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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think northeners perceive southerners as inherently 'posh'

200 replies

LetSophieGo · 14/05/2021 23:36

I am northern, have lived between Derbyshire, Greater Manchester and Cumbria.
So I say this from a perspective of living with 'northerners' on a daily basis.
Often, when a person from southern UK moves into the north, they are perceived as posh, or of a higher social status. We know this is silly, and they are not necessarily on a higher income, but I am presuming it is something tied in with 'accent'.
Or is it class perception? My own family would not perceive a southerner as higher social status (I am not wealthy!), but many of my peers do.
What do you think? Any experiences to add?

.

OP posts:
a8mint · 14/05/2021 23:38

Posh? You mean like EastEnders?

Original poster
LetSophieGo · 14/05/2021 23:39

yeah!

OP posts:
IhateBoswell · 14/05/2021 23:41

Haha no, definitely not.

RampantIvy · 14/05/2021 23:42

I agree. I'm from Croydon, and have lived in Yorkshire for over 40 years. My workmates, and even DD who was born here think I sound posh.

GiveIrelandBackToTheIrish · 14/05/2021 23:42

Does that apply to regional accents too like Bristolian since it's in the south? I'm fascinated nowGrin

Boood · 14/05/2021 23:42

Only a certain sort of quite annoying person.

FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop · 14/05/2021 23:43

Lifelong Northerner here

I don't think southerners are all posh. It depends entirely on where they're from.

I have a Uni friend from Brixton. Common as muck she is but Brixton is a shithole

KikiniBamalam · 14/05/2021 23:43

Definitely true in my experience

Fixitup2 · 14/05/2021 23:44

Yep. You’re right, but they’re not posh.

IdblowJonSnow · 14/05/2021 23:44

Err, no. Definitely not.
Some people may sound 'posh' if they're well spoken but you can be northern and well spoken and a southerner but very definitely not sound posh, like a stereotypical Essex accent.

Original poster
LetSophieGo · 14/05/2021 23:44

ive noticed it, I know its a thing but it fascinates me.

OP posts:
Rosewood017 · 14/05/2021 23:45

Sometimes farming families send their kids to private boarding schools and they end up with posh southern accents even though they are northern.

Like Helen Baxendale, isn't she Scottish or northern?

thatonesmine · 14/05/2021 23:47

I live in the north and have been told many times I've got a posh accent. My accent is Essex Grin Something about the short u and long a seems to attract accusations of poshness.

ConnieDobbs · 14/05/2021 23:48

I grew up in the north and remember thinking that all southerners sounded posh. I don't think I could really distinguish between an eastenders accent and the Queen, they all sounded similar to me.

Letsgetreadytocrumble · 14/05/2021 23:49

I always think Northerners have very strange ideas about what it is like in the South of England.

MyNameForToday1980 · 14/05/2021 23:59

Maybe it's because the Queen has a southern accent...

MyNameForToday1980 · 15/05/2021 00:00

Received Pronunciation, I believe it's called... and it's inherently Southern.

idontlikealdi · 15/05/2021 00:02

The poshest people I know have no accent at at all.

RampantIvy · 15/05/2021 00:03

@thatonesmine

I live in the north and have been told many times I've got a posh accent. My accent is Essex Grin Something about the short u and long a seems to attract accusations of poshness.
I think you have hit the nail on the head there.
TableFlowerss · 15/05/2021 00:03

Higher social status due to being southern? Absolutely categorically not.

I don’t associate a southern accent to be posh whatsoever. A cockney accent isn’t posh.

PR is posh and that’s it

SlipperyLizard · 15/05/2021 00:04

When I first moved to Manchester after Uni, the women in the department I worked in took an instant dislike to me as soon as I opened my mouth. I’m not posh (both parents left school at 14), but my southern accent made them think I was, and led them to a whole number of wrong assumptions about me.

That’s the only time it has happened, but 20 years later I’m still conscious that I don’t sound like I belong here.

TableFlowerss · 15/05/2021 00:07

@MyNameForToday1980

Received Pronunciation, I believe it's called... and it's inherently Southern.
I don’t associate it with it being southern at all. I just associate it with wealth and often privilege.
Dddccc · 15/05/2021 00:13

Hahha I am North you are not Northern to me op and I mainly think they are well spoken not rich or posh some are snobby but thats life you get Northern snobs too,

MyNameForToday1980 · 15/05/2021 00:15

@TableFlowerss when RP first came into use it was based around an upper class Oxford/Cambridge accent (1700s I think).

It's more southern than Northern due to the vowel sounds (short vowels, soft consonants in the middle of the word, clipped but pronounced consonants at the end) ...

This is going back 20 years to my degree!! All facts could be wrong!!

MargaretThursday · 15/05/2021 00:18

Definitely.
I had the crime of having parents from the Midlands and lived in the North.
I then went to school with a mildly southern accent, and was bullied for being "posh".
I've a friend who had a similar situation and she refused to speak at school for most of 5 years due to the bullying over her accent.

Now my dc potentially could have had the opposite problem being mildly Northern accents in a southern area and have never had any comments. I've never had a worse comment down here than someone asking which part of the North I'm from.