People who call South London "sarf"

[boohoo]

Just because it doesn't happen to be saaaaaaaaaaaaarf of the River doesn't mean it's not saaaaaaaaaaaaaarf. It has an SW postcode

sarf london is only the area south of the river. The rest are pretenders to the south london throne.

 

[zenie]

yes, I don't mind people calling it Sahf, or Sowf or Sarf or however you want to spell it, I object to people writing it

Minnie: the voice of reason.

I'd object too, it's bad English

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I'd object too, it's bad English

Eggsactly

How do locals pronounce Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool etc.

People don't go round spelling those places as they're pronounced by the locals.

 

[quimcunx]

Eggsactly

How do locals pronounce Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool etc.

People don't go round spelling those places as they're pronounced by the locals.

Glesgae.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

my other half, is from dahn sarf
down morden way, its what they say

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Glesgae.

Yes, but they don't go writing it do they

I bet there's no t-shirts with it written on either

Maybe people are scared they'd get a Glesgae kiss off a native

 

[Pip]

sarf londoners tend to drop their 'th' so it is perfectly reasonable to say sarf.

Yeah, but that would be Souf London. When people imitate our accents they say saaarf, and I've never ever ever heard anyone say it like that unless they were taking the piss.

Basically it's outrageous and offensive and affirmative action is what's needed

 

[ohmyliver]

It's silly

and even sillier are people who wear t-shirts saying sarf London

I've got a very old Carter USM t-shirt with the pet shop boys on the front, and on the back saying 'sarf london cheeky as f*ck'. Thankfully I've not worn it since 1991

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yeah, but that would be Souf London. When people imitate our accents they say saaarf, and I've never ever ever heard anyone say it like that unless they were taking the piss.

Basically it's outrageous and offensive and affirmative action is what's needed

Glad to hear it's not just me then

They should be whipped, except they'd probably enjoy it

 

[ringo]

I used it in the title of a thread this morning. I'll be using it much more now.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I used it in the title of a thread this morning. I'll be using it much more now.

I shall derail every one of your threads

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

are you sure that they don't mean the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (Sarf)? - their main aim is "to support research into aquaculture and related areas", and as its so soggy on the wrong side of the river, it would be an easy mistake to make i reckon.....

 

[zenie]

Yeah, but that would be Souf London. When people imitate our accents they say saaarf, and I've never ever ever heard anyone say it like that unless they were taking the piss.

Basically it's outrageous and offensive and affirmative action is what's needed

See 'aase for house, it's the drawn out vowel sounds innnit?

I used it in the title of a thread this morning. I'll be using it much more now.

Then be prepared to have people think you're illiterate

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

See 'aase for house, it's the drawn out vowel sounds innnit?



Then be prepared to have people think you're illiterate

You tell him Z

 

[ringo]

I are!

 

[Pip]

See 'aase for house, it's the drawn out vowel sounds innnit?



Then be prepared to have people think you're illiterate

Yeah but house said like that sounds like ass, if you use the saarf rule it would sound like arse and that's ridiculous.

Anyone up for a bloody uprising?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I are!

I agree, you is

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Yeah but house said like that sounds like ass, if you use the saarf rule it would sound like arse and that's ridiculous.

Anyone up for a bloody uprising?

Count me in

 

[zenie]

Yeah but house said like that sounds like ass, if you use the saarf rule it would sound like arse and that's ridiculous.

Anyone up for a bloody uprising?

You drop the h and the o because an a!

London
The accents of this region are uniformly nonrhotic, that is, the sound [ɹ] occurs only before vowels. Before consonants and in word-final position it is dropped, for example far /fɑː/, farm /fɑːm/.
Some characteristics of a London accent include:

• diphthongal realization of /iː/ and /uː/, for example beat [bɪit], boot [bʊʉt]
• diphthongal realization of /ɔː/ in open syllables, for example bore [bɔə], paw [pɔə] versus a monophthongal realization in closed syllables, for example board [boːd], pause [poːz]. But the diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause can contrast with bored [bɔəd] and paws [pɔəz].
• lengthening of /æ/ in a few words such as man, sad, bag etc., leading to a split of /æ/ into two phonemes /æ/ and /æː/, as in Australian English. See bad-lad split.
• an allophone of /əʊ/ before "dark L" ([ɫ]), namely [ɒʊ], for example whole [hɒʊɫ] versus holy [həʊli]. But the [ɒʊ] is retained when the addition of a suffix turns the "dark L" clear, so that wholly [hɒʊli] can contrast with holy.

It is also common to hear young Londoners drop "(to) the" from sentences related to going places (such as: Do you want to go cinema?/Do you want to go West End?).

I do the last bit all the time, but never thought it was a Londonism?

Also who says asked and who says arst?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

You drop the h and the o because an a!



I do the last bit all the time, but never thought it was a Londonism?

Also who says asked and who says arst?

Stop talking gobbledegook with little squares

I say asked. What's wrong with that. It's proper English innit

 

[Brainaddict]

I also think it's usually closer to sowf than sarf, but now it's been decided that it's sarf people will probably change their pronunciation to match it I've been told that (shit) cockney accents in the media have had an effect on real cockney accents, because people want to identify as cockney and want to make sure everyone knows they have a cockney accent. Don't know if it's true though. Someone told me in a pub one time.

 

[Pip]

You drop the h and the o because an a!



I do the last bit all the time, but never thought it was a Londonism?

Also who says asked and who says arst?

I say arksed unless I catch myself. I remember our teacher actually having to give the whole class a lesson on how to say asked it still feels like an unnatural affectation to say it correctly. I think that's mostly young people isn't it? Which is a totally different accent altogether.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I say arksed unless I catch myself.

yeah, but she didn't ask who says "arksed"

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I also think it's usually closer to sowf than sarf, but now it's been decided that it's sarf people.

Has it? When? Who decided?

 

[zenie]

I also think it's usually closer to sowf than sarf, but now it's been decided that it's sarf people will probably change their pronunciation to match it I've been told that (shit) cockney accents in the media have had an effect on real cockney accents, because people want to identify as cockney and want to make sure everyone knows they have a cockney accent. Don't know if it's true though. Someone told me in a pub one time.

Sowf, w and then f. It's never been that, and always lazy o lazy th

I say arksed unless I catch myself. I remember our teacher actually having to give the whole class a lesson on how to say asked it still feels like an unnatural affectation to say it correctly. I think that's mostly young people isn't it? Which is a totally different accent altogether.

Nah my step dad used to say arst

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I say arksed unless I catch myself. I remember our teacher actually having to give the whole class a lesson on how to say asked it still feels like an unnatural affectation to say it correctly. I think that's mostly young people isn't it? Which is a totally different accent altogether.

Isn't that more Caribbean influence though?

 

[Brainaddict]

Sowf, w and then f. It's never been that, and always lazy o lazy th

Mmm, it's difficult to write the pronunciation exactly. The 'w' obviously isn't pronounced clearly as though you were saying cowfield. But I still think sowf is closer than sarf - where does that 'r' come from?
Let's make recordings of ten random south londoners in the next week and report back with the evidence

ETA: maybe 'saaf' makes more sense?

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Mmm, it's difficult to write the pronunciation exactly. The 'w' obviously isn't pronounced clearly as though you were saying cowfield. But I still think sowf is closer than sarf - where does that 'r' come from?
Let's make recordings of ten random south londoners in the next week and report back with the evidence

ETA: maybe 'saaf' makes more sense?

Yeah, but you'd have to make sure they actually came from South London and weren't just newcomers

 

[spanglechick]

London
The accents of this region are uniformly nonrhotic, that is, the sound [ɹ] occurs only before vowels. Before consonants and in word-final position it is dropped, for example far /fɑː/, farm /fɑːm/.
^^
from zenie's post

so there is categortically no R sound, which is what I said (although my dad, who was from kentish town used to pronounce long, long A sounds that sounded like Rs - hence saaaaf/sarf, plaaaaastic/plarstic)

south london accents tend to be long and slidey and soft in sound. Think ice skating. East london accents are more stacatto, like boxing, if you will.

because most people cant read phonetics, I use the H to denote a short A - so saahf,k and not saarf - which saaaf could be read as

 

[lang rabbie]

sowf ... innit

The South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter's project to get down with da yoot (sorry, put young people at the heart of the arts as visitors, creators and advocates) is called SOWF (Some Other Way Forward).

I practically had to shout "geddit?" at people.