The Sussex dialect

[Dolph Ins]

The gardener I work with who has lived in Ardingly for 4 generations etc. has quite a strong accent which most people assume is West Country. I still hear a few old uns with the twang but he has the purest that I know of.

 

[maltaseagull]

The station announcer at Haywards Heath used to have one.

I suppose it's all changed now though. "Haywarrrrds Heath !

 

[Soul Finger]

There is a definite Sussex burr.

My nan and granddad had great accents, very oo arr.

There's no 't' in Brighton!

 

[OGH's Libido]

Sounds West Country to me

This guy has short, closed vowels which you dont get in the west. At least to my ears.

Man, take me back to the 90s. You'd still hear old boys talking like this.

 

[Bladders]

This guy has short, closed vowels which you dont get in the west. At least to my ears.

Man, take me back to the 90s. You'd still hear old boys talking like this.

I can hear a slight difference as you say, but mix this accent with Norfolk/suffolk and West Country and they all start to sound the same.

Make me wonder where our current accent here in the South East comes from

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I can hear a slight difference as you say, but mix this accent with Norfolk/suffolk and West Country and they all start to sound the same.

Make me wonder where our current accent here in the South East comes from

I think the mass movement of Londoners away from the city and into the home counties has had a 'levelling' effect. Mass media has also homogenised southern English pronunciation. It's a great pity.

 

[dannyboy]

The gardener I work with who has lived in Ardingly for 4 generations etc. has quite a strong accent which most people assume is West Country. I still hear a few old uns with the twang but he has the purest that I know of.

dobby?

 

[Dolph Ins]

dobby?

'fraid so

 

[symyjym]

I disagree. There is definitely a Brighton accent that's well-established for over a century. The proof is in listening to old Max Miller recordings from the mid-20th Century, well before Mockney was ever a 'thing'. Miller was born and bred Brighton, lived here all his life and the way he spoke, I still hear all the the time in Brighton and Worthing. I can't put my finger on it but there's a softness to his voice that Mockneys don't have and there's certain ways he says words that are definitely not said the same way in London.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm61yavCp-o

Sounds a bit Jewish to me

 

[Robinjakarta]

Here's a wonderful example of the old Sussex dialect, still alive and well. It's John Copper from the famous Rottingdean family and he's describing the Seaford countryside back in the day as told to him by his Granddad, Jimmy Copper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-Z1lg2Q_4

This is lovely and iswith a very different accent from that on Page 2 of this thread. I agree with the poster who said the earlier one sounded west country. This one is familiar as the accent I grew up with in mid Sussex sin the 1950s and later. This is most definitely a Sussex accent, and there is evidence of this from the speaker, his family and locality. I don't think the earlier one is.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

This is lovely and iswith a very different accent from that on Page 2 of this thread. I agree with the poster who said the earlier one sounded west country. This one is familiar as the accent I grew up with in mid Sussex sin the 1950s and later. This is most definitely a Sussex accent, and there is evidence of this from the speaker, his family and locality. I don't think the earlier one is.

Both accents are genuine. My grandfather and his generation's in his family had accents that were much thicker than the one you commented on, they were similar to the first one posted.