ABSTRACT
It is important to realize that everybody has an accent: it is not possible to speak a language without using some accent or other. Of course, every one of us regards some accents as more familiar than others, or as more prestigious than others, but that is a different matter: we are merely more sensitive to accents which differ strongly from our own. A friend of mine with an impeccable middleclass south-of-England accent which attracts no attention in London once visited Yorkshire, where a wide-eyed little girl, after listening to him for a few minutes, finally confided to him, in a broad Yorkshire accent, ‘Ee-tha talks funny.’
