I don't know what the hell is in there, but it's weird and pissed off whatever it is.
I like the comment at the end of the article:Originally Posted by median
Typical psychologist. Always with an eye to the next chance...Dr Workman also said that his co-researcher on the study was a woman with a Birmingham accent who he regarded as being extremely intelligent.
"Expect the Inquisition..."
This research does make a valid point, I myself have always considered the brummie accent to be the worst. It seemingly just makes anyone speaking with its inflections automatically sound brain damaged. No offense meant to any birmingham based people, Its just how I've always perceived it. I know it has no bearing on actual intelligence levels, I have friends from the midlands areas. (That isnt the "Im not a *.* because I have friends who are also *.*" btw)
Ive met a few very intelligent people from birmingham.
De omnibus dubitandum
Many years ago there was an American film called "Diner", about a bunch of young people (probably annoying) who hang out at, well - a diner. I didn't know about it, as I prefer trashy horror films, but I happened to hear a review on the Beeb. The posh reviewers of those days pronounced the title roughly as "Dine-aw", and a Londoner would of course have said "Dine-ah". I assumed it was the girl's name, and found out only later the correct title. I, from the West Midlands, might have sounded like an old farmer, but I'd have given the "er" full value, as would, in his different accent, a Scotsman. So, since language is for communication, in that particular instance my accent or a Scots accent is actually superior to posh BBC English or Cockney, as it avoids the ambiguity. It may be politically correct not to criticise particular accents, but this instance suggests that, sometimes, one can.
The most absurdly posh accent I ever heard was that of the long gone Malcolm Muggeridge, if anyone remembers him. It sounded like a different language.
Yes, I remember Muggeridge. But I think his accent was not as affected as that of Brian Sewell, the art critic, who speaks on radio and appears on TV occasionally. He claims that all of his family spoke in his way as a child - makes the Queen sound a bit common.
Actually, I love the variety of accents countrywide. And now Aunty Beeb has accepted regional variations, it is all the better. I don't particularly like the broad Cockney accent, and young white kids trying to talk like West Indians, but that is more about fashion and identity than real regional variation.
As a 4 year old with a Brummy accent, when I moved to Scotland, I quickly discovered I could get free sweeties from the girls in the local shop by reciting rhymes with my "cute" accent!
Alas, the same trick no longer works at the age of.........
I've always found bald people to be hideously ugly. A bald head makes anyone who has it automatically look like a racist thug. No offense meant to any bald people.
Yes, Ive been told I look like a neo nazi before. However my polictical views are very liberal. But we were referring to accents, and not physical features. The influence of visual based stereotypes is impaired.
I am not offended, it simply is what it is.
De omnibus dubitandum
i now tend not to make snap judgements about people based on first impressions because when i do i'm always wrong.
i like to think about their pros and cons and then condem them, in which case i am nearly always right.
anyway why should some shandy drinking southerner be concidered inteligent just because they were born further south than i was?
sorry got carried away again there...
The point of my satire was that you can't just add "oh, no offense" and then say really offensive things. It doesn't make it OK by sticking in a caveat.Yes, Ive been told I look like a neo nazi before. However my polictical views are very liberal. But we were referring to accents, and not physical features. The influence of visual based stereotypes is impaired.
I am not offended, it simply is what it is.
Consider:
To be honest, Bob, I found your comments extremely offensive. But I shall get round that by just not bothering to speak to you at any events. After all, we already know that you think I sound brain-damaged, so what would be the point?I myself have always considered the Pakistani accent to be the worst. It seemingly just makes anyone speaking with its inflections automatically sound brain damaged. No offense meant to any Pakistan based people.
I never stated it was ok, I am simply agreeing with the findings of the report. That we do seem to judge people based on regional accents, and perhaps it is even subconscious. I am however fully aware it if a form of aural stereotyping, with no basis in facts.
I cannot control what you elect to be offensive or not Im afraid. What is offensive for some, is not to another. If we are to meet at an event, it is your perogative to speak to me or not. I feel however that would be your loss not mine, considering you have imposed this restriction upon yourself.To be honest, Bob, I found your comments extremely offensive. But I shall get round that by just not bothering to speak to you at any events. After all, we already know that you think I sound brain-damaged, so what would be the point?
You clearly cannot seem to see my point in this debate, and your judgment appears to be coloured by regional pride. I have stated that it merely sounds brain damaged to me, I did not state the people from birmingham or the west midlands in general were indeed brain damaged. I cannot help the connections my brain makes with sounds and imagery, and I think it unfair you would expect it to be otherwise.
I have never found the accent to be melodious, yet some love it. It is all down to personal preference, and I am quite suprised you cannot see that. To answer you correctly about whether I "already think you are brain damaged" I would actually have to hear your accent. As I cannot claim ALL peoples from this area sound the same. I can only refer to the people I have heard.
De omnibus dubitandum
You can, however, help how you respond to the associations your brain makes. If you see a bearded Asian guy on the Tube with a backpack, it's not unlikely that some part of your brain will make the association "terrorist", and you might even want to get off the Tube. This is based on a wholly unfair stereotype (not all Muslims are terrorists, not all terrorists are Muslims, not all Asians are Muslims, not all backpacks are bombs), and so the right thing to do, as a decent human being, is to say to your brain "don't be stupid, it's just a guy with a backpack" and not get off the Tube.
Declaring on an internet forum that you think the Brummie accent sounds brain-damaged falls under the "stupid" category.
I have a Suffolk accent, and a shaven head. I should probably stay out of this discussion
I believe in honesty TK, I was using my experience to show how wrong a stereotype can be, and how it has no basis in reality. You may consider it stupid, but I consider it a good example. I was not offended by your satirical retort about my short hair, or the facist overtones. I inderstand that people have all sorts of bias, and how bias although usually incorrect are hard to overcome. Because I understand this I cannot be offended by it.
Do you think for for moment that my accent has not coloured peoples judgment of me? Yet I realise that they do not know me, and cannot know what I am really like. I apply this logically to all people, it helps dispell the stereotypes. Jon Donnis is from the west midlands, and yet I am a member of BP. John Jackson himself and possibly DR B, two people who I respect greatly are probably from birmingham also. I have not heard the latter two, but I know they are not brain damaged.
My dislike of the accent stems from an advert I seen as a child for "Martin Mere Holiday Parks" (where mums on the lawn, and dads on the green?). There was a voice over at the end that stated "lets go tommorow". It was supposed to be a Liverpool accent (so I have been told). Yet it sounded like a brummie accent, and seriously exhaggerated to the point of idiocy. I cannot state this is anything but an irrational stereotype that I fully realise and have previously admitted has no bearing in real life. It was just a lasting impression that it has left me with.
Please dont read anything more into this than I have stated. I have no agenda here, I do not dislike the peoples from those areas either. I am genuinely puzzled by the amount of offense I have apparantly caused you.
De omnibus dubitandum
I've had exactly the same experience. A couple of years ago a guy at a local gig decided to proudly show me the swastika tattoo that he had on his upper arm. Based on my appearance he must have assumed that I would be impressed, politically sympathetic or something.
He couldn't have been more wrong, and obviously wasn't quite prepared for the reaction he did get. Perhaps he'll think twice in future before making any such assumptons.
tkingdoll - as an observer here, to me your reaction seems totally at odds with all your other posts on this forum, and it leaves me puzzled. Bobdezon seemed merely to be expressing a reaction he has - why the disproportionate emotional response to an honest admission?
I'm glad I didn't say it.
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