It's been a while...

[year_x]

So, a while since the last entry. So I'll start with something heavy and lumpen.

I'm a snob. That shouldn't be much of a surprise to those who know me. I've a long history of snobbishness in my family, from my upper middle -class paternal side, to my aspirant working class maternal side. Snobby thoughts, whether 'inverted' or original flavour are

Comments

[gnomatron]

I don't think it's so much about socialising with Yahs, but a knock on effect of that which is that it's not a very socially inclusive uni. The demographics of Edinburgh uni students are massively skewed towards the upper end of the income spectrum; at a uni with a more even demographic there won't be as much pressure to conform to a more snobbish ideal. It's not just Yahs, it's also tutors and lecturers and the general uni culture, which end up reflecting the makeup of the student population. A broad Northern - or even scottish - accent doesn't sit well with upper clash english kids; I don't recall any of my teachers at uni having a heavy regional British accent at all. I'd hazard a guess that any who did have such an accent would tone it down pretty quickly

[juice1]

If you are in a tutorial or discussion though, whether you admit to not knowing something or would like to appear to know something, this has no relevance to geographic background.

[glass_bubblegum]

It's not so much geographic background as educational privilege. Like I said, there is a very specific language which is the language of academia, and I think the closer or further away yours is from that can make a big difference as to how you're treated/how you feel in an academic discussion.

Hopefully without sounding like too much of a hypocrite (ie 'the academic system is keeping da man down! incidentally, here's an academic reference to prove how the academic system is keeping da man down'), there's been a great deal of study done in this area to support this opinion. If you're interested in information that stretches beyond the simple anecdotes we can throw back and forth, check out the English Language 1 course reading list here, especially the ones listed under 'Variations in English'. It's fascinating stuff, and might well expand or adapt your views (it definitely did mine)!

[gnomatron]

That linguistic snobbery is very much more stringent at places like Edinburgh uni, too. The linguistic snobbery reinforces the social snobbery. That was pretty much what I was getting at but you have the handy linguistic stuff to back it up :) To an extent the linguistic snobbery is justifiable - you need to homogenise your basic communication if you're going to try and communicate highly complex ideas. It's unfortunate that it's caught up in social snobbery.

[glass_bubblegum]

No kidding. Edinburgh University: the only place in the entire country where I actually sound Scottish, and have received negative remarks for it! Beautifully ironic, given that I got no end of shit in Stranraer for being 'too English'.

And yeah, in agreement with you over standardisation. I'm totally for a standardised academic language (to an extent) for the sake of communication; what I'm not for is an standardised academic language for the sake of exclusion. It kicked off with Latin, then it was/is RP, and it's just as geared towards being non-communicative in the 'wrong' circles as it is towards being communicative in the 'right' ones.

I do think it's been getting better recently though, to the point that I can see where Lucy is coming from when she says it doesn't matter anymore. I don't think that's true yet, but I think it's an ideal we've been rapidly getting closer to over the last decade.

Hehe, poor Aythan is going to wake up to an inbox full of sociolinguistics tomorrow.

[year_x]

This is quite different to how I thought my post would be answered. I've never had a post with so many replies! But it's all fairly interesting, especially as it's from people with a wide academic background.