Quote: SLIMply winning! "so you know beyond all doubt that no one from leeds ever speaks and uses "tha or thee" in their usual speach patterns, bollox! your talking out of tha arrse!'"
A resounding YES.A few years ago I could recognise all the different Leeds accents,and there were quite a few,East Leeds I.E York road area were traditionally a mix of Irish and Italian ,going back to the mid to late 19th century,and York roader's spoke faster and didn't always say T instead of the like other parts do.South leeds Hunslet and other areas did speak a bit broader ,but never spoke thee and tha,but travel out a bit to Rothwell ,Kippax etc you will hear thee and tha.West Leeds Armley ,Bramley ,Stanningley,It always A slower way of speaking JJB,JP,even Bailey.I come from Bramley and the older Bramley folk did speak broad,but not thee and tha .Then there is North Leeds Moortown ,Chapel Allerton,Alwoodley etc ,well that area was alway's dominated by the Jewish accent.In last 20 years there have been another influx of people from the South and of course MERSEYSIDE,and that is also adding to the accent too.I speak with a downtown Leeds accent something like Maurice Bamford, and last time I was home I was in a shop and a girl from London said you come from rarnd ere lav?I said "Leeds born n bred"she said "reelly never wuold o guessed,and of course there are thousands of students in the city and some stay.Its a cosmopolitan city and the ccent has never been broad yorkshire and its changing all the time
