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Accents, English, English Language, Language, Lower Middle Class, Middle class, Social class, Social Sciences, Sociolinguistics, Speech, Style Shifting, Upper class, Upper Middle Class
In the other Language, Class and Style Shifting posts, we learned about how language became a marker of class, due to the plague killing half the population and allowing more social mobility. The remnants of this are still a major part of today’s society, and are visible all around us. Or, rather, audible.
Today, we still use language to indicate class. Generally, upper classes use fewer non-standard variants than lower classes. That’s not to say that there’s a strict division between classes: Prince William will still glottal stop – drop his Ts – but he’ll do it for ‘that time’, dropping the T in ‘that’ ([ðæɁ taɪm]) rather than in ‘butter’ ([ˈbʌɁər]). Continue reading