# In the UK, does your dialect affect your social mobility and economic opportunities? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 2, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973 "2020-12-02T01:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973/61 "2020-12-08T20:34:41Z")
> [@K2500](#): > > My Texan ears didn’t really hear anything that made them sound particularly dumb or unintelligent to me. Could just be that I expect to hear them using English that doesn’t sound quite natural to me. It’s like any sort of accent; I’m sure that if they were to hear a native Texan who grew up in River Oaks or Highland Park, and a native Texan who grew up in a trailer park somewhere outside of Lufkin, they wouldn’t really draw much of a distinction between them either. But you and I could probably very easily tell who was the person from the wealthy area vs. the trailer park. Same thing for people within the UK or other countries; if you’ve been exposed to it, the accent differences are fairly distinct, but if you’re not, it’s hard to make out. I can tell most UK accents apart, but I’m at a total loss for Australia/New Zealand; I can _usually_ tell whether someone is from one or the other country, but not anything to do with class or ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973/62 "2020-12-08T20:46:17Z")
> [@casdave](#): > > A bit of context here, Yorkshire is just one county, albeit subdivided. > > York is 34 miles from Leeds centre to centre - suburbs are around 22 miles > > Castleford is 12 miles from Leeds and 22 miles from York > > Wakefield is 9 miles from Castleford and 10 miles south of Leeds and 35 miles South West of York. > > So these towns are all within around 30 mins driving and all very mutually commutable which I am sure has mutually diluted these accents a little to each other. > > Hull is off to the east in a bit of a cul-de-sac and somewhat isolated, Middlesborough is even further around 70 miles north from Wakefield and 60ish north miles from Leeds. > > I know that in the US these distances are nothing at all but each area is distinctive - certainly to those who live in Yorkshire - and people livinbg elsewhere in the UK would detect the regional accent but would only recognise some variation in the local accent and likely as not would only be able to place Middlesbrough as generic “North East” (which is much closer to a Geordie accent) and they would probably mix up the others with each other to some extent. > > I expect that if you went over to Liverpool you’d find a similar story with accents slowly diluting rather than having big changes until you get somewhat further away - maybe the 40-50 miles to Burnley to the east. Concur wholeheartedly. I could tell the difference between Oldham and central Manchester (7 miles apart), because I worked with people from both places and learned to hear the differences ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973/63 "2020-12-21T01:23:10Z")
Some more context. Pastor Mick has [an unusual background](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-55273677). From a working class family Mick Fleming was a drug dealer and enforcer until a serious breakdown precipitated by a religious revelation put paid to all that. > A chance meeting with a tutor at the University of Manchester led to a degree in theology. It was tough at first - without much of an education Mick struggled to read and write, and was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia. He failed his first year, but with hard work and support from the university, he eventually achieved a 2:1 degree. So Mick’s accent, like himself, is not at all usual for a cleric in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973/64 "2020-12-21T16:10:32Z")
So, I was right - university-educated, not “uneducated and … dumb”. In fact, _very_ smart, to have quit a life that would doubtless have killed him years ago, and to make it through Uni despite his learning disorder. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-uk-does-your-dialect-affect-your-social-mobility-and-economic-opportunities/926973.md?page=3)