The relationship between the British classes and the

spoken language

As long as the English language has existed in modern form there have been
differences in the way it has been spoken between social classes. This is due in
part to differences in education, culture, geography and the unfortunate ever
present social inequalities that people have had to deal with in this world for
centuries.
Britain is notorious for being obsessed with social class these are recognised as
lower, middle and upper class. They were named in the 19th century to devise
the severe differences between business owners, managers and workers as the
world was leading up to the Industrial Revolution.
The expansion of the British Empire as a result of Word War II, the influence of
the United States has spread English throughout the world. This has led to the
development of a host of English dialects.
As well as dialects English speakers have many different accents, which
often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. Within England,
variation of accents is now largely confined to pronunciation rather than
grammar or vocabulary.
There are numerous varieties of English, which includes; several sub
varieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie which are all within British
English. Several educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance
as standards in much of the world, with much emphasis placed on one
dialect based on educated southern British (the Queen’s English) and
another based on educated Midwestern American.
Received Pronunciation is an accent, form of vocabulary and grammar as well as
pronunciation. It is often believed to be based on the Southern accents of
England, however is originally associated with the Early Modern English dialects
of the East Midlands. This was the most populated and most prosperous area of
England during the 14th and 15th centuries. By the end of the 15th century,
Standard English was established in the City of London. Received Pronunciation
is known today as a mixture of London speech with features from East Midlands,
Middlesex and Essex.
While some differences between dialects are regional in nature, there are
also social, economic and cultural causes for differences in dialects. Very
often, the public prestige dialect of the elite in a community differs from the
dialect of working class and others.
Social capital determines the type and the number of people an individual
knows. Or if they are involved in any organised groups like political parties,
sports teams, shared hobbies or social clubs.
Cultural capital has an impact on an individual’s interests, education,
participation in cultural activities and how a person likes to spend their free
time.
The global financial crisis and recession have proceeded to make class
separations even more defined then before, due to the economy changing
profoundly. With the development of many industries in the 21st century
designating social class has become more complex than before.