Ever wondered what accent your ancestors had?

[everlea]

I was lucky enough to find a description of a g/g/g/uncle's accent in a book - "a regular cockney, desperate regarding his H's"(He was born Islington,1831)

[mrsruz]

I am researching a Hall family in Northumberland.
When checking the various censuses,I realised that some of them have been enumerated as Harle.
It wasn´t until I thought about the accent that I realised why.

[chris_49]

I'm actually pretty sure that my gggg uncle, railway entrepreneur John Skelsey spoke with a Warwickshire accent because the 1851 Yorkshire enumerator heard and listed his birth as "Royton, Warwickshire" when he was actually born Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

And, yes, I have ancestors who I know spoke Welsh but this ceased to be recorded when they moved to Oswestry, Shropshire - an area where Welsh was then much spoken, I believe. I read an article some years ago about children being taught Welsh at one of the primary schools thereabouts.

Highly likely being that Ryton-on-Dunsmore is Rugby in Warwickshire

Yes of course, my point was that the Yorkshire enumerator must have heard it as "Royton" which is how it would sound to him if spoken with a Warwickshire accent. My relative had left Warks decades earlier!

[IgorStrav]

I think the man from Hackney on the link probably had the true Cockney accent and the accent we hear today has been made deliberately stronger - or is that thicker - over the years.  When you hear some of the youngsters from around London speaking today, it's almost as though they just don't want to be heard speaking properly.

Just to say that I was brought up in Leytonstone, and my father and mother were both Londoners, my father from Walthamstow born 1914 and my mother from Old Ford which is Bethnal Green. My grandparents were all East Londoners too, and were born in the late 1870's/1880's, so I'm in a position to comment as I heard the accent throughout my childhood.

 I can still put on my East London accent which I used at school.  The man on the tape has a generally quite refined accent, and real Cockney or East London is a much stronger language and I don't believe has strengthened over the years except by Estuary English.

Key characteristics are the glottal stop, the dropping of 'aitches - and using singular verbs in plural circumstances, such as 'we was'.\

Lovely to hear him speak, though.

[LizzieL]

Yes of course, my point was that the Yorkshire enumerator must have heard it as "Royton" which is how it would sound to him if spoken with a Warwickshire accent. My relative had left Warks decades earlier!

One of my ancestors was born in Challow, Berkshire. On one census it is recorded as "Charla" - like your ancestor when he moved to a different county and the local enumerator would not have been likely to know the correct spelling. 

[Erato]

Something like that must have happened to my ancestor from Old Cleeve, Somerset - recorded as 'Oak Leaf.'

[smudwhisk]

I'm actually pretty sure that my gggg uncle, railway entrepreneur John Skelsey spoke with a Warwickshire accent because the 1851 Yorkshire enumerator heard and listed his birth as "Royton, Warwickshire" when he was actually born Ryton-on-Dunsmore.

I'd say there is no such thing as a "Warwickshire" accent, it varies in different parts of the county. Lets not forget that large parts of Birmingham were historically parts of Warwickshire, but you don't find the Brummie accent prevalent across the whole county.  I've often found people who grew up around Stratford upon Avon and further south sounded different to those in Leamington Spa.  And no Leamington Spa despite being "Royal" cannot be called posh ... believe me.   I spent a lot of my childhood in Leamington Spa, but with both parents been London born and bred, I occasionally used phrases that people had never heard and which I had obviously picked up from either of my parents.  Neither of my parents has a strong accent, neither did two of my grandparents who grew up in Poplar but whom moved to the Midlands at the same time as we did.

[everlea]

I think the man from Hackney on the link probably had the true Cockney accent and the accent we hear today has been made deliberately stronger - or is that thicker - over the years.  When you hear some of the youngsters from around London speaking today, it's almost as though they just don't want to be heard speaking properly.

Just to say that I was brought up in Leytonstone, and my father and mother were both Londoners, my father from Walthamstow born 1914 and my mother from Old Ford which is Bethnal Green. My grandparents were all East Londoners too, and were born in the late 1870's/1880's, so I'm in a position to comment as I heard the accent throughout my childhood.

 I can still put on my East London accent which I used at school.  The man on the tape has a generally quite refined accent, and real Cockney or East London is a much stronger language and I don't believe has strengthened over the years except by Estuary English.

Key characteristics are the glottal stop, the dropping of 'aitches - and using singular verbs in plural circumstances, such as 'we was'.\

Lovely to hear him speak, though.

Both my grandparents(b 1869) were East Enders too - grandfather(who died before I was born) from Hackney & gran from nearby Dalston. There were subtle differences between the accent of my father, b 1907 Kentish Town, and his mother, who sounded a lot like Dot Cotton from EastEnders.

[IMBER]

This is a valuable German resource that came to light recently. Includes British POWs from the Great War:

http://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Berliner-Lautarchiv-British-and-Commonwealth-recordings

Imber