Hi I'm Joel and I'm Lia and today we're going to be talking about the differences between
the North and the South.... in Britain!
Okay so, I was brought up in the Midlands and it's
not really North or South, it's like No Man's Land.
And you feel like, you've got a really
neutral.
Sorry I'm gunna talk about me using "I" not "you", coz you're not from there,
unless you are.
Unless you are!
I feel like I've got a very neutral accent but I don't
feel like, I only feel like that because I've lived in both places.
So I've sort of like,
become a blend between the Midlands and London.
But people from the Midlands will sound Northern
to people like Joel who's born and bred in the South.
When I was going through Sixth
Form, moving down, going to drama school in London, you just, you sort of change to fit
in and also just to sound correct or what you think is correct.
And then it wasn't until
I left drama school that I was like "I can just be me" do you know what I mean?
Just
be you.
You do you girl.
I'll just do me!
And since deciding to be me, I've never been
happier!
So that's my personal success story.
You're like Ja'mie Private School Girl, have
you seen that, "Learning to be me, I'm learning to be me".
Oh my gosh, I'm literally Chris
Lilley's character Ja'mie, Private School Girl.
You're learning to be you!
I honestly
am.
Do you think I'm a cliche?
Yeah.
No but I've noticed your vowels occasionally...
sometimes
you'll say like "baaaath" and "graaaass" but sometimes you'll say "bath" and "grass" whereas
everything else sounds quite Southern.
Whereas occasionally there's little tell-tale signs
[you're from the Midlands].
One of the main differences is an example I've just given,
between North and South, it's a very general difference, but it's the 'a' sound, or 'ah'
so, in the South we have a long 'a' so words like "grah-ss" or "bah-th" but in the North
they say "grass" or "bath", or "path" or "glass" - all of the words.
We were having an argument
on the weekend, I was at the barbecue and there's a character in Eastenders called Grant,
but half of my family were going "No it's Grant" and the other half were like "His name
is Grah-nt, like that's how he says his name".
If someone introduces you as "I'm Grah-nt"
then I'll say it the way you said it.
But then the Coventry lot were like "No his name's
Grant, his name is Grant".
That's what you get in the Midlands.
That's what you get in
the Midlands guys, how do you say things?
We're in No Man's Land!
If someone says a
place like where they're from, like "Hi I'm Joel, I'm from Bah-th".
I will say it the
way he's said it out of respect for where he's from.
I wouldn't be like "Oh Joel from
Bath", that's how a Northerner would say it, but I just, a personal thing that I do is
if someone says they're from somewhere, and I say Newcastle, because that's how people
from Newcastle say their place, I don't go "Oh you're from Newcah-stle" yeah, whereas
I'd say "Newcah-stle".
Because he's ignorant!
But I've just had a feature there of Midlands,
because my family are from the Midlands they're from Peterborough, and there they say things
like "Noo" instead of "New" , which "New" is very Southern, whereas "Noo" is like a
Midlands-y thing, and so I just said "Noo-castle" which is sort of a blending of both coz people
down South would say "Newcastle".
Really?
Say it again.
"Noo-castle", the Southern way
"Newcastle".
So they'd say "new" the dipthong of going between two vowels "neeeeooow" whereas
we'd just say "Noo".
So that's where my Midlands-y bit comes in.
Interesting, that's a really
subtle one!
That's worth thinking about if you're trying to perfect your Southern accent.
I remember being at drama school and
I said in a lesson with Trilby "what's the ish-ue [issue]" And
she
was like "My isssssue is..." and I was like "Your
what?"
"What is your isssssue Lia?".
I was like "My ish-ue wiv you is that... you are
not listening to me".
Urgh, I hate that, and I remember Brigid would say, Like everyone
would say "juke [duke]" and she'd be like it's "duuuke".
The Duke of York, it's not
Juke of York.
But I'd say the juke.
I would say the juke aswell.
And
this sort of leans towards this new style of London/Multicultural/Young speech.
How
many people do
you hear going "My issssue with the duuuke" Like we don't speak like that.
No we don't.
So, perceptions of Northerners and Southerners, what are the differences in your experience
of Northern people and Southern people.
As a generic overview, Northerners are considered
more friendly than Southerners.
Northerners, if they were in the Harry Potter houses, would
be Hufflepuff.
Hufflepuff yeah.
No status to uphold, just sort of, Hufflepuff.
Take
me as you find me.
Yeah exactly and you've got tonnes of Slytherins down South.
Yeah
it's true.
So many Slytherins.
It's funny, when I went to America, I was chatting to
some shop assistants about stuff and they were saying it's the opposite in the US, that
Southerners tend to be the friendly ones whereas people from the North, Northern states of
America are less friendly.
What states are in North America, well like New York and like
Wisconsin and Chicago (even though that's not a state) don't test my geography.
Okay,
I just wanted to know the gist.
Whereas the South, like the Bible Belt: Tennessee and
Nashville, that's in Tennessee.
All those places where they sound like Hillbillies.
They're friendly, whereas in the South here we're not considered as friendly.
But from
my perspective, as a true Southerner, I find Northerners less polite in the sense that
they're quite overbearing and quite, they're too friendly.
And that to Southerners is quite
like "Oh, you're being a bit rude coz you're not taking into account what I want".
Northerners
for example call you 'pet' or they'll call you 'duck' or they'll call you 'darling' and
'sweetheart', when they don't even know you, when you walk into a shop and they're like
"alright sweetheart?".
Whereas down South, that doesn't happen and people just address
you normally.
Normally/coldly!
But that's the thing, I can see why Northerners are seen
as more polite and they are, but to Southerners it comes across as rude, coz you're like "Oh
you're invading my space, you're being too personal".
Yeah.
And this isn't for everyone,
this is just like 7 times out of 10.
Yeah.
Because stereotypes wouldn't exist unless
they were a little bit real, do you know what I mean?
And they are true, it doesn't mean
that either side is bad or wrong, but it's just kind of how it's observed.
I was talking
to my cousin about this mockumentary thing I filmed when you were in Florida and
I was doing a Midlands accent for it and I kept slipping into my own accent, or it wasn't
Midlands-y enough and they director would be like "Lia you've either just slipped into
West Country or you're just not doing what we said" and I was like "okay, okay".
And
one of the things to remember is that the Northern accent has no "uh" "muh-m [mum]",
yeah they don't have that vowel.
It's like "moh-m [mum]".
One of my lines is "His mum's a slag" and you have to keep thinking about this 'u' sound.
Northerners have one less vowel than Southerners.
And you love that fact don't you.
It's my favourite fact.
Look how happy he is!
He's like "we've got one more".
We've got one more, so jokes on you Northerners.
Go on, say it: "muh-m [mum]", "buh-t [but]", So we've spoken about the 'u' sound and we've
spoken about the short 'a', "path, grass, bath, glass", the other thing I'd say for
the Northern accent in general is that they do these little abbreviations, so "put big
light on" would be like "can you put the light on?".
Do you know what I mean?
it's these short, like local phrases that if you hear for the first time in Britain
you might be like "what? sorry what?".
No it's true or "going down road", actually someone commented on that saying, someone
commented on one of our videos asking about why British people miss out certain words
in sentences.
And I think I replied saying it could be a feature of either Cockney or a Northern thing
coz they do say that don't they or they say "going t'pub", they don't say "going to the
pub" they just say "going t'pub", "put big light on" "put kettle on".
I think it's just a bit of laziness but it's also just quite clever, just missing out the
words that aren't that important.
Do you know what I mean?
It's just like what are the things I need to tell you?
There's no need to put a 'the' in there.
I know.
"put THE big light on", no!
Exactly, a lot of faff.
If you're learning English for the first time I don't know how you're doing it, English
doesn't make any sense whatsoever!
Like, all the different rules, like there's this well known phrase of saying that in English
you could spell 'fish' - 'ghoti'.
So 'gh' as in 'rouGH', 'i' as in, spelt with an 'o' like 'wOmen' and then 'ti' as in 'informaTIon'.
Oh my gosh!
It doesn't make any sense!
Our language does not make any sense!
Yeah, I was typing a text message today, to you, "I'm heading into work" but I did 'into'
wrong I put 'in' space 'to'.
Whereas if you say 'I'm heading into work' that's one word.
And then it made me think like, how is it that we know when to use 'into' and 'in to'?
And I was like it's just something you know, but HOW do you know that?
It kind of bothers me.
Also can I just say?
Do you know the word 'shirk'?
Like 'you're a shirker', I don't think I use that word, 'shirker'?
That's weird coz at work, I said the word 'shirk' and someone was like 'what's that?'
and I was like 'you are an idiot if you don't know that word', found someone else and they
also didn't know what it was!
And now you're saying you don't know what it is.
'Shirk' meaning like, if someone says "i'm working" you go "more like shirking".
Like work and shirk.
Shirk means like not working.
Is it Cockney?
No I don't think so, why does no one know this word?
I think YOU'RE the odd person here.
SHIRK is a word!
You can either work or shirk.
And shirk means to like shirk your responsibilities like not work, like chill out, be lazy.
Oh, shirk.
Coz when you said it I was like "oh is that a shit shirt?"
That's what someone else said to me they were like "do you mean skirt" and I was like "If
I meant skirt, I would have said skirt!"
Hangry is a good one!
Hungry and Angry!
That's a good one.
Someone today was like "oh I'm gunna be hangry soon" I was like "oh, I don't wanna see you
hangry" why are you flirting with them?
It was a woman.
"I don't wanna see you hangry!".
This video is literally encompassing so much!
Okay so we've gone off on a tangent as usual!
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