Are you prejudiced toward accents?

osarusan

FactCheck wrote: »

We probably all have deep-seated prejudices (positive or negative) regarding accents, but it's really not something we should be proud of. There's a wealth of evidence humans make unfounded snap judgements over height or beauty, accents are no different. But we should still be aware of it and try to overcome it.

It's strange. The vast majority of people would condemn judging the colour of someone's skin, but most people freely confess to despising one accent or another. It's usually more acceptable to condemn a "posher" accent than a "rough" one. But both attitudes are moronic and chippy.

It's never okay to judge someone on the way they speak. There's plenty of scope, surely, to make a judgement on what they actually have to say. Be content with that, rather than reaching for a reason to sneer at someone. It says a lot more about you, than about them.

I am not kidding when I say that I read this as 'plenty of scobe' and thought it was a brilliant joke in the context of your post.

snowstorm445

Sleepy wrote: »

An affected D4 accent makes me think you're an airheaded twat (and, if you're putting the accent on, I'm not wrong).

A strong Cork accent makes me think you're a dribbling neanderthal whose sole purpose in life is to give inner-city Dubs someone to look down on.

Yerra g'way outta dat boi.

FactCheck

This stuff is really ironic coming from Irish people. People do realise that there are no shortage of Anglophones who believe that anything said in an Irish lilt sounds thick and uneducated? Everyone on the planet speaks with an accent and for every accent out there, there is someone who believes it to be affected, grating, stupid, or insufferable.

You wouldn't like it if these judgements were turned on you (they probably have been, you just don't know it) so why so cheerfully admit to doing it to others?

Knex*

fin12 wrote: »

Ya Im from Cork and I know what you mean, some of them are pretty bad.

Astonished you didn't finish that sentence with "like"

osarusan

Knex. wrote: »

Astonished you didn't finish that sentence with "like".

I thought about doing a FYP to his post and adding ", boy." to the end of it.

Knex*

I've a bit of a mongrel accent on me, with my Mother being from Cork, and my Father from Dublin. Means mine is somewhat bland, overall.

Have relatives on both side of the family with accents ranging from the top of the spectrum, norrie accent, to a more relaxed or even rural accent.

Means I pretty much don't care what people sound like, I've realised. Obviously some people have extreme accents, be it you can barely understand them, or that their voice absolutely grates you, but overall, I wouldn't care.

Pumpkinseeds

I hate Northern Irish accents.

magicmushroom

I love, love, love the real deep Dublin accent - it's just brilliant!

Can't bear a Cork one though, sorry guys, it's truly terrible. I have an English accent though which I'm sure many Cork people will despise, so we are even

The Northern accent on a man is pretty God damn sexy...mmmmmm

Anyone that uses the word Ye needs to be shot, regardless of accent.

FactCheck

magicmushroom wrote: »

Anyone that uses the word Ye needs to be shot, regardless of accent.

But it's an incredibly useful word, that increases understanding and clarity! Most languages have a second person plural.

Someone who uses it is making themselves more clear. That's the whole purpose of language.

Do you look down on West Indians who say "allyuh", or black Americans saying "y'all", or is your contempt reserved solely for Irish people who are slightly different to you?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Pedro K wrote: »

The D4 accent.

Yeah, I find that one hard to cope with. Can't take it seriously at all (I mean the godawful mid-atlantic one that's commonly known as the D4 accent, I'm aware actual D4 people aren't the worst offenders).

That sort of Valley Girl American accent that you'd get the odd time is pretty dreadful too. A few years ago the day before pancake Tuesday these two twits were walking past me twirling their hair around their fingers and staring vacantly around them and had the following exchange:

"Oh my god tomorrow's Mardi Gras?"
"Oh my god I know, right?"

Perfect combination of accent and content, it's always stayed with me.

Nodin

fin12 wrote: »

Ya Im from Cork and I know what you mean, some of them are pretty bad.

I have nothing against the cork accent.








It's the people I hate. Hate them. Their heads are a different shape than other peoples as well, and they walk funny. And they get all the jobs. All the jobs. I could have been a brain surgeon if it wasn't for some cork fecker annoying me so much I never thought of it.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

ElChe32

I've an incredibly neautral accent, mam from limerick, dad from cavan and i lived most of the past 15 years in either dublin or different spots in europe and latin america.

I do love a good Belfast accent on a girl though...

People from Meath should be put down.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Thick country Irish accent - because for some reason, all it ever seems to be talking about is getting "d'oul dhrink ahn" and "pollin' gurrls".

An inner city Dublin one attempting rap. It just sounds... wrong.

Zemuppet

I love women with a Donegal accent, tis a lovely accent. Though some American girls with that 'Valley Girl' accent as one poster put it, grates me to no end.

magicmushroom

FactCheck wrote: »

But it's an incredibly useful word, that increases understanding and clarity! Most languages have a second person plural.

Someone who uses it is making themselves more clear. That's the whole purpose of language.

Do you look down on West Indians who say "allyuh", or black Americans saying "y'all", or is your contempt reserved solely for Irish people who are slightly different to you?

I think you're taking me a bit too seriously, I didn't say anything about having contempt for people who are slightly different to me?
I also didn't say I look down on them - I just despise the word, in my opinion it makes the user sound stupid. If someone said it to me in an English accent I would hold the same opinion.

I don't 'look down' on West Indians who say "allyuh", or black Americans saying "y'all" because they are not saying Ye. If they did say Ye, I would think they sounded stupid.

Precious flower

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I really dislike the cork/Kerry/Limerick/Waterford/Clare accent.
It's like a cheese grater on my ear drums. That said, I feel a little bit sad when people's toom theyre ashamed of their parents

HEY! The Clare accent tis lovely g'way! In fact, like Galway I honestly didn't think Clare had an accent, except for West Clare. I love that accent though I find it really relaxing. Love the Connemara accent too I suppose it would be the Limerick and Cork accents I would find most irritating. I'm not a fan of that high pitched tone at the end of very sentence.

myshirt

I don't have an accent, this is just how things are pronounced correctly.

FactCheck

magicmushroom wrote: »

I think you're taking me a bit too seriously, I didn't say anything about having contempt for people who are slightly different to me?
I also didn't say I look down on them - I just despise the word, in my opinion it makes the user sound stupid. If someone said it to me in an English accent I would hold the same opinion.

I don't 'look down' on West Indians who say "allyuh", or black Americans saying "y'all" because they are not saying Ye. If they did say Ye, I would think they sounded stupid.

Oh I am definitely taking it all too seriously :pac:

But why do they sound "stupid" when they are conveying information to you more clearly and succinctly than they otherwise would? Where did you pick up the notion that a dialect with a plural you is stupid? When it is plainly the opposite? It's just a cultural prejudice, right?

Santa Cruz

ElChe32 wrote: »

I've an incredibly neautral accent, mam from limerick, dad from cavan and i lived most of the past 15 years in either dublin or different spots in europe and latin america.

I do love a good Belfast accent on a girl though...

People from Meath should be put down.

Accent is only one of several reasons why Meath children should be drowned at birth

magicmushroom

FactCheck wrote: »

Oh I am definitely taking it all too seriously :pac:

But why do they sound "stupid" when they are conveying information to you more clearly and succinctly than they otherwise would? Where did you pick up the notion that a dialect with a plural you is stupid? When it is plainly the opposite? It's just a cultural prejudice, right?

Oh dear Lord you are looking into this way too much.
I can't really put into detail why it sounds stupid to me, it just does!
I am not saying the people using the word are stupid - just that to my ear, it sounds like they are.

Cultural prejudice...kind of the whole point of the thread really, lots of people have named particular accents that drive them insane yet I am being jumped on for naming one particular word? Which I have stated would annoy me even in my own accent.

fussyonion

I cannot abide the Northern Ireland accent.
So much so that I refuse to watch UTV. I always watch ITV and if someone has switched UTV on, I instantly switch it over.
Cannot stand it.

If there was ever an accent that represented doom and gloom, it's the Nordie one.
Even the ads they show on UTV; it's all PowerPoint-style 10 second rushed ads advertising The Spinning Wheel or some God-forsaken market on in Newry.
Ugh.
Hate it.

Bazzo

magicmushroom wrote: »

I think you're taking me a bit too seriously, I didn't say anything about having contempt for people who are slightly different to me?
I also didn't say I look down on them - I just despise the word, in my opinion it makes the user sound stupid. If someone said it to me in an English accent I would hold the same opinion.

I don't 'look down' on West Indians who say "allyuh", or black Americans saying "y'all" because they are not saying Ye. If they did say Ye, I would think they sounded stupid.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the slogan of boards was for years(and I think still is?) "Boards.ie, now ye're talkin'"

magicmushroom

Bazzo wrote: »

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the slogan of boards was for years(and I think still is?) "Boards.ie, now ye're talkin'"

Hahaha you're right!
And it bugs me! :P

Precious flower

Santa Cruz wrote: »

Accent is only one of several reasons why Meath children should be drowned at birth

Nearly choked on my tea reading this. Jesus!:pac:

Snickers Man

Pedro K wrote: »

The D4 accent.

No such thing as a "D4 accent". Only silly people who think that the middle class Dublin accent is located primarily in Dublin 4.

Which is nonsense!!!!

Some of the worst purveyors of that "Dane Tane on the Dort" accent are northsiders.

Fact.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Snickers Man wrote: »

No such thing as a "D4 accent". Only silly people who think that the middle class Dublin accent is located primarily in Dublin 4.

Which is nonsense!!!!

Some of the worst purveyors of that "Dane Tane on the Dort" accent are northsiders.

Fact.

Given the tendency of a lot of Dubliners to see the rest of the population of the country as one homogenous culchie mass, I don't shed too many tears over the little fit of identity politics they suddenly get whenever the words "D4 accent" are uttered.

Snickers Man

Legacy Jolly Self-confidence wrote: »

I don't shed too many tears over the little fit of identity politics they suddenly get whenever the words "D4 accent" are uttered.

So you don't mind being WRONG then?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Snickers Man wrote: »

So you don't mind being WRONG then?

M'eh, if literally means figuratively and gay means homosexual I'm pretty comfortable using the widely understood word for "upper middle class Dublin accent" when that's what I'm talking about :P What a time to be alive!

Emsloe

South African accent makes my skin crawl, can't explain it. The accent midway between howya and D4 is very sexy though.

jungleman

fussyonion wrote: »

I cannot abide the Northern Ireland accent.
So much so that I refuse to watch UTV. I always watch ITV and if someone has switched UTV on, I instantly switch it over.
Cannot stand it.

If there was ever an accent that represented doom and gloom, it's the Nordie one.
Even the ads they show on UTV; it's all PowerPoint-style 10 second rushed ads advertising The Spinning Wheel or some God-forsaken market on in Newry.
Ugh.
Hate it.

...

Snickers Man

Legacy Jolly Self-confidence wrote: »

M'eh, if literally means figuratively and gay means homosexual I'm pretty comfortable using the widely understood word for "upper middle class Dublin accent" when that's what I'm talking about :P What a time to be alive!

That's a YES then.

And I don't ever recall anybody saying "literally" as a synonym for "figuratively".

But then, as established: You like being wrong

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Snickers Man wrote: »

That's a YES then.

And I don't ever recall anybody saying "literally" as a synonym for "figuratively".

But then, as established: You like being wrong

Yeah, you've never heard people saying things like "I'm literally starving" "I am going to literally kill him"? It's literally gone into the dictionary as meaning figuratively.

Also my first post in this thread says I know that the D4 accent is not an offence against the ears committed exclusively by people from D4. Did you just get as far the D4 post and then have to make the point (never in the history of the internet made before of course) that it's like, oh my gawd, so not even people from D4 who talk like that?

Fluorescence

People who think you have to have a howya accent to be a dub confuse me I have the neutral Dublin accent, not the howya nor the D4 (which as several people have pointed out isn't heard much in D4 itself in my experience), and it's very very common. Yet often when I meet someone from outside Dublin I get asked where I'm from and then told that I can't be a dub because I don't sound like a skanger. Em, thanks?

I do fall into the trap sometimes of thinking that people with a howya or American valley girl accent are dim, but I've been proven wrong so often that I actively endeavour to check my preconceptions of people based on how they speak. Some of the most well-spoken guys I know are thick as bricks :pac: :pac:

4zn76tysfajdxp

I don't get bothered by accents too much. My own is pretty intolerable to begin with anyway.

Maximus Alexander

Fluorescence wrote: »

People who think you have to have a howya accent to be a dub confuse me I have the neutral Dublin accent, not the howya nor the D4 (which as several people have pointed out isn't heard much in D4 itself in my experience), and it's very very common. Yet often when I meet someone from outside Dublin I get asked where I'm from and then told that I can't be a dub because I don't sound like a skanger. Em, thanks?

I also have that ridiculously neutral in-between Dublin accent that foreigners can't even identify as being Irish.

Had the Aussies fierce confused.

5rtytry56

There was prejudice to accents in the letters page of Metro Herald published in Dublin. I believe a slightly different edition of the Metro Herald may have been published in Cork.

5rtytry56

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Any accent that makes all statements seem like a question.

They're all from Munster.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I find the majority of Munster accents to be annoying.

I was on the interview team for a recent recruitment drive for finance professionals with English as their first language. One of the candidates was a chap from Cork/Limerick. He had overcome going to UCC and had a good masters and work experience in the City of London. A strong candidate. But the accent! It made me wince each time he raised his voice to make a point.

As I would be working with the chap on a daily basis I recommended that we give it to an English chap with a far less offensive accent.

You hired a dude for his accent over his qualifications? :eek:

anncoates

I've a soft spot for a Belfast accent in a woman. Just the normal one, not the ones at either extreme of the social scale.

Maximus Alexander

Brody Stocky Bean wrote: »

You hired a dude for his accent over his qualifications? :eek:

No, his character did. He's been fleshing out a sitcom character through the medium of Boards for a while now. It's a bit one dimensional though.

mikom

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

It's a bit one dimensional though.

With the accent on dim.

Mahogany

Good

Light working class Dub accent on men
Donegal on women
Scottish on women
London (not cockney) on women
Scouse on men
New York and Boston on men

Bad

Heavy Dub on women
D4 in general
South West of Ireland
Wicklow
Scottish on men
Brummie
Scouse on girls

Cold War Kid

SpaceTime wrote: »

Oddly enough it's not really found in D4 either! The accent sound Sandymount, Ballsbridge and Donnybrook (except for some RTE staff) is very neutral. The accent in Irishtown and down towards the docks is fairly strong Dublin City.

The "D4" accent is more likely to be found in parts of South County Dublin - Foxrock, Killiney, parts of Stillorgan and Blackrock and areas of D6.

It's a bit unfair on the good folks of D4 to lumber them with that accent!!

Yeah it's found throughout Dublin, but didn't the D4 thing originate due to its associations with the Ballsbridge area? Which it's highly likely to be found in to be fair.

FactCheck

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Yeah it's found throughout Dublin, but didn't the D4 thing originate due to its associations with the Ballsbridge area? Which it's highly likely to be found in to be fair.

Nah, you'd be far more likely to hear an accent like Garret Fitzgerald, Gay Byrne, or at a push the likes of David Norris from a Ballsbridge native.

Cold War Kid

FactCheck wrote: »

Nah, you'd be far more likely to hear an accent like Garret Fitzgerald, Gay Byrne, or at a push the likes of David Norris from a Ballsbridge native.

What about the younger crowd though?

KungPao

The mobilised copper collector accent is just...just, no.

The stereotypical D4 accent is embarrassing...I cringe when I hear it, so false. I sometimes wonder what US tourists think when they these twonks go on and on with their bizarre faux USA tones.

bnt

If the accent comes bundled with a failure to e-nun-ci-ate, then yes, I'm prejudiced. There are some broad accents that never give me any trouble because the words still come out clearly e.g. Brummie.

Father Ted Crilly

Hopefully this is clear and informative.

I hate the following accents: Northern Irish, Southern Irish, Tallaght, North Dublin, English, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Polish, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Bulgarian, definitely Welsh, and the list goes on...

RayM

I'm highly prejudiced against people who don't even attempt to pronounce 'th' sounds, whatever their accent.

It makes you sound quite tick.