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Comment by gcv | Hacker News Reader

Please do! I'd be especially interested in some of the ones you mentioned: Geordie and Brummie. Also, some of the harder-to-understand ones. I can understand Yorkshire pretty well, but maybe some others would give me trouble.

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This is taken from a British sitcom, 'Alan Partridge'. It features a Norfolk and a Geordie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSHHbfY6MVc It's actually a pretty good example of a Newcastle (Geordie) accent despite being a comedy show.

Finding a good example of a Brummie accent as proven more tricky as I'm either stumbling across paradises where they over accentuate the "twang", or TV personalities where the access is suppressed a little. Ozzy Osbourne is from that area and in his interviews you can sometimes hear the accent showing through. The pronunciation itself isn't hard to understand; I highlighted it because it's a unique accent. I think these days it's mellowed quite a bit though.

This video isn't work safe, but it's the best example of a Welsh accent I could find. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwUrMEZWj5o (this is also probably the accent I hate the most - I couldn't explain why, but it just grinds)

This is the Cornish (south west) accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jbxdZE3g80 It's probably the closest to the old Shakespearian English that someone linked to in these comments.

David Mitchell's character in this "Dying Wish" sketch from The Mitchell and Webb Look has a very good Welsh accent as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-BpLgVxLRY (It's not David's own, which is very much RP, but it's entirely believable.)

There's also Gavin And Stacy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AZxRBMECQU (I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!)

For the non-English readers, the two girls are Welsh, the two boys are from (if I recall correctly) south Essex (a suburb north of London).

Witness Ross Noble's stupendous sunderland accent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nHg6hDiRQQ

Sunderland is about an hour away from newcastle.

EDIT: Oh gosh and there are some amazing clips from a local radio phone in show in norwich here: https://soundcloud.com/voices-of-norfolk/sets/radio-norfolk-...

This lady is particularly endearing: https://soundcloud.com/voices-of-norfolk/nancy?in=voices-of-...

Here's a recording of market traders in london with cockney accents, and some jamaican I think: https://soundcloud.com/london-sound-survey/brick-lane-market...

That soundcloud account is full of field recordings taken in london, lots have distinctive voices in them: https://soundcloud.com/london-sound-survey/wembley-cheapjack...

I'd forgotten how random Ross Noble is.

    > Sunderland is about an hour away from newcastle.

Not even that. Newcastle and Middlesbrough are about an hour apart (just down the A19); Sunderland is less than half the distance away.

I was sure the guy with the Geordie accent was a Newfie. That was before he said 'aboot'.

How representative is the typical accent you hear on Doctor Who of the average English accent? And in case I'm conflating a bunch of very different accents, I'll just go with Matt Smith's Doctor[0].

[0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FxKcLId-Ys

I'm from England, and his accent in that video sounds pretty neutral to me. It's got a bit of a "posh" or "well spoken" edge to it, but in terms of region, that's going to be somewhere around the south of England, excluding places like the south west and parts of London, which have distinct accents.

I agree.

Occasionally you'll find extras which sound Welsh, because the show is filmed in Wales. But for the most part it's a very neutral accent. Even Amy Pond's accent isn't particularly strong.

As some on coming from Birmingham Ozzie has lost most of his Noddy Holder (the lead singer in slade) has a stronger more black country accent (the rural brummie accent and how Sam Gamgee should have sounded like in the LOTR)

As well as the accent there is the question of the brummie dialect which can be much harder to decipher for a non native "yow" for "you" for example

You're omitting all the North-West accents, Mancunian (aka "the Noel Gallagher") being the most famous. The sounds change quite spectacularly as you go up the M6 and into deep Lancashire. Get some "roots" people from Blackpool, Chorley and Burnley in the same room, and their accents will be all over the place.

There's a show called Geordie Shore, which is the MTV UK's take on Jersey Shore.

Here's an interview with some of it's stars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fLiVKNuzjE

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