So yesterday, on the recommendation of one Miss Emily Stride, I went to visit the British Library's 'Evolving English' exhibition. Not entirely sure what to expect other than some old books and a reading of Richard III in an 16C English dialect (apparently they all spoke like they were from Somerset), I was pleasantly suprised and fascinated.
My particular favourite artifacts were a collection of books suggesting a standardised phonetic spelling system (written in the 1700s and indicated some of the differing pronounciation to nowadays - 'dhe' and 'dher' instead of 'the' and 'their') and a medieval poetry manuscript that spoke about animal flatulence ('the buck farteth' - love it!)
Also featured was a dialect map with samples from all over the UK, which allowed you to compare accents from early 20C to more recent ones from the '90s. Interestingly, I was hard pressed, even in the southern counties, to find samples of RP or even a 'posh' (for want of a better word) accent. Goes to show how unrepresentative the idea of a 'Standard English' accent is. From the samples there, admittedly not as extensive as it might have been, one might think that the stereotypical 'country farmer' accent might be more appropriately representative.
Sadly I learned of the exhibition fairly late; it only runs until this coming Saturday (having been on since 12 November, shame on me!), so if you have a spare hour to kill in London over the next few days I would recommend you nip over there and have a mooch. I would particularly encourage those studying theatre, or anyone who is terrified about Rastamouse and his Jamaican Patois 'infecting' Britain's children. (If you are unfamiliar with Rastamouse,you can find out more here)
It just goes to show that any attempt to preserve 'Britishness' and the English language, and reductive notions of a white middle class Britain are ridiculous. We are a mongrel nation, and have been so since the earliest artifacts at the exhibition were created. In fact, as the exhibition shows, for the majority of the past 2000 years we've spoken a mulch of Latin, French and various Celtic tribal languages. We didn't even have a standardised version of English until the 1700s.
And why consider this a bad thing? Heck, embrace it. Wagwaan? Lets make a bad ting good.
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