In conjunction with this is also the fact that accents and dialects can be used as a way of stereotyping people. For example, due to the industrial crisis, which happened in Liverpool means, that a stereotype about all people from there has arisen of them being untrustworthy, criminals. The same type of stereotyping has happened in rural areas such as Norfolk where people are considered to be simple minded and poorly educated, all of whom come from a farming background. This is simply not true but many would argue with the upgrading of all regional variation this type of false stereotyping would cease to exist.
Another argument, which supporters of the changing of accents and dialects have put forth, is that people with a more prestigious accent and dialect will get further in life. This is due to the fact that people with a broad regional accent and dialect are usually considered to be less educated and of a lower class. The reason people think this, is because the more powerful professions and institutes, such as the BBC and the Queen, spoke Received Pronunciation and Standard English, whilst workers in the basic primary industries such as fishing, mining and farming spoke in broader accents and dialects so that the way you spoke began to portray an image of your background and education. This also leads to the argument that if somebody is able to tell your background from the way you speak, they are also able to discriminate against you for it. For example, in accent and dialect studies, cases have been examined, such as, a young girl who spoke Received Pronunciation and Standard English was able to get a paper round even though a girl who spoke in a Cockney accent was told there was no job going. Another example would be of a girl with a broad Cornish accent asking to speak French and being told she had to learn English first.
In contrast to this, are the opinions of those who think accents and dialects should be kept. One of the main arguments put forward to keep accents and dialects is that they are part of a heritage and tradition. In this way, people are afraid that with the increasing spread of Estuary English, accents and dialects are dying out and should be kept before they disappear. Due to this type of variation dying out, many people have made attempts to keep their own accent and dialect and make it stronger in order to preserve it for the future. This can be seen especially in places such as Cornwall where people are recording their dialects and writing articles about preservation, such as “Use It or Lose It” by Joy Stevenson. This shows how strongly some people feel about their accents and dialects and how they are proud of them.
Following this theme, being proud of an accent and dialect, shows why some people do not want to change their accents to more prestigious forms. This is due to the fact that people who are proud of their accents make more of an example with it to make it stronger, an example of divergence, because they believe it is a statement about their personality and that they are proud of their background and who they are. Many argue that a regional accent and non-standard dialect add some individuality to a person and that by changing to a more prestigious form this will be lost.
This raises the question as to why a person should lose something, which is a part of them whilst also making the point that without regional variation, the English language would be bland and flavourless. It is also seen that if regional variation dies out in England, then would the other English speaking varieties also have to change and “upgrade “ to more prestigious forms. For example would the Scottish or English Creole languages have to change to speak more prestigious forms? However, it can be argued that this is already happening for example, Edinburgh English versus Glaswegian English and that people are already beginning to speak with less variation.
In conclusion, there are many surrounding issues when looking at the reasons to support or oppose the statement. However, when all these are outlined and examined it is possible to see that the subject is unresolved and that there are no right or wrong opinions. It also possible to see that the topics discussed are still ongoing and opinions may change in the future.
