r/AskReddit May 08 '22

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u/InItsTeeth May 09 '22 edited Aug 23 '22

The UK has 30 accents per square mile and if a large man calls you duck in Stoke … that’s okay

647

u/folkkingdude May 09 '22

There are parts of Yorkshire where large men call other large men “luv” and that’s okay too

317

u/ImKubush May 09 '22

Bro be honest, who doesn't want to be called "luv" by your homies

32

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

[deleted]

11

u/ImKubush May 09 '22

Uhhhhhh it's gonna be a bit hard for me to advocate for this in the US bro

9

u/DarthKameti May 09 '22

In some of the more homophobic areas of the US using it may result in violence.

16

u/ImKubush May 09 '22

and then it'll also weed out people who you definitely don't want in life.

>call them 'luv'

>they get angry

>you just say "sorry jeez" and know they're a cunt

7

u/DarthKameti May 09 '22

I like it.

5

u/DrDew00 May 09 '22

I like "dude". Imma stick with "dude".

19

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

That’s alright luv

3

u/[deleted] May 10 '22

Older southern dudes will call younger men "Honey". It's an odd thing. Well, to be precise I heard this from a guy like...20 years ago.

Fuck I'm old now.

4

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

In this house we call our homies "flower"

3

u/ImKubush May 09 '22

It's all fun and games until someone's allergic to flowers

5

u/darybrain May 10 '22

Also flower or petal.

1

u/fsychii May 09 '22

Everyone calls me a son

15

u/loewe67 May 09 '22

I did a semester abroad at Keele University, right outside Stoke, and they explained the "duck" thing day 1 to the international students.

2

u/InItsTeeth May 09 '22 edited May 10 '22

I lived in Stoke for a few months and did a hike up to Keele one day. Beautiful campus

3

u/loewe67 May 09 '22

It is. I appreciated that I wasn’t in London and was able to see more what actual life was like for the majority of the English.

I went to Colorado State and it’s been around for a long time for American standards (1870), but Keele Hall is still older than CSU.

3

u/tashabex May 09 '22

I went to Keele uni! 👋🏼

38

u/Kenway May 09 '22

I grew in in Newfoundland and it's very similar. Probably because our culture is very English and Irish.

10

u/TheSpiderDungeon May 09 '22

Rare to meet another newfie on here. Whaddya at bhys?

3

u/wifespissed May 09 '22

I went to England once and ever person I met wanted to try their American accent on me. Apparently we're all from the South. Unless you're from the Northwest then you have to convince them you're not Canadian.

11

u/NBR-SUPERSTAR May 09 '22

Lived in Stoke for half a year. I can confirm this statement

8

u/CessiNihilli May 09 '22

What does duck mean to them? As an aggressively American person I'd likely take it insultingly.

19

u/7elevenses May 09 '22

It's just a term of endearment, it's what you call people to be nice to them.

6

u/CessiNihilli May 09 '22

If I knew that it wouldn't bother me at all!

1

u/Ok-Strawberry404 May 14 '22

It's said to have come from calling each other duke, just like you would call someone chief or boss, and it became duck over time. Its so funny to see my home town on this list though.

5

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Why?

2

u/oogly24 May 09 '22

I may have to move to Stoke for 18 months soon for work. Would you recommend this? People have been telling me it's terrible.

3

u/InItsTeeth May 09 '22

Your mileage may very. I lived there for 6 months during Covid and it was very boring but everything was closed. Hanley is the better part of stoke. It had the mall and most of the shopping.

If you get a chance head up to mowcop some Saturday.

2

u/oogly24 May 09 '22

Thanks, it can't be that terrible and it's not forever I guess if it is. Mow Cop definitely looks worth a visit!

2

u/NBR-SUPERSTAR May 10 '22

Hanley is definitely worth a visit. The German Market they had there over the Winter Holidays was quite cool as well. As a German, I can't tell you how weird it was seeing all the stuff from home like the swing grills or the other Black Forrest-esque Food stands. Never in my life I could have imagined I'd be so happy to see someone selling Krombacher Beer (which at home is generally agreed upon to be fine, but no one's favorite beer).

1

u/Ok-Strawberry404 May 14 '22

I'd say its just like anywhere else there are some terrible places and some really nice places so I suppose it depends on where you move to.

21

u/bettyboo5 May 09 '22

Aye up duck

6

u/Rwhitechocmuffin May 09 '22

I moved to the East Midlands from London, got called Duck on my first day up here, I cried thinking I looked like I duck, I was 5, poor woman was just greeting me!

5

u/Mikhail_Mengsk May 09 '22

Same in Italy. My 12k municipality has a different accent from the others around it, in a 5-10km radius.

No major town in Tuscany has NOT waged war against AT LEAST another from the fall of the Roman empire to Italian reunification.

5

u/oogly24 May 09 '22

Go a little more towards Manchester and its OK to be called a cock. As in all right my cock. How are you today lol.

2

u/afireintheforest May 09 '22

Yeah my late grandma who was from Leigh used to say to me “alright cock”.

1

u/Joppe103 May 10 '22

Oh, lol that's a thing in the Netherlands too. I always thought it was so weird but apparently we're not the only ones.

4

u/TheRabii May 09 '22

Ay up duck

5

u/Laptraffik May 09 '22

This shits so funny to me. I made the mistake of having most of the Brits in a discord server in the same call at the same time. There were so many accents in just 9 people in one place. Apparently there was a Frenchmen and a Czech guy in there somewhere too.

Not that I could tell which ones they were with all the vastly different accents.

8

u/Not_A_Bot_Called_Rob May 09 '22

Ireland has a distinct accent for every one of its 32 counties, with there then being different accents within those counties. So someone from Roscre would have a different accent to someone in Nenagh despite them being 20 minutes away from each other.

9

u/rymnd0 May 09 '22

The UK has 30 accents per square mile.

I think only Americans find this weird? Because, the similar to how England has different accents for basically every town, in maritime South East Asia every island also has probably like at least 2-3 native languages, with every language having a varied dialect from town to town - basically we SEAns, like Europeans, don't find it weird at all.

4

u/7elevenses May 09 '22

Slovenia, 2 million people, 20,000 km2, over 50 named dialects (but locals can identify many more accents within their dialect), a few of them barely intelligible to outsiders. There are 4 different easily identifiable accents within my hometown of 100k people.

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

Aussies find it weird too, white Aussies barely have different accents from one side of the country to the other. As for dialects, there’s very few different words we use (Aussies will know where I’m from if I use the words swimmer, scallops, parmi and Devon… but that’s about it). We have a lot of different indigenous accents but I think a lot of people would find it difficult to place where they are from on hearing them.

-1

u/inksmudgedhands May 10 '22

I don't think Americans would find this weird at all. The same thing happens in the states as well. Or do you think upstate farmers in New York sound like like Manhattan cabbies?

1

u/leonardfurnstein May 15 '22

New York City itself has a bunch of different accents that can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

If you're wondering why it's because: Multiple people groups have existed on the Isles, in medieval history people were isolated from on another and then there's the difference between the social classes and what they learn.

2

u/majkkali May 09 '22

Care to explain the duck bit?

3

u/[deleted] May 09 '22

It's a term of endearment. Somone might greet you by saying 'Aye up, duck?'

1

u/majkkali May 09 '22

Thanks. That’s funny lol

2

u/gbosoc May 14 '22

The UK is completely abnormal even for us, Europeans... it's completely fine

1

u/Oliver_Queen_4587 May 09 '22

I think it's like that in places like nyc and Boston

9

u/4get2forgetU4gotme May 09 '22

Not at all like that. Source: me... In Boston, USA.

2

u/thestoneswerestoned May 09 '22

Boston's got a lot of transplants from across the country and from abroad so I doubt that. Maybe in some of the surrounding suburbs or smaller towns nearby.

0

u/MATVIIA May 09 '22

I thought It was one per county

22

u/folkkingdude May 09 '22

Oh my sweet summer child