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

[Daffy Duck]

I didn't realise "I'll be jiggered" was Sussex speak either. Used a lot in my household when I was a kid.
Another expression was "put the wood in the hole" for shut the door.

And when we were kids, we used to play "up the twitt'n".

My Grandfather had quite a broad Sussex accent as he grew up around Forest Row, although born in Brighton.

There aren't many true Brightonians now, and as someone else mentioned on here, we're a bit of an elite lot nowadays.

The town (sorry, city) has grown so much since I was a kid and there's been a massive influx of people from all over, not just London and that's probably why the local accent is being watered down.

 

[tinycowboy]

My grandfather (from Shoreham) had a broad Sussex accent. Hard to describe - like a much softer generic south-eastern England accent. My uncle (also from Shoreham) also has an accent clearly different from a Kent or Surrey one, but closer to it than his dad's. Slightly more countrified. I'm not sure I have any kind of distinguishable accent, apart from being from the south. Like everyone else, I use the word "twitten" all the time though...

 

[Seagull1989]

A friend of mine from Germany noticed that people from Sussex when saying words that begin with STR we make a shhtr noise. For example, straight , straw, strong. I make a shhh noise before it. Anyone else?

 

[MissGull]

When you spell it like that it looks like a speech impediment, but saying it, it's true. shtraight....but doesn't every Southerner? say that?

 

[brighton_girl87]

What went wrong with me then

You do use an awful lot of cockney rhyming slang....that probably doesn't help.

 

[Seecider]

No doubt at all. I've lived away from Brighton for 50 years, but I've sat at away games and heard voices in conversation behind me and looked round thinking it was a relative who grew up in Coldean - so definitely yes, Brighton has a distinct accent.

 

[Puppet Master]

You do use an awful lot of cockney rhyming slang....that probably doesn't help.

Must have picked it up somewhere and never lived outside the area

 

[brighton_girl87]

Apparently me and my fellow Brighton friends can't say "seen" or "been" properly, according to a Northern friend. But then she's from The Wirral, so can hardly judge.

 

[brighton_girl87]

Must have picked it up somewhere and never lived outside the area

Most likely from Danny Dyer.

 

[Puppet Master]

That's true, I'd say "seen it" as sinnit.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Are there words that I think of as "Brighton" that are actually more widespread - or local?

I was just reminded of a BBQ we had on Saturday with one of my mates who's lived in Portslade all his life who described someone as being "a bit aggy after a shant" (aggressive after drinking). I knew exactly what he meant and just carried on then my Mrs who's from Oxfordshire looked at us and asked what we were talking about. Though she's from Oxfordshire she's lived here on and off for 15 years.

 

[MissGull]

I think Shant is more widespread. I know some people who were born and live in Kent who use it to term 'heavy drinking night out.'..'.going out on the shant?'

 

[BN9 BHA]

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

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

How is ' Heffel' this morning Sheebo?

 

[Puppet Master]

Nause is a Brighton word.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Also remember drinking with a bloke many years ago who had his own version of rhyming slang that included words that were already slang for something else. He once talked about having a nice bit of charlie for his dinner which sounded fairly dangerous until we worked out it was Charlie Drake / steak

 

[Sheebo]

How is ' Heffel' this morning Sheebo?

Loadsa proper accents round these parts boy. Some hard to understand at first!

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

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.

Or if you think there used to be a girl group called the Spoice Gews.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

And it's Brichtelmeston & Hove Albion.... FC By far the hardest to pronounce team... the world has ever seen. (Except some of those from Norway).

Fans of Ruch Chorzow and Śląsk Wrocław might disagree.

 

[Eeyore]

Fans of Ruch Chorzow and Śląsk Wrocław might disagree.

Maybe, but I bet they never had pronounce it in King James English...

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

There's Hove Born and Bred's language, and then there's the rest of Brighton.