My real question is which English accent is the equivalent of the American southern accents, which are generally regarded as used by people who are uneducated, backwards, and are even a bastardization of the English language… which I suppose is how American English sometimes seems to British English speakers. But I don’t expect people born in the UK to recognize regional American accents, much less the cultural import of those accents.

I’ve just wondered for a while if there is an accent and regional vernacular that tells the listener that the speaker is from a rural area, and which rural area.

As a side note, I adore the 1700-1800 Sussex accent as rendered by voice actors reading audiobooks as someone from that time and place. But I don’t know if those readings are accurate.

17 comments

  1. There’s no generally looked down on accent. We all take the piss out of each other. 😂

  2. I think this is one of those questions where you’re going to get a bunch of different answers depending on where people are from in the UK. Generally speaking I’d say that accents from more rural areas are looked down on from a London-centric perspective.

  3. I’m not sure I’d say looked down on per se, but I’d say Norfolk or West Country accents are the most stereotypical rural/yokel accents. And weirdly given they’re on opposite sides of the country, I think they sound fairly similar…

  4. I saw some research on this ages ago, on what attitudes British people associate with different accents. Brummie (Birmingham) and Scouse (Liverpool) were the ones that were most correlated with perceived lack of intelligence. Was a while ago though, hopefully those prejudices are decreasing as regional accents are becoming more somewhat more common on TV news etc.

    But those are urban accents, not the equivalent of what you’re looking for. I’d say the equivalent of what you described is probably strong Norfolk or West Country (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset) accents. West Country in particular certainly has its own vernacular. There is actually a separate Cornish language, though I don’t think it’s widely spoken.

  5. Any accent that isn’t standard/RP/BBC English is looked down on, the more regional the more backward unfortunately, I’m saying this as someone with a northern accent. It is why kids try to hide their regional accents when they go to university and end up speaking with a horrendous university accent.

  7. ‘Northern’ accents in general are looked down on – strong correlation with being working class and/or poor.

  8. A proper Black Country accent often draws that impression.

    Ironically it is touted to be the least corrupted dialect in the UK, i.e. the closest to Middle English which largely died out in the 15th century.

    I find it very charming, here’s a short poem by a gent who ‘con spake it roite’
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1oYx5vqYQU

  9. All regional accents, traditionally. Until the 80s the BBC almost exclusively still used presenters with Received Pronunciation, ie the accent of public schools (that’s posh private boarding schools!). Having any regional accent at all was a sign of being lower-class.

    By the 80s RP and middle-class SouthEast speech were melding together, but any strong regional accent was still a mark of difference.

    Now regional accents are much more accepted, though dialects not so much.

    Particular examples with uneducated stereotypes might be West Country (rural yokels), Norfolk (inbred rural yokels), Brummie (a Brummie screwdriver is a hammer…), Black Country (like Brummie but incomprehensible from 5 miles away), Geordie (thick but lovable cheeky chappies), Liverpool (loveable cheeky rogues), Yorkshire (strong in t’arm, thick in t’head), Multicultural London English (bunch of criminal immigrants, innit?)

  11. Essex. BTW I know I’m on the wrong here, but as soon as I hear an Essex accent I think ‘thick’. Or, in Essex ‘Fick’.

  12. >As a side note, I adore the 1700-1800 Sussex accent as rendered by voice actors reading audiobooks as someone from that time and place. But I don’t know if those readings are accurate.

    Would you mind linking these audiobooks? I’m curious.

  13. All of them. There are regional English accents that identify people to within a 20 mile radius.

  16. Brummie gets on my nerves it’s awful, my partners from Birmingham so I’ve got to live with it everyday

  17. A strong Hull accent is unintelligible to anyone who lives further than 20 miles away from the city.

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