Accents And Sensibility

Yesterday, an English guy was speaking to me in an 'Ulster' accent. He used the adjective "wee" a lot, and he had a weird sing-song manner that lifted at the end of each sentence. It sounded rather daft, but I didn't smile at his efforts. Nor did I feel insulted, that he was somehow patronising me. I think the poor soul was trying to fit in, and he probably thought he was speaking the local vernacular with ease.

Of course, we've all grown up listening to the English style - to Received Pronunciation and the Estuary variants. As kids, we imagined the voice of David Coleman or some other commentator, praising our footballing skills. We believed that when success came, it would be pronounced by an Anglo. Now it seems that these same people feel the need to talk like us to be understood.

I'm quite cool with the idea of an accent as a moveable option. When I was in London, many of us spoke in a music biz Esperanto - a bit of Arthur Daley, some barrow boy, a touch of American movie mogul, Yiddish, B-boy patois plus our own regional dimensions. Everybody understood each other and the effect was rather rich. Sometimes when you escape your own literal background, you can be free to take on new energies and ideas. These days, when I meet old colleges from London, they remark on how 'Irish' I sound.

But not as '"Irish" as the fellow I spoke to yesterday. He sounded like he was an understudy for Darby O' Gill And The Little People. Hey, whatever makes you happy.