The Lemon Fool

Fascinating survey of the way English and Scottish regional accents changed in the last century, using extensive recordings made by the Germans (!) in their WW1 POW camps. Presenter Joan Washington has an enviable grasp of the most subtle nuances of local accents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywg03b574oQ

Remarkable.

And the method of determining the recording speed as described 12 mins in.
How clever that they would realised the need for that.
Nowadays we think of those records as 78s, but I used to have a Cliftophone where the default speed was 80 rpm.

V8

Fascinating, I've spent most of this cold and foggy afternoon being entertained and educated by this programme, thank you so much for posting the link.

R6

I would loved to have asked her whether singing (as recorded in the clip) vis-a-vis normal speech changed the accent, raising the intonation for those with monotone accents such as Norfolk, and flattening it for those with lilts such as West Country.

And to eliminate individual variations, she could even have compared older recordings of the great Welsh male voice choirs of North Wales (e.g. Rhos) and those of South Wales (e.g. Treorchy) - both mining districts with similar milieu, but the South has a marked lilt; such choirs all recorded many of the same standard Welsh hymns.

Ms Washington died last year. In her private life she was married to actor Richard E. Grant (she was his first voice coach!).

stewamax wrote:I would loved to have asked her whether singing (as recorded in the clip) vis-a-vis normal speech changed the accent, raising the intonation for those with monotone accents such as Norfolk, and flattening it for those with lilts such as West Country.

Having performed around the Somerset folk music scene for more years than I'd care to admit, I can confirm that singing in a public space alters the accent by minus 70 years. And that you can double the time warp effect just by cupping one hand around your ear and intoning the magic word "nyaaaaaaaaaah".

A pint of cider, or maybe three, and you're an authentic throwback to the sounds of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685.) What a pity that Cecil Sharp never thought of that.

BJ