CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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(Obviously that title ^^^ is a joke)
Northerners speak true English: are you having a laugh?
Who put the R in bath? Surely this is a trick question, you may think, there is no R in bath. But if you search hard enough in certain parts of Britain the rogue consonant is there - squatting erroneously between the A and the T.
So which linguistic criminals are to blame? The Americans? Nope. They may have been guilty of savagely stealing the U from honour, colour and glamour, and ruthlessly usurping poor S from its position among realise, organise and their lexical brethren so they could replace it with the rather radical Z, but we can't pin this one on the English-speakers across the pond. If we want to uncover who really put the R in bath we need look no further than England's great capital.
London, home of the Queen and the apparently "proper" English speakers, is actually to blame for the mutated pronunciation. According to an expert at the British Library, the Telegraph reports, the R sound in words such as laugh and bath only came about 150 years ago when Londoners adopted the trend into their speech. Apparently, the entire nation used the bath and "laff" pronunciations about 250 to 300 years ago – a tradition which is still alive and kicking in northern England. The south gradually adopted an "aa" sound which, over time, became the familiar "barth" of the ubiquitous London and Home Counties drawl of today.
So this in effect suggests it is northerners - often ridiculed for their flat-sounding vowels, overlooked as newsreaders for not speaking in a way the general population (well, the population south of Watford) can understand, and stereotyped as being poorer and somehow intellectually inferior because their paths, laughs and baths lack the pedigree of the mysterious invisible R – are actually speaking in what is historically the nation's true voice.
As a northerner in London I have to say the phonetic grass (not grarse) definitely gets greener as you head up the M1. London may have slowly eroded the northerly twang from some of my words; I now drink Coke, not Cerk, and think ice is cold, not curled, but you will never find an R in my bath. And the British Library research shows this phonetic northern identity shall remain. This week it launches a website dedicated to accents and dialects – Familiar Voices - charting the evolution of the "a" sound across Britain. It has found the "ar" is spreading among the accents of southern England as Londoners move out of the capital, but it is highly unlikely to venture much beyond that due to a near-impenetrable dialect boundary which runs from Birmingham to The Wash.
The changes are attributed to more fluid movements of people within Britain. And, whereas historically southerners were slightly more fickle in their dialect trends, those in the north have been steadfastly loyal to their A sounds.
Will this mean elocution pedants will re-evaluate their curriculum to incorporate the traditional, phonetic sounds spoken by northerners? Will the BBC replace its plummy-voiced breakfast presenters with down-to-earth tones of Yorkshire, Geordie or Scouse accents? And will this finally bring an end to the barth or bath debate once and for all? I suspect northerners will defend their accents as vociferously as they always have done – and southerners will still insist they are speaking "the Queen's English". But with more than 300 years of history behind an R-free bath, only one question remains: "Who's larfing now?"
 
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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northeners can't speak properly. take a look on emmerdale, silly sods 
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Have you ever seen Eastenders? Silly sods.
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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bath without the r just sounds wrong.
so does care pronounced cur aswell
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Fro
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Registered: 20th Jun 06
Location: Rainham, Essex Drives: A3 2.0TDi Sport
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Some major wormage is going to go down in here!
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Just as soon as Jay Harr arrives, Fro...
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Angie
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Registered: 27th May 04
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Where i come from it's pronounced baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaath and laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh.
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Gary
Premium Member
Registered: 22nd Nov 06
Location: West Yorkshire
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We do speak proper. Fuckin southern fairys
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dave17
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Registered: 3rd Sep 02
Location: Greater London
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Northern scumbags
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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quote:
Originally posted by Angie
Where i come from it's pronounced baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaath and laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh.
That's why it takes so long for you to finish sentaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaances is it?
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mattk
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Registered: 27th Feb 06
Location: St. Helens
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Us northeners dont speak properly
We Talk propper
[Edited on 29-03-2007 by mattk]
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Angie
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Registered: 27th May 04
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
quote:
Originally posted by Angie
Where i come from it's pronounced baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaath and laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh.
That's why it takes so long for you to finish sentaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaances is it?
Cheeky monkey!
yes.
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Matt H
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Registered: 11th Sep 01
Location: South Yorkshire
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Read this book
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Is it available as an Audiobook for the southerners?
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Fro
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Registered: 20th Jun 06
Location: Rainham, Essex Drives: A3 2.0TDi Sport
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
Is it available as an Audiobook for the southerners?
Harsh and by no means fair
We still wouldnt be able to understand your rambling....
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jr
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Registered: 20th May 02
Location: Kent
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ash dont get me started on the north
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jr
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Registered: 20th May 02
Location: Kent
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quote:
Originally posted by CorsAsh
Is it available as an Audiobook for the southerners?
[Edited on 29-03-2007 by jr]
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Don't worry, I don't want to see you get your little arse kicked today.
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jr
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Registered: 20th May 02
Location: Kent
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if you didnt have to go back down the pit in 10 mins i would come and kick your arse
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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I'll be waiting.
There's some ladders here you can use. 
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Matt L
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Registered: 17th Apr 06
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i love these kind of threads always make me laugh.
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andy1868
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Registered: 22nd Jun 06
Location: Burscough, Lancashire
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afew years ago i went to london with afew friends, while in a shop some guy thought we were foreigners, the conversation went something like this:
Southern Fag:thats a funny accent, where are you from?
Us: Liverpool, mate
Southern Fag: no way
Us: yeah, really
Southern Fag: well there you go
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jr
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Registered: 20th May 02
Location: Kent
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quote:
Originally posted by andy1868
afew years ago i went to london with afew friends, while in a shop some guy thought we were foreigners, the conversation went something like this:
Southern bloke:thats a funny accent, where are you from?
Us: Liverpool, mate
Southern bloke: no way
Us: yeah, really
Southern bloke: well there you go
Us: bye then
Southern bloke: you seem to be leaving with a lot of our stock, and my wallet
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CorsAsh
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Registered: 19th Apr 02
Location: Munich
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Deserves to be robbed for owning a shop down south tbh.
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andy1868
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Registered: 22nd Jun 06
Location: Burscough, Lancashire
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yeah, forgot that part. didn't want to show myself in a bad light or anything
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