The Queen's English

[AB Editor]

 

This poll is closed.

Should slang and regional dialects be forced out of schools?

• Slang should go, but regional accents and habits are important. - 245 votes
• 69%
• No! - 72 votes
• 20%
• Yes, everyone should try and speak in a similar way. - 27 votes
• 8%
• Slang is fine, as long as it is spoken in received pronunciation! - 9 votes
• 3%

See final stats

Stats until: 05:00 Tue 31st Dec 2024 (Refreshed every 5 minutes)

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[sophie_1003]

I want a fourth option; "No"
Regional dialects are definitely OK and slang in some cases is fine; encourages children's imagination when they have to come up with new words so teacher's don't know what they're on about!

[sophie_1003]

teachers*

[sidburygate]

Slang should go, so should pronouncing th as f! Reginal accents are part of who we are

[sandyRoe]

I fink local accents are ok.

[LoftyLottie]

Can't vote on this. I don't believe everybody should speak in the same way, so regional accents should be acceptable and slang can be fine. Slang covers a wide area of our language. How do you define 'slang'? Slang more often than not ends up in dictionaries eventually.

Text speak other than on texts should be forced out though ;o)

[zebo]

Isn't every accent "regional", who decided that one regional accent was superior to another?

[EvianBaby]

Accents are fine but children should be encouraged to pronounce words properly.

I remember seeing a clip recently about some children in Essex who said the right words but didn't know how to pronounce them properly and therefore spelt them totally incorrectly. It was quite surprising what they were coming out with. (just a shame I can't remember now).

[LoftyLottie]

Which accent would be treated as the proper way to speak? Undeniably southern counties Queens English. I must admit it is the most understandable, but how totally boring if everybody was taught to speak this way. When I was young, girls especially used to be sent to elecution lessons to be taught to speak properly.

[AB Editor]

No added :)

[LoftyLottie]

Have now voted 'no' Ed ;o)

[sophie_1003]

Thanks ed; have voted now!

[Tallulah!]

Regional accents are fine but not the dropping of the letter T in the middle of words. That practice belongs to no accent but is beloved by football commentators, celebrities and young people who follow their lead.
Tallulah who is far too posh to do that!

[Old_Geezer]

Regional accents are fine as long as they are not so strong that another in the UK has problems understanding what the heck they are on about.

[naomi24]

People from southern England - and London in particular - are often unable to pronounce the ‘th’ at the beginning of words like ‘thought’ and they omit the ‘ts’ in words like ‘letter’. It isn’t laziness, or lack of education, or slang - it’s the result of their own particular regional accent.

Evian //I remember seeing a clip recently about some children in Essex who said the right words but didn't know how to pronounce them properly and therefore spelt them totally incorrectly.//

That doesn’t work at all. I say ‘glarse’ and ‘parse’ instead of ‘glass’ and ‘pass’ – and oddly enough, so does the Queen.

[Old_Geezer]

Well you can excuse the queen for not speaking well. She comes from a German background.

[naomi24]

Ha ha! Perhaps that's the answer. Bloody foreigners! ;o)

[Zacs-Master]

Ed.....Where's the 'Slang is fine' only option? As you added the NO 2 hours after the first answer the stats will be flawed.

[Kristal53]

slang reflects the continuous change of the language -if it wasn't for slang we would still be talking like we did in the middle ages -some slang sticks ,some goes out of fashion. Regional accents are great as they confuse foreigners 'joke' - I have a slight geordie accent. Living south of the Toon I'm classed as 'posh', living north of harrogate I'm common lol!

[leonore]

A

[LoftyLottie]

I agree with Kristal, as I said earlier Slang develops into accepted language in the dictionary. A great deal of our present language was originally slang. Language grows and develops. Most of us use a great deal of slang without knowing we are doing so.