"Snapshots" of English pronunciation

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Well, it wasn't quite like that.  "Accents" or more properly "dialects" vary quite a bit all over Britain.

They're mostly more accents than dialects these days, sadly (you can blame mass culture for that). And once upon a time, more than that really. The distinctive words don't get used so often, even where the accents remain strong.

One thing I always find very sad is the death (within the lifetime of my parents, not even my grandparents) of the traditional calls to animals; they were probably older than almost any English word still in use.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Now, the closest living relative of English is Frisian, but it has undergone a number of changes, some making it similar to English, some making it different.

I was informed the other day (no idea if it's true) that people in Frisia drink tea. I laughed for slightly too long...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I write differently to how I speak. A gap between writing and speaking isn't that unusual.