Regional Accents
Several different things have made me think about regional accents recently. Specifically, the kudos that seems to be attached to not having one.
One of the few recent trends in this country that have made me happy and proud is that found in television presenting - it is now absolutely fine for TV presenters, whether they are presenting a reality show or the news, to have regional accents. If you watch the TV, you find yourself witnessing the different dialects[1] of the country, people not ashamed to be speaking in the accent of their homeland even when removed from that area. There are Brummies and Scousers and Cockneys and Geordies and Mancs and Fenland yokels - and they are taken seriously when they speak.
Now, let me say that I love academia. I adore the freedom to think, the community in which you can share and refine ideas through discussion, the shared wish to advance knowledge and reach the best possible understanding of the world, be it in the humanities or the sciences.
But there is one thing about academia - or at least the line of academia that I'm in (i.e. Classics at Cambridge) - that irritates me, and that's that people with regional accents are often made to feel inferior in some way. It's not that I don't know academics who refuse to join the ranks of the RP speakers and keep their regional accents - but in several cases, I've heard people making remarks about their background. I know we would all like to think that such snobbishness is dying out even in academia, but I'm not convinced it is. On occasions I've had people interrupt me when I've been saying something, just in order to guess at where my accent is from (and sometimes people have been very rude when doing so).
I can't think why it is seen as a curiosity that someone working in a field that requires intelligence/logic/whatever might have a regional accent. It may once have been the case that people with access to the Classics would more likely be those of 'good' schooling (the sort where elocution is taught... or doesn't need to be[3]) - but surely people in the field must realise that these disciplines are more widely available these days?
It makes me angry that those with RP accents feel there is a difference between them and individuals with northern, or cockney, or yokelly, or whatever accents. There might be a difference in where you come from, even in the kind of privileges you've been exposed to (or not), but to imply that there is a difference intellectually is snobbishness of the worst kind.
Personally, because of what I've experienced, I don't feel comfortable speaking in my natural accent when in Cambridge. I even sometimes feel embarrassed if I make a slip in my RP. And I hate myself for it. Why should I feel ashamed that I have the accent of the area in which I was born and raised? At home I speak Lancashire, but in public I speak RP[4].
On a related note, I'm now curious as to where the RP accent has come from. Why should there be snobbishness attached to it, exactly? Was it originally regional? Where then? And if not, then what the hell is it? I work with ancient languages, and don't know as much as I would like about the history of the English dialects, so I would be grateful for information about what precisely RP is. I can see how standardised pronunciation might be useful sometimes (e.g. for foreigners learning English), but I can't see why it should take over and try to squeeze the regional dialects out of certain sectors of society. Just trying to understand.
As a parallel, we might consider ancient Greece. There were a number of dialects in the Classical period, but from the time of Alexander a single, common 'dialect' (the Koine) was imposed[5] over the whole area. This was used for official inscriptions and so forth. But studies have suggested that the Koine actually differed a great deal in different areas of Greece and the area it controlled. I wonder if there were people in Thessaly, or Laconia, or Cyprus, who felt as angry as I do...
[1] NB A regional accent is a dialect because a dialect is marked by differing phonology. But, er, don't get me going on the whole family tree vs. dialectal continuum thing[2].
[2] If you don't know what I'm talking about, either think yourself lucky or ask ;)
[3] OK, yes, I had elocution lessons at primary school, I admit it. But we were taught to speak clearly, not to switch our vowels to those of RP.
[4] 'Tainted' as it may be by some northern sounds that I can't quite iron out.
[5] I say imposed, but it's much more complicated than that really.
One of the few recent trends in this country that have made me happy and proud is that found in television presenting - it is now absolutely fine for TV presenters, whether they are presenting a reality show or the news, to have regional accents. If you watch the TV, you find yourself witnessing the different dialects[1] of the country, people not ashamed to be speaking in the accent of their homeland even when removed from that area. There are Brummies and Scousers and Cockneys and Geordies and Mancs and Fenland yokels - and they are taken seriously when they speak.
Now, let me say that I love academia. I adore the freedom to think, the community in which you can share and refine ideas through discussion, the shared wish to advance knowledge and reach the best possible understanding of the world, be it in the humanities or the sciences.
But there is one thing about academia - or at least the line of academia that I'm in (i.e. Classics at Cambridge) - that irritates me, and that's that people with regional accents are often made to feel inferior in some way. It's not that I don't know academics who refuse to join the ranks of the RP speakers and keep their regional accents - but in several cases, I've heard people making remarks about their background. I know we would all like to think that such snobbishness is dying out even in academia, but I'm not convinced it is. On occasions I've had people interrupt me when I've been saying something, just in order to guess at where my accent is from (and sometimes people have been very rude when doing so).
I can't think why it is seen as a curiosity that someone working in a field that requires intelligence/logic/whatever might have a regional accent. It may once have been the case that people with access to the Classics would more likely be those of 'good' schooling (the sort where elocution is taught... or doesn't need to be[3]) - but surely people in the field must realise that these disciplines are more widely available these days?
It makes me angry that those with RP accents feel there is a difference between them and individuals with northern, or cockney, or yokelly, or whatever accents. There might be a difference in where you come from, even in the kind of privileges you've been exposed to (or not), but to imply that there is a difference intellectually is snobbishness of the worst kind.
Personally, because of what I've experienced, I don't feel comfortable speaking in my natural accent when in Cambridge. I even sometimes feel embarrassed if I make a slip in my RP. And I hate myself for it. Why should I feel ashamed that I have the accent of the area in which I was born and raised? At home I speak Lancashire, but in public I speak RP[4].
On a related note, I'm now curious as to where the RP accent has come from. Why should there be snobbishness attached to it, exactly? Was it originally regional? Where then? And if not, then what the hell is it? I work with ancient languages, and don't know as much as I would like about the history of the English dialects, so I would be grateful for information about what precisely RP is. I can see how standardised pronunciation might be useful sometimes (e.g. for foreigners learning English), but I can't see why it should take over and try to squeeze the regional dialects out of certain sectors of society. Just trying to understand.
As a parallel, we might consider ancient Greece. There were a number of dialects in the Classical period, but from the time of Alexander a single, common 'dialect' (the Koine) was imposed[5] over the whole area. This was used for official inscriptions and so forth. But studies have suggested that the Koine actually differed a great deal in different areas of Greece and the area it controlled. I wonder if there were people in Thessaly, or Laconia, or Cyprus, who felt as angry as I do...
[1] NB A regional accent is a dialect because a dialect is marked by differing phonology. But, er, don't get me going on the whole family tree vs. dialectal continuum thing[2].
[2] If you don't know what I'm talking about, either think yourself lucky or ask ;)
[3] OK, yes, I had elocution lessons at primary school, I admit it. But we were taught to speak clearly, not to switch our vowels to those of RP.
[4] 'Tainted' as it may be by some northern sounds that I can't quite iron out.
[5] I say imposed, but it's much more complicated than that really.