My Accent

As mentioned in my last blog, I speak in a “strong” Yorkshire dialect. Being the largest county in the United Kingdom, there are obviously several dialects that are spoken within Yorkshire depending on which area you originate from. If you’re from outside Yorkshire, you probably think we all talk like how we are represented on the British soap opera Emmerdale (despite there being quite a few geordies on that show these days, what’s that about?!). However, having been born and raised in East Yorkshire, I’ve noticed how differently people talk in others parts of Yorkshire too.

From personal knowledge, I knew that the Yorkshire accent originally came from the Vikings when they took over most of Northern England, as well as parts of the East, during the 9th century before conquering the South and West of England. After expanding my knowledge further, I read that they divided Yorkshire into 3 districts that would become the North, West and East Ridings, which are still commonly used as sub-counties today. West Yorkshire is said to have the more broader accent, which apparently came from the hardworking millworkers during the 19th century. North-Eastern parts of Yorkshire are much more rural and the small communities surrounded by farms gave them the “softer” accent.

I come from Goole in East Yorkshire (basically near Hull) so my accent is pretty “slang”, or as some may say, how “chavs” would talk; which, coming from near Hull, they wouldn’t be wrong. The most common characteristic about the East Yorkshire accent is that we tend to not say the word “the”. This word is forbidden. For example: “I am just going to the shop”, would be, “Am just off t’shop”, in our dialect. Last year I tasked the “Tumblr Accent Challenge (below)" and uploaded the video to youtube. The comments I received were mainly how they find my accent funny and that I tend to miss-pronounce a lot of words, which again is another characteristic of the Yorkshire accent.

Overtime, with the affects of media and popular culture, accents around different regions of England have changed over the years. I, myself, find myself picking up “scouse” phrases after watching an episode of Grange Hill or Hollyoaks. However, because some parts of Yorkshire have remained rural and isolated, there are many places still where people talk with a true Yorkshire accent and have retained many traditional sayings and phrases. People find the Yorkshire accent very distinctive and our miss-pronunciations are what defines it.

Despite being hard for people outside of Yorkshire to understand, the Yorkshire accent is generally perceived as quite comical and is used as a centre topic in many stand-up comedian shows, though usually it is over-exaggerated. Examples of celebrities who speak in strong Yorkshire accents include Jane McDonald, Melanie B and Keith Lemon.

Personally, I love having a Yorkshire accent because the ‘missing out words’ and comical side to the accent reflects the laid-back type of person I am and makes me proud of being a true Yorkshireman.

Hi..

Hi there, I'm Daniel (Daniel Thomas Fielding, to be precise), and this is my first ever blog. Since this is my first blog, I have decided to dedicate this to my one and only true love - myself. The main reason I decided to create a blog was because I find other social networking sites (twitter, facebook) limit my thoughts due to the character limits and who’s reading them etc. Having my own blog gives me the freedom to write what I want and express my opinions on things without having people judging me (not that I care too much about what people think of me anyway, but hey..) Sooo let’s begin..!

I am currently living in London whilst ‘studying’ in my first - and last - year at university (I’ll explain more why I plan to quit further-on in this blog!). I’m originally from the North of England in Yorkshire where I have lived for 18 years before moving here. I grew up in the small town and port of Goole (yeah, you probably won’t have heard of it!) where I have plenty of friends and family there who I miss HUGE amounts! I studied at the local school Goole High School where I received my GCSEs and BTEC before moving on to the 6th Form college in 2009 where I received my diploma. Come June 2011 I left 6th Form and enrolled onto a course at the London Metropolitan University in September after summer break to study Computing. You’d think I’d be excited about the fact I got into a university in London, right? Well at first I was, until I actually got here..

My life at Uni has honestly been a nightmare. Firstly, I live in student halls based in Wood Green in North London, probably one of the worst places to live, ever. Before I moved here I was warned that Wood Green is one of the roughest places in London, which they were right; after 4 days of living here a guy just around the corner from halls was STABBED. From then on things just got increasingly worse. During ‘Introduction Week’ at uni hardly anyone could understand my accent (I speak in a really strong Yorkshire dialect), I was ill for like the first 2 weeks of lectures so had to MISS them; I literally had to get someone I hardly knew from halls to go shopping for me because I was that sick, I couldn’t even leave my bed without passing out. Basically, I was doomed from the start. The thing that made the whole experience worse was the fact nearly EVERYONE at my uni looked like they were in their late 20s, I felt like I was about 5 sat next to them in the lecture halls, and I believe I was treated a whole lot differently by other students and lectures because of my age, too.

The past year hasn’t been a total waste, though.. well, it has, but I have learned so much about myself along the way. I now know what I would like to do as a future career; which is to become a writer/novelist as I have discovered that it is indeed where my passion truly lies. Most importantly, though, I have learned how to live independently and look after myself without anyone else there to protect me. Being a small-town boy from the North of England moving to London (where I had never been to prior, btw), I think it was a brave decision and I’m proud of myself for proving that I can live on my own in a strange place and take care of myself. Uni might have been a fail but I don’t care now I know what really want to do in the future.

Future plans after my first year of uni are to move back home and find a job to pay my way whilst I write my first book of a 3-book series I have been planning since late January of this year - which I’m so excited about! I also intend to continue writing blogs about various things I love and umm yeah, that’s me..