Re: Cockney is prestigious? [Was: Re: Subtitutes for English /T/ and /D/]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2007, Mike Page wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:20:06 +0100, Matthew Huntbach
<mmh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2007, Seán O'Leathlóbhair wrote:
On 26 Jul, 15:34, Matthew Huntbach <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

If you don't speak RP, what do you speak? The older "yokel" southern accents are
problematical as well. If you don't speak one of these, and don't speak a form
of Estuary, then what you speak is RP. If you do speak Estuary or a yokel accent,
then if you have never experienced any sort of put-down for it, then you have
lived a charmed life.

Part of the problem here could be that "RP" seems to mean different
things to different people. For example, Peter prefers a very narrow
definition and restricts it to an affected rather than a natural
accent. Amethyst may also be using a rather narrow definition. I use
a much broader, probably the broadest, definition of RP, the type of
accent that most British run EFL schools promote. I would say that I
spoke RP according to my own use of the term but not Peter's. You
would seem to be also towards this end of the RP spectrum.

Yes, I'm certainly using "RP" to mean what is regarded as standard English,
rather than an affected variety spoken by aristocrats.

My point remain - when northerners, Scots, Welsh and Irish speak a version of
English which differs from "the type of accent that most British run EFL schools
promote", it's generally recognised as a valid regional accent. When southerners
speak a version of English which differs from "the type of accent that most British
run EFL schools promote", it's generally condemned as substandard English rather
than a regional accent.

Would that include the very southern accents of John Arlott and
Lord Denning?

These were covered by my phrase "yokel accent". Such accents are now so rare
they are regarded as rather quaint. Such accents aren't regarded so badly as
Estuary accents, but there is a tendency to associate them with the sort of
stereotypes linked with the word "yokel" which I used. However, particularly
in south-east England, these accents have disappeared, so people speak
something on the spectrum between RP and strong Estuary. I'm suggesting
that Estuary *is* now the local accent of the south-east of England, but there
is a string tendency to regard it as just sloppy speech.

Matthew Huntbach
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