I discovered this site due to the Radio 4 programme ‘Antisocial’.
I live in Sheffield but I’m originally from Fulham, London. I’ve retained what might be described as a working class accent (possibly referred to as estuary english). The question of how I speak, the learning curve that has followed me since my teens, has informed and lead me to certain conclusions about the things that shape and define us. Although my youth and the years that followed were a series of doors opening and closing, I discovered that what matters in intent, it’s the single most valuable quality that we all share, so the use of colloquial language, while understandable, is just a way of conveying a feeling or description. What matters is sincerity and a willingness to share whatever it is that we feel matters.
Within the above I’ve also been aware of the use of swearing as a means of articulation and emphasis. Often, for many of us, the absence of a university education with the supposed benefits this is meant to bring is replaced by the use of what is sometimes called ‘bad language’. I find this term reprehensible as it assumes far too much. The use of a racist or misogynist phrase is bad language, but the use of a swear word, as long as it’s not meant to convey a threat or violence, should be accepted as easily as we accept what’s called ‘received pronunciation’.
My journey has been an interesting one, from a working class kid with no idea about what the future holds to being a journalist for high end publications and newspapers. There’s far more than that brief summary but it explains what path I’ve followed and the impact this has had on me emotionally and socially. Language, to a greater degree, is what defines us, but intellectually we are a mix of experience and the social and moral elements that shape us.