A northerner ventures south

by Anjali Davidson, a first-year sociology undergraduate at the LSE. The Northern society recently held a pub quiz, and I attended as one of the markers. As I sat with the committee and the answer sheets, during the quiz a female member of the committee was asked why she had joined the Northern Society by a lad with a decidedly Southern accent. She simply answered “because I’m Northern.” I noticed that her own accent was relatively neutral and couldn’t place it —the only hint of a northern accent was the bluntness in the way she pronounced the letter ’a’ without the silent ‘r’ afterwards, like saying ‘grass’ rather than ‘grarss’. I went away and thought about this, it intrigued me. I classify myself as Northern especially being in London and at the LSE through my accent. My brother and I, both moved away from our beloved city of Manchester to study, and we both seem to have picked up some insecurities about our accents, and while his became exaggerated, I fear I may be losing some pronunciations to the Southerners. It was refreshing to hear someone identifying as Northern by something other than their accent, and while my occasional use of the word ‘owt’ or the way I swear (the f word has a ‘u’ in it, not an ‘a’) might garner a few laughs from Londoners, though it does refresh my confidence in my accent, it also refreshes my confidence that the Northern identity is so much more than accent.