pakchoys:

i’m gonna get so bullied for this but after doing my english language A level, i’m critical of how much the british accent is mocked—specifically the variant of the accent that’s mocked. this variation (with t-glottalisation, so like wa’er instead of water) is also treated badly within the uk for being predominantly associated with the working class.

accent discrimination is a huge, un-talked about issue here, given that there’s a vast variation of accents and dialects in the uk. i wouldnt expect overseas people to know this, but people really do lose out on jobs etc because of this discrimination, or are judged because they don’t sound “upper-class” and “respectable” enough. there have been instances of schools forcing children with “undesirable” accents to speak “properly” (historically this is very pervasive—the standardisation of english in schools sought to eradicate regional dialects. the linguist john honey believes standard english should be mandatory so that working class people could sound smarter and get better jobs).

and you can see it in pop culture: in movies with british bad guy goons, the baddies usually have a working class or cockney accent (the one people find so funny) as a direct reflection of the notion that working class = bad (101 dalmations is a prime example). on the flip side, suave, smart british villains speak in standard english, reflecting the classist notion that upper class accent = smarter (howard giles’ accentism study showed that “upper class” accents are considered intelligent).

colloquialisms like “innit” are features of working class accents (see cockney english, estuary english, multicultural london english) and yes, these are practically demonised in the uk too, by the upper class and mainstream media to maintain the age old presentation of the working class as rough, uncultured and unintelligent.

this is a good article about how accent discrimination affects employability

this has an infographic about british accents and discrimination

it’s legal for schools to ban specific dialect features

what i’m saying is if you’re gonna make fun of the accent, maybe go for the snobby ones like received pronunciation because these don’t have a history of being used to demonise the working class. boris johnson is literally right there and ready to be bullied