Prejudice & accents in England....

One thing I don't like about England is the prejudice against accents. Many countries have problem with racism, but in England you get descriminated against if you sound different.

For example
Scouse accent: If you speak like this people think your from a very rough area and chances are that your a thief, and something to do with hubcaps.

Posh accent: If you talk like this then your supposedly educated, and can be trusted. Others would think your a rich person, and that your stuck up and you went to a boarding school.

Brummie accent: If you speak like this, then chances are that people think your stupid.

Geordie accent: For some reason, the geordie accent is more comforting to southerners in England out of all the northern accents. Even though a Geordie can live in just as much a rough area, than a scouser if not rougher.

Yorkshire accent: Have you ever heard the saying "Yorkshire born, yorkshire bread, thick in the arm and thick in the head"?

Mancunian accent: A lot of people now associate mancunians a lot with Oasis. Thinking that they all should act like them.

Cornish accent: Talk like this and people think your a farmer.


Not all people think like this obviously, but in my experience. These stereotypes exist just because of the way a person speaks. I'm from Liverpool and speak in a scouse accent, and when I moved to the South of England I couldn't believe the level of descrimination against me, some felt threatened just because I speak different, and I think this is pathetic. I couldn't get a job for five months, until I came up with an idea...speak in a posh accent at an interview, and I got a job within days....and the shock on their faces when I changed my accent back to my normal self when I got the job. :-D

Anyway, I live back in Liverpool were I'm treated normally, so you people in the south don't have to worry about me breaking into your house, or stealing your car.

LOL Carl, that´s all true.

I think we didn´t argue all there was to in the ´Do I have an accent´ thread. Britain is agedly known for being abiassed against accents, even those from within the UK. I´m sure that´s an English trait, not british though...

How are the several accents you name above spoken? (just some examples of pronunciation, please)

What's the most popular accent in London?

Thanks

If you type any of them into a search engine, then you will get results.

It's hard to describe the pronuncation for them.

Brummie - think Ozzy Osbourne
Posh - The stereotypical English accent, the "Hugh Grant" the "Tony Blair" or "Queens" accent. We've all supposed to speak like this apparently. Butr not true.

Here are a few links though:
Geordie:
http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/geordie.htm

Scouse:
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/park/346/whatisscouse.html

Brummie
www.ssdd.uce.ac.uk/learner/whoweare/brummie.htm

Here is another scouser being descriminated against: (But in Ireland)
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/scouse-in-ireland.htm

And something else:
icg.harvard.edu/~sa34/lectures/guilt.pdf

What's the most popular accent in London?

All the accents are not in London,

If you look at the map of the UK

London = cockney accent, posh accent
Newcastle = Geordie accent
Manchester - Mancunian accent
Birmingham - Brummie accent
Liverpool = scouse accent
Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield = Yorkshire accent
South East England = Westcountry accent/Cornish accent

And this is what I'm talking about:

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/liverpool.htm

to Carl,

If you have had these problems with your accent, now I understand why the people, like me, are worried about improving our foreign accent.

Generally I feel that people in the north of England, lets say above Birmingham all are comfortable with their accents, so a Yorkshire men wouldn't feel any discomforts with a Geordie or a Liverpudlian....But then if you move South then all Northerners are discriminated against. I suppose Southerners are envied in the North because of their lifestyles and money. People in the South just like to mock Northerners!

That's true Maria, It's strictly the snob of the SOUTH who have a prejudice against accents. I wouldn't say Northerners envy southerners though, southerners generally get paid the highest wages on average, but everything else is more expensive. Houses, Cars, food, you name it, it's the most expensive in the south. Public transport is the worst in London, and if you've ever come home in rush hour it's worst place to be in Europe. The most shootings happen in London.

I moved to the south to see what it was like, and I didn't like what I saw. Newcastle in my honest opinion is the best city in the UK.

Yes, but Northern accents are the best!

I prefer the Southern accents.

Ah'm a cunt whoa prefer tae speak wi a glesgay accent

I think the reason behind this is the hangover from the days when only lower class people spoke with non-posh accents. And before people could move between classes.

I found a BBC article speaking about this topic:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/289882.stm

In my experience Londoners speak with a variety of what can be described as local accents. And lots of non-London people try to emulate London accents because whatever the accent, in vicinity of London, these accents have prestige.