London accents through the centuries.

[Silurian]

This is a video of London accents from the fourteenth to the 21st century. How far back can you understand them?

I can understand the first (from 1346) fairly easily. The next one (1406) is a bit more difficult, but still understandable. The rest onwards are fairly easy to understand.

As I'm from the UK, I'm curious how much non UK English speakers can understand.

[Brucebubs]

I haven't watched it yet - just wanted to say I couldn't understand a word of actor Ray Winstone in 'The Sweeney' movie in 2012!

[KenL]

Very interesting. I have a BA in English, and used to read a lot of Middle English literature.

I had to take a couple of linguistics classes too, which were very hard for me and I barely passed them. Hard stuff to learn.

[Quake17]

Very interesting. I was tracking along with the third one onwards. I understood maybe a third of the words in the first two and could not really get the gist of the story though.

[icuker]

fascinating how the language changed in such short periods of time. It would be interesting to hear how American English changed even from 1900 to now.

[woodbox]

About 10 years ago, I met three delightful English women on a cruise ship sailing through the Panama Canal.

We spent many interesting times discussing the differences in our seemingly shared language.
My backyard was their garden.
My garage was their carpark.

But what was most interesting was the differences THEY had between themselves.
They had difficulty understanding each other now and then.
And they lived just miles .. er, uh.. kilometers apart.
One was from Darby, one from Oxford, and one from West London.

btw,
Darby is actually short for Darbyshire, which I read as “Dar bee shy err”, but no, it’s spoken something like “Daw ba shaw”,
almost as only two syllables instead of 4.

They said just a twenty minute drive from one town/village/hamlet to another can make a huge difference in being able to understand one another..
or not.

[KenL]

America and Britain- two countries divided by a common language.

[Silurian]

Originally Posted by woodbox

About 10 years ago, I met three delightful English women on a cruise ship sailing through the Panama Canal.

We spent many interesting times discussing the differences in our seemingly shared language.
My backyard was their garden.
My garage was their carpark.

But what was most interesting was the differences THEY had between themselves.
They had difficulty understanding each other now and then.
And they lived just miles .. er, uh.. kilometers apart.
One was from Darby, one from Oxford, and one from West London.

btw,
Darby is actually short for Darbyshire, which I read as “Dar bee shy err”, but no, it’s spoken something like “Daw ba shaw”,
almost as only two syllables instead of 4.

.

To confuse matters more, it's actually Derbyshire, with an e. Try this one; Leicestershire, pronounced Lester - sher.

I actually live in Wales, where there is an even greater disconnect between how words are spelt and how they are pronounced.

[Fogducker]

When you get good at understanding English around London, take a shot at "English" up in Scotland! One almost has to have an interpreter up there.

Fog

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Silurian

Leicestershire, pronounced Lester - sher.

.

I think we mostly know that one, due to these guys -

[David Eastwood]

I’m a Brit (technically, English, but people think I’m being pedantic to emphasize that).

I grew up in a town called Kettering, in the fair county of Northamptonshire, right in the heart of the country. About 5 miles up the road was Rothwell, and about 2 miles further on from that was Desborough. Locals could tell which town you were from simply by the way you talked.

Later in life, I attended university in Bristol, in the southwest of England, and then college in Guildford, southwest of London. I went into a fish and chip shop one night, and after placing my order, the fellow behind the counter asked “where are you from? Let me guess - it’s either Northamptonshire or Bristol.”

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

I’m a Brit (technically, English, but people think I’m being pedantic to emphasize that).

I grew up in a town called Kettering, in the fair county of Northamptonshire, right in the heart of the country. About 5 miles up the road was Rothwell, and about 2 miles further on from that was Desborough. Locals could tell which town you were from simply by the way you talked.

Later in life, I attended university in Bristol, in the southwest of England, and then college in Guildford, southwest of London. I went into a fish and chip shop one night, and after placing my order, the fellow behind the counter asked “where are you from? Let me guess - it’s either Northamptonshire or Bristol.”

It was around 1970 or so my family took a holiday in the UK - my 2 sisters were walking ahead of me talking to each other - 2 strangers approached from the opposite direction and overheard them speaking. As they walked past me one turned to the other and said, "Midlanders!"

We're from a little further South than that.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

It was around 1970 or so my family took a holiday in the UK - my 2 sisters were walking ahead of me talking to each other - 2 strangers approached from the opposite direction and overheard them speaking. As they walked past me one turned to the other and said, "Midlanders!"

We're from a little further South than that.

Funny. After spending more than half my life in the US, the most common guess as to where I’m from is “Australia?”

At that, I generally bristle a bit, and become ever more English as the conversation unfolds.

[woodbox]

I wrote:
“ Darby is actually short for Darbyshire, “

Silurian wrote:
“ To confuse matters more, it's actually Derbyshire, with an e. “


Wow, yes, this changes/confuses things even more.
Thankyou for clarification.

Now that I think of it, I believe that point of spelling came out at the time when I saw it on the map as Derbyshire.
She was clearly saying it as Darby.. as in “I’m from Dawbee.”, not “Derbee”,
while leaving the ‘shire’ part off completely.

But she emphasized that she was pronouncing the name of her town correctly.. as if the actual letters had nothing to do with the matter.
And who was I to dispute her claim?

We all had a lot of fun with it.
Which is why I married her, but that’s a tale for another day

[woodbox]

David Eastwood wrote above:

“ I grew up in a town called Kettering, in the fair county of Northamptonshire, right in the heart of the country. About 5 miles up the road was Rothwell, and about 2 miles further on from that was Desborough. Locals could tell which town you were from simply by the way you talked. “

Yes, yes... that’s what the English women were telling me.
Thank you for your contribution on this.

And btw,
another point they were emphatic about was that they were “English”, not “British”.
I’m still not clear why that distinction was so important to them, but it was!