Accents...

Three weeks at home was great! I got to see so many people and didn't feel pressured to do it all in a short amount of time. It's also long enough to get re-attached to home...But now I'm back in London and I'm looking forward to the year ahead.

Spending time away makes me notice all the accents more. I'll eventually get used to them but the first few days back they always seem more pronounced. It's interesting that what Americans think of as a British accent isn't the only accent. Not everyone talks like Hugh Grant or the Queen. That accent is more of a middle class and up accent. The higher up the social ladder the more posh the accent sounds. However, my friends say you can tell what city a person is from based on their accent. I know this is true of some cities in the US but not as much as here. Can anyone guess how that might have developed? One theory I heard is that up until the last hundred years or so in Britain people didn't migrate out of their hometowns as much. I suppose that could make accents develop more uniquely.

Check out this website from the BBC. You can listen to recordings of people talking all over Britain. You can also click on the word map to see how language and word use varies across the country. It's all pretty interesting. Once you're done you can test yourself to see how good your ear is. I know I can't tell all the differences. They all just sound more Irish or more Scottish than "regular" British accents.