Talking Proper The Rise of Accent As Social Symbol [Hardcover]

Talking Properis a history of the rise and fall of the English accent as a badge of cultural, social, and class identity. Lynda Mugglestone traces the origins of the phenomenon in late eighteenth-century London, follows its history through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and charts its downfall during the era of New Labor. This is a witty, readable account of a fascinating subject, liberally spiced with quotations from English speech and writing over the past 250 years.

Introduction
1. The Rise of a Standard
2. Accent as Social Symbol
3. The Practice of Prescription
4. /h/ and Other Symbols of the Social Divide
5. Ladylike Accents and the Feminine Proprieties of Speech
6. Literature and the Literate Speaker
7. Educating Accents
8. The Rise (and Fall ?) of RP
Index

This book provides an exceptionally well-documented description of the rise of a socially dominant accent in Britain. . . The book offers a fascinating and authoritative insight into the rise (and fall?) of RP with a valuable, wide-ranging collection of well-researched data that is always clearly and carefully presented. --Linguist List 14.2117

Lynda Mugglestone is News International Lecturer in Language and Communication, University of Oxford and Fellow in English Language and Literature, Pembroke College, Oxford.