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| |  | Scott Thornberry
Born: 31 May 1975
Lives: Darlington, County Durham
Time lived in area: All my life
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Scott talks about how it used to be at the game, standing in the tin shed where the goalkeeper could hear everything you said about him.
Language of interview: English
Duration: 01:30 (mins/secs)
This clip contains language which some may find offensive.
The participants were asked to describe how they spoke in their own words.
How do you describe your accent: "A mixture of Geordie and Yorkshire."
Have there been other influences on the way you speak: "Darlington all my life."
Do you have skills in languages other than English?: No
Other languages: None
You used to be in a, stood in a tin shed with your mates and you just used to if, you got to, sometimes you forgot to actually watch the game and you were like just like talking and that. And you were stood there and the goalkeeper was there and you could take the piss out of him all game and you knew for a fact he could hear everything. Now in these new stadiums you're why am like way up now. There's no atmosphere. I just used to go, there's just something about standing, I don't know why sitting down changes it but I was always like, I was always in a tin shed. And at Feethams I know, at half-time you used to be able to swap ends, so all of the away fans used to be at the open end, all shouting and thinking they're hard and that but they didn't realise that once the half-time whistle blew, (Graham: you were walking round) there was a mass exodus from the tin shed right round then you were stood right next to them, then it was like, Oh spot on, but yeah, I miss Feethams but there's nowt you can do now. But oh but I tell you what, I tell you what I remember that, right, Boro game, I can't remember now, but I must have been only 13 or 14, and there was some battling afterwards, er near the bus station and that, and they had all knives and that, and anyway this woman in a shop (Frank: that's scary, that is very scary, Graham: very scary, Frank: that's frightening, Graham: it was scary)it was crazy that although we did win of course. It's all about what's happening in front of you I suppose. Erm is there was a time when we had a shite pitch at Feethams and we couldn't play there for this FA cup replay against Burnley, we played at Riverside, (Graham: yeah) they only opened the one stand and that was behind a goal and what a game. And a lot of Darlo fans, they say it's the best game ever. Cos we were losing two nil and there was about 10 miutes to go and then we won three-two, well that was because, well everything went mad like. And then I suppose that when something like that happens in your surroundings you forget all about that and you just go wild.
Jonnie Robinson, Curator, English accents and dialects, British Library Sound Archive, writes Contrary to popular opinion very few individual dialect features, such as the use of a particular word or a localised pronunciation pattern, are peculiar to a single location. Rather it's the unique combination of a variety of aspects of speech that makes the dialect of a town or area different from elsewhere. Many people find it difficult, for instance, to differentiate between a speaker from Tyneside and a speaker from Teesside as the two accents have a number of common features and yet each is distinctive in its own right. The subtle differences might not be immediately apparent to outsiders, but they are extremely important to locals as they help define who they are in relation to others. There are a number of features shared by speakers in the whole of the north-east of England, such as the way Scott pronounces the vowel sounds in words in the following two sets: mates, game, take, stadiums, away, station, crazy, play and replay and goalkeeper, no, go, open, only, although, suppose, opened and goal. Probably the most distinctive pronunciation feature, however, that unites speakers across the north-east is the tendency for speakers to use glottalised consonants for the sounds . This is an extremely subtle phonetic process and most noticeable when the consonant appears between vowels in the middle of a word or at a word boundary between two vowels. Listen carefully to the way Scott pronounces the target consonants in the following words and phrases: sometimes; forgot to actually watch the game; talking; goalkeeper; Feetham's; used to be able to swap ends; open; happening and in front of you. This and the weak vowel used here on the final syllable of the words talking, standing, sitting, shouting, thinking and battling are instantly recognisable features of north-east speech. On the other hand, there are elements of a Teesside accent that have more in common with speech in Yorkshire than on Tyneside. Listen, for instance, to the vowel sound Scott uses in words in the following two sets: half-time, hard and can't and time, knives, Riverside, behind and wild. The last piece of the jigsaw involves H-dropping - listen to the way Raymond omits the initial sound in the words hear, half-time, hard, behind and happens - a well-known feature of popular speech throughout England, but not common on Tyneside. It's this combination of features that makes the speech of Darlington distinctive and demonstrates perfectly that there are no absolute accent boundaries, rather sounds change gradually as one moves from place to place.
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