I thought about this before because of the American youtube guy I mentioned, and it seems to me that one accent that many. many British people will try and imitate is a very posh accent. In the States, perhaps, most people have a crack at a southern drawl once in a while? The degree of accuracy varies a lot. Linguists like to view themsleves as a kind of superbreed, bashing the semi-educated on behalf of pure and innocent dialect speakers, so this kind of "bit of an actor" viewpoint is appealing.
I didn't really mean that Pullum's intro was so bad, by the way, and if he blames Rodney Huddles I'll believe him anyway, I just mean that it is interesting to see the language log man become the ultimate sanctioned authority, and have to stick his neck out all the time.
More evil dialect thoughts
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woodcutter
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Sorry to drag this unpopular subject up again, but I started thinking about Nigel Kennedy the other day, and what a bizarre linguistic phenomenon he represents.
Would a classical musician with an elite accent suddenly start talking all the time with a lower-class/regional accent in order to show that he has a friendly, human attitude - becoming a superstar in the process - anywhere else on the planet but the U.K?
Would a classical musician with an elite accent suddenly start talking all the time with a lower-class/regional accent in order to show that he has a friendly, human attitude - becoming a superstar in the process - anywhere else on the planet but the U.K?