Brit. English

[Beverly Flanigan]

I'm not sure RP has ever been common in Britain.  Figures I've seen going
way back suggest that only 3-4% of the population actually use an RP
accent.  Natives told me years ago that John Major was laughed at for
trying to fake RP, and clearly Tony Blair doesn't have it.

At 09:04 AM 3/9/01 -0800, you wrote:
>Gosh--I don't care much for prescriptivist fuddy-duddies (and though I
>missed this program, Sewell sounds pretty objectionable), but I do like the
>sound of RP.  It was one of the enjoyable aesthetic experiences of my first
>visit to England, in 1955.  I'm distressed to hear that it has apparently
>retreated so far that it now sounds "extrawdnrih" even in its own country.
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>--On Thursday, March 8, 2001 10:07 AM +0000 Michael Quinion
><editor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG> wrote:
>
>>>Let that old Mr. Fuddy-Duddy, Jesse's foil on last night's 60
>>>Minutes II show, put that in his craw and smoke it.  American
>>>slang ruining the grand old mother (country) tongue indeed.
>>
>>It was simultaneously amusing and saddening to hear that the old
>>fuddy-duddy was Brian Sewell. Mr Sewell occasionally appears on
>>British television, where his accent sounds as extraordinary as
>>it must do to Americans. For many of us, it evokes echoes of
>>class conflict: whenever I hear it I want to rush out and man a
>>barricade somewhere. It's a great pity that his appearance must
>>have reinforced American prejudices about the English.
>>
>>
>>--
>>Michael Quinion
>>Editor, World Wide Words
>><editor at worldwidewords.org>
>><http://www.worldwidewords.org/>
>
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>                               Peter A. McGraw
>                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
>                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm