Readership: Historians of the English language and of the nineteenth century, sociolinguists, C19 literature specialists, educationalists, specialists in gender studies, and the general reader with an interest in social aspects of language use and attitudes to language.
Lynda Mugglestone, University of Oxford
"Lynda Mugglestone's glorious book Talking Proper...gives us a closely researched history of the English accent as a badge of identity" - Ian McMillan, The Times
Introduction: 'A National Obsession'
1: The Rise of a Standard
2: Accent as Social Symbol
3: The Practice of Prescription
4: /h/ and Other Symbols of the Social Divide
5: Ladylike Accents and the Feminine Proprieties of Speech
6: Literature and the Literate Speaker
7: Educating Accents
8: The Rise (and Fall ?) of Received Pronunciation