In Leicester discrimination is rife. This is surprising seeing as the city is possibly the biggest cultural melting pot in the country, but I’ll bet you’ve either participated in it or been on the receiving end on it. What is this huge controversy tearing us apart? Accents. | "When I lived down south I was too common, up here I’m weird as I’m posh but pretending to be Northern." | | Julia Ellis |
Everywhere you go, you can hear Londoners impersonating hard, flat vowels, people almost bewildered by Americans (‘you mean they’re from the US? Actually here in the flesh - not on TV!’), Northerners muttering ‘snobs’ and ‘soft'.
Is this a form of prejudice or harmless fun? Psychological studies have shown how nearly all of us have (not necessarily true) associations of certain accents – the slow Cornish, dodgy Cockney, sexy Irish and bizarre Welsh being just a few.
So it seems our accent says an awful lot about us – not only where we come from, but also our intelligence, personality traits, and even the amount of bestiality we enjoy. I don’t know about you, but I find my accent to be a real problem with others, as it’s an amalgam of a home county trill inflected with Mancunian vowels.
When I lived down south I was too common, up here I’m weird as I’m posh but pretending to be Northern. Although I have this trouble, I’m still happy with my odd enunciation as it’s who I am and I can’t really help it. Perhaps we should all keep this in mind when we next form our ideas about others when based purely on their voice; but why should I tell you this? It’s not like any of us thickie Midlands types can read or anything(!) | 
