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blitzkrieg
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07 Jan 2022, 7:44 am

Has anyone experienced this? I used to hate my Yorkshire accent because in the United Kingdom it generally signifies poverty, ruralism & unfortunately from other people's perceptions' - stupidity.

I have learned to accept it. Though I still am quite partial to a London accent.



Misslizard
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07 Jan 2022, 10:22 am

I’ve experienced it.People in the states tend to think if you have a Southern accent you are a backwards illiterate inbred idiot.


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Fnord
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07 Jan 2022, 10:26 am

A lot of people on the west coast hear a "Midwestern Twang" and seem to perceive the speaker as a gun-toting, beer-swilling, wife-beating, child-abusing, under-employed redneck with little education and low moral standards.

I will admit to the morals thing, but the rest is all bogus.



Lost_dragon
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16 Jan 2022, 10:42 am

I think 'too Southern for Northerners, too Northern for Southerners' sums up my issue. My accent tends to cause some confusion and how it is perceived greatly depends on where I am. I've had people incorrectly assume that I am from London, then further along in our conversation they've remarked that up until now they thought I was Southern but on certain words I just used a very Northern pronunciation and now they're completely thrown off.

My parents have different accents. In my hometown, people used to make fun of my mum because she grew up in an area with a bad reputation before moving out of there. However, after moving to a completely different part of the country, people remark that my mum sounds posh. So what is considered posh and what isn't seems highly subjective. People less familiar with the area I grew up in aren't going to notice the subtle differences in accent regarding people who live in rougher parts of the area VS more respected parts.

I've been called a toff before. Sometimes people incorrectly think I went to some fancy school growing up, when in reality I just went to a standard state school that was barely staying together. Historically, my home town had a fair amount of Grammar schools which used to encourage the use of received pronunciation. As a result, I have a fairly neutral almost Southern accent due to growing up near people who had been influenced by this, but I also grew up near a mixture of accents. Then I moved during my teens and now I just find myself randomly slipping into different pronunciations.

For instance, my dad pronounces the word look as Luke, but my mum pronounces it as luck. Personally I most commonly pronounce it as luck, but every so often I say Luke. This isn't intentional, it just happens. My Grandma has quite a strong accent and whenever I visit her I tend to slip into it. People can often tell when I've just visited my Grandma because they notice the accent change.

I avoid certain dialect terms depending on who I'm with and I am aware that how I pronounce certain words can annoy people where I live now. For example, I grew up in an area where it was common to pronounce scone to rhyme with 'con' but over here people tend to rhyme it with 'cone' and some people are weirdly uptight about it. I've had people remark "Um, excuse me, but we don't say it like that over here". So I've taken to saying it like cone to avoid this conversation. On petty days I've purposefully strengthened parts of my accent to annoy people. I sometimes get people asking me where I'm from and when I tell them the area I currently live, they tell me that I don't quite sound like I'm from there, so I explain that I've moved about. People more familiar with the particular area I was originally from think I'm rough or resilient, whereas those who aren't tend to assume I'm stuck up.


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16 Jan 2022, 11:29 am

Yes, I'm a Northerner with an RP accent who ended up in high school in greater Glasgow. Very racist against the English there. Horrible experience. I really struggled to find work when I left school. My mum suggested I should try and sound less English. I still sound Northern to a Northern ear though. I say bath not baaaath. Dance, not daaaance.

I moved away and haven't had any bother about my accent since, but I do get the occasional bit of reverse snobbery. I found people liked me better as I moved up the ladder workwise.

If you'd been posher you'd have had no friends at school.