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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No. Some, not all Southerners think that they have an RP accent. Not as many of them have the accent as the number who think they do.

The next 'leap' is that they think the fact that their accent is closer to RP than the accent of somebody who was raised up North makes them higher up the social scale. Even if the person from 'up north' had a much more comfortable upbringing. It's funny to observe as a foreigner. I'm an English speaking foreigner so I hear these nuances.

This thread is such a confidence booster for those of us with Bristolian or Essex accents, cheers.

@IdblowJonSnow

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.

Yes. In a nutshell. Do people not have the 'ear' to hear this? It baffles me. I wasn't even raised in the UK and I am aware of the obvious truth that you wrote. Baffling that people North and South do not grasp this. The accent doesn't even have to be as strong as an obvious accent. Any accent at all and in my opinion you're no different to a person from up North who speaks very well but you can tell (after a minute) that they are not from the South

"Were 'you from Miss? 'You posh?" has been a frequent utterance. Quite what being posh entails, I don't know other than clearly not being from around "here".

I'd describe my accent as generically southern from anywhere within 50 miles of the M25, despite living in that zone for less than a quarter of my life, although it was a formative period. Awkward in a "where are you from" context as it's not where I am from on a couple of levels.

I've lived in a few areas and don't tend to change my accent easily, although DH with a very different accent to mine and the local area also helps. The area where I've settled has a good range of dialect so I've aquired some of that, but it's an accent based more on sound length than tone compared to other places I've lived in.

I certainly don’t think anyone who speaks with an Essex accent is posh

Quincie

Just little things over the years we have found that make life a lot easier and are geared towards family whilst where I come from it is designed to make life harder

What do you mean
I find the traffic dire in the SE. so takes the shine off it. And also many commuter towns which seem to be full of rented property so no nice neat gardens, instead broken hedges , no flowers etc
I visited Yorkshire recently - such neat gardens and clean pavements where I was

Things like how much easier we find it to get a job. None of us want (or could get) a f/t job but want to work quite ad hoc work when ever we want. I find it so much easier than when I lived in the North. Always struggled finding work and trying to do anything that might only involve the odd day here and there when you wanted to work were virtually none existent

For me personally the fact no one cares who I am so I don’t struggle with everyone having an opinion on what I am up to or what I am doing and having to explain every single movement was such a relief. I could immediately walk down the street and no one would ask where I was going or where had I been and why.
I don’t drink but I enjoy going to the pub.
Where I was from you couldn’t just pop to the local pub to get a cup of coffee/cola and bring your kids with you. You were lucky if they allowed you on a table outside in the freezing cold. We took Dd as a baby up to our home town after nearly 20 years of being away and was thrown out of a pub because we forgot about the different rules.
We would often go to the pub after a dog walk to get a drink and it was nice to sit in front of a roaring fire with sleepy dogs and children enjoying their drink whilst adults had a quick catch up.
The tube network being free for children.
Museums and exhibitions being free meant days out could cost under £10.
The weather was the most noticeable thing.
I grew up in the cold and the rain. I can’t remember a day where it was so hot that I didn’t need a cardigan
It was the deciding factor for me when I came down here to live. I sat in Hyde Park and realised for the first time I was sat in the U.K. without a jumper or cardigan on and my bare legs were actually warm.
Got on a train about an hour later and as it sped north the black clouds formed and I had to change in to jeans, jumper, coat, and sensible shoes during the journey to keep warm.
I don’t care about neat gardens. That would be just another thing to make life more difficult feeling or being told that you had to keep your lawn mown or your garden pristine and neat.

@suckingonchillidogs

This thread is such a confidence booster for those of us with Bristolian or Essex accents, cheers.

I think that's missing the point! People down south with an accent that leans towards estuary, even if it doesn't go all the way, they are deluding themselves that they sound posh while thinking 'thankfully i odn't have a Bristol accent'. There's no difference.

I wonder became i One-der, for example.

I'm being really thick but what's the alternative pronunciation of wonder? Would you pronounce the o, as o instead of u (if that makes sense?)
I would pronounce wonder...as wonder
And wander....as wOnder!

Yes 100%. I moved to the north when I was 18 after growing up in absolute poverty. We’re taking mattress on the floor, no oven and no working boiler for years.
Still considered by northerners to be extremely ‘posh’ because of my accent alone.

Not at all
I am northern
Married to a southerner
Have lived both north and south

Stupid auto correct I would pronounce wonder ...as wUnder.

I moved from Yorkshire to Devon when I was 6. My family back up north all tease me about sounding posh now 🤣

I'm a Southern who moved North. I've lived here longer than down South. Some Northerners think Southerners are Tory voting, self serving, Posh wankers (and they would be true to some extent) I do get shocked at the culture difference going some where like Surrey. Lots of money, flashing about but I know it's not like that everywhere.

Yeah, I think you're right. I'm a northerner and there was deffo a stereotype that all southerners were posh when I was a kid. It took me a long time to realize it was absolute bollocks. I have a good friend from Kent who is a doctor and I thought she was posh for years, before I realised she came from an absolutely dog rough family.
If it makes you feel better I've never held (perceived) poshness against a person!

E midlander here. My mum had the crazy idea of trying to speak RP to me on my first few years. She was a bit of a snob. We lived in a mining village. First day of school and I was labelled posh. School life was horrible as the kids never forgot even though I swiftly gained a broad local accent.
I then went to uni and got lambasted for being a northern train spotter which was the stereotype at my very southern and 50% public school uni.
I learned RP pretty quick.

And that people always clique with people who sound like themselves.

DS has a southern home counties RPish accent because we live there and my Midlands relatives say he is posh. Sigh.

I'm a Northerner, lived in the south for twenty years and have children with RP accents. Kids delight in taking the mickey out of my accent as I've never lost the Lancastrian. The locals and my friends think I'm a true northerner and akin to Fred Dibnah.
When I go home (still call it home) my family and friends think I'm putting on a posh accent and trying to lose my roots. Maybe I've inadvertently toned down some of the accent and don't use the same dialect-because no one around me speaks in the same way.
I'm always quietly taken aback when I get off a train in Manchester and I hear the accent again, it's louder, friendlier, less reserved-I miss it. It took me a long time to realise that the southerners I live around are not "stuck up" or posh-they are just more reserved and take a little bit longer to warm up. I was always used to meeting someone for the first time and immediately being over friendly with them. That's quite normal where I hail from.

I've found Northerners tend to associate those that pronounce Barrrrth, Carrrstle and Grarss to be posh. But many of them have never been to Luton.

I think really there's just people who just have very little knowledge of places outside their own town.

I think you nailed it there @OrangeSharked

I think a lot of southerners think someone with a northern accent works down the coal mines.

My Mum is Lancashire, my Dad NI, we grew up, up north but moved briefly to S. Hampshire when I was about 8. All of us kids found it hard to fit in, our accent differentiated us from our peers. We got picked on a lot about how we sounded. I don't know if as a result we started to speak differently or whether because of my dad's very soft Irish lilt and the fact that he traveled extensively, we were always a bit less northern sounding but me and now my DD often get accused of sounding posh.

I don't judge southern or northern accents tbh, actions speak louder than words (or accents), but I suspect that a lot of people aren't like me in that regard.

I'm not English so don't know if I'm allowed to comment

If southern means like TOWIE or eastenders or Bristol then I don't know how anyone could think that's posh

DD was born in Barnsley but doesn't have a Barnsley accent because neither DH nor I are from Barnsley. She just sounds "Northern".

Her peers at school thought she was posh because she would say "hi" instead of "ey oop". I don't think there was any nastiness though.

By the same token, Do Southerners assume all northerners are common as muck?

@coffeefi

By the same token, Do Southerners assume all northerners are common as muck?

Nope. I moved to God's own county Yorkshire from London many years ago and prefer it here.

One did not find this when one lived in the north in ones twenties.

Huh? I'm Northern, and no 'we' don't think 'they're' posh.