ABSTRACT
Nation shall speak peace unto nation BBC motto
The BBC’s motto, with ‘nation’ speaking ‘unto nation’, pitches language into the heart of the broadcasting mission. It gives a nod to the spirit of ‘common culture’, though not necessarily, for the BBC at least, a culture in which every voice and every achievement is equal. Indeed, in Lord Reith’s day the only voices on air were those with ‘a claim to be heard above their fellows’ (Scannell and Cardiff 1991: 316). Under his leadership the Corporation claimed guardianship of the nation’s standards of spoken English. But the BBC has also shown, if sometimes belatedly and grudgingly, a ‘tendency to adjust’ (McKibben 1998: 469). In time, it has found itself having to accommodate a wider range of voices, not all of them as ‘well-spoken’ as the earliest BBC announcers.
