The Bristol accent

Singer, songwriter, former keepie-uppie king and Bristolian Geoff Davis (who features as a Professor of Bristolian in "Terry's Bristolian Language Lessons DVD) demonstrates the difference between the irritating, inaccurate and bastardised TV takes on the Bristol accent and the real thing (in several of its glorious varieties).

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Bristol
• accent
• Bristolian
• Chicago
• Rock
• soul
• music
• Marvin
• Gaye
• Geoffrey
• Woodruff
• Richard
• Skudamore
• Professor
• Mountstevens
• University

[amazinghobbo]

you sounded more of a chavy American then bristolian I should know i live there

[gdsongwriter]

@amazinghobbo Well, I was born in Bristol, lived in St George for 20 years before returning to Brentry where I grew up and where I lived for more than 30 years. And I've never set foot in America! However, I went to one of Bristol's top grammar schools where you were called a peasant if you had a strong Bristol accent. At the same time I used to play football with other kids outside the shops in Okebourne Rd who'd say "ark at 'ee wiv 'is gurt posh voice". So I had to adapt!

[gdsongwriter]

Funny how this video has had so many hits. After I first uploaded it I nearly deleted because I thought I could do much better. Anyway, have just uploaded a video giving pronunciation tips from the 'Dictionary of Bristle' (a popular comic dictionary of Bristolian phrases and dialect words). Take a look, I had a lot more fun making it than I did making this one!

[gdsongwriter]

On my latest video (Bristolian Should Have Official Status As An Independent Language) I've prepared a Bristolian monologue (almost incomprehensible to outsiders) to outline my case for Bristolian to be given official status as an independent language. So have a look at it. It's better and much shorter than this one!

[plantheadz]

EAST ANGLIANS DO NOT SPEAK LIKE THERE FROM BRISTOL, IM FROM EAST ANGLIA (CORBY) AND HOUR ACCENT IS ORIGINAL,, WE KNOW THIS BECAUSE OUR NEIGHBOURING TOWNS (KETTERING, LEICSTER, PETERBOROUGH) ALL TALK THE SAME BUT WE SPEAK DIFFERANT N THEY DONT SOUND LIKE A BRISTOL EITHER SO YOUR RONG TERRIBLEY RONG

[gdsongwriter]

@plantheadz I don't think you can have listened to the commentary on the video very closely. I KNOW people from East Anglia have an accent totally different from the Bristol accent. My point was that in TV dramas they often trot out the same "generic mummerset" accent for a drama located in Cornwall, Somerset, Bristol, Oxfordshire and right over to East Anglia, an accent unlike any of the the accents from those different regions and painful to listen to for those of us from any of those parts.

[LFCDalton]

The bristol accent is the pirate accent!!!

[gdsongwriter]

@Weston1968 Thank you for your kind, impartial and affectionate remarks towards Bristolians. Your measured and considered opinion surely marks you out as a member of MENSA. God forbid a Bristolian like myself to condescend to correct your spelling but Hartcliff is actually spelt Hartcliffe and the Appelation Mountains don't actually exist or did you mean the Appalachian Mountains? Is Stephen Merchant, who's been rather successful, intellectually challenged because he retains his Bristol accent?

[crewfox11]

bristol for ever! 

[yurismir1]

@Bearsca Actually this is Stephen Merchant's accent. Stephen Merchant is from Bristol.

[michaelm0522]

Wheatly!

[gdsongwriter]

@bryanroc Most accents in the south-west of England have rhotic accents. It's probably true that both south-west English accents (as the original pilgrim fathers sailed from Plymouth) and Irish accents (as there has been a large influx of Irish immigrants into America over the centuries) have influenced some of the varieties of American accents.

[irkofan]

You may or may not find it interesting, but we have a similar problem in America. I am from Indiana (very rural area), and most people seem to think that we talk in something between a Texan drawl and a Michigan accent. There are actually several different types of accents that I have lived around back home. I think media, in general, becomes hooked upon a certain image for some thing or another and really just goes with it. Regardless of truth. Anyways . . . I really loved your demonstration!

[dannygeebee]

bristol accent is the worst in the world yuk