The historical sociolinguistics of elite accent change: On why RP is not disappearing
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Date
2008
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
There is a perception common in the UK today, especially amongst journalists, that the RP accent
is disappearing: for example, Public School pupils and younger members of the Royal Family are
now often said to be speaking Cockney instead of RP. This claim is totally erroneous, but it is
possible to point to a number of factors which can account for this perception. This paper attempts
to elucidate what these factors are; and it uses evidence from the history of English to argue that
the linguistic events currently affecting RP are sociolinguistically nothing new or modern, and
indeed are the result of sociolinguistically inevitable processes of diffusion and change which
have persisted for very many generations.
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Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 44 (2008), pp. 3-12