A North South Divide/ Accents within a country.
@Lindalahughes (220)
United Kingdom
April 17, 2021 8:09am CST
As someone who moved from the south of England to the north, I often get asked where I'm from. Northerners seem to be a bit obsessed with where people are from if they don't sound the same as them. I don't know, maybe it's a city thing?
And most people are cool, they're just generally interested, but of late I've noticed more people getting quite rude about it. Like they think I shouldn't be here.
And it's always older women who get nasty about it.
Does it happen where you're from? Do you get discriminated against because of your accent?
Are there a lot of variations in accent in your country?
6 people like this
6 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Apr 21
We have such a mix of people here in Cambridge that people don't tend to comment on one's accent. I think that my accent is more or less 'BBC' (or Upper Middle Class Southern) and, although I was born and bred here, I don't speak with the local accent, though it depends on who I'm talking with. I would tend to use a slightly different accent when speaking with locals than when speaking with people who speak more like me.
This is the point, I think. I was once asked. when on holiday in Ireland. what part of Ireland I came from because I had obviously picked up some of that lovely Irish roundedness but she couldn't identify where it was from! I was also told (in Paris, France) that I must be Belgian ("Vous etes Belge, n'est-ce pas?") and on another occasion (in the Loire valley) that I spoke with a Spanish accent!
I think that you may have (perhaps unconsciously) picked up something of the local accent - which will be a slight difference in vowels, mostly - and local people detect an anomaly but can't exactly place it as 'here' or 'there'. So they ask!
2 people like this
@Lindalahughes (220)
• United Kingdom
17 Apr 21
I was born and raised in Oxford so technically we're not legally allowed to talk to each other! 
How strange that people thought you were from so many different places. Yes sometimes it's that but there's a definite hostility and I notice it mostly with those from Liverpool and Manchester. And as I say it's women of a certain age too.
How strange that people thought you were from so many different places. Yes sometimes it's that but there's a definite hostility and I notice it mostly with those from Liverpool and Manchester. And as I say it's women of a certain age too.1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Apr 21
@MALUSE The class system is nearly moribund in England, though it does still exist to a certain extent as a social or cultural divide rather than as a system as such. I have chatted with many people in my work as a bookseller in the past and you would not have been able to tell one from the other at a first glance. there was one customer who bought very erudite texts (but usually from the shilling shelves outside) who was an eel smoker by trade and was loth to enter the shop because he was aware of his distinctive 'aroma'. yet he was as well read as any of our university dons and another, who, again, you wouldn't have known was from our so-called 'elite' except that he signed his cheques "St Andrew".(his title is Earl of St Andrews and he is the son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and 38th in line to the throne).
I think that nearly all, if not most, people who are born into nobility would like to be thought of as 'ordinary' but are brought up to be and think of themselves as people who must give something to society by sponsoring and actually taking part in charitable institutions and ventures. Their upbringing and education makes them good at doing that and their status in society as 'celebrities' makes them eligible.
Other than that. I don't think that people care so much about 'social class' in the sense of 'working class', 'lower' and 'upper' middle class and so on as we used to do fifty or sixty years ago, though perhaps there is some notion of it still in certsin situations.
@Lindalahughes (220)
• United Kingdom
17 Apr 21
@MALUSE Prince Phillip? Prince Charles is still alive. It's a good thing that Germany doesn't have a class system. It's antiquated at best but thankfully it's not as bad as it used to be.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89870)
• Arvada, Colorado
17 Apr 21
Oh yes, there are great distinctions and that is putting it mildly.
They can look at you as if you have 3 eyes here if you are from another state.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (89870)
• Arvada, Colorado
17 Apr 21
@Lindalahughes And there are so many it is mind boggling
1 person likes this
@Lindalahughes (220)
• United Kingdom
17 Apr 21
I LOVE the differences in accents across the USA!
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223129)
• Chile
17 Apr 21
People also talk differently dependind on their social class here. And now there are lots of different accents due to immigration.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223129)
• Chile
17 Apr 21
@Lindalahughes Not now. We have covid as the rest of the world. Normally it is.
@Rashnag (30592)
• Surat, India
18 Apr 21
There are different languages spoken in our country. There isn't much discrimination though. Have a good day. Take care
