[kermit]

Does anyone agree with me that the scouse accent as spoken by those who are being brought up in Liverpool now sounds very different to those brought up in the 70's. My dad, brought up in the 40's sounds just a little different from me. It seems to me that the scouse accent now has changed alot now at a faster pace than ever before. The accent is a different thing to local slang which I'd expect to change with each generation but I hadn't expected that the accent would change so fast.

[toffees]

I have found that people from liverpool who go to Uni end up with a refind accent or want of a better word "up market".You don't hear slang words like hi Wack,or lar anymore.♦
.I agree with you. Like most things in life nothing stays the same forever even scouse talk.

[les]

now you mention it Kermit, yes it has changed,its a lot softer nowadays,different parts of liverpool had stronger accents and this may still be the case, its now a very small world, class distinction is not as rife meaning people move in far bigger circles nowadays,maybe people are aware of the accent, not ashamed but aware,i know i have to make an effort to stop typing exactly how i speak on the internet, whenever i am outside Liverpool people know my accent straight away, so maybe its only a subtle change scousers pick up on far more quickly than people from outside the city, i am always reading old words on here i used regular years ago i had completly forgotten but as you say thats slang which is different from the accent.

[Bernid]

This is my accent after 27 years living in the USA.

http://www.youtube.c...B&v=buiJq5N89OE

[paulettefromhawaii]

Bernid, on 24 September 2009 - 01:12 PM, said:

This is my accent after 27 years living in the USA.

http://www.youtube.c...B&v=buiJq5N89OE

Here, Here, Bernid... Nice to see you and hearing that accent.. Mind you.. it is mild, compared to some in Liverpool...I couldn't understand some of the slang at all... But, good fun trying ............

[bea]

Bernid, on 25 September 2009 - 12:12 AM, said:

This is my accent after 27 years living in the USA.

http://www.youtube.c...B&v=buiJq5N89OE

That's the way to do it.

I have family in S.Africa, been there 40 years, still scouse but with a weird lilt to it. You don't sound as if you've ever left this country.

Your's is what I'd call a 'soft' accent (no offence meant), there are some with a really 'harsh' accents, and mixed in with the current slang, it's not nice, but as with your Shakespeare it's generally very amusing.

[Ron Hamilton]

I recall speaking to a bunch of scouse seamen in Melbourne years ago who had hired a taxi the night before & were telling me that when they were trying to tell the driver where they wanted to go the driver said 'Do any of you b*******s speak English ? ' which we thought was hilarious, but it's factual because I know I've had to speak slower & enunciate my words to be understood too , I even had difficulty understanding my own brother when he followed me out to Australia a few years later , but without wishing to offend anyone I know when I was young at home ,you could tell the background of a girl etc. the moment she opened her mouth & 'office girls 'always spoke more 'nicely' but when I was home last I was sitting by a bunch of 'office types' ,impecibly dressed in the StNicholas Garden & the accents were chronic ! It appears now they want to accentuate their 'Scouseness', & when I hear scoucers on reality TV I often have difficulty understanding them ,so yes I do believe the accent is changing too. Ron

[Jet]

I didn't want to add to this debate because I thought I might offend people that still live there.....however after reading Rons post I see that I am not alone but I am almost ashamed to admit that the accent almost makes me cry in anguish. I too have difficulty sometimes trying to understand what is being said, especially on TV. Surely the accent hasn't changed that much??
Auscouse, you have just been back..... did you notice anything different??.I have never been back since I left thirtyfive years ago.

[burbo]

There isn't one Liverpool accent that everyone speaks and there is quite a lot of variation across the region. People who speak with variations on a north Liverpool accent (in which cook and book rhymes with spook) tend, in my experience to speak faster than those who speak with variations on a south Liverpool accent in which cook and book does not rhyme with spook). There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Accent is also affected by class, level of education, gender etc. Often people exaggerate their accent for the pleasure it gives them.

I think what has altered most (across the UK not just in Liverpool) is the decline in good diction. People used to speak much more clearly than they speak now.

[Anita]

Love Bernid's video ....once a scouser always a scouser

I agree with you burbo about the variations within Merseyside, I grew up in Anfield and speak with a scouse accent, but some people think I'm posh and others think I'm common as muck it just depends, of course if they've annoyed me they get the full inpact but the variations in 'how scouse' you sound change's even within districts and who you mix with, your peer's etc has a big effect on how you speak.

[les]

Are we more aware of the scouse accent when we hear it on telly or something like a tape recording,i remember years ago on the old tape recorders,without even thinking about it you would notice everyones voice including myself sounded very scouse.speak to the same people face to face, not even aware they are speaking with a strong scouse accent.

[Sparky2007]

I have lived outside of Liverpool for more than 50 years. I go back every Sunday to visit my old Mum.If I am there when two of my nieces are visiting, I have to ask them to slow down and I shout for an interpreter.
A few months ago I met up with some old friends I hadn't seen since I went in the army in 1958. They still speak with scouse accents and find it strange that I have lost mine. We had a great laugh when they kept asking me to say something, and kept saying, EEZ REAL WIERD ISN EE. They are a great bunch of people and have made a success of their lives. I still have to laugh when they say. DEE DO DOH DONT DE DOH.

[Bernid]

I've been away 27 years and I think the reason I haven't lost my accent is because I was 43 when I left, it was well in place by then. Someone said it is a 'soft' accent, I was educated at the Bluecoat in the 50's, a very strict school. If we slurred our words or did not speak correctly we were punished. I think some of that is still with me.
I made that video because an ignorant American woman on another forum insisted that anyone who lived in the USA as long as me must speak like an American. I find nothing wrong with the Scouse accent, I would never try to hide it. I think people sometimes blame it for their lack of success when they are the problem not their accent.
I was constantly employed until my retirement and all my jobs involved dealing with the public, I never had a problem because my speech was different.

[Scousemick]

To quote Jegsy Dodd in his track "Liverpool so Good They Named it Once"

"Scouse was an accent waiting to happen , I think it`s called unique"

[windydan]

I must admit if I watch TV and there's a scouser or scousers talking I find it hard to follow what they say. I think ones accent does soften as years go by if you are away from Liverpool. but if you go back it doesn't take long to fall back into it.
I found I had to deliberately soften my accent when I became an instructor in the RAAF and later a teacher at tech college... I had to really slow my words down once I became a radio program presenter.

for those who haven't visited the eight hundred lives of Liverpool project you can hear my accent at eighthundredlives.co.uk

windydan