Celtic influence

[Rick Mc Callister]

[snip]
> The 19th and 20th-century British situation, where the upper classes speak a
>> class dialect and the lower a series of regional ones, is historically a
>>very
>> rare phenomenon.

[snip]

	In every Spanish-speaking country I've been in, including Cuba,
class dialects are very noticeable. Although Cuba is a communist country,
you can tell someone's class origins or professional status by his/her
accent --whether someone is a blue collar or white collar worker. In Latin
America, just as in the US, the upper and upper middle classes speak a
dialect that, on the whole, transcends national boundaries, while
regionalisms tend to persist in the lower and lower middle classes. Even in
countries that have very distinctive national accents such as Mexico and
Argentina, people from the upper classes speak a much more standardized
version of the language. Among Spanish-speaking cities, Madrid, Buenos
Aires and Mexico City are well known for their lower class accents. As in
the US, class differences can be found among members of the same family
living in the same town.

	My guess is that class accents are the norm and that they are
eradicated only when social classes are eradicated.