[ExI] Linguistic Markers of Class

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:34 AM 5/27/2007 -0700, Lee wrote:

>Especially thirty or forty years ago, but still very strongly today I propose,
>an important class marker is whether you pronounce the "g" in "ing" words.
>I'm disappointed that some of the people I knew in high school who spoke
>"normally" then have begun saying "walkin'", "talkin'", and "thinkin'".

I dunno 'bout US usage in this regard, but I gather than in the UK 
attention to such niceties is a sign of middle-class and lower-middle 
class prissiness (like "passed away" rather than "died".) Aristocrats 
in Britain notoriously went huntin' and fishin' on their ample 
estates, and said "ain't" rather than "is not"; they tromped about in 
muddy boots and threw things everywhere for the servants to pick up, 
pretty much as trailer trash are said to do without the benefit of servants.

(See Nancy Mitford's classic compendium *Noblesse Oblige*, now out of 
date.  Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English )

Damien Broderick