To think there's no identity in the south east?

[catsarenice]

This is inspired from lots of other threads that crop up but mainly the scone and santa ones!! People from certain regions/counties seem to really have their own identities and pronunciations etc. I am from the south east and can never say 'we pronounce it as .... where I live'. I know people that say 'scon' and others that say 'scoan', some say 'Santa' some say 'Father Christmas'. I also couldn't tell you if someone was from Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Essex or London (unless they're on Towie or Eastenders!!!). However, there seems to be real identity 'up north' and distinction with accents e.g. specific towns/cities within a county such as Sheffield and Leeds. Is this because people move around more down here? Don't even call our bread rolls the same thing as each other around here!!! So AIBU to think this is correct?

Maybe people from the south east think the same about northerners ?I'm from greater Manchester i can tell the difference in a south manchester and say bolton accent but thats because i live here American accents all sound the same to me and im prettty sure there are differences!

Just seen you are from the south east so I'm not sure Op!

Having been brought up in Berkshire I must admit the idea of a county identity or county pride was quite bewildering as i moved north. No one is ever "proud to come from Berkshire " - probably because the population of Berkshire is made up of people from across the UK/world who are too busy getting on with their lives to appreciate the huge cultural wealth or natural beauty around them or something.

But this isn't true of all parts of the SE by any means.

There did use to be distinctive accents and dialect in the SE, OP - when I was a child. I haven't heard a true Bucks accent in decades, though my dad has a Berks one. I occasionally hear an Oxfordshire accent but that's possibly because it's more rural as a county. The commonest accent you hear in the SE now is Estuarine, I think.

Perhaps it's because people tend to move to the SE from other regions more frequently, because of work/London/wages and over time, the original accents have been diluted?

I'm from the South East and I think if you were there pre-1997 there is an identity.

Trouble is the high cost of housing has displaced so many people it has broken up a lot of communities, people have ended up in different places and diminished that identity a lot.

I live in Yorkshire now and it's quite usual to have lots of people who've grown up around where they live. In the South East that's only true for a lucky few.

YANBU. I’m in the Home Counties and I know exactly what you mean. I expect some bits of the South East do have more of an identity but most it’s just all a bit blah. I’d love to have an accent and to care passionately about what to call a bread roll. I don’t even consistently use the same pronunciation of scone.

That's why so many from abroad make a home on the south east, because it doesn't have a rigid identity. Much much more broad and ultimately that is more welcoming to outsiders.

Oi am from Baaarkshoire and we say scone (not scon).

My ex was a South African.

Said that outside of London and south east he felt like an outsider, whereas didn't get that feeling when in London and Kent because he was rubbing shoulders with English, French, German, South African etc

I'm a Londoner born and bred and proud of it!

although I currently live just outside the M25

I've lived in Hampshire, Kent, Sussex and the Midlands

Hampshire accents, real ones I can tell apart. Essex is easy ! I can usually tell someone from Kent/SE London too if they're local to me now, i.e. Moved, as I've lived in the Midlands half my life now
But yes there's no real sense of being territorial or tribal as we all are just one group of southerners and that's fine!

Mrsschadenfreude ! Not in Windsor we don't!

I'm from the south east and we have billy the quid! Be proud op! The state of our towns!

I've lived in Essex my whole 40 years. Trust me, if I spoke to you, you would be able tell.

I think it's maybe because the South East is more of a melting pot. You may hear it more as people have moved South for work yet want an attachment to where they call home.

I live in Brighton and I'm a hugely proud Brightonian. We definitely have our own identity.

When I first moved here, I thought, my god, I've finally found my people. I'd never live anywhere else.

I grew up in a part of the South East that is now referred to as 'London' on the news. When I was growing up it wasn't seen as part of London but as part of the neighbouring county. It had its own identity and still has, to some extent, despite ever increasing house prices.
I live up North now and get a lot of 'Ooh, London isn't friendly, nobody talks to each other on the underground' but where I grew up it was friendly and still is sometimes!

I think it has a lot to do with Kent, Hampshire, Surrey etc all being effectively places people who work in London live. The majority of households have at least one person who spends the bulk of the working day in London, so the accents have merged as people don't spend all their time just with people who own homes within an hours drive radius of their house in the way that many other parts of the country do.

Fast train links into London do 'hide' just how geographically long commutes are for many London workers, in other parts of the country people would find it strange to live so physically far away from where you work.

That said, now I've lived in Kent for a while, I can tell the difference with a Kentish accent to other South Eastern ones, and DH's Kent family do have very traditional ways to say things that other families who've lived in the area for a long time do as well, but our town is on such a good train link to London, less than half of DC1's classmates have parents who grew up in Kent, and only 2 who have grandparents living in our town (rather than being in one of the other Kent towns/villages with crapper train links!)

DP loves a scouse accent - never hear of anyone fawning over a Kent one!!!

BarbarianMum - my family are from Windsor, going back at least 5 generations, and they all say scone.

Obviously I can't speak for the Johnny-come-latelys.

Perhaps my accent spotting is rubbish - I can never recognise a fellow Kent dweller!!! Just know they're 'south Eastern'bb

I can tell the difference between a 'cockney ' E End accent, S London accent and Estuary.

Depends where you're from in Kent. I can spot a Dartfordian from a Maidstonian from a Dovarian

I live in the SE and agree with you OP, there's no regional identify or pride in where we live. I was born in the SE and always lived here because it's where my family are, but I don't really like it.

How very dare you.
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