When you have an encounter with a stranger I suppose you, unconsciously perhaps, form an opinion of what they will sound like before you first hear them speak. So this morning when, as I was walking down the street, I young black woman came up to me looking for directions. I think in my subconscious I was predicting what accent she might have in this order:
- Sarf London (and yes it sounds horrible)
- Caribbean
- African
- French
- Received pronunciation (hey - there isn't a BBC studio in Bromley!)
- American
So imagine my surprise when she asked for directions to 69 Tweedy Road in the softest, most lilting country Irish accent one could imagine.
I hope this doesn't make me racist. Had she been white the sequence probably would have been:
- Sarf London (horrible irrespective of race)
- Received pronunciation
- East European
- Irish
- French
- Scottish
- Welsh
- American
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