Posted by Peter Ceresole on September 01, 2011 at 22:43:39 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Pronunciation posted by Roger Wardale on August 31, 2011 at 12:37:46:
But which is the correct pronunciation — the local or the received?
The reason for the 'flattening' of accents in Britain is that it is a small island, with a broadcaster (the BBC, for many years) that covered the whole country, and had its own pronunciation rules. Broadcasts were on medium wave and were received nationwide. Everybody heard the same accent on the radio. In the USA, where distances are so much greater, you could have a local radio station which could preserve a local way of speech.
What with cable and the internet, which abolish distance, all that will change in time. And in Britain the BBC, for instance. is slowly re-embracing local dialects.