The "Urr nurrr" accent?

[mattc]

[One for Damon perhaps??  ]


Where is this from?

(featured extensively in the 6:30 comedy on R4 today. Not the noise that Ruth Archer makes - she's some flavour of Geordie, right?)

Is it for real i.e. not a traditional comedy exageration of something much less pronounced?

[marcusjb]

Hull?

Guessing from your Urr Nurr.

[De Sisti]

North/East Yorkshire. Scarborough, Hull, Bridlington.

[rachel t]

Having lived in Hull till until I was 18, I would say its definately a 'Ull' accent, think the series is called to Hull & back or something similar & it has Maureen Lipman playing the older character & she is an old girl of the school I went to.

[Dibdib]

Not the noise that Ruth Archer makes - she's some flavour of Geordie, right?)

Ruth Archer's from Prudduh Prudhoe, Northumberland.

[Ian H]

It's a mistake to imagine that Archers' accents bear any direct relation to real-life ones. 

[Dibdib]

It's a mistake to imagine that Archers' accents bear any direct relation to real-life ones.

Yes, but Ruth is one of the few characters who specifically are intended to come from a real place, not a fictional one like "Felpersham".

[Nuncio]

If the R4 Comedy is the one with Lucy Beaumont (Mrs John Richardson) and Maureen Lipman, then the answer is 'Hull'.

We saw Lucy Beaumont at the fringe last year.  The first 2 minutes of her set were about that specific Hull shibboleth.

A colleague of mine is originally from Leeds and he retains the Leeds equivalent of the 'urr nurr'.  He used to bring a briefcase into work, which impressed people until he opened it up one day and proclaimed plaintively, 'Urr nurr, nurrr cuurrk'. (He only used the briefcase to transport sandwiches and a can of fizzy drink).  The phrase has stuck.

[D.A.L.E.]

It's a mistake to imagine that Archers' accents bear any direct relation to real-life ones.

Yes, but Ruth is one of the few characters who specifically are intended to come from a real place, not a fictional one like "Felpersham".

How do they pronounce 'Prudhoe' in the show?

[L CC]

Prudda. She's been out of Northumberland for as long as I've been out of Newcastle, and yet...

[Exit Stage Left]

North East accents seem to have a lot of R sounds in them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXn5S3n6QIE

But like most accents in England they are non-Rhotic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt531039LL8

Though most English varieties in England are non-rhotic, rhotic accents are found in the West Country (south and west of a line from near Shrewsbury to around Portsmouth), the Corby area, some of Lancashire (north and west of the centre of Manchester), some parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and in the areas that border Scotland. The prestige form, however, exerts a steady pressure towards non-rhoticity. Thus the urban speech of Bristol or Southampton is more accurately described as variably rhotic, the degree of rhoticity being reduced as one moves up the class and formality scales.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

The English tendency to swallow their Rs, makes those who pronounce all of them them stand out, but it's normal outside England.

[Mr Larrington]

Some chums of mine used to live in Prudhoe and as a result I now think of the place at the northern end of Alaska's Dalton Highway as Prudda Bay.

[Little Jim]

If the R4 Comedy is the one with Lucy Beaumont (Mrs John Richardson) and Maureen Lipman, then the answer is 'Hull'.

We saw Lucy Beaumont at the fringe last year.  The first 2 minutes of her set were about that specific Hull shibboleth.

A colleague of mine is originally from Leeds and he retains the Leeds equivalent of the 'urr nurr'.  He used to bring a briefcase into work, which impressed people until he opened it up one day and proclaimed plaintively, 'Urr nurr, nurrr cuurrk'. (He only used the briefcase to transport sandwiches and a can of fizzy drink).  The phrase has stuck.

See also "fern curls" as a method of communication.

[mattc]

Having lived in Hull till until I was 18, I would say its definately a 'Ull' accent, think the series is called to Hull & back or something similar & it has Maureen Lipman playing the older character & she is an old girl of the school I went to.

Thanks Rachel 

(I didn't want to bias things by quoting the name of the programme, plus I had no idea if the accents really were authentic for Hull!)


Back to the Archers - is it "Jazza" who speaks reeeeally weirdly? He makes Ruth sound quite normal. (I am a passive Archers consumer). <dons flame coat ... >

[LEE]

"Urr Nurr" (Oh No)

and

"Ahh Nurr" (I know)

are basically the only two things said by the two sisters from Leeds on Gogglebox*


*With the occasional inclusion of "ee duz thurr dunt-i?"  (He does though, doesn't he?")

[Tim Hall]

Having lived in Hull till until I was 18, I would say its definately a 'Ull' accent, think the series is called to Hull & back or something similar & it has Maureen Lipman playing the older character & she is an old girl of the school I went to.

Thanks Rachel 

(I didn't want to bias things by quoting the name of the programme, plus I had no idea if the accents really were authentic for Hull!)


Back to the Archers - is it "Jazza" who speaks reeeeally weirdly? He makes Ruth sound quite normal. (I am a passive Archers consumer). <dons flame coat ... >

Jazza may speak weirdly, but at least I can tell it's him. Fairbrother bothers? Not a chance.  Ruth is shagging one of them (or was), but I've no idea which.  John Finnemore has a sketch somewhere about this sort of thing: "Hello, one of the men who always sound tired."

[De Sisti]

I find it amusing that some people who, for many years, have lived away from the town/city/area where they grew up 
retain their accents; whereas others in a similar situation lose theirs very quickly.

[Ian H]

North East accents seem to have a lot of R sounds in them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXn5S3n6QIE

But like most accents in England they are non-Rhotic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt531039LL8

Though most English varieties in England are non-rhotic, rhotic accents are found in the West Country (south and west of a line from near Shrewsbury to around Portsmouth), the Corby area, some of Lancashire (north and west of the centre of Manchester), some parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and in the areas that border Scotland. The prestige form, however, exerts a steady pressure towards non-rhoticity. Thus the urban speech of Bristol or Southampton is more accurately described as variably rhotic, the degree of rhoticity being reduced as one moves up the class and formality scales.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

The English tendency to swallow their Rs, makes those who pronounce all of them them stand out, but it's normal outside England.

My Prestonian cousins fall very heavily on their Rs.  They tend to voice their aspirants as well.

[Salvatore]

A colleague of mine is originally from Leeds and he retains the Leeds equivalent of the 'urr nurr'.  He used to bring a briefcase into work, which impressed people until he opened it up one day and proclaimed plaintively, 'Urr nurr, nurrr cuurrk'. (He only used the briefcase to transport sandwiches and a can of fizzy drink).  The phrase has stuck.

I remember it well. We were working at a well-known government establishment near the Berkshire/Hampshire border at the time. 1992.

Nevertheless, I associate that pronunciation  with Hull.

[Efrogwr]

I find it amusing that some people who, for many years, have lived away from the town/city/area where they grew up 
retain their accents; whereas others in a similar situation lose theirs very quickly.

Despite my having left Yorkshire in 1975, I still have a strong Barnsley acent. E Minor is often amused by my accent changing when I speak Welsh.

My niece, who left the northeast when she was five (she's in her mid thirties), and now lives in Italy, speaks Italian with a Florentine accent, and English with a faint (but noticeable) Middlesbrough accent.

[L CC]

My Christchurch (NZ) sister still has a noticeable Geordie accent after sivvintin years of fush and chups whereas I have barely a trace left.

[hatler]

I had a long stint working in Reckitt & Colman in London. A fair few of the project team were from their plant in 'ull. They produced a little glossary of the more common 'ull pronunciations and phrases.

The only one that has stuck with me is "Nuur smuurkin".

[rachel t]

Everything I visit my family in Hull & get on a bus I think did I ever sound like that, I think I have lost most of my accent & my family agree I just have to remember not to use certain phrases as nobody knows what they mean.  I moved from Hull to Bradford 20 years ago so still have a Yorkshire accent

The guy in this youtube clip still has a strong accent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMtcFQfXxXM

[redshift]

East Yorkshire is almost Frisian, and it's really noticeable in words like 'road.'  The place names are different too, with lots of stuff like Wilberfoss, Fangfoss or Wetwang.  History alive in the language and the land.

[Legs]

Everything I visit my family in Hull & get on a bus I think did I ever sound like that, I think I have lost most of my accent & my family agree I just have to remember not to use certain phrases as nobody knows what they mean.  I moved from Hull to Bradford 20 years ago so still have a Yorkshire accent

The guy in this youtube clip still has a strong accent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMtcFQfXxXM

Don't hang about gettin' nithered in the tenfoot or you'll get kingcough in your skipjack...