If there is a buzzword in the English language right now, it has to be the word 'chav.'
 | | Chavs: Anthony & Darren |
'Chav' is one of a whole variety of class-conscious labels to have emerged in recent years to describe young working class people with poor education. It has even made the Collins English Dictionary ( it may originally have come from the Romany term 'chavi', meaning child)
And while it conjures up an image of a young scally in a checked baseball cap, bling-ed up the eyeballs in cheap jewellery and wearing a track suit, 'chav' must also encompass a 'common' way of speaking - regardless of your regional accent. For a Manchester chav, think Anthony and Darren in the Royle Family and you won't be far off! Posh or chav? If you talk like a chav you speak with flat vowels, drop your t's and say: - 'y'awright' for 'how are you?'
- 'wicked' for good
- 'mingin' for 'ugly'
- say 'lickle' for little
- and pronounce bath as 'baff'
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'Posh' is defined in the dictionary as swell, classy, fine and splendid. We all recognise a 'posh' person: someone from the Cheshire set with refined 'plummy' tones who says: - 'how are you?'
- 'splendid' for good
- 'awfully' for 'very'
- 'b-ar-th' for bath
- 'gr-ar-ss' for grass
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All cultures and communities acknowledge that people from different social backgrounds talk in different ways with different dialects. eg Bengali people describe someone who has a traditional way of talking as TP - or typical person. And someone who is 'black' on the outside but 'white on the inside is called a 'coconut.'
 | | Chavs: Jonny and Gaz in Two Pints etc. |
ÌýBut how much is the way we talk influenced by where we live - and who we socialise with? And how much do house prices determine local dialect? People from poor social and economic backgrounds tend to live in the more working-class areas of Greater Manchester eg Ordsall, Gorton, Beswick, Wythenshawe. While 'posh' people generally settle in the 'posh' middle-class areas like Altrincham and Didsbury. Have Your Say What's clear is that we all change the way we speak to suit our environment. eg students from well-to-do backgrounds living in Salford say they speak more like the locals to fit in. And what about making the right impression? We've all changed the way we talk in a job interview. And we've all got a mum, gran or auntie who answers the phone in her 'telephone voice!'
> How do you speak - posh or chav? Do you change the way you talk? Do you know people who do? More on bbc.co.uk/voices | 
