A few thoughts on the endlessly fascinating question of accent.
This is still almost a taboo subject because of course accent is coded language for class which is alive and well and no doubt always will be.
On a public level, we note the headlong retreat of what I suppose one can loosely call Oxford English and the startling rise of a particular sort of Scottish accent. (I write “particular sort” because I am not an expert on the various types but I suspect the accents one hears on the BBC are not the same as those encountered in Glaswegian tenements.) Personally, I find this new development all to the good.
Firstly, the sort of Scottish voice I am talking about here is astonishingly clear, ideally suited to the hard of hearing and/or those contending with substandard reception on their medium and short wave radios! The Scots, like some singers, seem to be born with built-in diction. Their pronunciation is like an Impressionist painting: meaningless when seen up close, but clear and beautiful when viewed from afar.
Secondly, Scotland is somehow associated in the subconscious mind with an egalitarian, meritocratic society, so the Scottish way of speaking carries no or few class connotations.
To be continued.
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