William Park: ... would say "baaath", "graaass", and so on, with a long "ah"-sound. In my accent, "foot" rhymes with "put", but not with "strut" – the latter has an "uh"-sound, like in "upper". I grew up in Suffolk, in East Anglia, where the accent is a variation on southern standard English. We say a lot of things in the southern way with a stretched out "a" sound, for example. But we also have our own bit of regional flair. If you greeted me with "Ey up m'duck", I might ask how you are doing with "yer oroight buh?"

It makes sense to think of East Anglia as being the source of the earliest variety of English as we know it – Kerri-Ann Butcher

Today, the southern English accent is often associated with upper-class traditions and social prestige. For example, the King speaks in a type of southern-based accent, known as Received Pronunciation, as did the late Queen. This type of accent is also known as "BBC English" because of the way BBC news presenters spoke in the past.

But does that mean southern English accents are older, and more "original" than northern ones? Actually, a dive into history reveals a much more complex and surprising truth...

Molly: For a start, English is a language of many regional dialects (which are the words and grammar that a group of people use) and accents (the sounds of a person's speech). They reflect our place of birth and upbringing, and also our identity. "As humans, we like to be part of groups, and we like to differentiate ourselves from others," says Natalie Braber, a professor of linguistics at Nottingham Trent University in the UK.