Are you picking up the local accent?

If I spent all day around people with broad Yorkshire accents and constantly heard words like baby pronouned beh-bih, it might be different.

Everyone around hear pronounces it 'bah-bee'.  It drives me a little bit more insane everytime I hear it.

Everyone around hear pronounces it 'bah-bee'.  It drives me a little bit more insane everytime I hear it.

I might have the phonetic spelling wrong.

DH from South Yorkshire pronounces it 'bah-bee' but my preschool students in North Yorkshire pronounce it 'beh-bih'. 

I really like the Yorkshire accent..

Someone I knew (from Midlands) referred to his younger brother as "The Bab", which I thought was for "baby"  But turns out it was for "The baboon" 

after being there for 5 months in London, and then heading to essex for 10 days, and being around my friends for a 10 day holiday in nyc, the accent still pops out of me. one day, I had a new woman at work convinced I grew up in England, and I have no idea how! It just sort of comes out of me, and everyone tells me I should've been born in England! It's funny!!!

I was listening to a snow report in the last few days and they were interviewing some Scots and they should have had captions running across the bottom of the screen because I couldn't understand what they were saying.
There use to be many people in the UK who never wander more than 10 miles from where they lived and their accent could be very strong. I've met cockneys who are hard to understand. This may have all changed.

I was listening to a snow report in the last few days and they were interviewing some Scots and they should have had captions running across the bottom of the screen because I couldn't understand what they were saying.
There use to be many people in the UK who never wander more than 10 miles from where they lived and their accent could be very strong. I've met cockneys who are hard to understand. This may have all changed.

Aye, ye could'nae ken anehin wi-oot yer wee sub titles now could ye.

Scots accent is hard to understand, what makes it worse is in the further up north you go the harder it gets to understand.

Aye, ye could'nae ken anehin wi-oot yer wee sub titles now could ye.

Scots accent is hard to understand, what makes it worse is in the further up north you go the harder it gets to understand.

Really? I haven't had any trouble haven't had any extra trouble living in the highlands. The accent seems really mild to me.  There's one guy in my class who grew up near Glasgow and I can never understand anything he says - I can't find the word breaks!

Last year I spent a weekend in York and I had a bit of trouble to start because it wasn't the accent I was used to deciphering

Scots accent is hard to understand, what makes it worse is in the further up north you go the harder it gets to understand.

I don't think that's true, I think the west coast is much harder than the highlands and islands accents, and there are a lot of transplanted English people up there as well. As you go up the east coast it probably gets stronger (Aberdeenshire/Angus/Fife coasts stronger than Lothians and Borders coasts), but inland it can be quite gentle, and Perthshire barely has an accent at all. It's also a class division, with many posh people sounding almost English, while the working class accents are usually strong.

I agree, Glaswegian accents can be downright difficult at times, at least compared to an Ayrshire, Edinburgh or island accent. I have found, though, that one part of the problem for me is that many Glaswegians talk so dang fast.

many Glaswegians talk so dang fast.

You know when you've met the Glasgow branch of the mafia - they made you an offer you couldn't understand.

You know when you've met the Glasgow branch of the mafia - they made you an offer you couldn't understand.

*groans*

You know when you've met the Glasgow branch of the mafia - they made you an offer you couldn't understand.

 Ah Ha Ha Ha Ha!!...... Brilliant! 

LOL... I think in a local Geordie accent all the time now. I think "Howay, man, you cannit do that like."  When I speak, only about half of that comes out, though. I have taken to saying the two-syllable Geordie version of "No" as in "no-ah," which my husband likes to point out and giggle about. So I guess after two and a half years, it is creeping in a little, but other than the slang words I say, I think my accent still sounds very American. I mean, when someone puts me on hold and I can hear them shout "Some Canadian is on the phone for you, mate," then I know I haven't become a proper Geordie yet.