Discrimination against accents: what is the authentic voice of the North London Wokerati?
The Sutton Trust published findings this week that showed that some regional accents still find prejudice.
The sociologist Basil Bernstein argued that language has elaborated and restricted codes. The former reflects if not Reithian Received Pronounciation then certainly a standard form of English that one might find, for example in a news reader. The latter is used locally, with friends (for example) and might include regional words and saying. Bernstein noted that people can switch between the two.
Indeed I don’t use my Tottenham accent when I’m in meetings in the City of London, while often being in Cardiff someone occasionally remarks(in a friendly way) that I’m not Welsh.
The Times, perhaps surprisingly, ran an Editorial backing attempts to get rid of accent prejudice. What then is the authentic voice of the North London Wokerati?
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