Alex McGowan’s Blog

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

FAMOUS FEATURES BLOG

By Alexandra McGowan for Famous Features

‘You say tomay-to, I say tomar-to,’ goes the classic sung by jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

Here in the Famous Features office, we feel like we’re living that song on a daily basis.

This week, there’s been a potent mix of: Crawley (Sally) Germany (Stef), Newcastle (boy Joe), Essex (girl Jo), Glasgow (Lorna) and Manchester (me), all in the one office.

What a melting pot of accents and dialects, and a great excuse to poke fun at each other.

‘Here you gan, pet,’ read one of my emails on Monday. Joe had sent me something to edit, and apparently that was Geordie for ‘Here you go, love.’

‘Nay bother,’ trills our lovely new girl Lorna as she speaks to people about their incredible real life stories, as we sell them to national newspapers and magazines.

‘It’s DAIN-GEROUS!’ exclaims our editor, Sally Windsor, who hails from Crawley but often slips into a sairf-London drawl.

We have concluded that no-one uses the word ‘Wally’ apart from her, either. Is that a suvvern fing as well?

Stef constantly impressed us with her ability to interview in English professionally and completely fluently, before babbling away on her mobile if one of her German friends called her.

And girl Jo? ‘Alright my darlin’’ she drawls in her dulcet Colchester tones. Even though she doesn’t wear white heels, she’s Essex through and through.

The differences between us all lead to no end of hilarity and confusion. For example, when Lorna thinks someone is attractive, we think she’s saying that they’re ‘fat’ – because that’s how it sounds when she says ‘fit’. Jokes!

Do you have a funny story to tell about accents and dialect? Did you meet your now-hubby, who has a completely different accent to you, through a funny misunderstanding down to the different ways you spoke?

Or has an accident left you with a completely different accent, as in the case of Sarah Colwill, who now speaks with a Chinese accent after experiencing chronic migraine pain?

It’s an unusual story, and one that we would be able to sell for a great fee to one of the women’s magazines, or national newspapers.

Get in touch with your funny accent stories – we can’t wait to hear them, whichever part of the country you’re from!