We have so many accents, even within England, let alone the empire, that we had to invent a reference accent. Queens English is what the BBC used for a long time. It was intended that all ‘cultured’ workers should be able to converse in it. This meant the upper class could travel anywhere and not have to deal with local accents, when ordering the servants about.
It’s still quite useful, since it is intended to be easily comprehensible to all English speakers. Downside is that it makes you sound like a posh twat.
Kind of… Standard English is the reference dialect of english (used to teach foreigners) and it’s what received pronunciation (queen’s English/posh sounding) accent uses.
We have so many accents, even within England, let alone the empire, that we had to invent a reference accent. Queens English is what the BBC used for a long time. It was intended that all ‘cultured’ workers should be able to converse in it. This meant the upper class could travel anywhere and not have to deal with local accents, when ordering the servants about.
It’s still quite useful, since it is intended to be easily comprehensible to all English speakers. Downside is that it makes you sound like a posh twat.
Kind of… Standard English is the reference dialect of english (used to teach foreigners) and it’s what received pronunciation (queen’s English/posh sounding) accent uses.