>> I spent the first eight years of my life with a 100% Irish accent which
>> gradually disappeared as I became an East Ender. It's still programmed into me though, and
>> I find that after a few minutes talking to an Irish person I revert back
>> without even realising that I am.
Glad it's not just me then. I was born in the West Riding and lived there until 18/19 when my Civil Service posting required me to work in London. I retain flat vowels etc but my kids rag me incessantly about 'getting the Northern accent out' in Sheffield Leeds or Scarborough.
The odd colleague at work used to notice it too. He could tell when my phone conversations were with someone from God's own County.
Generally though, accents and dialects are becoming lost or weakened under the onslaught of TV etc. I can still tell Leeds from Sheffield or North Yorkshire. Hebridean Scots is very diferent from Central Belt with Lewis (harsh consonants and sibilant S) quite different to the near Irish pronunciation in Castlebay.
My colleague from Fife can identify local differences in Edinburgh, mildly mocking the 'Morningside' accent of one of the Ministerial appointees we were paid to serve.
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