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Stereotypical Regionalization of Britain?
vexxed13
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In America, you have the intellectual north-east, the blue-collar/farming mid-west, and the progressive west coast. Some people would go so far as to say the South is generally fat and stupid, but that's not me, it's just a stereotype.
I think I heard in the movie "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" someone from the North of Britain get called "northern fairy." Does Britain have the same kind of North/South divide that America does?
How does this work in Britain? The only things I know is that I think Wales is kinda old and maybe the conservative part? And Bristol is a rough blue collar part?
I think I heard in the movie "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" someone from the North of Britain get called "northern fairy." Does Britain have the same kind of North/South divide that America does?
How does this work in Britain? The only things I know is that I think Wales is kinda old and maybe the conservative part? And Bristol is a rough blue collar part?
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north are tough working folk
cornwall like to eat kippers. all the time
none of this is true
That was helpful and I'm easily able to decipher whether or not that was sarcasm thanks to my familiarity with the subject.
that wasn't true either
ah, i should of explained better.
those are all actualy what people think. but they're not true, just like not all south americans are fat and stupid
<- Southerner
Aw booo...that's no fun.
Oh, should have mentioned I am from America...but I do wonder about that. Do non-Americans know Californians are liberal surfers and Texans are conservative cowboys?
Ok, so I think I had the right idea about the west/Wales. When you say people from the North, does that mean Scotland too, or is that a whole other situation?
For those easily offended, look away now (PS. I'm from the Somerset in the South-West, so that's my bias).
Welsh: Inbred with a retarded language and national pride for stupid shit that only the Welsh care about because they haven't ever produced anything of any worth. Describe themselves as Welsh.
Scottish: Aggressive drunks living off the dole, wearing crap sports clothes or kilts. Desperate to prove themselves in any and all challenges due to deep inferiority complex/pride issues with the English. Describe themselves as Scottish.
North of England: Aggressive drunks living off the dole, wearing crap sports clothes or going topless. People who are only good for industrial jobs, with no industry left to actually give them jobs, so just moan instead. Much rougher/tougher than the southerners. Describe themselves as English.
South East of England: Pretentious fucks with useless degrees in useless office jobs in London, leading soulless lives commuting into it. Have no sense of community. Think themselves to be the best in the country, but would lose in a fight to pretty much everyone. Drink wanky drinks like "lattes" and eat stupid foreign food to look clever. The "commoner" city dwellers are busy shooting/stabbing each other or trying to sell their own mothers to make some cash. Describe themselves as British.
South West of England: Inbred farmers with beards who drink warm beer. Think the pace of life is too fast, and they're living it twice as slowly as everyone else. Stupid. "Not much goes on round 'ere, lived 'ere all me life, wouldn't change it." Don't have any good sports teams so place their faith in shit English games like cricket. Describe themselves as British. Mostly illustrated in Hot Fuzz.
The North/South divide depends on who you talk to. People in the Midlands will do it geographically. People in the North tend to divide it a bit higher up. Staunch southerners will go as far as pretty much dividing it by anything North of London.
Northern Ireland isn't included on the list because it's not cool to make jokes about it as the wounds of The Troubles are still pretty raw.
Of course, this is all entire bullshit.
Yes! Thank you! And I understand these things obviously aren't true about every individual living there...but it's interesting to know.
Still not getting the "Northern fairy" jab from "Lock Stock...". Northern doesn't seem imply anything close to that. Just a Southerner calling someone a fairy who happens to be from the North I guess...
Thanks all!
Your problem is you are either remembering it the wrong way round, or Guy Ritchie is deliberately fucking with you.
It's definitely Northern Monkey/Southern Fairy.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=southern+fairy
Oh snap!! Just checked the film.
"Northern Monkeys." "I hate these Southern Fairies". Now I get that line and understand the first part too. I always thought he was saying "Nova Monkeys" and I assumed it was just more crazy British slang.
Thanks again mate!
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"The power of the weirdness compels me."
All intra-college rivalries in either of those institutions is completely retarded.
The student populations are exactly the same (unless it's a single-sex college). Don't let people who've been conditioned into the Oxbridge bubble tell you otherwise!
I was thinking about this the other day, but it's too hard. If you take America on a global scale, there's the stereotype of Americans. If you take Illinois on the scale of the whole country, you get stereotypes. If you take Chicago...If you take the north-side of Chicago...If you take the particular neighborhood of Wicker Park in Chicago...If you take the west-side of Wicker Park....
So, I dunno how it'd get organized...I guess whoever wanted to could just do a quick summary of the regions of a country? My question's solved though so I'm not sure the thread should even be alive anymore...
What's a Southern Jessie?
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"The power of the weirdness compels me."
LOL, oh thank god I'm not the only one! Subtitles FTW!
Let's see if it works though. You're from Aberdeen which puts you in Scotland. Are wearing a crap sports jersey while harboring a slight resentment of the English? And/or drunk?
Or maybe Aberdeen is the London of Scotland. In which case you're more of the erudite, white collar office worker who holds himself above the rest of the country?
I really hope all the time and energy spent in this thread yield some accurate results...
Actually I'm English I was just raised in Scotland and I can tell you being English did NOT do me any favours when I was a kid in primary school. I still receive some abuse about it even today but most of it at least is intended as a joke. We do have a hell of a lot of people wondering around in track suits while drinking supermarket beer we call them NED's (Non Educated Delinquents) but the English, Irish and Welsh have them too (Chavs). Aberdeen is the oil capital of Europe not the London of Scotland that would be Edinburgh.
Even in Scotland there are stereotypes Aberdonians are known as "sheep shaggers" because its rural with lots of sheep, Dundee has a reputation of being a bit of a hole since its an old industrial city with barely any industry left, Glaswegians or "wegies" are known as jobless drug addicts. Edinburgh or "buggers" are posh wealthy types and Inverness is considered to be a bit pointless since it's so out of the way and nothings there. Though as its already been said these are merely peoples perceptions not facts.
there's some insider knowledge of Scotland for you if it helps.
I'm actually a southerner living in the north of England. My bosses find it really cute when I swear, because southern people don't swear, and I'm definitely seen as posher/less rough.
Heck, it's also reflected in the landscape. In the south you have green, gently rolling hills. As you go further north you have a very different landscape; steeper, more rugged hills/mountains and desolate moors with purple heather and bracken. Then in the north you have, or more accurately had, mining and industrial cities with dozens of factories, whereas the south has always been about farming and office jobs. Not hard to see how the stereotypes arose!
That was fantastic, though. They had the baggage handler on the news after he'd kicked hell out of one of those guys telling terrorists not to come to Glasgow, because "we'll set about you."
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
All you need to know about Glasgow.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AM-DtAXBUpI
Haha, love it! Looks like I have a new TV series to watch...
Does the language sound as different between north/south as it does in the US? If someone didn't know you were from the South, could they tell just by hearing you talk?
BTW, nobody's mentioning Ireland. Aren't there any Irish blokes that want a crack at any of this?
It's more about which city or county you come from here. There's as much, if not more, difference between the accents of people from Newcastle (geordies), Liverpool (scousers), Cornwall, Birmingham (brummies) and certain bits of London (cockneys) than there is a general difference between northerners and southerners. Of course, identifying which city or county someone is from means you also know whether they're a northerner or a southerner, so the end result is the same. Modern life has also seen the rise of the more nondescript estuary accent, which anyone can have.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Wikipedia's quite good for this. Unfortunately it's difficult to find audio examples.
For example, the southern accent (I'm talking south-east here, by the way) is typified by long As (grarse instead of grass). We're also more likely to speak 'properly' - that is, using fewer colloquialisms and slang. Don't swear quite so much, sound softer; pretty close to how your average BBC newsreader sounds.
In south Yorkshire, where I live, you have a very different vocabulary as well as the accent sounding very different and rougher. People often still use 'thee' and 'thy'. They'll say things such as they're taking their lunch break 'one while two'. Swear words find themselves in almost every sentence, so that I no longer find them very offensive.
More well-known/distinct accents/dialects:
Northern:
Geordie
Cumbrian
Scouse
Southern:
Southern English, I'm probably closest to having a London accent.
West Country
Midlands:
Brummie has a good paragraph on stereotypes
Black Country
There are also four spoken languages in the UK.
Oh, and nobody's mentioning Ireland because it's not a part of Great Britain.
Scouse - Gerrard, Carragher...
Geordie - Carrick, Gascoigne...
Always funny.
edit: also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDKF8KkD7rE is pretty much definitive Manchester.
Just to note, I currently live in the Glasgow area - Within 30 miles of here you can find two or three distinct accents, and you can pretty much work out to within 10 miles of where someone was raised/currently lives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH_kOjsXakM
You forgot the part where the terrorist was on fire when the weegie kicked him in the balls.
Also, people are now saying the guy was totally lying.
Since when did people from Edinburgh get known as 'buggers'? Never heard of that before. Must be some cheuchter thing.
Cockneys? I thought Cockney was kind of a novelty thing, basically dead? Or maybe I'm thinking of Cockney slang, not the accent...
It's rougher and they use "thee" and thy"? That's weird. "One while two" meaning what?
Where are the people from who say things like "Alright my Barry?" or, "Alright our Barry?" Basically the people who say someone's name with a possessive pronoun in front.
When you say spoken, you don't mean people walk around speaking to each other in Welsh, right? I mean, it's possible to speak Welsh, but walking around Wales, you won't hear people conversing in Welsh, will you?
Of the little I know of Britain, I do know this. I was trying to open up the thread to the whole UK and include Ireland, haha. Speaking of which, step it up Irish.
And piel, that video was excellent!
What's thou mean?, using thee and thou isn't mean. If thou divn't agree, as ga-an yam. That's a bit of Cumbrian for you.
Alright, our Barry - northern, esp Liverpool, where they will also say "Our Kid", bit pronounce it "Are kid", meaning my younger sibling.
Yes, you will hear Welsh people talking Welsh in Wales. Its taught in schools, after years and years of English dominance/oppression, the Welsh claimed their language back. In some parts of Wales, you can't get a job unless you speak Welsh.
Just today, I was up in the North East of England, to bring Lewie home from Uni for the summer. We had a pub lunch, and after I placed the order, the member of staff told me something, and I hadn't a clue what she said! I think it was about when our lunch would be ready, but I haven't a clue. In the North East, especially around Newcastle, people call you "Hinney" or "Pet" all the time. and say stuff like "Way, aye man". Seriously.
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"The power of the weirdness compels me."
You use 'Standard English' because you're southern and middle class, not just because you're southern.
There are plenty of colloquialisms and slang within working class southern English.
Well that's true, but I still don't hear much slang/colloquialisms in Sussex especially, although that just may be because the majority of Sussex residents are middle class.
Older people around here will call you 'love' or 'dove'.
vexxed - you're right, Cockney slang is rarely heard, but the Cockney accent is still well and alive; Michael Caine is probably your most famous Cockney.
LewieP's Mummy is correct; Welsh is heard in Wales. You'll also find every road sign in Welsh as well as English, and many shops will also be in Welsh.
English and Welsh are pretty much interchangeable where I live. You'll often find people slip from one into the other in the middle of sentences.
Same and I'm British.
You so sure?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nR2Mui4g9SQ
I know most of the words he's saying. But I don't understand 98% of this.