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?

BoysOfMelody - true, however even in those very white towns of the South East, it's much more common for lots of people to have not grown up in the area they now live, and to not work in the town they live in, for a lot of the country, people really have lived in the same town/area for 4/5/6+ generations.

House prices and the big need in London for far more workers than it can house does mean that you don't have the same traditions, and regional belonging feel as in other parts of the country, even if ethnically there's not much variety.

t's much more common for lots of people to have not grown up in the area they now live, and to not work in the town they live in, for a lot of the country, people really have lived in the same town/area for 4/5/6+ generations.

Really? That doesn't reflect my experience at all. All of Britain's major cities had slum clearance programs after WW2 and new housing estates set up on the periphery, along with commuter towns springing up. Other older settlements were expanded massively with new housing in the 60s and 70s for incomers.

The majority of the population outside the south east live in large towns and cities, not a rural backwater!

But there really is no identity - it's just 'southern'. I can recognise an accent from Newcastle, Leeds, Warrington, Manchester, Liverpool etc but it's just lumped together here. You hear things on tv like 'oh she's a typical no nonsense Leeds lass' etc but I couldn't tell you what a 'Canterbury girl' is known for! Obviously there's stuff about Essex girls but not particularly flattering!! I've lived here all my life and have friends across the county but I couldn't identify which part they're from. It's not just about accent - more a sense of identity within a town/county that even personality is dictated a little by where you live.

I think YABU.

I'm from Essex (and definitely sound as though I am). I can hear the distinct differences in accents across the county - for example, I tend to find that north Essex accents have a country twang to them, whereas those from the Loughton area sound harder and more London like. However, that's because I'm local and therefore am more aware of the subtleties of the accent.

But there really is no identity - it's just 'southern'.

If someone said they were from Barking or Surbiton or Tonbridge Wells or Romford, I could draw on a distinct archetype for each. (Displaced cockney racists, posh commuter, retired Major writing furious letters to newspaper and white wine spritzers chugging xr3i driving wide boys/girls)

That's not true, there's areas of the south east populated b by big posh sods in red trousers,

I had a real broad Hampshire accent as a kid. It drove my mother insane - she made me take elocution lessons to get rid of it.

Live example!! I'm watching The Chase - can tell immediately the family are from Liverpool. I asked DP where he thinks Bradley Walsh is from (no idea myself!) and he said 'I dunno - somewhere south. London?'

Just googled - Watford apparently!

No idea where the chaser is from either!

The Chase - can tell immediately the family are from Liverpool

But people from the Wirral, North Wales or even Stoke on Trent have an accent that can sound like a Liverpudlian accent to most outsiders.

I can tell The Wirral and north Wales and have family in stoke so can recognise that too.

BoysOfMelody - not really, I grew up in the north west, and while people might move within the town, other than people who came from Ireland, most families could trace back multiple generations within the town. "Moving" would be with 10 miles, not from one county to another.

It's strange to me now living in Kent how few people grew up round here. My friends 'back home' went to schools that their parents went to, and now their DCs are going to the same school. My cousins live near the mills their great grandparents worked in. There's noone in DC1's class who's parents went to the school. Which isn't seen as odd.

You can definitely tell which estate people grew up in here, based on accent and dialect. There are differences within 1 mile... and especially those on the border! I love to tease my OH about his twang. We're in the SE.

BoysOfMelody - not really, I grew up in the north west, and while people might move within the town, other than people who came from Ireland, most families could trace back multiple generations within the town. "

The difference may be comparative affluence rather than being in the North or South east. Where I grew up, most people who went to university didn't come back. Those of us who left either stayed in our university town or moved with our first jobs (not exclusively or even predominantly to the south east) Those who didn't go to university met boyfriends and girlfriends and stayed within a 10 mile radius. The town where my mother in law lives in the south east has relatively low levels of university attendance and plentiful low level service sector work, so local people stick around. For example my wife went to the same.school as her mother and grandmother and was on the same year as two of her cousins.

Actually, I can tell pretty much which estates people are from near me too - nothing to do with accent or dialect though: more the number of swear words and dropped aitches!!

I grew up in Brighton. It's got quite a different identity from the rest of Sussex (east or west).

I'm from Essex and there's no way you'd be able to tell that from talking to me. I don't consider myself from the South East though, just the east. I also think we/Suffolk/Norfolk have strong identities.

I guess a lot of it is perception too - I would never think 'oh it must be lovely in Suffolk- there's a real sense of identity ' whereas I have thought that about Yorkshire.

Yorkshire is four counties though. I think if you're linking identity to accent then yes there's much less variation but here we are very proud of our village/town/school/football team etc etc.

Not just accent - perhaps I grew up watching too much Emmerdale Farm and Heartbeat!!!

Are you sure you're not just thinking of countryside living??

Ha ha I think it's just images in my head like how Christmas should be in a log cabin in a snowy forest with a real fire and rosy-cheeked children!! Seriously though I do feel that cities/counties up north have really separate identities - no need to just say someone is from 'up north' (or the midlands - can separate Birmingham, Wolverhampton etc) but 'the south' or more specifically the south east is lumped together as one.

I think the issue is that you personally can't distinguish regional accents in southerners but you can with northerners.

I've moved around a lot. I find that southern residents have as much or as little regional identity as northern residents. But I have noticed that northerners do like to talk more about being northern, or how great the tea/ water/ local humour/ fish and chips is than southerners do.

I've grown up and lived in the same North East London borough all of my life.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Waltham_Forest

You can get on the bus at one end and by the time you get to the end of the route it is like you have gone through at least 4 very distinct areas with very different identities.

If I go shopping to Harlow or Romford it is like a different world in terms of the kind of people you come across.

I have a London accent tinged with a bit more East End because it's where my Grandparents lived. A Great Aunt of mine died recently and it was really strange to have so many white, East End types gathered in the same place. We even had jellied eels on the buffet table!