Accent

[Muffinz]

my dad has an accent of his own, he's always hooten and ga'in the now

[wish I was in Muasdale]

Sweltered and Reidyboy, do you have Thurso connections? I was born there (dad worked at Dounreay), then moved to Loch Awe then here to Greenock. I probably have a very mixed up accent!

[ionnsaigh]

We also generally share similar physical characteristics. Both Fiona and i experienced this, in two separate bars in Barcelona - on different years.
The guy in the first bar came up and said, "my first customers today are Celts". This was before he heard our accents. It turned out he himself was Celtic - from a small fishing port enclave on the French border.
On the second occasion the manager came over and asked if we where Irish. Not surprising really.

[Sweltered]

12

[SBpete]

just left an excellent scottish pub (another thread, I know ) in chicago where I was told that I sounded like Paul McCartney

[The Bairn]

They think I'm Irish too here in Australia. Scottish is the last one they come up with its always Irish, English then you say no I'm Scottish. They dont even pick up on dialects also. We have friends here who come from the east coast "ken like" and Australians think that we all sound the same its weird. But I have started saying "so when did you move here from New Zealand?" and they are offended at that though I do now know the difference in accent between Ozzie and Kiwi, didnt take me long. Also the Greek guy in the wee shop we go into is forever calling us Pommies so Gary is threatening to call him a Turk next time.

It is quite hard to be understood sometimes (god alone knows why we do speak the same language after all) they pronounce their "e" like an "a" and vice versa. Could not understand the name "Gary" blank looks on the face when you said it so you would have to say "Gery", very frustrating because afterall how many different dialects are there in Britain and we all understood each other from Londoner to Liverpudlian, Geordie, East Coast, Highland etc. etc. hence I now have a weird way of saying things here and I cringe when I hear myself.

[A Horse called Juan Face]

Yeah, Russel post and me were talking on MSN the other day, and the difference between how he spoke and how i did was shocking, and I know I usually talk exactly the same. Working in a Call Centre just now and quite often I have to speak the way Id speak to a child just to be understood. My sister's from Yorkshire and she says she gets it too, people just hear an accent and automatically think Ireland. Its just the fact that theyre not asking you, theyre telling you that annoys me. The New Zealand accent is ridiculous. Also with the dialect thing, they dont have one, I phone people from every state, and the vast majority of them sound exactly the same, its like Groundhog Day.

I hate the whole Irish funtime party people reputation. Ive never met one I truly disliked, had a big argument with one in Perth about nothing but it blew over, but that reputation is a load of crap.

PS is it Redcliffe where the first colonial prison was? Im pretty sure its somewhere in that area

[ionnsaigh]

Och well it could be worse - they could think yur english

[hugh]

Yeah, tell me about it, Ionns... It's like an idiot magnet in Glasgow bars. You'll never believe the international crimes I've been found
guilty of by every looney tunes amateur historian with chips on every shoulder. I usually manage to get the accent back on track after a couple
of pints and then blow it all again by ordering a pint of "bitter"....it's a dead give-away. I'll say this though, it's usually good natured...but maybe
I've been lucky?

As for the local accent I'd click that anywhere. It's very distinctive and seems to have a rhythm all its own.

[EMDEE]

Even without hearing my accent, someone in Toronto once asked me if I was Irish because I was wearing a kilt!

[bill]

I remember before I left the town my next oldest brother came home on leave from the R.A.F.We went into the old Kinloch bar and he ordered "a pint of your best bitter".Needless to say I cringed,he had only been out the town for a year.

When I used to drive the Co-op mobile shop up the Carradale road, and up the West road as far as Clachan, way back in the 60's, quite a few of my customers just would not believe that I came from the town.
I was forever being asked what part of Ireland I came from.Must have been all the Irish music I used to listen to.

Comming to Corby meant that there has never been a problem with having an accent,though my youngest son was told by a London girl to "f**k off you Scottish c**t"(very polite the London lasses),and that was him 18 years born and bred in England(is Corby English ?)So many 1st/2nd generation Corby people have still the Scottish lilt passed down.

[Malky]

Lots of mentions of Irish accents.

We were in Germany last summer and were staying in this city hotel for a couple of nights. My daughter (who doesn't speak german) was on the hotel computer in the foyer checking her email when a young lad spoke to her. She apologised and said , "I'm sorry, I don't speak German", to which he replied, "Actually, I'm Irish and was speaking English to you! Will you be long on the computer?"

Rapid exit of one very embarrassed teenage girl.... she blamed his strong Irish accent

Malky

[hugh]

I just don't "get" the Irish bit myself, but I think there may be something in it. I've been taken for Northern Irish by Southern Irishmen.

Bill. There's this lad I work with. His grandfather was Campbeltonian, (I won't name-drop, but this is absolutely true). I sussed there was a
local connection before I asked him (can't explain how I knew, I just did.) He rigorously denies having any Scottish affections, in fact denigrates
anything Scottish.....but I still see Campbeltown all over him. He goes to all the England games and gets well peed off when he's taken for a
Rangers fan!

On the accent, doesn't the Carradale accent not seem to owe more to the islands than it does to the mainland? Or is that just my expat
imagination?

[EMDEE]

Bill,

As you know, the World Pipe Band Championships were held in Corby in 1975. You were there, so was I.

This shows what a huge Scottish element there is in the town.

As a matter of interest, what would be a rough estimate of the population of Corby who can claim Campbeltown connections or descent? I know that I met lots of them when I was there.

[A Horse called Juan Face]

Lots of mentions of Irish accents.

We were in Germany last summer and were staying in this city hotel for a couple of nights. My daughter (who doesn't speak german) was on the hotel computer in the foyer checking her email when a young lad spoke to her. She apologised and said , "I'm sorry, I don't speak German", to which he replied, "Actually, I'm Irish and was speaking English to you! Will you be long on the computer?"

Rapid exit of one very embarrassed teenage girl.... she blamed his strong Irish accent

Malky

The Cork one is near impossible to make out