When any work features both slobs and snobs in its cast, one of the quickest ways to distinguish these groups is to assign each one a distinctive accent or dialect; one for the slobs that's rougher and more regionally specific, and one for the snobs that's more carefully pronounced and indicative of economic and social capital (however that's defined in any given setting). In a drama, especially a Period Piece, this trope can be played for authenticity to the setting. In a comedy, it can be Played for Laughs and/or to set up a character as an Upper-Class Twit or a Lower-Class Lout. In a Pygmalion Plot, a person with a "slob" dialect is typically encouraged to lose it in favor of the "snob" one.

A socioeconomic sub-trope of Separated by a Common Language. Often reinforced by Accent Adaptation, when the creator replaces the original work's Rich Language/Poor Language pattern with a corresponding pattern that viewers in a culturally different setting would understand. When separate languages or dialects are involved, it's Noble Tongue. In Real Life, linguists call this phenomenon "diglossia."

Depending on the setting in question, this trope has several geographic variants:

• Australia: Both the city and country variants of the "broad" Australian accent are considered lower-class, as opposed to the "cultivated" accent associated with Sydney and the southeast.
• Canada:
  • In English-speaking Canada, wealthier characters will most likely have a Toronto or B.C. accent, and lower-class characters will sound more like hosers.
  • In Quebec, the upper class speaks Radio-Canada French while the lower class speaks with the rougher joual or "street French" accent.
  • Historically, "Canadian dainty" had the same connotations that the Mid-Atlantic accent did in the US, with a very similar British-inspired sound, and declined in the latter half of the 20th century for the same reasons.
• China:
  • The most typical "not in a too bad of a position" accent today is the Standard Mandarin accent, which is traditionally the upper class Beijing accent based off of the Imperial Accent spoken by the late Qing Emperors. After the formalization of Mandarin at the start of the 20th century, it's become increasingly associated with higher education and a broad Chinese identity, and being at least "respectable", if not necessarily wealthy.
  • The most common accent associated with wealth (and particularly "old money" wealth) is the typical Wu-dialect accent spoken in the Lower Yangtze regions of Shanghai and adjacent areas, which was the traditional centre of prosperity during imperial China and remains its wealthiest region.
  • The southeast accents, such as those associated with the Cantonese or Min (Hokkien/Teochew/Fuzhounese etc.) languages, will be affiliated moreso with the Nouveau Riche, often businessmen or other hustler types, with the accents themselves being viewed as sharper and more "cutting" than the Wu accents.
  • Most other regional accents, however, are almost always depicted in Chinese media as being spoken by either the working class, rural types, or the elderly. The most typical in the urban working class (at least in Northern China) are the heavily rhotic Beijing street accent, the Mandarin counterpart to Cockney, and the Northeastern, or dongbei accent, its even coarser and more aggressive cousin. Among more "country hick" types, however, you will either hear the Jin accent from the Loess Plateau regions, usually associated with simple but good-hearted rural folks, or its not-so-good-intentioned counterpart, the Henan accent from the Central Plains, .
  • In southern media, these will usually be replaced by either the Sichuanese accent, with its "sing songy" flair that is frequently associated with happy-go-lucky farmer types, or the Hunanese accent, a more militaristic variety that's also affiliated with old communists.
• France:
  • Rich language is associated with the neutral accent emulated by the Paris elite. Some language ticks may sound ridiculous and snobbish. For instance, the 'e prépausal' ('bonjour-in' instead of 'bonjour').
  • Slang and accents that developed in the banlieues are typically associated with lower class.
  • Regional accents, words or dialects are associated with people from outside Paris; while this does not necessarily mean that they are poor, it can signify that they lack the cultural background and political connections of the Paris elite.
  • Extending from above, accents from other French speaking countries will quickly give an outsider, 'poor unrefined' immigrant vibe with (often) racist undertones to boot.
• Ireland: In Dublin, middle- and upper-class characters speak Mainstream Dublin or New Dublin while lower-class characters speak Common Dublin.
• Italy: Northern accents are posh; southern accents are uncouth.
  • More complicated, depending on times and regions. For instance, there are at least two specific accents of Naples: one popular and dialectal (if not spoken dialect tout court), one cultured, in Italian but characteristic (and elegant).
  • Moreover, in the Commedia dell'Arte, servants such as Zanni and Arlecchino are typically northern and with very strong accents.
  • In general, the main idea is that lower-class characters are speaking vernacular (one of the many ones; there are more than 30, with local variations) while Italian is associated with the upper class. Mostly.
  • Regarding the first item, in some epochs there has been a strong migration from the southern to the northern regions. At present, the demographic trend is changing (due to increased immigration from abroad)
• Japan:
  • In Tokyo, the Yamanote dialect is typically associated with the upper class while the Shitamachi or Edo dialect is associated with the lower class.
  • Outside of Tokyo, the Tohoku accent of northeast Honshu tends to indicate that the character is a hick from the boonies.
  • The Kansai dialect can go either way depending on the exact locale.
    • Those with an Osakan dialect (and similar dialects like Nara and Kobe) are often depicted as having an eye for commerce due to Osaka's history as a major Merchant City — the stereotypical Osakan will greet you with "Have you made money today?" This in turn tends to designate them as more lower-class, especially if the setting is feudal Japan where merchants occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder. English-language dubs of licensed anime tend to give such characters a Southern redneck accent or a Brooklyn Rage accent.
    • In contrast, an accent from nearby Kyoto sounds posh and refined, often reserved for elegant women as the accent sounds more feminine. Again, historical background comes into play — Kyoto was the residence of the Emperor for many centuries until the Meiji era and was generally considered "above the fray" of the ruthless politicking among rival samurai clans. In English-language dubs, such characters often have their accents adapted into similar "upper crust"-type accents such as a Southern Belle/Gentleman accent.
• Philippines:
  • English is already considered a language of class among Filipinos—legacy of a century of American colonialism, neoimperialism and indirect cultural influence — and so, upper-class or at least aspirational English accents in the Philippines tend to follow American accents and intonation, particularly Los Angeles or at least California accents due to the Hollywood influence. Smooth American accents are also a standard taught to the many, many Filipino call-centre workers and are also commonly heard among Filipino celebrities. Working-class Filipino English, of course, tends to have strong, hard accents influenced by the native languages of the speakers in question, like Tagalog, Bisaya, Kapampangan, Ilokano, etc. That kind of English has been mocked as "Carabao English"; however, some government officials and politicians such as former President Joseph Estrada always use Carabao English when speaking in English either to better identify with the masses or at least avoid being perceived as elitist.
  • Tagalog itself has a rich accent and a poor accent: the "Rich" Tagalog accent has code-switching with American-styled accented English; while the "Poor" Tagalog accent uses Visayan accents.
  • It also came to the point that Tagalog became the "rich" language and the other Philippine languages (especially Cebuano) became the "poor" languages.
• United Kingdom:
  • Upper-class characters speak with Received Pronunciation (on which "Mid-Atlantic" was based — and like that, it is an accent of education and class, not region) or a Home Counties accent. Working-class characters speak with Cockney accents, or with increasingly rougher accents the farther away they grew up from London and its environs. This has its own trope.
  • In Scotland, upper-class characters will probably sound the same as upper-class English (with perhaps a slight lilt). They sometimes have Morningside (Edinburgh) or Kelvinside (Glasgow) accents, though these are often coded as "social climber, doesn't really talk like that". What most people think of as a Glaswegian accent is definitely working class, while a rural West Highland accent almost certainly marks you as a crofter whose family have been farming this land for generations.
• United States:
  • Nationally, the most common upper-class accent is the Prep accent associated with New York City and New England (especially Connecticut), particularly among socialites and the financial class. Almost any regional American accent can be pitched as the lower-class counterpart to this. Newscasters favor "neutral," Upper Midwest-style accents like Brian Williams.
  • At one time, an even higher-payload snob signifier was the British-influenced "Mid-Atlantic" accent made famous by the likes of Katharine Hepburn, William F. Buckley Jr., George Plimpton, and Margaret Dumont. This was an entirely artificial accent taught in prep schools; in the words of the professor and actor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so." The decline of the Old Money White Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment after World War II took the accent with it, even among the rich. Part of the reason for its creation though was it apparently carried better over the then-new medium of radio.
  • There are also examples of this trope within certain regions, states, or cities. For example, in Boston, the Brahmin accent of the city's older and wealthier families could be contrasted with the working-class Irish-American Southies in the southern part of the city.
  • Given the prominence of racial issues in the U.S., the "lower class" accents are particularly associated with people of color, especially African-Americans, Hispanic people, and recent immigrants. (Note, however, that there is a distinctive refined "Bougie Black" accent — or rather accents, as it varies from community to community and has changed over time.) In works with mostly white casts, the accents of poor white Southerners and rural whites in general hold very similar connotations.

Examples: