky twang, as does my OH. The kids were two and six respectively when we arrived and as my first job was in the depths of the Outback, both kids picked up the Aussie accent when playing with the Aussie kids, but spoke 'Lancashire' when speaking to us :-D :-D

I am very Sussex, never been anywhere else much. OH comes from Tottenham.

In Namibia, where everybody speaks Afrikaans, German, their tribal language and English, everybody understood everything he said and he had to be interpreter for me!

Maggie...Oh I hear you on that one....I'll still say to people even over here it's South ampton...but you'd say South Hampton......

My mum brother still calls everyone Nipper.

It's funny how even within a locality words are sometimes spoken differently, such as Southampton in yours and your Mum's version of Southampton, Maggie.

My Liverpool family's accent was never anything like Cilla's 'lorra lorra' accent. Ours was and still is 'lots and lots' and I'd have got myself a severe ticking off if I'd pronounced it as Cilla did. Even the Beatles, although they spoke affectedly for most appearances, actually spoke differently from one another - Ringo's broad accent was not that of John's for example.

My Dad never had a strong Durham twang but that is perhaps because his Mum was the Durham connection and he was only five when she died. His Dad was still with his family in Essex until after he was 21 so a different accent again in the household. Dad's time in the Navy immediately after school also served to flatten out his accent.

Durham, 'as it is spoke' often varies from coast to country and town to town too. The Hartlepool twang or the (now Tyne & Wear) Sunderland twang is different from that of Barnard Castle, say.

Although I have slipped a bit after moving around, I still have a 'phone voice' my children tell me. It is the result of home and school where broad accents and even most slang were positively discouraged.

Swearing was absolutely forbidden. I don't recall ever swearing at home. My Mum occasionally would utter a mild oath but never Dad who only ever got as far as damn and blast or hell's bells - at which point we knew we'd overstepped the mark. :-0

Tawny, your detractors sound like bigots who need to get out more! Perhaps they need reminding that the world does not revolve around them and their particular foibles.

Mr Owl was on a three day training course in Milton Keynes and like him his colleagues were from different parts of the uk. Mr Owl lived originally around 25 miles from Edinburgh and over time his accent has changed to something much closer to Edinburgh than his area of birth due to working for a few years as an HGV driver. One person on his course said “Your Scottish right?” “ So how come I can understand everything you say?”

My father has an Ayrshire accent softened by years of working in London, America and Canada. My father like Mr Owl has never had a problem being understood.

My hubby’s grandfather came from Southern Ireland


When I was first going out with hubby in the fifties and I was introduced to his family I was greeted warmly

Grandad though was broad Irish and I just couldn’t understand him at all

The only thing I did gather was he called me gal

I was quite shy then so got a bit embarrassed when he spoke to me and I kept saying to hubby sorry what did he say

I “solved” it by saying yes and no and hoped it was in the right place

He was a lovely old gent and I didn’t want to be impolite :-(

I don't know where you're from, Shirley, but did they have any difficulty with your accent?

Definitely South Hampton. But is it Suthall, South Hall or South All ( Southall in west London)

No good asking me names, I still say Newcastle wrong according to my everyone in this area. :-S

I can say Newcassle but usually say Newcastle.

I pronounce it as New Castle (equal emphasis) but most locals here pronounce it NiuCastle (short emphasis on New and heavy on the 'a' in Castle. Difficult to describe ... sorry!

Edit: the sound at the end of Niu is more like the RP of sook.

Very hard to describe so I may get some stick now from those who are better at describing accents. :-0

Nameleslessone - definitely not South-Hampton.
In reality, it's Saafff-ampton, or (sounds like) Sal-ampton :-D :-D

Winchester, to locals, is just 'Winch', or 'town' :-D

:-D
If I was going all Saaff Lunnon then it would be Saaff Ampton but I don’t generally speak like that.

Someone was showing off once claiming he could tell where people came from so I asked him where I came from. He was flummoxed saying I had a very nondescript way of speaking. Just ‘cos I speak proper ;-)

I. and my 3 siblings live in different parts of the South, and have varying accents - sister is in Sussex, and talks a bit posh, one brother is in the New Forest, and has a very 'Ampshire', accent, and elder brother, well, he just sounds like Prince Charles!
Not sure if this is because he lived in Brockley, London for 30 odd years.
As he now lives in Somerset, we're looking out for a change.

However, due to moving so much, we all, occasionally come out with 'stray' pronunciations and words. When we're together, invariably, we'll all start speaking in different dialects/accents - anything can cause this - even asking if someone would like a cup of tea will result in a Birmingham accent (Kipper tie).

Ah, but, Rollo, the emphasis in Newcastle is on the castle part of the word; the Niu bit is short and barely audible.

Nothing you can get wrong in Sunderland. I've never heard it pronounced in any other way than it looks - but I'll have to ask my s-in-law as he is a Mackem.

The way Americans pronounce Durham (Dur ham) amuses me.

What puzzles some of them is words containing 'ough' - Middlesbrough, Brough, Crowborough. I've heard Berwick pronounced Ber wick too.

I don't think I could produce a Glaswegian accent either but I bet my kids could. They are dab hands at accents.

Interesting. Some of those are the way I pronounce place names. But FullHam - surely that is only an American way of saying it - my brothers supported Fullem as boys. I would say Saulsbry and as I don’t know where the A13 is it is Southend for me.


I thought the Shrow/Shrews bury argument went back a long way and was similar to the argument over Skon and scown.

Very posh, Maggie. No plain cuppa for your lot then! ;-) :-D

Plymouth isn't pronounced Plymuth - it's Plimmuth,

as for Bevois Valley not being in France - (It's an area of Southampton) it's pronounced 'Beevus', but, in reality, should be pronounced 'Bevis' .
I was named after a folk lore hero called Bevis of Hampton. At the time, 'Bevis' was pronounced 'Beevus', however, modern English pronounces it 'Bevis' - or so my mate Chris Bevis told me.

My eighty year old friend grew up around Midhurst where she still lives.

She was recently corrected by a young lady who had moved into a local village which has always been pronounced (because this is Sussex) Red Ford.

My pronounced it this way to the young woman, who told her it was Redford (like the actor}.

S'pose it must be now then.