Rikaitch: King of Excellent (according to Scaryduck)

For such a small island, we really are a diverse race.

A conversation with Anni has led me to this...

It’s interesting that Great Britain measures barely a thousand miles from top right to bottom left, and yet has more accents and dialects than most continents!

We all speak English, yet we can find Celtic Gaelic in the highlands of Scotland, and each and every sign in Wales is in English and in Welsh. Note how in North Wales it is mostly in Welsh and in English though. Only people in Essex seem to understand each other clearly, and likewise with residents of the North East and the Newcastle area. People from Wales seem to think that all Scottish people sound Irish, and everybody thinks that real cockneys sound like people from the Eastenders, and yet Essex people sound more cockney then cockneys.

Every Scotsman hates the English; The English make jokes about the Irish; The Welsh would like to only be Welsh; and everybody hates the French. The Northern English hate the Southern English; Liverpudlians hate Mancunians; Glasgow is divided into heavy drinking Rangers supporters, and heavy drinking Celtic supporters. Everybody takes the mickey out of Brummies. London Taxi Drivers dislike going “South of the River.” Everybody thinks that Cornish folk are simple inbred yokels, because they have an accent not of this planet. Estuary English is widely regarded as rough and ready, and yet to live in the area you must be earning the most to stay there.

The Welsh call the English Saesnegs, the English call the Welsh sheep shaggers. The Scottish call the English Saesanachs, and the English call the Scottish sheep shaggers. The North Welsh call the South Welsh Taffs, and the South Welsh call the North Welsh sheep shaggers. Everybody calls farmers from the highlands sheep shaggers.

We regionalise people because of their accent. We dislike them if we follow these rules, and mistrust them until we know them. And yet, if we get the chance to have a go at the Americans, we all join in and become as one.