A Tour of The Accents of England

Polyglot and language coach Dave Huxtable takes a tour of the English accents of England, taking a look at the most interesting and iconic accents across the country and the phonetic features that make then stand out.
If you like this look at contemporary accents, you'll love @simonroper9218 's look at London Accents through history, which is one of my favourite KZbin videos ever! • A London Accent from t...
00:00 Intro
00:43 North South divide
01:53 RP - Received Pronunciation
03:07 London - Cockney
05:45 Multicultural London English - MLE
06:45 West Country
08:11 East Anglia
10:33 West Midlands - Birmingham
12:51 Liverpool - Scouse
15:01 Lancashire
16:38 Manchester
17:45 Yorkshire
19:48 Newcastle - Geordie
21:06 Northern RP
21:41 Outro

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Hi all. I hope you enjoy this little romp around the map of England!

[@dambrooks7578]

That fabulous confusing school naming method, nice work on the that tasty Ertarian Accent; notable is that missing t in sport, well when verbalised, or maybe my Essex origins are still sloshing around... Although I am lucky to have had to alter my own accent because of a Spanish partner that struggled with the natural murky muddied sound. I have family all around, from Hampshire through the Midlands, although the most confusing is that of Dudley: "Yawl like the Karaoke you do Dam?" I am led to believe that what to me sounded like an instruction was actually a question. 😲

[@darthvader3910]

@@dambrooks7578 Hey Dave is it possible now to make a video or perhaps a series dedicated to going deeper into all of these different accents plz??

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Maybe one day.

[@maryuspandyra7359]

I loved this ❤️ could you deep dive into Coventry and Warwickshire accents. I've heard they differ from the rest of West Midlands as they were isolated by the forest of Arden, is this true

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

@@maryuspandyra7359 Hi. So glad you liked it. Yes, the West Midlands is one of those areas where accents change over short distances. I’m not sure about the forest of Arden point. I wonder how much of a barrier it would have been during the Industrial Revolution.

[@omblae]

Basically the only person I've ever seen who's nailed every single regional accent. Absolutely insane

[@mickavoidant4780]

He missed southeastern Suffolk, where home is ho-wum and machine is masheeyun. Northeastern Suffolk says here as hee-ya. I get folk trying to work out my accent, which is Wiltshire and northern Suffolk. Another East England way is saying spade as spaird. 'Have you hurt yourself' comes out as 'Are you hat yourself' and we have a cuppa carfee, or suffen loik tha'.

[@omblae]

@@mickavoidant4780 he can't do every single variation of every single accent across the country. Bath and bristol have different accents, but broadly similar. Same for Yorkshire, midlands and the North East.

[@mickavoidant4780]

@@omblae I know that and don't reckon he would. I was answering your comment about nailing 'every single regional accent'.

[@omblae]

@@mickavoidant4780 you misunderstood my comment, I was saying that each accent he tried, he did well. Not that he did an exhaustive list of every accent in the country...

[@mickavoidant4780]

@@omblae Thank you for putting me right. Bump fist.

[@TiamatStorm21]

As a native Geordie i have NEVER heard someone nail my accent so flawlessly while not being from the city itself. You actually dropped my jaw! Well spoken sir

[@martiseelye6443]

I found it interesting how well he nailed a western...American standard...accent. 👍

[@JohnDoe-to2kr]

Whey aye man

[@Squishy_yhsiuqS]

Yooo Tiamat never expected you here

[@CorkyMcButterpants]

Fellow Wallsend Geordie boy approved 👍

[@DC-lx8si]

literally me too!

[@vincentbaelde-millar670]

That was amazing. As an Australian it strikes me as mad how so much variation can occur in such a small area, as opposed to here, where there's only a little bit of difference over 1000km.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you. It’s mainly because people have been speaking English here for a very long time and until very recently didn’t move about much. English speaker arrived in Australia from all over the British Isles and from different walks of life. Within a generation the kids had developed their own way of speaking that was very different from their parents. It was that Australian English that spread around the continent.

[@chrisgarrettmoon]

Texas here, northern vs southern accents here are also very far apart in area!

[@frankie3213]

Fellow Aussie here - we don't have this many, but we still do have 3 recognised accents - broad, general and cultivated. I think of broad as the Aussie stereotypical language, cultivated as the Cate Blanchett version, and general what the majority speak 🙂

[@lapincealinge2]

​@@chrisgarrettmoonyeah cause they've had very different influences and are still changing, but they're also far appart geographically. But I reckon the US might have as many regional dialectal differences as most other countries in a couple of centuries, it's just lacking time atm

[@kchuen]

@@lapincealinge2Yeah but now you also have the media and internet, which expose regional people to accents all over. It will be interesting to see if US accents diverge even more.

[@sailorboon]

I love the depth you went into explaining the East Anglian accent. I feel it’s an often forgotten area of the UK but this made me realise how complex of an accent it really has! Being from Suffolk it always feels so nostalgic to hear it 🥹

[@iangoldie6396]

North Norfolk here, he absolutely nailed East Anglia 😂

[@aa-ph7ev]

See, we weren't talkin squit after all.

[@indianskye]

It was great but sounded much more Norfolk than Suffolk. Particularly in words like hope 😊

[@ItsmeAz]

Your ability to effortlessly transition between accents with such accuracy is mind-blowing. I appreciate how you avoided portraying us Brummies' in an overly cartoony manner.

[@stalfithrildi5366]

Set himself up for The Black Country by talking about differences with surrounding towns but swerved it. Mebe he cor dow em

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

I always try to avoid stereotypes. And you’re right, I wouldn’t be able to do justice to the subtleties of the Black Country.

[@stalfithrildi5366]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages if only the producers of Peaky Blinders had taken that view

[@rjy8960]

I'm also from Birmingham and have traveled, worked and lived in quite a few different parts of the UK. I would say that the West Midlands probably has more dialects per square mile than any other part of England. Travel from Walsall to Tipton and there is a marked difference; Coventry is softer than Birmingham which is softer than Dudley and so on. No wonder people confuse the Birmingham accent with the Black Country.

[@neilbadger4262]

@@SNLL811 Take comfort in knowing that Black country dialect is the closest thing to old English than anywhere else 🙂👍

[@FriedAudio]

It's truly amazing that such a small island nation can contain SO many different and unique accents.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Indeed! Though I suppose people have been speaking English there for rather a long time and didn't move about much until quite recently.

[@MacakPodSIjemom]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I am Serbian and I speak (to some extent) both English and Russian. It is so fascinating that such a (relatively) territorially small nation as England is, has so many distinctive accents, that even I as a non native speaker can easily recognize, while Russia, the biggest nation in the world, territorially more than 100 times bigger than England, has very few regional features that a non native can pick.

[@deanchur]

Have a look at the languages of Papua New Guinea if you want to see how many languages you can cram into one space!

[@bloggsie45]

All invaders over the centuries brought their own particular ways of speech with them, thus England's current speech patterns have been influenced by at least four different mother languages.

[@12388753]

​@@DaveHuxtableLanguages It's the same here in Norway. Sometimes two towns on different sides of a mountain, have completely different dialects. That's because they have been seperated for hundreds of years. On the other hand, in places where the geography is more flat, the dialects don't change as much...

[@carolfaber585]

This is so fascinating! As a Yank who watches a lot of British shows on PBS (not to mention growing up with the Beatles), I’ve heard many of these accents, but not all spoken by one person! Impressive! I’m always astounded when I realize how many variations there are in such a small place. Thank you for explaining each of them so clearly. And now I can feel even more justified in turning on the closed captioning when I watch some of those shows!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kylewaddington1983]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages how ya going mate my is Kyle I live in Australia and I think British Acteens are strongst sounding in the world both girls and boys

[@galerussell1710]

It is fascinating. My country of Canada is so large, yet our accents with the exception of the East coast, especially Newfoundland and Quebec vary only a little.

[@RobMacKendrick]

@@galerussell1710 I agree, though the truly odd thing about our country is that accent changes from speaker to speaker, rather than region to region. There are identifiable Canadian English accents -- pay attention to the infamous "about", to name one, and see how many ways it comes out -- but they don't signal region or class as far as I can tell. I'd like to know the linguistic origin of this phenomenon.

[@clairee4939]

Interesting thanks for subtitles I’m British but born always profoundly deaf and first language is BSL and can see there’s different mouth shapes of different accents but don’t know much about it. Tbh I don’t understand everything you said because it’s difficult to imagine but very interesting learning more about different accents. ♥️ 😊

[@littleloner1159]

It gets so confusing that it took me 3 months to understand my now boyfriend. I spoke perfect American English at the time, he's from Hartlepool. Some accents are easy to understand, but sound funny (those posh ae sounds for example) It's like a weird way to sign. Still very recognisable as the sign it's supposed to be, but somehow looks a bit more dramatic and extra. Just a touch overdone. Others, like cockney or very northern accents are alot harder to understand, because things are missing and the changes in pronunciation make it very difficult to figure out which word was said sometimes. So, it's like someone half assing all their signs and also changing them slightly

[@SynthhInHD]

Linguistics is very interesting. There are charts showing the mouth shapes that certain sounds make.

[@MoveFreerunning]

I'm from the UK and throughly enjoying this! You're skills are insane - how you managed to do MLE is beyond me 😂 Seriously, you deserve more views! Love the bit of history / storytelling too.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it.

[@laurafowler-nichols7828]

That MLE is insane right? I’m good at picking up accents (thought not good at spotting/defining them) and using them unconsciously. But this is INSANE! I love it, as an English person and hope that larger geographical countries such as our European friends and Americans enjoy experiencing some of the stronger accents in England. There are SO many! Just a few here.

[@pw274uk7]

To ‘MoveFreerunning’ : please note ‘you’re’ stands for YOU ARE! This should be taught in primary school…

[@maxkho00]

His MLE and Cockney were quite bad, actually; especially the MLE. Or maybe "bad" is the wrong word, but both were unnaturally mild, to the point that nobody actually speaks with that subtle of an accent.

[@vinceturner3863]

@@maxkho00 I realise I am on shaky ground with my own London sprawl accent picked up in Surrey over 60 years ago, but to me MLE seems to have picked out the worst features of Cockney and thrown in some Caribbean and Indian slang words. I love the clipped short vowels of Cockney (not the drawn out long vowels of Southern Essex) and I love the sing-song lilt of a Jamaican accent, but the MLE accent drools out some vowels and is as flat as pancake! It is devoid of any interest to my ears! Unfortunately I live in Peckham in Inner South East London and hear this damned way of speaking every day. Give me a Bermondsey accent any day!

[@dh7314]

Did I miss the East Midlands? As an East Midlands guy working in Weat Midlands it always fascinates me how 50 short miles makes a huge difference to how we speak. Superb video, thanks

[@JakubS]

Yeah, I'm in the East Midlands and none of the accents he made sound familiar

[@georgetaylor6146]

Yeah haha, even the difference between Nottingham and Derby is noticeable. Especially around the Stokies and Brummies

[@ilikelampshades6]

Teesside and Yorkshire 5 miles they'll have a different accent

[@enilesnirkette]

I was brought up in Chesterfield, north Derbyshire. There people from Sheffield - a dozen miles up the road - are known as ‘Dee-dahs’ because of their accents. A similar distance in other directions, eg Bakewell or Mansfield, will also find a different accent.

[@tgrules565]

There a difference in accent between Heanor and Alfreton and they're only 6 miles apart!

[@scotthutchinson1078]

I'm from Leeds with Welsh, Salopian and southern English family, been in the Army where accents get scrambled together, worked as an actor where accent skill is highly valued, and lived in London, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Manchester. I *love* accents, have spent a lot of time playing with and working on them, and I am utterly floored by this video. You are my new hero sir.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow. That’s an honor!

[@dudleybarker2273]

i'm South African but my grandad was from West Yorkshire and i remember his accent being much broader (to my childish ears, at least) - he'd use these fascinating idiomatic phrases that were really confusing to me as a child - he would say things like "put wood in t'hole, son", and my dad would have to explain that he meant to shut the door...

[@jacquelinemcgowan8164]

ahh I am from West Yorkshire funny old place haha,

[@pipwhitefeather5768]

My family comes from west Yorkshire, I heard that phrase as a kid, and 'up the wooden hill' for going upstairs, is that a Yorkshire phrase too?

[@dperson9212]

​@@pipwhitefeather5768nope, it's used across the country

[@Musketeer009]

@@dperson9212 Unless you are from a Cockney area where you go 'up the apple and pears'.

[@dperson9212]

@@Musketeer009 well yeah, Cockney expressions have also made their way across the country. People say "let's have a butcher's" for example, everywhere now.

[@voodooguy2]

This video is BY FAR THE BEST video on regional accents I've ever seen. Dave really has an understanding of dialects and a talent for accents.

[@nicholascoleman1131]

Here’s one Anglophile Californian who thoroughly enjoyed this, good sir! I love tracing the history of my speech patterns, especially with my English friends and via countless hours of British television. Many thanks to your work and content - Cheers!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@alkaholic4848]

I couldn't help clicking on this thinking "this'll be a laugh - watching someone try to switch between all the different accents, bet they're cringeworthily bad".... Came away with mind blown! To understand them all to that depth, AND be able to speak them so accurately is pretty phenomenal.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you liked it. I know how you feel. I never click on things like this, but I’m glad you did.

[@louisekullar6629]

Really enjoyed this ...you will have to do a midlands special Nottingham, Stoke, Leicester, Lincolnshire, Derby always get missed out even politically, as if we all are from Birmingham!!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it. I’ll have to come and do some research around the East Midlands. You are right that it’s a part of the country that is often overlooked.

[@chantellove9570]

And the Northamptonshire accent never mentioned even though its different to all of them. Not that forgetting it is a bad thing lol

[@multilingualmotociclista]

I think there is also a Multicultural East Midlands English, that’s most recognisable in the South Asian community of Leicester.

[@briwire138]

That would be good duck.

[@justakathings]

I agree. East Midlands needs some love XD

[@phrayzar]

I'm from the UK, grew up in London and Bournemouth. I hadn't been back for 25 years till a few months ago. I generally was always quite good at doing accents, but I had never really heard MLE, it's one that I found fascinating, as you can hear all the influences, especially Caribbean. I also noticed that the rural Dorset accent seems to have moved back in Bournemouth for younger working class people, compared to when I was a kid in the 80's and it was more cockney. It's astounding how fast this change has happened.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You’re right it’s mind blowing. Good to hear that young Bournemouthers are rediscovering a strong identity. I’m heading back to the UK tomorrow and will be listening out for new developments.

[@harrynewiss4630]

That's interesting as in the west of Dorset where I live the rural accent is retreating notably among younger speakers and being replaced by an odd mix of RP and glottaly 'town' accents with just a scattering of Dorsetisms.

[@MrBenn197025]

I moved to Poole in 2005 and thought everyone was from London 😂

[@mikedakin2016]

BTW Dave , in Yorkshire the accent will change every 3 miles and as a kid that could get you in trouble as I found out when visiting relatives in neighbouring villages ! It's still the same now 60 years later. Excellent work Dave.

[@thromboid]

What a tour de force! I can only imagine how long this took to prepare, record and edit.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you. Yes, it is quite a bit of work but I enjoy it.

[@joelediger1728]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages As one can see from your face in the video :) Keep it up!

[@unstoppablefalse]

I'm having a lot of fun trying to say tour de force in the various different accents. Geordie might be my fave so far.

[@beatleswave5737]

Wonderful tour of English accents, but having moved around the midlands a fair bit there are so many others that could be done, Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Coventry accents are all distinctive. Your ability to be able to swap between the accents without appearing to have any difficulty is an amazing talent. I am looking forward to watching more of your videos.

[@olliewalton361]

Also Stoke

[@darrentoon5332]

No vids do East Midlands

[@abandonstrings]

@@olliewalton361 Was gonna say Stoke.

[@peteblack50]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHbUXnmmoJKUfKc

[@mouf725]

​@@olliewalton361Yeah, live in the West Midlands atm but spent a few years of my childhood in Stoke, it's a very distinct accent altogether isn't it

[@JonEnge]

I am an American fascinated with the accents of England and do a few of them myself... very imperfectly. This was a great video, my friend, well done!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tomasbyrom3954]

As an Australian who has only hear MLE spoken by younger people on movies and TV it was awesome to see how easily you could mimic the accent. As a language teacher an phonology lover myself, your use of IPA made the whole video really educational, and now I can practice myself. Cheers.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad to hear it. Thank you!

[@PoloABD]

He managed all of that on a pint of IPA? 😳😅

[@tstcikhthys]

Don't you mean _practise?_ ;)

[@michaeltaylor1247]

Fantastic, but as a North Easterner I have to fight for our corner! The accents north of Yorkshire are so much more diverse than people realise. Darlington, Durham, Middlesbrough, mackem, pitmatic, Geordie, Northumberland are to my ears just as distinct from each other as they are to the rest. Another video on them? Never seen it done before. Great work all the same!

[@derosabike]

I agree, there are the nuances in London & Greater London accents. which people will generalise as cockney but vary greatly. Someone from New Cross will sound different to someone from Battersea and then Essex is unique and which must have changed since the Second World War when loads of people moved out of the bombed East End to the 'newer towns'. I guess that in London accents are now less noticeable as it is so cosmopolitan and language constantly evolves. I lived in South London for 20yrs but originate from the Croydon area. My late Grandad was from Northumberland and left there when he was 15 for work and never lost his strong accent despite living in Sussex all his life). The mid- Sussex accent btw, was very distinct which my mother had.

[@benanderson89]

He did say it was far from comprehensive :) Also as a north easterner (Sunderland), he says there's no H-dropping in the region but all I hear is H-dropping! I even do the dreaded "-erbs" :P

[@roonilwazlib3089]

@@benanderson89bet there’s a southerner in your recent family tree then... or teachers at school. My bairns have started to pronounce thing odd because of teachers, I used to get a clout round the lugs for saying aye but I encourage mine to use it and correct any weird southern heresy 😂 honestly the way they say sure grates my pee 🙃

[@benanderson89]

@@roonilwazlib3089 H-dropping happens in the North East the further south you go. Surveys all the way back to the 50s show Durham and Hartlepool dropped the H constantly (and Sunderland used to be part of Durham). Me nanna Liz did it all the time and she was born in the 20s. If yay from Sunderland and add an H, you're getting influenced by the Geordies as the H gets added back on as you move to Tyneside. :)

[@zaphodbeeblebrox9109]

I lived in Trimdon and from the accent i could tell if the person i was talking to was from Wingate, Thornley or Peterlee back in the day. There was diversity even between the villages.

[@johnnyonline]

I'm Australian but apparently have an English sense of humour because the only thing I watch on TV are UK comedy panel shows. This is a wonderful and incredibly thorough break down of the mix of accents I hear on these shows. Thank you for helping me put a name to them all. By the way, I'd love to hear you breakdown the Australian accents one day. There are certainly not as many as you'll find in the UK but despite what a lot of folks think, there's more than one.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

My feeling is that British humour is much closer to Australian than say American. Glad you liked the video. I'd definitely love to do a breakdown of Australian accents but would have to come and do lots of research. Hopefully one day I'll get enough views to finance that.

[@stephengreenwald5271]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages My impression is that Australian accents are split by age rather than region.

[@davidschutz3177]

Australian accents do depend to some extent on colonisation patterns. I’m South Australian and often mistaken for being English in Eastern States. Apparently our distinctive accent (and love of pasties) owes something to Cornish miners.@@DaveHuxtableLanguages

[@deanchur]

@@davidschutz3177 South Aussie here as well, I've never had my accent commented on by other Australians. However, I also speak Japanese and Chinese Mandarin and when I speak those languages I change my accent to match (makes it easier for my brain to differentiate so I don't get language crossover). What's probably happened is those languages have affected my English and as a result I speak with a more neutral accent (though thanks to Mandarin I have unconsciously begun saying "wedgetables" instead of vegetables).

[@johnnyonline]

To my ear, the Australian accent divide is mostly rural, urban, socioeconomic and education level. Age might be a factor if you're taking about someone born before WW2. Other than that a farmer in Tassie probably sounds a lot like a farmer in the top end. Someone in their mid 30s from any major population centre with a yr12 or better education could conceivably sound exactly like they're from any other city in the country. We're very homogenous in that way. It's probably why you don't see many Australian impressionists.

[@marypinkman4016]

I'm Polish and I moved to the UK a few years ago and I was SHOCKED when I found out how many different British accents there are. I was used to the really clear Cockney accent from films and TV shows (and that's English that we were taught at school). The first few months at uni in Wales were quite a challenge - so many people with so many accents. Now, after I got used to most of them, I want to be able to tell them apart so thank you!

[@dfpguitar]

Are you sure it was cockney you learned in Poland? Like most regional accents, It is not considered as a desirable accent except for the locals who have it. RP is the "desirable" standard associated with being educated, intelligent and middle class.

[@RobMacKendrick]

@@dfpguitar There's a tendency outside the UK to call RP "Cockney". Yeah, it's weird. My theory is that Cockney is the only accent name most people have heard, so they assume it means "normal". (Also, and again this is difficult for British folk to hear, many outside the UK can't really hear the difference. We see a BBC production and it's got characters from all over, and if we're not terribly bright we just mush them all into one "English accent" in our head. How bad does it get? A fellow Canadian once referred to a colleague from Newfoundland as "that English guy". I wish I were joking.)

[@OlgasBritishFells]

It couldn't have been Cockney.

[@frederickherring2284]

Born in Sth Yorkshire, Dad was a Yorcsshireman, Mum a Geordie. But they were ten pound poms, had my 6Th birthday in Aus. married a Brit, moved back to UK in 2014. Still have trouble with some of the Accents. Remember sitting in our lounge in Brissy and wifey Traanslated George Gently for me.

[@kingrapid]

I'm sorry but how this video doesn't have more views is beyond me... they never taught us this in school but through life one was always curious as to why there were accents... BRILLIANT ❤ IVE SUBBED!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to share widely.

[@phutureproof]

what on Earth are you apologising for?

[@nigelwylie01]

@@phutureproofHaha, it’s a typical English way of starting any conversation. ‘Please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’. We are famous world wide for littering our conversation with these three things, are we not?

[@davedraycott5779]

@@nigelwylie01step on a Englishman’s or woman’s foot and they’ll say ‘sorry.’

[@nigelwylie01]

@@davedraycott5779 Of course! Doesn't everyone in the world? Haha!

[@Mallyhubz]

Love to hear Suffolk and Norfolk accent's broken down and the subtle differences explained.

[@pw274uk7]

What do you mean by ‘explain we’ ??

[@redvelvetdewdrops]

@@pw274uk7 it’s probably a typo supposed to say “explained”

[@olhickory9815]

@@pw274uk7 Maybe it's a Suffolk/Norfolk turn of phrase

[@timinder-gray2138]

​@olhickory9815 nope! As a general East Anglian accent it was (to my North Norfolk ear) much closer to South Norfolk or even Suffolk, but still covered the basics. My Mum (North Norfolk born and bred) says Bowls as "Bowels" among other amoosin' and confooosin' things 😂

[@lucyroffey05]

@@timinder-gray2138ahah i can hear some differences between how my nan talks and the video maker ( being from north norfolk too ) not sure how dif south norfolk is tho aha

[@alpine9750]

This was ace, cheers for making and posting!

[@TheRipaz123]

Absolutely smashing content. Really fun and informative. Keep it up!

[@SongBillong]

Absolutely fantastic video. I'm from the West Country and always become frustrated when people can't tell the difference between our accent and East Anglians'. This explains it so clearly. Great stuff!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@NovaRuner]

As a Canadian I am amazed that Britain has so many different ways to pronounce the language we inherited from them. Awesome video and thanks for this tour of UK English.

[@mattd6085]

The wild thing is you could easily do a full video on every single regions specific dialects. My accent is markedly different from the town 10 miles over, and different again in the other direction. Prior to the industrial revolution people lived and died in the same town, accents didn't mix

[@jako1234567890jako]

I live in a town near Bristol (west country) and you can tell which town someone lives in by their accent. Some of these towns aren't even 5 miles from each other but the accent (to a local) is noticeably different

[@queenbean7071]

​@@jako1234567890jakoyou from somerset too?

[@jako1234567890jako]

@@queenbean7071 North Somerset

[@queenbean7071]

@jako1234567890jako I grew up there. Certain funny town where they decided towing a decommissioned oil rig to the beach would be a great wys to show how eco riendly they sre

[@lydiachione6001]

I love this. So much. Thank you for all the work you put into this!!

[@connorhibberd4147]

I really admire your amazing attention to detail in the different accents of England! What a great educational video!

[@LordWalsallian]

I'd be very interested to hear you explain and attempt difference between Birmingham and Black Country accents. Very close together but the difference is tangible. Most outside of the West Midlands can't tell the difference.

[@paulwhitehead1190]

I’m an Australian who had English parents and grandparents.. I’ve always been fascinated at how such a small country had so many distinct accents.. This was a brilliant explanation. I’d love to hear an explanation of the “traveller” accent as portrayed in the movie snatch. Keep up the good work

[@Ewas77]

I agree! Loved Snatch by the way😊

[@richardwall2330]

What a great video !Stumbled on it totally by accident and as many have previously said your ability to "nail "so many accents flawlessly is fantastic !!

[@judyhaines2139]

Thank you for fascinating lightning trip around English accents! I grew up in Sheffield and it was possible to distinguish the Barnsley variant of the South Yorkshire accent from the Sheffield although the two towns are so close that we shared a school. And the extraordinary adaptability of ordinary people to change accent, without even realising it, according to whether they are speaking to non-Yorkshire parents (as in my family) or local peers!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

I’m fascinated by those parts of the country where accents change over short distances. Interesting to hear about people switching according to their audience.

[@harrynewiss4630]

My mother does it without even realising it. If speaking to her Lancashire relatives becomes very broad very quickly even though she hasn't lived there for over fifty years.@@DaveHuxtableLanguages

[@Dave5400]

I always find it surprising the variety of accents in the North West alone. You can go from a high pitched scouse in Liverpool; to a more reserved central Lancs in Preston; to a "roownd 'n doown" in Blackburn; to Wigan where a very short 'ur' sound is all over the place (think 'berserk' said more as bu'su'k); to a half Lancs, half Yorkshire moors accent around Burnley. All within 50 miles of each other!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Indeed. My wife is from Atherton. I love how accents completely change ever few miles in that part of the world.

[@penhullwolf5070]

I grew up between Blackburn and Burnley. People can narrow down your accent to within a couple of miles round here. I found this out when I went into a pub in Burnley and was immediately pinged as being "Blackburn" .......Not Good. Blackburn v Burnley makes the sectarian divide in Glasgow look like a disagreement at play group.

[@Dave5400]

@@penhullwolf5070 Ah, yes. I'm from Preston and I know the feeling well!

[@Sue-rh4qj]

Skem is in Lancashire and full of scousers!

[@harrynewiss4630]

Six fingers in Burnley, isn't it?@@penhullwolf5070

[@monthelionsss]

Your level of analysis and ability to perform the accents flawlessly are incredible. This is miles better than any accents video I’ve seen on KZbin.

[@penashe17]

This was absolutely amazing! Learned so much!

[@donrennis7585]

I loved hearing about the East Anglian accent. I feel like it's the least heard on TV, so I've always been curious how they speak over there.

[@danielh7104]

Bor thass quoit puhcooliar tuh hair if yew int used to ut

[@kytoaltoky]

When I read "tour" in the title, I had no idea what to expect, but this is the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time! I'm not sure if you did it on purpose, but the transition between dialects made me feel like I was on a drive through the country listening to each word from a different speaker along the way. Simply amazing!

[@trishagoodwin4069]

I was born and grew up two miles from Ely in Cambs and went to school there. My father spoke with a strong fenland accent, and we could certainly tell Norfolk from Suffolk and so on, even the villages in each area. My mother, by contrast, spoke with received pronunciation and would not let us speak "like a yokel" at home, although I remember doing so with friends and at school! Sadly, I lost it when I went to college in London, as no one could understand me (one reason my mother I suppose, tried to get us to "speak properly") ! My brother who stayed locally, has now morphed into a softer Thames Estuary type of accent, as have most people I know there, maybe due to the large influx of incomers since the 1960s and proximity to London. I still, and always will, refute being a Southerner though, I will always be from East Anglia, and a fenland gal. As the area is little known, even within England, I do despair though, that plays, for instance, set in East Anglia in the past, have dreadful renditions of the accent. Strangely, by marriage and so on, I now live in the Scottish highlands, but even here the accent has faded in complexity from earlier decades.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks for sharing your story Trisha.

[@geoffpoole483]

I grew up in Suffolk and like you identify as East Anglian; I am not a southerner. A few weeks ago I was watching a cricket match between a team from Bury St Edmunds and a team from Norwich; two places about 25 miles apart but noticeably different accents. I also cringe when East Anglian "accents" crop up in radio and tv drama.

[@jameswallis4220]

@@geoffpoole483 why would you cringe, i love seeing difference accents used on tv instead of the generic London English, like when david tenent talks he has a great broad scottish accent and its refreshing to hear something different with flavour in it, usually they use people from Bristol way to portray Suffolk people in things nowadays

[@TheNewSettlers]

Best upload I've seen for a long long time. Cheers mate.

[@christinehales4222]

Im a native Geordie ,during the years ive lived in Lancs/ East Midlands/ Southern England ( & now Wales ).When i went to college many friends used RP & i tried copying them .Accents are more interesting & my efforts didnt last long 😆.Thanks for adding the phonetic transcriptions up .I studied phonetics for 3 years & used it in my job for 25 years. .

[@vincentanutama]

This has got to be the best video on English accents on the Internet. Being a non-native English speaker but growing up and living in the US (first in quite accentless Connecticut), I naturally pick up the General American accent. Recently though, my favorite TV shows have all been set in the UK, and I want to be able to identify where the characters are from, and possibly pick up some of my favorite accents as a party trick (Cockney, Scouse, and Southern Dublin). Your explanations are beyond brilliant. I cannot thank you enough for making this video.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

That’s wonderful. Thanks so much for letting me know. I’m really glad you found it useful.

[@ParaBellum2024]

Very good! I'm from Shropshire, where the accent changes every two miles (at least it did when I was growing up) and you could tell which village someone came from by their speech. In the middle and south of the county, a typical greeting might be "Owdo" (as in, "How do you do"), whereas in the north, bordering Cheshire, it's more likely to be "Ey up". I still can't get used to the Yorkshire greeting "Now then", which to me always preceded a dressing down from a parent or teacher!

[@jamesjones9807]

Yes I was just about to ask him to break down the Salop accent for us. It's definitely an outlier. Probably something to do with the Welsh influence. I have a Stretton accent, but I think Bishops Castle is probably the most Shropshire of all.

[@ParaBellum2024]

@@jamesjones9807 Yes, I'm inclined to agree that the Bishop's Castle accent is purest Shropshire. Growing up, I lived near Baaaschurch, and went to school in Ozzustree, although if I'd lived nearer Wales I might have been educated in S'Maaatins. I think it's a shame that regional accents have changed so much in recent years, with the influence of TV shows and immigration. And worst of all is the introduction of uptalk? Thankfully this seems to be on the decline? I live in hope!

[@jamesjones9807]

@@ParaBellum2024 I keep hearing more and more Wolverhampton in Salop these days. I dunna like it too much to be honest even though me mum's from there. Dunna, wunna, canna, old is owd, cold is cowd. Aaang on to me vowels too long. Plenty of upper wummers and owd mons around ere still speak the owd way. By chroist aaaah! Haha 😂

[@neilgwynne5158]

​@@jamesjones9807im from South West Herefordshire and people note I say although mainly West country, certain words more Welsh sounding so yeah think it's marches thing. Same for us in variation forest of Dean accent sounds totally different to me

[@davedrumnbass]

@@jamesjones9807 in Stoke we say dunna, wunna and conna, and old is owd and cold is cowd. I'm now wondering if we got that from Salop in the mixing of populations during industrialisation

[@mokamuss4456]

I really enjoyed this linguistic journey. I've always been fascinated by the many different regional accents and now I finally have a good insight into their orgins and key differences. Great work Dave!

[@callmeneutrino7136]

Thank you! As an American who is an avid viewer of a lot of British television, I’m only just beginning to identify which accents belong to which specific regions, so this was really fun and educational. I wouldn’t embarrass myself trying to imitate one, but I do love hearing them all!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

My pleasure. What’s you favourite TV programme at the moment?

[@callmeneutrino7136]

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I can’t pick a favorite show, but I think I most love the panel shows. I was devastated when they took Mock the Week off the air. QI, The Last Leg, and even the insane 9/10 Cats does Countdown - all of them appeal to my love of learning, humor, and mild competitiveness. This summer I finally got my husband to watch one of my shows with me and we did nearly 10 seasons of Task Master. He couldn’t understand Johnny Vegas’ accent and couldn’t believe when I insisted he was from England (the best I could identify was “northern” but I was proud of that!)

[@dianef4227]

There are British people who struggle to understand Johnny Vegas!

[@JamesLindsayUK]

@@callmeneutrino7136 If you're interested, Vegas is from St. Helen's, which is in Merseyside, so you would think he'd fall into the Liverpool accent, it's probably more Lancashire though.

[@peterw29]

@@JamesLindsayUK Before 1974, St Helens was in Lancashire, and the phrase "in Merseyside" did not exist. One could say "on Merseyside" meaning around the Mersey estuary, but St Helens certainly isn't there. The creation of the metropolitan county is unlikely to have had any effect on accents.

[@ZuzZuzeu]

This was absolutely mesmerizing! 😍

[@RichardDCook]

This is by far the most detailed, and the most entertaining, tour of English accents I've come across! My wife and I are Americans but we almost exclusively watch British programs and we're always playing the "guess where they're from?" game. The numerous subtleties you demonstrate will help greatly. BTW I've still not seen anyone satisfactorily explain how the various US accents came to be, but what I often hear is one particular US vowel appearing in one English accent (the rest of the vowels being different), a second particular US vowel appearing in a second English accent (ditto), and so forth, as if several people from different parts of England had got together in Colonial America and agreed "let's say bath like John does, goose like Mary does" etc.

[@avancalledrupert5130]

South west is closest to American the pronounce t as d like Americans do. Dirty is derdy etc

[@RichardDCook]

@@avancalledrupert5130 thanks, I didn't know that. So the West Country accent has medial "t" become "d", does this occur anywhere else in Britain? I know many Cornish settled in the mining areas like Pennsylvania, Appalachia, and so forth but they came too late to impact American accents I believe.

[@britinokinawa]

Very well put together. You held my attention all the way through. Excellent!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you John. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@SteveSmallMusic]

Fantastic Dave! Not just a showcase of your phenomenal ability, but highly interesting and educational, too. Thanks.

[@joanbatson5194]

Fascinating and brilliant. Can't wait for more.

[@captaincruel8890]

Great video. Absolutely fantastic analysis of East Anglian accents, an often overlooked accent.

[@azariacba]

As an American my favorite accents from England are the northern ones, in particular Manchester and Yorkshire.

[@janetEC1C2]

I'm in awe! what a wonderful overview and so well illustrated!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow. Thank you so much for letting me know.

[@lovepeace1953]

I absolutely loved the content and the presentation. Awesome

[@jayq9188]

Incredibly enjoyable. I love your enthusiasm. Please continue to make more videos.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! Will do!

[@andrewmabbott7354]

The amount of effort in here is amazing. Incredible video

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks Andrew.

[@AdamTelly]

This is brilliant and a very useful analysis. I’ll be coming back to this to refine my own performances especially to differentiate accents a few miles apart. My accents are there in my head but more often than not they’re caricatures than truly accurate representations, which is fine for comedic narration but for properly taking off a character form a specific region your little gems are invaluable! Thanks for putting this together!

[@kathleenyes-cp2uf]

This was fascinating, entertaining and informative. You are brilliant!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thank you!

[@GwazaJuse]

this is top notch content. the best

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you! So glad you like it.

[@mariemccann5895]

I've travelled around most of the UK and this demonstration of accents is amazing. It takes me back to places I once visited as if I was there again, even though in some cases it was many years ago, in a way that simply just thinking back never does. Music and smells sometimes do the same thing, transporting me back in time in a way like nothing else can. Thank you for this amazing demonstration and trip around England.

[@lauracross3290]

That was absolutely fascinating 😊 I'm going to have to watch it again as there is so much to take in. Thank you 😊

[@stacyroth6951]

Wonderful, Mr. Huxtable. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Thank you for recording this!

[@JoshuaTanzer]

I watched this when you first posted it, and I just came back and watched it again because it was so interesting and entertaining. Amazing job, Dave!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks Joshua!

[@icecoffee71]

This Australian really enjoyed your most informative video. Love the Birmingham, Liverpool, Wessex and North Yorkshire accents.

[@theparableist]

This was a fantastically, fascinating video! I'm traveling to London soon for a study abroad and I've always had an interest in linguistics. Thank you for the wonderful vid! Perfect editing too:)

[@Void_Dweller7]

Thank you for this video!

[@welshwench4217]

Excellent video Dave! I was born and raised in The Potteries until I was 15, then South Wales for 10 years then South Africa for 28 years, where I learned to moderate and slow down my speech to avoid having to repeat everything. When people ask what accent I have I reply, "Mongrel."

[@susanmccormick6022]

I noticed when I mistakenly moved from my beloved west country to Birmingham for a time,how much faster they spoke.And the Black Country accent seemed like a foreign language to me.Still.dream of going back home though time is running out.But at least I am out of Birmingham.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Yes, I imagine you ended up with quite a cocktail.

[@user-rc5jm1he4h]

Very well done Dave. Educating, entertaining and most amusing all at the same time. With mass communication now on tap I greatly fear for our many dialects and accents.

[@susiehenders]

Really great overview! Looking forward to checking out your other videos.

[@michaelggriffiths]

That was absolutely brilliant!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thank you. So glad you thought so.

[@musicalmarion]

I've such a lot of respect for the sheer work you put in David, although this is quite an old video, I think it's amazing.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Many thanks!

[@nikkirose9014]

This is pure joy! You are a marvel, Mr Huxtable. Fun, clever, highly informative - and just fascinating! Thank you... now subscribed! :o)

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thanks Nikki!

[@Pooeyboy]

Absolutely incredible video, I really enjoyed this!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Thanks a ton!

[@Ewas77]

I thoroughly enjoyed the video!😊

[@syrac07]

This was really interesting - although I’m always a bit disappointed that Cumbrian never seems to feature in any of these kinds of videos despite having a quite distinctive accent and dialect! Would love to see a more detailed accent tour of Lancashire too!

[@iandickinson6400]

That's true but there's a fair amount of variation within Cumbria; travel from Barrow to Cartmel to Kendal and if you're really observant ( if that's the right verb) you'll notice very significant differences in the space of 30 miles. And that's just one corner of the region. Millom folk are different again and the difference between the south and north of the county is collosal.

[@Chris-mf1rm]

That’s a feature of being from a relatively sparsely populated area without exaggerated pronunciations that you get with cities. Lincolnshire is similar in having distinctive accents, but very few markers that make them easy to mimic.

[@bigoldgrizzly]

.... gets even more interesting when you add different dialect to the accents. I went from the south coast to working in Stoke on Trent coal mines a bit over fifty years ago and had to rapidly learn what seemed to be a totally new language. There used to be some great little publications by a fellow called Alan Povey that were a really humorous way of getting your head round the dialect.... called if I remember correctly 'Ar fer towk rate' He also had a regular slot on local radio called 'Owd Grandad Piggot'... some are available on youtube.... Look them up.

[@siz2271]

Astonishing! So interesting, so rich - something to rewatch many times. Thanks 😍

[@jxy566]

Loved this!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad to hear it!

[@seanosborne3343]

LOVED IT! Can't wait to hear you go for the sounds of Northern Irish!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Are you from Norn Iron, Seán?

[@Knappa22]

Superb. The amount of preparation for this video is astonishing, not to mention the way the accents are so accurately demonstrated. Hats off to you 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thank you!

[@arbataxiansoul]

Absolutely brilliant video! So dense in information I will have to rewatch it several times pausing it at crucial bits. Excellent captions too!

[@TikTokBrian]

This is wonderful. Loved it.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So glad!

[@Thefirebird49]

Impressively researched and brilliantly presented. Well Done! Your switching from one region's dialect to another is amazing. This is a must go to video for anyone learning English from abroad and/or planning to visit or live here. It will help them understand the rich variety of our accents and how they evolved.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Praise indeed! Thank you!

[@CoreyKaineWest]

I found it interesting that you brought up the Northern RP at the end. I found that I started doing this at work when serving customers and overtime naturally started speaking more like this. However, I find that when I go back to my hometown and see family my original accent comes back. So as you say, your accent really can change depending on situation and audience.

[@SuperCarottesRapees]

Incredible knowledge, phenomenal. Thank you for this amazing resource!

[@stuckkk]

This is brilliant, thanks!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you liked it.

[@PropagatorNET]

I've seen so many people claim to be able to do many/all of the accents of the UK and I've never been impressed. You sir have nailed every single one of them, with detailed knowledge of the phonetics of each to boot, amazing!

[@bitbouqet3302]

Bravo! I quite enjoyed how the rhythm and tone of your descriptions changed to match the region.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Glad you appreciated it.

[@hali_kay32]

This is something I've long wondered about. Thank you for the clear explanation!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

You're very welcome!

[@clivemadge3899]

That is one of the most interesting videos I've watched on YT. Thanks!

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

Wow, thanks! That is praise indeed.

[@SammyCool321]

Excellent video! Deserves way more views. I'd love to see a video of different Estuary English / Cockney accents across London. North, South, East and West London accents all sound different.

[@DaveHuxtableLanguages]

So glad you enjoyed it. Yes, that would be a fun project and I was definitely able to hear the differences growing up. I’d have to come back and do some research.

[@eldritchmillennial]

I am Italian but I basically only watch/read/listen to content in any variety of English. My spoken accent is a mess and my slang is all mixed up but hey, that's the fun part of it 😂 this video is amazing, whenever I listen to content by English people I try to place the accent. This helps greatly.

[@paulabeattie8565]

Amazing, well done!

[@BobJones-zz9fv]

Just brilliant 👏 Very enjoyable to watch and hear 😊