To think that a posh accent is still frightening to many people?

[MrsWinnibago]

I know this will be a bit of an offensive post to some people but I don't mean to be offensive...I'm just really interested in people.

On another thread, a user of MN was advised to get some support in seeking help for her DC with undiagnosed difficulties the poster had found her GP to be useless and dismissive... and the advice was to "Get someone to go with you...the posher and bossier the better."

And I thought but then I thought yes...she's probably right. A really posh accent and the authority which often goes alongside it, is a bit frightening to some people...they're easily cowed by a public school stance and attitude.

Then I thought about how long it's been since we had "gentry" and peasants but really not that much HAS changed as the fear of the "gentry" is still deeply embedded in the working people of this country...and in the middle classes to some extent too.

When I say "Posh" I mean REALLY posh....not a middle class chap who doesn't drop his H's....I'm not especially cowed by really posh folk...I've been around them a lot due to my work....but they do seem to have an innate ability to take charge of a situation don't they?

I've never met anyone frightened by it but the kids round here do scoff at it and imitate it a bit. A few of the council officials have accents like that and the kids just take the mick

Ok I have to ask at the risk of sounding like a thicko what does RP stand for!!!!! I get the context but need to know! !! Someone enlighten me

Received Pronunciation

Ah I see thanks!

I'm not intimidated by it either. I also have to deal with LOADS of professionals because of my daughter's disability and I really cannot see how my accent would make any difference to the way we are treated, which I presume is the same as someone with rp.

Actually when we were struggling with care via social services, it was my gp sitting up listening and contacting them himself that made the absolute difference to their response, so I assume he understood perfectly well what I was saying to him

I've never forgotten a friend of my DM (titled, very posh, so many plums in her mouth you could make jam) say to me once "Quiet, it's not what you say, but how you say it... I find telling people to Fark Orf terribly effective"...

When swearing now and I swear like a docker I find doing it with a plum in my mouth is very effective and makes DH laugh . I normally speak with an RP accent.

To the person talking about rough violent Millwall supporters. I remember reading an investigation into persistent football hooligans. Many of them had very good jobs. They were just thugs.

Is it just more a case of manner? People who speak clearly, act confidently, are articulate and have a good vocabulary carry a certain authority, and those people are somewhat more likely to have the kind of educational / socio-economic background that comes with an RP accent.

I use my accent. It gets me better service and people do take me more seriously. It shouldn't be that way but it is.

Yes me too. People don't realise that some of us scot actually pronounce our words however our fellow Scots do not like this. I now live in London and have no issues at all!

If you're intimidated by someone with a posh accent (sounds like they're Eton-educated), just conjure up a mental image of Boris Johnson. That should help.

Is this why you guys don't like Jeremy?

I don't find it intimidating. I think it depends where you are in the country - it can sound stuck up or affected and mean people who don't speak like that can't empathise with you.

Don't you think it's a case of assertive + posh accent gets interpreted as confident and assertive, whereas assertive + working class accent gets interpreted as aggressive? Even if they are saying the same things at the same volume?

Like women who question things or put their own views forward are often seen as nagging and shrill whereas a man saying exactly the same things would be seen as competent and assertive.

I have certainly got better results from the medical profession through dropping hints about what I do: absolutely not relevant from the pov of dd's treatment. Not about intimidation but possibly made the consultant think "this is someone like me, how would I feel in a similar situation?" I hated myself for doing it, but I was fighting for my child's wellbeing.

It's actually not about posh, but a condemning downwards tone.

A good way to generate both is to imagine you are talking from a horse to someone one the ground, or imagine everyone you talk(whose not equally 'posh') to is a little peanut inside their human body.

Use phrases like 'if you'd let me finish' and 'clearly' before you state bs, and thank someone immediately after giving an instruction, not when they've done the task..

Eg 'Clearly you aren't listening. If you'd let me finish, you'd see i was being perfectly reasonable, now, please book that MRI scan, thank you'

Did anyone watch the programmes about marathon running and mental health? William and Harry were on and I found it really noticeable that their voices were completely "normal" in comparison to their father's generation. I used to wince when Charles or Anne spoke - they had awful voices, I thought - not just "posh" but strangulated.

My DM still speaks English in that strangulated manner, Imperial. Learnt RP as a foreign student in the 50s and hasn't been back to the country enough to modify her accent since. Makes her sound really uptight, when actually she is a perfectly nice person who just articulates the way other perfectly nice people did 60 years ago.

I have a typical boarding school accent (a bit nothingy as everyone amalgamated their accents and we all stole bits of each other's!) but I can turn it up or down as needs be.

Ds is at a good pre-prep now and thinking about it, those with the flashy cars / celebrities but dont have posh accents I'm completely relaxed with. The ones who wear the signet ring on the pinky / are titled / live in castles I'm always a little more, I don't know, on my guard with?

When we go out for breakfasts after school drop off, I can see that as a group we command good service and I suspect it is party due to accent, and party due to expecting high standards and therefore receiving it.

Saying that, I don't know if it is accent, or confidence that swings things on the whole - some of my most charming friends who can wrap people around their little fingers are broad geordie

The thing is Cory, that your mum probably didn't feel constrained in the same way that Charles and Anne did - when they spoke they really sounded uncomfortable with ordinary people. If people have a warmth about them, as I'm sure your mum has, it's completely different. Charles and Anne had an attitude that they didn't want to be there - that's what seems so different about the younger Royal generation.

The male newsreaders posted upthread as an example of RP are not RP. they are pretty estuarine.

RP is posh. It would traditionally mean the queen in 1962 ("the cet set orn the met") but might have shifted a bit now to seem less terribly dated. But those guys are all "moine" for "mine" and glottal stopped all over the place.

I don't know if there is name for "basic not posh broadly southern not particularly regional English" but it's not RP

anti it's called modern posh.

Not RP which is terribly old fashioned. But the posh spoken by young public schoolers these days.

What I am intrigued by is people who genuinely can't dial 'up' or 'down' as needed, which a lot of people (including me) do semi-automatically. I have a friend from an UMC background married into the UC, and she claims to be frequently mortified by how 'bourgeois' and 'hectoring' she sounds in general contexts, but apparently can't stop herself.

I can move my accent up and down in English but not in French. My DD, who is 12, has my accent in English. I'm not sure she can move it around as much as I can because, living in France, she hasn't had the same exposure as I have. However, when she came back from three weeks at a US summer camp aged 7 she resisted turning off her new American accent (until I finally lost patience ).

This is a very interesting thread.

Is there any scientific research about patient health care provider communication and how people's accents might influence the treatment (medical and interpersonal) they receive? This stuff is fascinating.

I don't think it's necessarily accent. DH and his sister had identical upbringings. He however went to Uni and has worked his way up in his career, his sister left school at 17, went to work and has been in the same job ever since. She has no confidence at ALL when dealing with people she perceives as educated or in positions of authority - doctors, teachers, bank managers. Our friends are in these sorts of professions so talking to them doesn't intimidate me at all.

I am quite often said to have a "posh" accent but in Glasgow that pretty much means not sounding like Rab C Nesbit.