to think northeners perceive southerners as inherently 'posh'

[LetSophieGo]

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?

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You haven’t met my sister.. she’s from Essex!

There are many southern accents one would try hard not to dump on your children and many pay a considerable amount to avoid their children mixing too regularly with those who have the accent.

It’s one of the main reasons for privately educating (although few would admit it). Elitist education is about not mixing with the peasants and ensuring Rupert speaks properly. Nobody wants their children to have estuary accents or be immediately identifiably as coming from many of the places that suffer coastal deprivation.

Some of the regional accents are definitely more acceptable than sounding like you dwell in parts of Thanet, Dagenham or Hastings.

Watch the Billy Connolly sketch where he visits the very posh house in Yorkshire. My brother had a Yorkshire accent until he joined the RAF . After years of travelling he came back with a very posh accent !

I think people maybe confuse RP and 'southern'?

Many southern England local accents are anything but 'posh'. There are lots of lazy pronunciations, etc.

Have you heard, for example, football players speak on television? I don't think I've ever heard one with a southern accent who can say 'th' without converting it to 'f' and who doesn't ignore 'L' other than for the first letter of a word..

"Yeah, I fink we was pretty lucky to score free goes..." etc.

@Soulstirring

I actually always thought it was southerners who considered themselves posh. I have never thought southern accents were posh, to be honest the London accent may be the least ‘posh’ I’ve heard. I’ve certainly in all my 40 years living ‘ooop north’ never heard the south described as posh by anyone.

That being said I do know one person who never actually said it but clearly thinks a southern accent would make them sound/appear more posh and she has changed her accent and sounds ridiculous. This is despite living in the north all her life with the exception of a stint at university.

I wonder became i One-der, for example.

Bonkers

Interesting example. Southerner here. To me her ‘I one-Dee’ sounds more northern than southern.

‘Oneder’ annoying typo!

I’m northern but living in south and I believe southerners can think they’re posh rather than northerners thinking this! And the only frame of reference is ‘are you a geordie’

I live in the north east of England and my (privately educated!) Scottish mother told me my children (who have a MC northern accent) sound 'posh'. I just laughed at her.

I have a workmate who is northern but worked in the south for a while. When he came back north he said he found it really funny how tannoy announcements were in northern accents and his instinctive reaction was 'you can't talk like that round here' before he remembered he was back in the north and it was OK .

I think anyone who has moved area in whatever direction gets the extremes of their accent rubbed off and so their more neutral accent does sound more middle class or posh or whatever you want to call it.

I’m from SW originally, not posh or rich at all.

When I went to uni in Manchester I came across this attitude with the people I shared a flat with. They were all friendly but definitely treated me differently and were always going on about me sounding posh or saying they bet I had a big house etc (we didn’t). It was like they felt inferior but there was no reason for that and I definitely didn’t do anything to cause it (I hope I didn’t anyway).

I’ve stayed up here since, but never had any other issues. Sometimes people will say, you don’t sound like you come from here, but in a friendly way and I think people move around more now anyway so are more used to different people.

Another north vs south bun fight and yet my gran's words spring to mind - We've all got to bare our arse to tek a shite.

Yes I agree with you. I’m from the north and have lived in the south for 20yrs. I do think it’s linked to accent. I know colleagues who are also northern and have a strong northern accent (eg scouse) feel inferior on calls due to their accent. Even though they are perfectly capable they suffer from this inferiority complex and it’s definitely accent / class based

I'm northern and don't perceive southerners as posh. There are some awful Southern accents. Particularly Bristol and Essex, they all sound thick. Sorry.

Absolutely not. The opposite. I think anyone with a southern accent sounds a bit chavvy tbh. Sorry if that offends anyone.

I have a southern accent and live in the NW and I’ve always been told I sound posh - I’m not. I’ve been living here now for a very long time but still get asked where I’m from on a regular basis. Very annoying, I’m from here!

I grew up in the 90s mainly in Yorkshire. However I lived in Sussex until I was 7 and my parents were both from the South. Never acquired a northern accent. My parents weren’t wealthy and I went to a comprehensive, but it’s often assumed I’m from a ‘posh’ background and that I went to public school. I’ve had people tell me directly they think I’m posh - kids at school, strangers in shops (“you’re not from round here”), even someone who told me I must have got my posh accent at university. I lied and said I’ve never been! It’s such a pain having to explain myself to strangers, I try not to offer explanations now if they ask where I’m from, as it is essentially an apology for sounding like I’m from the south. It happens less now I’m older, thankfully.

My poor mum was moved from Essex to Cheshire at the edge of 7, and used to be caned regularly by the new teacher for "putting on a posh accent". It didn't stop until the teacher met my grandparents and actually twigged/listened she simply had a child in her class who had moved quite some distance up the country.

I come from Kent, and there are very distinct urban, countryside, posh and neutral (well spoken) accents just within my town. I can assure you the first two do not sound posh in any sense! Ditto the practice of saying "was" rather than "were", which was pointed out to me in uni but is so normal back home I never even noticed it (despite us having absolutely no problem with written grammar).

No not at all

Coming from where you do tbh my perception is you're not a northerner

It’s 100% true. I think people denying it are unaware of their own unconscious basis. A posh northerner may be posher than a not posh southerner but being southern gives you extra posh points.

I moved to the north in primary school and was bullied for ‘being posh’ for my accent. Now live in home counties near London, when we visit family and friends we get the odd comment about the DCs’ voices being ‘posh’.

I’ve always wanted to move back north but if the opportunity arose I’d worry about the DC getting comments at school or being bullied.

I am from the East End of London. My gran was German, my grandad Russian (working class) Mum and her siblings born in the UK.

My Mum worked so hard on her accent, she spoke beautifully, drummed it into us that we mustn't drop the T or H, and was NEVER EVER allowed to use the word 'ain't' in her earshot. This served me well as a 16 year old working in London, where back then, your cockney accent was frowned upon.

Sadly, I detest the cockney accent (I do not speak posh) due to being made to feel inferior because of it. It's actually the only accent I still feel is inferior. I am so ashamed of saying that

I am though, very proud indeed of my East End roots, I ain't all bad..

Also my perception is the areas you are talking about are more towards the midlands.

When I went to uni in Scotland, being from N Ireland myself, it was the first time I'd come across numbers of folk with a range of accents, including from the South of England, in "real life". I confess I did pretty much think anyone with a southern accent sounded quite posh (well, those with a fairly neutral southern accent anyway). I think because I'd only come across it through people on the telly, usually in presenter-type roles and so with an air of authority!

Now living in the South East myself, and my DC accents are fairly neutral rather than them having gone too Sarf London, despite having lived here all their lives. I think it's probably the result of having different accents at home, and lots of friends who are also from different places and with different accents (and my occasional ribbing for poor enunciation). It would interesting to see if Professor Higgins could place them!

A new colleague of mine (in the office of a Northern city) assumed that I was Tory voter because of my (Southern, fairly neutral) accent. Couldn't have been further from the truth and made me smile.

I’m northern, born in Yorkshire. I don’t think southerners are posh and certainly not a higher social class, nor does anyone I know. Odd concept.
They say a lot about southerners round here but it isn’t that they’re posh 😂

Derbyshire is not even in the North, it's the Midlands! I'm from there and we are not northern. The Midlands always gets ignored