Do you have a British accent?

[ian]

No one is ever from the East Midlands, we're elided (for good reason) from dialect history, as every DH Lawrence adaptation demonstrates.

[T42]

If Belfast is in Yorkshire they got my accent dead on.  After all, Dublin's the capital of Liverpool, innit?

[rogerzilla]

Do you have a secret British accent?

Be careful..

Please note that Google Analytics is being used on this interactive; anonymised demographic results will be shared with the 'academic' we consulted to help them with their research on accents and language.

I think I put them off the scent as I managed to sound like an actor from Solihull.  Where?

"Sollyull" or "Sowly-harl"?  A Brummie, and those born in Solihull, say the former, pretentious people who've moved to Solihull and resent the fact that they still have a B postcode, say the latter.

[cygnet]

Sunderland 

Knackers.

[rogerzilla]

Apparently I'm a west London twat* too.  I'm actually from north Wales but grew up in Hampshire, with a slight Brummie tang because I spent six years there from age 18-24.  I had to learn to do the foot/strut split as the northern pronunciation is unacceptable in a southern school, but I have never split bath/trap.

So I conclude it's bollocks.

*(c) Charlotte

[Deano]

West London too

[Wowbagger]

It said I was Kate Winslet as well. But since she's an actor presumably she can adopt a whole range of accents reasonably successfully.

[ravenbait]

Apparently I sound like James McAvoy. Which I don't, but at least they got the country right.

Sam

[spesh]

I get Danny Fackin Dyer!

Same here.

I'm not sure whether that's more insulting than being asked if I'm Australian.

[markcjagar]

I'm from Rochdale and have spent the last 15 years in Sheffield.

Apparently I am most like someone from West London and least like someone from Manchester. Most of my friends are university graduates and I was always encouraged to "speak properly" by my fancy aunty when I was a kid.

[Rod Marton]

Says I'm from Suffolk, which is actually correct.

But then it shows me a picture of Bob Hoskins, whose accent is definitely not Suffolk.

[ian]

I got Suffolk, which is very incorrect. But then I've lived in Scotland (the posh bit that people can understand) and the US (NE and the South), followed by a stint in Yorkshire and for last two decades, London.

I have a weird accent that, I suspect, in part reflects I have a bit of speech defect and a general career in making myself understood to foreigners. It's not Erewashian or RP. It's just odd. Most Americans could be persuaded I was South African (but I'm pretty sure that not one of them couldn't describe or place a South African accent). To my parents, it's posh though.

[hubner]

Apparently I'm a west London twat* too.  I'm actually from north Wales but grew up in Hampshire, with a slight Brummie tang because I spent six years there from age 18-24.  I had to learn to do the foot/strut split as the northern pronunciation is unacceptable in a southern school, but I have never split bath/trap.

So I conclude it's bollocks.

*(c) Charlotte

It seems the test is using West London, Kate Winslet to mean received pronunciation (RP) ie southern England educated middle class speech, so-called BBC English.

The test does seem to be dubious.

I've done it a few times, and in one test I answered yes to

Do you pronounce the 'as' in last the same as the 'as' in astronaut?

ie the northern "short" A (bath vs barth etc) and it still gave RP as the result which is ridiculous, no way does RP have the short A.

It also gives RP if you say three like tree!

And the London working class accents get named as East London (Danny Dyer?) when in fact it's widespread in SE England.

[hubner]

Says I'm from Suffolk, which is actually correct.

But then it shows me a picture of Bob Hoskins, whose accent is definitely not Suffolk.

That is so stupid, he was born in suffolk but grew up in London from the age of two weeks!

[De Sisti]

The test would be more credible if it could record your voice and then make a guess an assessment.

[Ben T]

No one is ever from the East Midlands, we're elided (for good reason) from dialect history, as every DH Lawrence adaptation demonstrates.

the woman from line of duty is a classic nottingham accent.

[Regulator]

It said I was Kate Winslet as well. But since she's an actor presumably she can adopt a whole range of accents reasonably successfully.

As long as it isn't an American accent.  Even she admitted her accent in Titanic was awful.

[John Stonebridge]

Apparently I sound like Im from Glasgow (Byres Road / West End surely). 

Suppose its not too bad given I was born about 20 miles away so at least the same country & I suspect that the algorithm probably only has limited nuance for Scotland.

At least it wasnt Sunderland. 

"Draw rings" FFS. 

[Efrogwr]

I got Middlesbrough....


That's posibly even more insulting than Sunderland!

[Croft]

No one is ever from the East Midlands, we're elided (for good reason) from dialect history, as every DH Lawrence adaptation demonstrates.

Gary Oldman's attempt at a Leicester accent in Prick Up Your Ears is something to behold. I think Dick van Dyke would have done a better job.

Line of Duty has some pretty genuine-sounding Nottingham accents, at least to me (Kate obvs, but also that skinny police officer who always ends up having to organise digging up the concrete to reveal the strongbox of incriminating weapons / body parts)

[robgul]

Well - that was a load of cobblers . . .  had me as West London.    Born Leicester, lived from 0.5 - 25 London/West Essex border, 25-35 N Essex, 35-45 Cheltenham, 45- Warwickshire.

I too have been asked numerous times in the US if I'm Australian.

[ian]

No one is ever from the East Midlands, we're elided (for good reason) from dialect history, as every DH Lawrence adaptation demonstrates.

Gary Oldman's attempt at a Leicester accent in Prick Up Your Ears is something to behold. I think Dick van Dyke would have done a better job.

Line of Duty has some pretty genuine-sounding Nottingham accents, at least to me (Kate obvs, but also that skinny police officer who always ends up having to organise digging up the concrete to reveal the strongbox of incriminating weapons / body parts)

Ah, Nottingham is related, but a bit different. The properly Erewashian accent was cultured underground in a dark nest of tunnels like mushrooms. If a local was treated to ten years of daily elocution lessons they would debut, Eliza-like, sounding as though they were from Nottingham.

[Redlight]

Do you have a secret British accent?

Apparently I sound like I come from West London and least like I come from Manchester - which is interesting as I have never lived in West London but I do come from south Lancashire.

I guess those elocution lessons paid off.

[Ben T]

No one is ever from the East Midlands, we're elided (for good reason) from dialect history, as every DH Lawrence adaptation demonstrates.

Gary Oldman's attempt at a Leicester accent in Prick Up Your Ears is something to behold. I think Dick van Dyke would have done a better job.

Line of Duty has some pretty genuine-sounding Nottingham accents, at least to me (Kate obvs, but also that skinny police officer who always ends up having to organise digging up the concrete to reveal the strongbox of incriminating weapons / body parts)

leicester(shire) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMHGejB6jf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM8CP42RVOY 

[barakta]

West London twat for me.

Which is ridiculous as I am northern (Manchester) and use short northern vowels.

I do accept I don't really have a localised accent anymore, but it is definitely northern. I blame father from Hove, mother from Glasgow, deafness + speech therapy. My first accent was Glaswegian which didn't fade entirely till I had finished primary school.

In Brum, they think I'm "well posh" and both nonposh and posh people alike often assume I went to private school which I think is fascinating.