12
NORTH & SOUTH DIVIDE
| Date post: | 25-Jun-2015 |
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Education |
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FACTORS
Life Expectancy Education Employment & Salary Wealth House prices Cost of Living How long does it take to get to London by train?
(Providing an important business link to the capital) Politics (Conservative Centre-right /Labour) Weather Culture (Music, Football) Linguistic Difference
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of
Northumbria and Mercia settled by different tribes
(Anglian) from the kingdoms of the South (Saxon). Dialects were
different from the start
WHERE DID IT START?
Differing north-south lines
Jewell (1994), Historian
Ordnance Survey, mapping organisation
Trudgill (based on SED data) (1990)
Britannia Inferior, Roman north-south boundary
Ellis (1889); SED Northern Area
Wells (based on SED data) (1982)STRUT-FOOT boundaryLong ‘a’ boundary
Daniel Dorling (2003), Human Geographer
Jack (1987), Political journalistTown and Country Planning Association (1987)
Smith (1989), socio-economic commentator
Southern limit of the Danelaw
STEREOTYPES
The North is grey, dull and bleakNortheners are unintelligent and unculturedNortheners don’t speak properlyNortheners eat less sophisticated foodsThe North is heavily industrialised and thus populated by Working-Class people
o Dress sense & fashionThe North is friendlier than the South
All Southerners are snobsSoutheners are weaker
NORTHERN VIEW
When you go to the industrial North you are conscious, quite apart from the unfamiliar scenery, or entering a strange country. This is
partly because of the North-South antithesis which has been rubbed into us for such a long time past. There exists in England a curious cult of Northernness, a sort of Northern snobbishness. A Yorkshireman in the South will always take care to let you know
that he regards you as an inferior. If you ask him why, he will explain that it is only the North that life is ‘real’ life, that the
industrial work done in the North is the only ‘real’ work, that the North is inhabited by ‘real’ people, the South merely by rentiers and their parasites. The Northerner has ‘grit’, he is grim, ‘dour’,
plucky, warm-hearted and democratic; the Southerner is snobbish, effeminate and lazy… Hence the Southerner goes north, at any rate for the first time, with the vague inferiority-complex of a civilised man venturing among savages, while the Yorkshireman, like the Scotchman, comes to London in the spirit of a barbarian
out for loot. ~ George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier
Jenny considers herself to have a strong Mancunian
accent. We couldtherefore infer that this
linksto her self identity and her
sense of belonging toManchester as a region. She states that she feels
heraccent is 'friendlier' than
the southern accent,proving that languageattitudes spread much
further than just how theaccent sounds, but also
how people with thataccent behave and
interact within society.
Jenny is an 19 year old student from Stockport in Manchester in
her first year at the university. Here she talks about her identity
as a Northerner.
Amaan is 20 and comes from London. He describes his opinions based on the impact London has socially over other regions.
Amaan immediately states his'southern accent is better than
the Northerner's accent,' which istypical of value judgements
often made when non-linguistshear different accents.
Furthermore, Amaan discusses how his accent gives him recognition
(even internationally) and this suggests he feels a sense of security bound up in his accent,
making him identifiable to a strong and cultural region such
as London. Finally, he makes links between
London and it's connotations with'money and power.' This could
suggest that he likes to associatewith this prestige and his accent makes him feel included in this.
ACTIVITY
In groups, read the chapters about the differences between the North & South and summarise them.
Then, share your conclusions with your class.
