Thread: What are the differences in culture and accent in different regions of England?

I'm from the U.S. and I will possibly be studying abroad there for college in a couple years. Even if I don't I'd still like to go there and I'm just interested.

I know that the Beatles were all from Liverpool and at the time of their rise to fame in the early '60s people kind of thought "Ugh, Northerners" or something. Why is that? What are some of the stereotypes people have of each other over there?

The south looks down on Northerners as tramps, and all the people people tend to be southerns.. but the North is the backbone of England. that's where all the good footall players and clubs come from that's where all the best inventors come from.

Wow, what a question! I'm English by the way, from Birmingham which is in the Midlands of England. Let me start by saying you will be very welcome in England and whatever you are looking for, you'll find it here.
In general, you can divide England into 2 areas, the southerners live in the most expensive parts and the notherners live in the less expensive parts. Pro rata, wages are much the same which means the southerners have less disposable income than the northerners. Since the southerners live near our capital, London, they think they are superior to everyone else. As the northerners have more money in their pockets to 'party', they think they have a better life than the southerners. Overall. it's a nightmare trying to understand these attitudes.
Then, to complicate it all, we have local issues. One village will believe they are better than the next village which may be less than 2 miles down the road! Added to which, we have scores of local dialects which could mean a southerner will not be able to understand what a northerner says, and they are both speaking English and less than a couple of hundred miles apart!
This and many other things go towards making England so special, it is a great place to live in and we welcome all our visitors. So please, take time out and come and see us.
On our island here we have two other 'countries', Wales and Scotland. They are nothing like us and have their own agenda and attitude to 'foreigners', so please bear that in mind when you come here.
They are not friendly to us English and I'm not sure how friendly they are to Americans.

England is a very varied place, sometimes within a few miles, but the biggest difference (real or perceived) is between the south and the north. I suppose it goes back to the Industrial Revolution, which seems to have affected the north far more. Certainly that's where the big growth of factories was and the image still persists of northerners being more working class. Sometimes comedians capitalise on this and go on about "them poncy southerners" to get a laugh - and it works because we English will get the joke and realise it's meant in an affectionate way.

There's still a feeling, I think, of the north feeling more "down to earth", and many national dishes of the more "hearty" type will come from there. Many northerners will pride themselves of being more open and friendly and less reserved than people from the south, which has some truth to it.

I feel this a bit within my own family. I'm from London but my dad's family is from the north Midlands and most still live there.

An answer here is not enough space to give more than a general impression.

Accent varies even more. I can usually pinpoint what general region of England someone is from as soon as they open their mouth. What most Americans seem to think of as an English accent is Received Pronunciation, the educated speech of the south-east. Once you get the ear for it, the differences between the "ooo arrr" West Country accent, the Midlands, the north, and the north east are quite easy to work out. Birmingham and Liverpool in particular are very distinctive. The Birmingham accent sounds like you have a permanently blocked nose - look up Jasper Carrott on youtube. He's a comedian from Birmingham and a very good example. Liverpool is sort of similar but impossible to confuse with it once you "get your ear in". I can tell the difference between Lancashire and Yorkshire if I'm listening carefully. You might think it's strange that a country so much smaller than the US has more variety of accents, but it's because we've been around longer and with no easy means of long-distance travel for most of our history, everywhere evolved its own accent and they show no sign of dying out.

That also means dialectal differences too. Often this shows up in regional food specialities. A particular Lancashire one is barm cakes. Barm is a dialect work for yeast and a barm cake is a large soft white bread roll. Which reminds me - on a family visit many years ago to dad's mum, mum and dad went out for fish and chips (our very own home-grown fast food and you have to try it! chips meaning french fries, of course). The assistant asked mum "do you want a cob with that?" She hadn't a clue what that meant. But in that part of Derbyshire, it's a crusty bread roll. VERY traditional Yorkshire people might well still use "thee" and "thou" instead of "you" - it's the same difference as "tu" and "vous" in French.

Actually this is one reason why English spelling is so illogical. Sometimes the spelling from one part of the country got connected with the pronunciation from another.

And then there's London, which varies so much within itself because it's such a big city.

Bob's answer is pretty good.

I would soften it in as much as the rivalries only tend to be as groups and are only taken seriously by the minority. When we get together, we are all friendly to each other. I am a Northerner living in the south. I'm married to a southerner. We make jokes about our origins but that's all.

There are other rivalries too. Yorkshire and Lancashire, both in the north, are fierce rivals. I'm a Yorkshireman. However, I have a good friend who is from Lancashire. We spend half our time being rude about each other's county but it's all in fun.

As a Yorkshireman, I should have a flat cap, drink John Smith's Yorkshire Bitter and love cricket. None apply to me!

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html

They are very wideranging indeed, I can think of about 10 accents from my home county of Devon.

I don't imagine for one moment people from up North hate me because I live in Devon.

If you are to be over here for a couple of years you are better off not mentioning stereotypes of people because it might upset them, unnecessarily