Royal Mail service and Accents

Delivery times are variable BUT the speed by which they operate is phenomenal. Case in point, I was on the phone with the director of Off the Page yesterday around 3:30 pm about booking my spot in a workshop. Our conversation determined that a paper copy of the form needed to be sent (mailed). It arrived here today at @ 10 am. The speed of the Royal Mail service is really something special. This wasn’t the only time, either, that a piece of mail has arrived so expeditiously. There’s a current movement right now to do away with having county names in the address. This is causing some consternation for people in Essex and Middlesex

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10825499

A side note, a book I read (or something similar) recently referred to the onset of the ZIP code. On reflection, I’m certain it was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This book is set in 1963 in Mississippi and I liked learning that the US started the ZIP code system as late as that. It wasn’t required at first for private homes but was something that started as a way to regulate business mailings.

http://inventors.about.com/od/xyzstartinventions/a/zipcode.htm

So, the residents of certain counties here may not live in that county technically. But counties are really a lot like our states. One guy who commented on the BBC article  is a police officer and said that seeing the county name on documents helps him ‘get an idea where someone is from’.

Isn’t this familiar? Really, when you hear about what state someone is from, don’t you sort of get an idea of what that person is all about? It may or may not be a false perception of the person (Grapes of Wrath) but doesn’t it help you orient yourself on the person’s place in your idiom? I know what someone from Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, or New York might be like…but I’m having a hard time with Nevada.

I think the same thing is true here. People from this county are known as Geordies and Geordies have a reputation as supporters of Newcastle United. Northumberland and Durham are called ‘Geordieland’. Wikipedia reports a newspaper survey saying that the Geordie accent is found to be the ‘most attractive in England’. Which I find weird because I’ve met some people who’ve indicated that they find the accent harsh on the ears and really hard to understand. These people were from down South, like Bristol or London or something…I forget what.

It’s interesting to me that I can see a parallel with the US. Durham is in the northeast of the country and the accents here are harsh and quick. The further south, the accents have more of a drawl, posh-like. (author’s note: while haven’t been very far south, have met people from the south who don’t sound like Peter. Peter is the bartender with attitude and he’s got the harsh accent to go with it.) The same can be said of the US. In the northeast, you got the Noo Yawk and Noo Joisey accent that is fast and can be harsh sounding. And the farther south you go, you get the drawl and twang.

And then you’ve got Desi…who manages to combine the two in a fascinating amalgamation of sound. I dunno how she does it.

I hear that there’s betting going on about Natalie’s accent changing. I find this hilarious. Because really, she wasn’t having much of an accent to begin with. Yeh she’s going to a school where she’ll hear people talking and who’ll be talking to her, but then she comes home and I put on that twang like butter on a hot biscuit. I don’t think we’ll be here that long for a Geordie accent to really take hold but if it does, I got a fiver to put in the pot.