Northern or Southern English accents (live in, area, accent)

[Trimac20]

Yes, I am aware of the fact both the 'north' and 'south' of England are very diverse linguistically and otherwise, but I'm wondering what 'type' of accent do you prefer. Would you prefer say a typical London 'Estuary' accent or a Manchester accent? A broad Yorkshire dialect or Cockney?

[other99]

Northen because my grandma is from there.

[Mooseketeer]

Any accent which is mild and fully understandable to everyone. Some regional accents are so strong the speakers might as well be speaking Aramaic. I personally like something like a soft Scottish accent ( not Glaswegian for example) or a mild West country burr. Mild being the operative word.

I'm afraid I find the Brummie, Liverpool and Geordie accents pretty hard on the ears though a mild Yorkshire accent can be quite nice.

[Hengist]

Where is the midlands or south west option?

I quite like the brummie, scouse, and geordie accents.

I dread the day we all speak estuary.

[steve&helenhead]

Despite being from the neck of the woods that Mouseketeer finds hard on the ears I find myself agreeing with him.

However, at the risk of being labelled some sort of ....ist I would venture to suggest that any sort of accent is ok, provided it is mild and educated.

Personally, I grind my teeth and pull my hair out (metaphorically) every time the media give air time to some of my less educated regional compatriots who feel the necessity to punctuate their every utterance with '....like' or '...you know' (sorry, that should read '....yer know'). And that's another thing - do the media cast around to find the 'thickies' to maintain regional stereotypes!

There can be no real pride in being inarticulate.

[Yorkie Bar]

Originally Posted by steve&helenhead

Despite being from the neck of the woods that Mouseketeer finds hard on the ears I find myself agreeing with him.

Her

I don't have an accent - at least, i can't hear one when I talk

[Iolo]

A lot of us live in the United Kingdom and don't have any of the very many English accents at all.

[in_newengland]

I like a Yorkshire accent. It's familiar to me because my grandparents came from Yorkshire. A very broad Yorkshire accent is hard for me to understand though so it may be pleasant to the ear but not very helpful in understanding what they are saying.

Geordie-no way. Nice for them -- they can talk to each other and no one knows what they're saying.

The accent around Stoke-on-Trent is incomprehensible to me, whatever that accent is called.

The way they speak in the Cotswold area is fine -- I can understand my cousin there really well. But then, I can understand my Yorkshire relatives too.

I don't like Cockney, it sounds foolish and it has those expressions and words that are unintelligible to anyone but themselves.

As an American who married a Brit from Burnley, Lancs -- I can't understand a word they say when they get going. Maybe I'm once again referring to those who have a broad accent. I can understand my husband now (most of the time) and I adore his accent but there certainly are a LOT OF WORDS that are different in the two "languages" and cause some misunderstanding.

In the long run, I do appreciate different accents -- the only problem is when you NEED TO KNOW something and you can't understand the person's answer. I can understand some Brits better than I can understand some Southerners here in the USA!!

[WhiteBread]

The North but maybe I'm biased as I'm from the north myself I'm a Yorkshire lad.

Some of the accents from the south are ok and not all accents in the north are nice but I just find that many of the accents in the south very hard on the ears.