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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MargaretThursday I rest my case. It didn’t take long for you to bite.

I was going to say yabu because I know plenty of rough fuckers from the South but tbf I do think that anyone who pronounces their vowels sounds posh

Yep, the quiz got ME spot on too. How bizarre, and clever!

The quiz got me too

Interesting quiz.

I think I have lived in too many towns for too long that I have changed my wording.

I was born a definite northerner but apparently I am identifying as someone who is from Brighton.

No idea how that happened

God no. Cockneys, Essex accent etc. People from the South can sound rough as.

@RueCamb0n the quiz got me too! Despite the fact I left the SW almost half my lifetime ago, and have random bits of dialect sneaking in from my Scottish family it pretty much put a sign up outside my old front door!

Wow, that quiz was spot on for me @RueCamb0n.

I grew up in the south east and now live in Yorkshire. The south east was heavily highlighted and Yorkshire was highlighted more lightly.

That quiz thinks I'm from Cambridge. I'm not, but I sound like I could be.

Yes, you're right. Obviously not all Northeners think that, but some do. We moved to Cumbria from Oxfordshire some years ago. My dc have had loads of comments from other kids saying they are posh, or even that all southerners are posh. It's all about the accent. I've never had comments from adults, because adults don't tend to say that kind of thing out loud, but the kids must have got those ideas from somewhere!

Dh and I are teachers and we've had the odd 'posh' comment from kids too. We've taught in the same school, and students have said things like 'Oh I guessed you were Mr Lazy's wife, because you sound the same'. We don't have the same accent!

But there has been a problem for decades with the BBC never using regional accents. Ok you'd get the well spoken Scot or Welsh accent but not otherwise.
And because they were never employed I presume people didn't aspire to the jobs because now they say they're changing all I hear are Estuary English, no brummie or geordies for example.
Sadly.

I moved North for University and stayed, DH was the same and we met while studying. We then relocated further North. When I had DS it took me a while to make friends with the school Mums and they revealed they has thought I was too posh because of my Southern accent. DH is form Surrey and I am from the South coast. The local accent where I grew up is a bit like listening to the Wurzels singing, we were corrected at home if we said anything that had any kind of local tang. Many people including other Southerners have called both DH and I well spoken. DS actually sounds like a Southerner but has the occasional flat vowel.

@Acovic

I have the opposite.

I'm Scottish. Other Scots would describe me as well spoken and my siblings tease me mercilessly about sounding posh and/or Southern.

However, people I meet in London (I live here) make hilarious judgments about me on the basis that I have "an accent" and some of the comments that have been made make me think they imagine everyone north of the border is like Rab C Nesbitt!

When I mentioned to work colleagues as part of a coffee room discussion that I'd gone to fee paying school the shock was palpable. Despite the fact that about 25% of kids in my home city are privately educated and 50% of those in my profession....

That's interesting. A (southern) colleague described me as having a really thick accent (it's more Glasgow Uni than teuchter ) but generally I think a Scottish accent is quite handy in England because they can't class us properly.

This is my accent! I wouldnt have expected to say any west of ireland in there.

My friend who has a really strong tallaght accent, the quiz gave him the number on his front door! Nearly 😅

I'm northern and have lived in some very northern places, and I can't say there's ever been a perception of southerners being posh, or any more posh than anybody else.

@Angrymum22

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.

Oh yes the northern sense of humour Usually being rude and making digs at people constantly as they have an inferiority complex massive chip So funny 🙄

I think it is because generally the Southern vowels are softer than the North's so people perceive it to be a posher accent. No such thing as a 'soft' vowel

@nancy75

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

Quite.

When living in the Middle East years we had a good friend, fellow Brit expat, who thought like this. She was from Leeds and more than once I heard her insist that ‘everyone’ from the south was a snob.

I’m southern and dh is a Londoner. I would say, ‘Do you think dh and I are snobs, then?’
‘No!’
‘Well, then.’

But she had some sort of immovable chip on her shoulder.

Years later a dd found similar when starting at Newcastle uni. An initial set of ‘friends’, all from other northern areas, would sneer at her accent (RP but not cut glass or exaggerated) and say e.g., ‘Oh, I bet you live in a big house and your parents are loaded and drive flash cars.’

None of which was true, but they refused to believe her. She was ‘posh’, no arguments.
Evidently more immoveable chips, or else just rather pathetic prejudice.

No

...years ago...

One of ds' friends calls him a tory purely because he's a southerner .

Northern sense of humour is very dry

What a sweeping generalisation, both in terms of people and in terms of seeing the north as one homogenous mass! After 7 years of living in the North of England, I can honestly say haven't seen any difference in the dryness of humour. There is a complete range depending on the personality of the individual, just like there is in the south.

That quiz had me spot on!
My dh is from the SE and we moved north last year. Everyone in work refers to him as Posh boy! All in good fun :-)

The quiz gave me a massive, vague area of the south/southeast of England!