| Comment | If you watch any documentary on Received Pronunciation you will note that part of its purpose is to differentiate a class of people from others.
Post industrial Revolution with the flood of the nouveau riche, the upper classes would modulate their accents purposefully to align themselves with those of the same backgrounds in order to differentiate between themselves and the new ‘others’.
What’s happening with Edinburgh accents is much the same. As the fancier city with more tourism, the rhetoric around Edinburgh tourism and culture has historically sought to differentiate itself from the rest of the ‘rough’ central belt and its lairy sister Glasgow.
It’s within living memory that schools would coach kids to ‘speak proper English’. We would get told off for speaking ‘slang’ in class.
It is arguably one good thing about the rise of the SNP is that there seems to be an uptick in acceptance, celebration and fondness of Scots language. Universities and media have realised the power of localised accents and how they breed trust and interest. And as such, we see a broader swathe of the population not minding their p’s and q’s so much and deferring into Scots.
Plus only Toffs can afford to stay in central Edinburgh. You’ve little chance of hearing a proper accent while you’re visiting as it has priced most of the locals out of the city in favour of student housing and air bnbs. |
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