Making sense of British accents

The UK is a small country area wise with a lot of people crammed in. One thing that might surprise visitors is the number of regional accents, drive for an hour on the motorway out of London and the Midlands accents will be completely distinct and different from those further south.

Other accents that are strong and easily recognizable include the Welsh, the Liverpool Scouse, the Lancashire/Manchester, the Yorkshire and the Geordie accent from around the Newcastle area. Scottish and Northern Irish accents can be hard to understand sometimes even for other British people.

The British Library has a project called Sounds Familiar that is aimed at high school students and explains the different British dialects and accents, and also has an interactive map, broken down into regions where you can click on individual figures and hear the different voices from around the country.

One thing about them is that because the people being recorded are in a set interview they seem to be speaking with a slower delivery than you’d hear on the street and are easier to understand.