Talking Proper

Download or read book Talking Proper written by Lynda Mugglestone and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Talking Proper is 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.