Listening to Arthur Smith on R4 a moment ago, talking about the "North South divide", got me thinking of regional accents. I spent my early years in Lancashire but there isn't much trace of that in my accent now. At least, I don't think there is. I worry quite a lot about my voice, because I want to be able to 'pass' on the phone; it's a nuisance sometime when I'm gendered male in telephone conversations.
I find that if I consciously put on a northern accent, my voice deepens; if, on the other hand, I adopt a Valleys accent (the South Wales valleys, you understand) the pitch of my voice goes up quite a lot. But I don't want a Valleys accent, thank you very much. So I continue with my voice exercises and slowly saunter up the gently sloping foothills of pitch....
Anyway, Bristol has a very distinctive accent. Though, like so many regional accents, it's not as distinctive as it used to be, what with people being more mobile these days, and watching television lots. I once asked a barmaid where her accent came from; she had a curious rising intonation at the end of her sentences, and sounded Austalian.
"Bristol," she said, evidently wondering how I could be so stupid.
Discussing this with a chap who worked in the Oxfam bookshop once, he told this story of a fellow Bristolian he'd met in the Far East during the war. As happens at times like this, they were swapping experiences of their shared city, and the fellow Bristolian said, "Go on then, what part of Brizzle am I from?"
My friend thought a bit and said, "Old Market?"
"Nooooooo!", he said, as though my friend was mad; "Lawrence Hill!"
As you can see from this map, the two locations are a few hundred yards apart....
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We were at the Architecture Centre on Saturday, where they had a Big Draw event. Based on Common Ground's 'England in Particular' book we drew pictures for an alphabet, 'Bristol in Particular'. A chap from Keynsham did a syringe for Drugs, suggesting a less than favourable view of the city. Then there were parks, boats, balloons, etc.
ReplyDeleteReading your post put this pleasant afternoon's activity into context, but I'm not sure whether we were celebrating the city's distinctive qualities, or creating our own vision of a city perceived for the most part by outsiders. You can see the alphabet at the AC from tomorrow.
In those days you didn't wonder too far from your street!
ReplyDeleteI've got a Midlands accent. Rob is R.P. but he's given up trying to teach me how to say 'bath' and 'grass' since I said "what about 'gas' then?"
I used to be able to tell Sutherlanders and Middlesboroughers apart.
I found my voice deepening over the past year and I can't 'do' Kate Bush anymore.
That's Monkey in your photo, isn't it? I know how he speaks, and it isn't Bristol.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I was always told was that all Bristol folk tend to add an L to the end of their letters, which (so I was persuaded) is why the ancient name 'Bristow' became 'Bristol'. I've nol idea whetherl this dubious-sounding storyl is truel.
Lucyl
The rising Australian-style intonation is also a native Bristol item, I think, Dru. In fact, it may have been Bristol convicts who introduced it to the antipodes. A proud boast!
ReplyDeleteLucy, the added 'l' is also genuine, though I've not heard it much recently. I knew a builder a few years ago, though, who used to confused me by talking about the aerial of my wall - meaning 'area'. The same chap would talk about the wall's 'heighth', which sounded wonderfully Miltonic.
Diana Wynne Jones in one of her books tells of a Bristol woman whose daughters were called Norma, Eva and Ida - hence, Normal, Evil and Idle...
Dead right about the 'L' - often, when trying to sort out a problem, a Bristol colleague would suddenly say, 'Ah! I got an ideal.' I rapidly learned that the best answer was probably not, 'How nice for you.'
ReplyDeleteI knew a Bristolian who visited America (Americal) with a well-spoken guy from Oxford. The Americans thought that my friend's Bristol accent was the 'posh' one.
Thanks for the info, James; I'll pop in and look at that. Bet there's a suspension bridge, too. I think I'd do a 4x4 for this part of the city...
ReplyDeleteI doubt if Kate Bush could do a Kate Bush these days, Anji.
Crikey, Charlie. I didn't know that. We don't get much of the echt Brizzle up the hill here; most of the Brizzle I heard was from the chap at Hub Motorcycles, now long departed.
You've reminded me of something, John, which will make a little post or today!
..oh, sorry Lucy; it's not Monkey, it's Muncle, who is Monkey's uncle. You may have heard of him. Lots of people claim to be him, of course...
ReplyDelete