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Re: Accents.

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On Sat, 1 Nov 2025 14:44:15 +0100
"Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

> > Perhaps because there is no such thing as “accentless” speech.
> > 
> > There was a lovely “Two Ronnies” sketch, back in the day, that
> > skewered this issue rather well. They did a lot of
> > playing-on-language skits, but this one really put paid to the fond
> > delusion that RP was somehow easier to understand than any other
> > accent ...  
> 
> If the goal is to have English as an universal language, teaching a 
> common accent makes a lot of sense.

The problem with these things is that the proposed "common" solution is
always either *somebody's* preference (and everyone else can go jump in
the lake) or *nobody's* preference (and you're stuck with something
stilted and artificial serves nobody well.) And historically, the more
insistent the Authorities are on "standards," the worse non-standard
folks get treated - some of the abuses perpetrated against speakers of
"unofficial" languages and accents (read: how people were speaking
before the government decided they should be speaking differently) are
downright appalling and/or straight-up crimes against humanity.

International English has, thankfully, been mostly free of that, and a
pretty laissez-faire affair - which, yes, makes it a mess sometimes...
but is *vastly* preferable to the things that happen when linguistic
autocrats get involved.

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Re: Accents. John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-11-03 09:17 -0800

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