Is there such thing as a Sussex, or even Brightonian accent?

[Sheebo]

You can tell who doesn't live in rural Sussex on this thread! Townies the lot of ya

 

[Mental Lental]

Brightonians have an accent which is known as "Estuary English" among linguists. It is close to Cockney but has some differences......

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/whatis.htm

It's hard to think of yourself as having an accent when you are surrounded by people who talk just as you do but believe me, Brightonians have a distinct accent that is very noticeable to anyone who has lived abroad. Or even out of London and the South East for that matter.

 

[KZNSeagull]

There is a definite rural Sussex accent but I did not hear it very often - a friend of mine lived in Ardingly all his life and he had it. eg he pronounced saturday as sa err dee.

 

[Hastings woody]

The Sussex accent in Hastings is slowly dying out as all the white londoners have or are selling up & run away from the immigrants who are taking over. I have a Sussex accent & am proud of saying brrrighton & "It's Hutchy" when its cold.

 

[Wilko]

I was at a youth hostel in Zambia last week sitting by the pool reading a book when a load of teenagers came over and started chatting to each other, I instantly recognised the accent. I asked them where they were from and it turns out they were on a trip with Varndean college. Recognised the accent immediately though.

 

[Hastings woody]

The accent in Hastings is now a muxture of south london,Arabic & eastern European.

 

[shaun_rc]

I lived in Bradford for a while and could always tell when someone from Brighton came on the radio. Couldn't tell you why, or what it was about the speech, but there definitely is a Brighton accent, you always knew before they said...

 

[Lethargic]

The fact you can tell a mockery apart from the natives means there must be a difference therefore by deduction we speak different (proper) and have our own accent or dialect.

 

[smillie's garden]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_dialect

Cheers for that link kiddy, a great read. Now I challenge someone to come up with a song that incorporates some of our numerous terms for mud.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

When I was travelling around South America I could hear a lady talking at the table next to me in a cafe in Ecuador. I was in a bit of a remote area of the county and I had not heard a English accent for a few weeks. I could tell from her accent that she was from the Brighton area. I went over to he and asked her where she was from and she said Hove. It turned out that we lived only 500 yards from each other back in England.

I think there must be a Brighton/Sussex accent.

 

[Clive Walker]

my in-laws are from yorkshire and i cannot hear a difference between them and lancs. They hate it. When they said that I sound like a londoner, i simply thought I always did!

meh.....

 

[Screaming J]

Cheers for that link kiddy, a great read. Now I challenge someone to come up with a song that incorporates some of our numerous terms for mud.

Brilliant! I was about to say the words kiddy/old kiddy are good signifiers of a Sussex background and possibly accent and then you used it . QED

And my Mum, born and bred in Plumpton still uses the word Puggy to describe what can loosely be described as soil in her clay-infested wealden garden.

 

[somerset]

I can tell the difference between London and Brighton/Sussex accents,..... coming back from the West Country, there is a clear distinction to me,...... cant describe it, but it is very clear, even when I bump into Sussex people over here.

 

[explymouthnige]

suppose this holds some weight,People from Norwich talk the same as those from Plymouth

Don't get around much do you!!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Brilliant! I was about to say the words kiddy/old kiddy are good signifiers of a Sussex background and possibly accent and then you used it . QED

And my Mum, born and bred in Plumpton still uses the word Puggy to describe what can loosely be described as soil in her clay-infested wealden garden.

I didn't realise that jiggered was Sussex dialect for surprised, if that link is correct. My Dad used to say, 'I'll be jiggered' when surprised at something. I thought it was in common usage everywhere.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

I noticed whilst in Hampshire the other week, that they seem to have a slight regional accent, then as you move into Dorset and across it gets more pronounced. Essex also has a distinctive accent.
Kent and Surrey seem to speak broadly with the same accent as we do in Sussex.

However, I have a Northern friend that reckons there is a definite Brighton accent, and we can be spotted a mile off.

When I went to Uni in East London and got to make friends with a fair few of the locals they used to call me carrot cruncher
just because of my accent.
So yes there is !

 

[Puppet Master]

Brighton people might sound like South Londoners. They don't sound anything like East Londoners or Essex boys.

What went wrong with me then

 

[Puppet Master]

There is definitely a female Hollingbury/Coldean area accent though. I can always tell when a woman is from round that way, go into Asda up there, speak to the staff and you can spot a "local" a mile off.

 

[The Oldman]

I was in Ipswich and met the then manager of BBC Radio Suffolk. As we greeted each other he asked if I was from Brighton? He had instantly picked up my Brighton accent. Formerly he was manager at BBC Radio Bighton. John Lees has a Brighton accent too he said.

In the 1950's I used to stay on a farm in Henfield. Very strong Sussex accent amongst the farmhands in those days.

 

[Lush]

I thought the Brightonian accent sounded like we dropped the middle of words, and making the letter t soft. At least that's what my friends from other parts of the country say

Dropping the 't' is what's called a glottal stop, as in bottle/bo-all. It's a London thing too.

I reckon the test is counting to ten out loud. If you say 'noin' instead of nine, you have a Brighton/Sussex accent.