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Meet the Natives

Writer: Dr Luke Freeman

What is Anthopology? | An Englishman's Home | Language and class | Body language | Meet the Natives

Language and class

Female/male sign
Female/male sign
The language used to describe one's home also gives clues to a person's class identity for example whether one says 'settee' or 'sofa', 'toilet' or 'lavatory' may immediately indicate to some people your class hierarchy. When Prince William split up with Kate Middleton in the summer of 2007, gossip columnists speculated that it was because her mother's use of language was not 'posh' enough for the royal family.

Another indicator of class in England is a person's accent. In the days when a regional accent was considered a barrier to social advancement it was quite common for English people to take elocution lessons as a means of social climbing. Nowadays the trend seems to be the opposite. Tony Blair was known to use 'Estuary English' as a means of masking his public school background and appealing to the working classes.

This kind of social mobility is very interesting to anthropologists. It reveals that the class system is not as rigid as it might at first appear. In the nineteenth century it was common for wealthy industrialists to marry their daughters to impoverished aristocrats. So in today's multicultural England is it possible for a rich immigrant to join the aristocracy through marriage? Or is race too great a barrier?

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