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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I’m from Yorkshire and I definitely don’t think a person from Croydon is posh.

I have a lot of southern friends from uni from places like Reading, Swindon, Luton etc.
They are most definitely not posh to me. I am actually always surprised at how much better standard of living we have in the north. Nice middle class village, bigger houses, more disposable income. Maybe it’s because I was on an nhs course so we all earn the same but my money goes further.

I’ve always been told it’s so much friendlier ‘up North’ people are nicer. At least this thread puts that myth to bed.

Yeah they do think it. And often rather ironically, as whenever I've visited a house of a mate in the north (km southern but went to uni in the north) they all were beautiful houses and equipped with loads of fancy mod cons, several cars in the driveway (probably just the people I knew not saying all northern houses necessarily)..but ironically I was seen as the posh one due to my accent....from growing up in an inner London council estate

Yes, this is a thing. Not southern regional accents ime, but RP. I think it’s because the correlation between strength of regional accent and class is much stronger in the north. I’ve met many southerners who speak with RP who are not from privileged backgrounds, but I’ve only ever known one person from the north in the same situation. It’s actually pretty rare for middle class northerners to speak in RP too - usually just a lighter version of the local accent.

I grew up in Derby, my DH was from Yorkshire, and we transplanted to the SouthEast where our children were born. It was freaky when they started to talk and they started saying baahth and graahss! Clearly their little friends had more influence than us!

@coffeefi

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

Nope!

I'm just always amused that my northern friends think I sound posh - I was born and raised in Portsmouth 🤣🤣

What I find most strange is how my northern friends who have kids born down here (still in Hampshire but not city anymore) have their kids saying their embarrassed by their parents accents.

I don't think there's really much different except some pronunciations of words and language dialects.

Anyway, can we talk now about how Northerners are mocked for their accent by southerners? Maybe @nancy75 will then realise that some southerners can be crap too. When I moved down here, I even had the parent of a child in my class complain to the head about his teacher having 'an accent'

OP, you haven’t been exposed to too many southerners, I take it.

Oh yes, as an objective foreigner I am banging my gavel hard!. This is true. Plenty of southerners walking around with an accent that slips in to Rebecca Rabbit and yet they'd make jokes about their DC having a northern accent.

Bystanders be like............

@saraclara, having a conversation about accents fine, but some of the comments are just unnecessary & rude. There is one near the start of the thread - friend is from Brixton don’t think she has a posh accent, followed by Brixton is a shithole.
Why is there a need for the Brixton is a shithole part of the comment? It’s not the only one by the way.

@saraclara wow, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when the parent complained you had an accent.

This reminds me of freshers week when everyone was anxious and trying to simultaneously fit in and stand out. People clinging to stereotypes of where they and others were from and trying to take the piss it’s sad if they’re still doing that!

My partner and I are middle class northerners living in central London. Who knows if we’re posh or not!

@nancy75 especially as Brixton is categorically not a shithole and it is astronomically expensive to buy a house there.

I absolutely do not think of southerners as posh.

I got pegged for a Lake District accent by a very astute observer: it's interesting because it's a very subtle blend. There's a large population with a natural Cumbrian accent, but also all the offcomers tend to have neutral accents, and the two blend together.

I have a native dad and an offcomer mum, and sound Lakes to the discerning ear. I get called posh a fair bit by other Northerners, but live in the Midlands. Nobody's posh in the Midlands

As a Northerner myself this is of course ridiculous BUT does happen. My own Grandparents (working class, not very worldly wise or well travelled, only ever lived in the same 10 square miles they were born in) thought a boyfriend of mine from Windsor was about the poshest person walking the earth, based purely on his accent.

He actually grew up with his single Mum on a fairly 'tired' council estate and was not any posher than our family at all.

Has anybody done that ny times dialect quiz? it's fascinating. The questions are all along the lines of what rhymes with what and you make the selection. Mine came out very generally across Ireland, basically somewhere along the south east coast but also bits of the west coast of Ireland too! We do not have one accent that is perceived to be the right one here. Obviously people can tell a lot about your level of education, privilege and origins from your accent but I'm really glad there's not perceived to be ONE correct accent.

If anybody else is interested in accents like I am this is a fascinating quiz

here

@Shopliftersoftheworldunite

This reminds me of freshers week when everyone was anxious and trying to simultaneously fit in and stand out. People clinging to stereotypes of where they and others were from and trying to take the piss it’s sad if they’re still doing that!

My partner and I are middle class northerners living in central London. Who knows if we’re posh or not!

God, yes. So tedious. I spent freshers year in a flat where two of us ended up being bullied. One of the more pathetic manifestations of this was that I was pointedly cut out of the endless northern v southern banter as I’d been living in the midlands immediately prior to uni. One of the favoured flat mates was from Nottingham and was an honorary northerner

I’ve just done the quiz, I’ve got a very strong SE London accent, the result was Bournemouth

Northern sense of humour is very dry and I have found that southerners often take what I say in jest for the truth. So a northerner saying you are “posh” may well be sarcasm.
Also posh is a bit of a derogatory term for stuck up your own arse.
I love going back up north where I can say things without people taking offence or taking me seriously. I found that when I moved south I really had to stop saying the first thing that came into my head. The slight pause is a real give away that people are not really saying what they are actually thinking.

My mum's family was from Doncaster. I was raised in a rough part of the South East, all Estaury English, no Hs or Ts. When we went north, people were always commenting in our posh accents.

Oh yes, they were definitely referring to our posh accents in a derogatory way

@nancy75

I’ve just done the quiz, I’ve got a very strong SE London accent, the result was Bournemouth

That's interesting though because my perception of Bournemouth is that it's a place where people retire to so this quiz isn't measuring the local Bournemouth accent but rather the number of people who talk the most like you is the highest in Bournemouth! I'm trying to use similar cognitive gymnastics to figure out my own results.

I think it is because generally the Southern vowels are softer than the North's so people perceive it to be a posher accent.

Also historically the South have always voted Tory more than the North, and if you grew up in the North you would often hear that only posh people voted Tory. (or people who thought they were posh).

And home owners relocating to the North can afford to buy much larger, nicer, more expensive properties due to the price difference. Another indicator of being viewed as posh.