# Regional Stereotypes Outside the U.S. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940 "2005-11-07T18:56:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/81 "2005-11-11T18:46:36Z")
> [@mazinger\_z](#): > > No matter what country, if you’re from the Southeren region, you’re a hick, hayseed, inbred and uneducated, and speak with a drawl or noticeably lazier accent. > > No matter what country, if you’re from the city (or capital area), you’re rich, obsessed about money, uppity, and boorish. > > Is that the trend? Seems like it. Australian hicks are north, but they’re still closer to the equator, so your theory holds. In fact, we have a word for the process of getting slow and a little mad when you move to the far north: to ‘go troppo’ (from ‘tropical’). A little affected by the sun. Actually I think it’s less to do with the sun directly, and more to do with life being easier in the warmer areas of the globe, generally. People from the biggest city are rich, obsessed about money, uppity, and boorish, but people from the capital are usually just boring. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/82 "2005-11-11T18:48:51Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > The shibboleth for telling the difference: when asked “how far from point A to point B”, a NorCal will say: “It’s 90 _miles_; take _Hwy_ 101.” A SoCal will say: “It’s 90 _minutes_; take _the_ 101.” Or in some parts of the world, “it’s about a sixpack from here”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/83 "2005-11-11T19:37:17Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I realize the OP was looking for non-US stereotypes, but I wanna play… > > Southern Californians: what most people think of when they think “California” – beach culture, car culture, vapid, brainless beautiful people. Hollywood celebrities are liberal, but everyone else is conservative (they gave us Nixon & Reagan). Actually, the City of L.A. proper and western suburbs such as Santa Monica and Beverly Hills have a reputation for Democratic/liberal voting–which is largely accurate. This goes way beyond the Hollywood crowd. Arnie’s propositions looked like winning until the Los Angeles County returns came in. But the eastern and northern suburbs have a rep for conservative politics and culture, which also is largely deserved. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/84 "2005-11-12T04:10:01Z")
In Italy, for some reason the “uneducated hick” stereotype is attributed to a single town: Campobasso, in Campania. Abruzzesi are wild mountain goatherds. Basilicatans are hardly out of the Stone Age. Milanese are cold and businesslike. Milan is where the fashion is too, _bella mia._ Neapolitans are always singing. Naples is the home of organized crime. Laundry hanging over the balcony is called the “Neapolitan national flag.” Piedmontese are more French than Italian. Valle d’Aosta _really is_ French. Romans are the least religious people in Italy. But they don’t mind profiting off Catholic tourists. I already discussed Sicilian stereotypes at length. Tuscans think they speak the best Italian; they’re good at persuading foreigners to believe that. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/85 "2005-11-12T04:20:16Z")
Correction, Campobasso is in Abruzzi e Molise, which is next to Campania. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/86 "2005-11-12T06:07:28Z")
Going back a few centuries, to _Outremer_ (Crusader-ruled kingdom of Jerusalem): Muslim writers often remarked on the sexual licentiousness of Frankish (European) women. Usama ibn Munqidh famously describes a scene where a Frankish man of his acquaintance came home to find his wife in bed with another man. When the husband demanded to know what was going on, the stranger replied that he was tired, and merely laid down in the bed to rest. When the husband asked why his wife had gotten into the bed with him, the stranger said, “The bed is hers. How could I prevent her from getting into her own bed?” Apparently satisfied with this response, the husband merely warned them not to do it again. On the other hand, the poet Ibn al-Qaysarani was so taken by the “blue-eyed” beauty of a Frankish woman that he wrote the following poem: _I am captivated by a Frankish woman A fragant breeze lingers on her. In her clothing there is a soft branch And she is crowned by a radiant moon._ During the First Crusade, the _rhomaioi_ (Byzantine Greeks) were scandalized by the clean-shaven faces and long hair of the Crusaders. Later, this became a popular trend in Byzantine culture; a couple of centuries later, Niketas Choniates disdainfully notes the long womanish locks worn by Greek men. The rhomaioi also considered the Russians to be cruel, the Armenians and Arabs treacherous, and the Franks to be greedy, uncultured, and violent. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/87 "2005-11-12T13:07:42Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Whilst I’d agree with **Cunctator** on refuting the second part of your ex’s argument, she’s otherwise right. Australian regional accent differences are slight, but Sydney’s would qualify as being the “least Australian”. We don’t have that broad nasal twang that Americans are sold (Steve Irwin is based in Queensland). It’s not an English affectation though. It’s a result of the huge migrant population here over the last fifty years. This does include a lot of English migrants of course, but also Italians and Greeks in the early days, then SE Asians and Middle Eastern folk later on. The main one, though, is the New Zealanders. The Sydney accent is, to make a sweeping generalisation, an Australian accent that is leaning strongly towoards being a New Zealand one. It’s fast, clipped yet somehow breathy, and many vowels are sublimated into a schwa. You mean we win? 😉 But seriously Melbourne has a huge migrant population, though bugger all Kiwis. Are you saying the Bondi bunch is taking over? While the differences seem tiny to anyone else, the differences in the accents are very apparent to NZers and Aussies. Simple words like ‘dance’ tell the difference. Aussies pronounce that word very much like Americans (or more correctly like the Irish). Kiwis pronounce it more like the English. Though the major accent influences in both countries is the English, it is the most prominent secondary influence that made the difference. To Australia it was the Irish. To NZ it was the Scottish. That influence is the only difference in (most) Pakeha-Kiwi accents; in the South they roll their R’s- just like their Scottish forebearers. In the wild unplanned North they forgot how to roll R’s because they were too busy NOT shagging sheep. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/88 "2005-11-12T20:40:02Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > You mean we win? 😉 > > But seriously Melbourne has a huge migrant population, though bugger all Kiwis. Are you saying the Bondi bunch is taking over? > > While the differences seem tiny to anyone else, the differences in the accents are very apparent to NZers and Aussies. Simple words like ‘dance’ tell the difference. Aussies pronounce that word very much like Americans (or more correctly like the Irish). Kiwis pronounce it more like the English. > > Though the major accent influences in both countries is the English, it is the most prominent secondary influence that made the difference. To Australia it was the Irish. To NZ it was the Scottish. > > That influence is the only difference in (most) Pakeha-Kiwi accents; in the South they roll their R’s- just like their Scottish forebearers. In the wild unplanned North they forgot how to roll R’s because they were too busy NOT shagging sheep. 😃 You’re not only winning the battle, but it looks like the entire bloody war might go your way. I’ve posted this before I think, but I once heard a linguistics expert talking about the Kiwi accent, and how he believes it is the English language’s default accent. The theory is that up until the 1950s, the New Zealanders sounded quite English. The Australian radio and TV presenters did too, but not the population because we were larger, of convict (generally working class) ancestry, and we had time to develop our own accent (Irish-influenced, as you say). In New Zealand though, even the average Joe in the street sounded a little British. Suddenly, as the 60s loomed, and holding on to Mother England’s apron strings became unfashionable in both countries, Australia just reverted completely to its own accent (including the radio announcers), but NZ suddenly found _it didn’t have one_. So this basic accent appeared, almost as a rush job. This guy went on to say that over the decades and possibly centuries, he believes _every English-speaking country in the world_ will develop Kiwi characteristics in their speech, due to the globalisation of the language smoothing off the corners of various regional speech patterns. I don’t know whether he’s right or not, but it’s an interesting theory. I do love a good, educated Kiwi accent. It’s nice to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![Squee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Squee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squee)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/89 "2005-11-12T23:34:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Abruzzesi are wild mountain goatherds. I thought he was just a crazy gangster from Prison Break. Learn something new every day. = ) ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/90 "2005-11-13T04:12:41Z")
> [@mazinger\_z](#): > > I agree that people from Sydney sound the most English from my travels there. All seemed laid back by American standards. All Australians I met in Europe all drank more than anyone else I met. > > However, I popped in to call to attention some common points throughout this thread which I don’t think anyone else mentioned yet: > > No matter what country, if you’re from the Southeren region, you’re a hick, hayseed, inbred and uneducated, and speak with a drawl or noticeably lazier accent. > > No matter what country, if you’re from the city (or capital area), you’re rich, obsessed about money, uppity, and boorish. > > Is that the trend? Not true of England - hicks are Northerners, the sophisticated from the South. My family name is Cooke - apparently the Cooks in the South didn’t want to be associated with the Cooks in the North, so added the ‘e’ on the end! ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/91 "2005-11-13T07:14:55Z")
My dad is proud of being Czech (mostly Bohemian, but with some Moravian ancestry). He’s glad the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic are now separate countries, as opposed to being combined into the nation of Czechoslovakia. To him, the Czechs (urban and educated, professional) are more cultured, while the Slovaks (farmers and factory workers) are less intelligent. He believes that the difference is intrinsic, but was magnified by the fact that during the time when both peoples were under Austro-Hungarian domination the Czechs looked to Austria (Vienna pastries, Mozart’s compositions). Meanwhile, the Slovaks were more influenced by Hungarian culture (“chicken paprikas and the [csárdás](http://csardas.org/pages.php?&menuid=7)”). I once told Dad that a co-worker of mine (who was of Slovak ancestry) had make a comment about “the Czechs and Slovaks” being the best of the Slavs. Dad’s response was: “Only a Slovak would make a comment like that, bringing in the Czechs to lift himself up!” (I hasten to add that although Dad is fond of ethnic humor and invoking stereotypes, he’s always gotten along well with people of all backgrounds – he just honestly believes that such clichés as the “thrifty Scotsman” and the “drunken Irishman” each contain more than a grain of truth.) ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/92 "2005-11-13T07:52:15Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Whilst I’d agree with **Cunctator** on refuting the second part of your ex’s argument, she’s otherwise right. Australian regional accent differences are slight, but Sydney’s would qualify as being the “least Australian”. We don’t have that broad nasal twang that Americans are sold (Steve Irwin is based in Queensland). It’s not an English affectation though. It’s a result of the huge migrant population here over the last fifty years. This does include a lot of English migrants of course, but also Italians and Greeks in the early days, then SE Asians and Middle Eastern folk later on. The main one, though, is the New Zealanders. The Sydney accent is, to make a sweeping generalisation, an Australian accent that is leaning strongly towoards being a New Zealand one. It’s fast, clipped yet somehow breathy, and many vowels are sublimated into a schwa. I certainly know that in my case, if I went to the US, I might not be identified as Australian right away. The stronghold of the Australian accent as stereotyped in America remains Queensland, particularly rural and outback Queensland. Oh I, as a Queenslander, have to disagree. The Queensland accent is very distinctive and not at all like the classic 'strine accent. A number of my friends and I have been mistaken by Americans for South Africans. The difference between the Sydney accent and the Queensland accent is that we speak more slowly up here, but we also rely even more on the unstressed, neutral vowel. Steve Irwin’s accent seems to drift in and out of the classic Melbourne accent, where an “i” can be subtsituted for any vowel at any time and all words are spoken at a million miles an hour. mm ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/93 "2005-11-13T13:39:25Z")
Arthur Miller’s play _A View from the Bridge_ has a Sicilian character named Mario who is there to be the stereotype of the vengeful, deadly Sicilian. Again, unusual in that this was an American play but Mario was shown with a European stereotype of Sicilians, instead of being a Mafioso, which is the American stereotype of us. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/94 "2005-11-13T15:22:25Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Not true of England - hicks are Northerners, the sophisticated from the South. Intriguingly, the American (U.S.) Northeast was settled largely from the South of England, while the Old South was settled largely from the North. So here we have a classic case of the “exception that proves the rule”; the same stereotytpe carried across the Pond, but reversed as to which region fell into which stereotype. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/95 "2005-11-13T19:06:36Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Intriguingly, the American (U.S.) Northeast was settled largely from the South of England, while the Old South was settled largely from the North. So here we have a classic case of the “exception that proves the rule”; the same stereotytpe carried across the Pond, but reversed as to which region fell into which stereotype. 🙂 Another similar example is the pronunciation of the letter ‘H’ - in England it is seen as working class to say ‘haich’ (you know like whatser name Doolittle does) but in Australia it is seen as more educated and classy! ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/96 "2005-11-13T20:46:51Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Another similar example is the pronunciation of the letter ‘H’ - in England it is seen as working class to say ‘haich’ (you know like whatser name Doolittle does) but in Australia it is seen as more educated and classy! It used to be that whether a person aspirated the haitch in Australia was more to do with whether he had a Catholic upbringing (they did aspirate) or a Protestant one (they didn’t). ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/97 "2005-11-13T20:57:25Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > It used to be that whether a person aspirated the haitch in Australia was more to do with whether he had a Catholic upbringing (they did aspirate) or a Protestant one (they didn’t). So possibly because of the Irish immigrant influence, to be Catholic was a better thing status wise? I noticed when I lived in Sydney a certain snobbery involved with people who had attended Catholic schools. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/98 "2005-11-13T21:55:26Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > So possibly because of the Irish immigrant influence, to be Catholic was a better thing status wise? I noticed when I lived in Sydney a certain snobbery involved with people who had attended Catholic schools. Could be, but I suspect it’s more modern than the Irish influence (and that was often seen as a working class thing to avoid being associated with, in the old days). Many non-Catholic families send their kids to Catholic schools to “get a better education”. Aspiring families see Catholic schools as the first step on the rung out of the public education system. These schools are unibuitous in the suburbs, and often the only other private education alternative is one of the $$$$$ private grammar schools, usually inconveniently far away. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/99 "2005-11-13T21:56:50Z")
"unibuitous " Cool word, but I have no idea what it means. I meant to say “ubiquitous”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940/100 "2005-11-13T22:21:38Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > Not true of England - hicks are Northerners, the sophisticated from the South. Not really all that true. There’s multiple regions that have gained a “hick” stereotype, some in the north, some in the south. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-stereotypes-outside-the-u-s/329940.md?page=6)