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Ie, multi-cultural, capitalist, chavs, Indian food more popular, a decline in some of the regional accents. Do you think it was after the war? The 60s? The 80s? The 90s?
Geographically the UK has been more or less the same since around 6,500 BCE when the English Channel was inundated.
Multiculturalism has existed (either voluntarily, or involuntarily) since there were historical records, which is around 2000 years or so with some gaps during the dark ages.
Indian foods have been adapted and adopted since the Indian sub-continent was discovered in 1615 or so, Kedgeree dates to around 1790 and Worcestershire sauce from around 1834 both are derived from or influenced by Indian recipes (tamarind isn't exactly locally produced in the UK). As far as being more popular, it's not specifically, it's the favorite alternative, popularity is interesting is it by choice or by consumption, by choice Indian is more popular, by consumption more traditional foods are more popular.
Regional accents declining? I wasn't aware of this, nor have I noticed it in people back home, dialects may be changing, but they're fluid anyway. Which accents are you discussing?
Chavs officially arrived in 2004 when the term was used in a national newspaper.
So overall when did it become like it is...? Erm hard to say 2004 or 6500 BCE or somewhere between those two dates.
If you'd like something more specific, then you'd need to ask a more specific question.
Ie, multi-cultural, capitalist, chavs, Indian food more popular, a decline in some of the regional accents. Do you think it was after the war? The 60s? The 80s? The 90s?
Britain has always been multi-cultural thanks to successive waves of immigration ... Huguenots, Jews, Irish, Italians, West Indians, etc.
Britain has been capitalist since that economic structure developed in the 17th century.
'Chavs' have always existed they just called them by different names at different times.
Indian food became popular in the 1960s. But that was more due to increasing disposable income leading to people eating out more. It has been around in the UK longer than that.
Decline in regional accents if it exists is probably more due to mass communication and greater mobility than anything else.
Ie, multi-cultural, capitalist, chavs, Indian food more popular, a decline in some of the regional accents. Do you think it was after the war? The 60s? The 80s? The 90s?
I suggest you read, "A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon. In it you'll find most of your questions answered.
Regional accents started to decline due to greater mobility I suspect, as Jaggy mentioned. The accent here in Leeds has been diluted due to a large influx of people from elsewhere in the country. There is a large transient population here. I suspect it's the same in places like Manchester.
I suggest the OP then follow up by reading A History of The English Speaking Peoples by Churchill.
It goes without saying!
On these sorts of topics I'm always reminded of some of the reading I did for my undergrad dissertation ("Oh God here it comes", I hear you all cry!) which concerned Economic & Social History. The one source I keep coming back to was a debate in the House of Commons on 28th February 1848 on the condition of the poor. Some choice snippets below:
Quote:
"I think morals are getting much worse, which I attribute in a great measure to the beer-shops… There were no such girls in my time as there are now. When I was four or five and twenty, my mother would have knocked me down if I had spoken improperly to her… Many have children at fifteen. I think bastardy almost as common now as a woman being in the family-way by her husband… Now it's nothing thought about."
Quote:
Among all the children and young persons I examined, I found, with very few exceptions, that their minds were as stunted as their bodies; their moral feelings stagnant. … The children and young persons possess but little sense of moral duty towards their parents and have little affection for them. … One child believed that Pontius Pilate and Goliath were apostles; another, fourteen or fifteen years of age, did not know how many two and two made. In my evidence taken in this town alone, as many as five children and young persons had never heard even the name of Jesus Christ… You will find boys who have never heard of such a place as London, and of Willenhall, (only three miles distant,) who have never heard of the name of the Queen, or of such names as Wellington, Nelson, Buonaparte, or King George. But, (adds the commissioner) while of Scripture names I could not, in general obtain any rational account, many of the most sacred names never having even been heard, there was a general knowledge of the lives of Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard, not to mention the preposterous epidemic of a hybrid negro song. This we may suppose is an elegant periphrasis for the popular song of "Jim Crow."
Quote:
On Sunday afternoons it is impossible to pass along the highways, & beyond the police boundaries, without encountering numerous groups of boys, from twelve years and upwards, gaming for copper coin… the boys are early initiated into habits of drinking. But the most revolting feature of juvenile depravity is early contamination from the association of the sexes. The outskirts of the town [Sheffield] are absolutely polluted by this abomination; nor is the veil of darkness nor seclusion always sought by these degraded beings. Too often they are to be met in small parties, who appear to associate for the purpose of promiscuous intercourse, their ages being apparently about fourteen or fifteen.
Quote:
A great proportion of the working classes are ignorant and profligate… the morals of their children exceedingly depraved and corrupt… given, at a very early age to petty theft, swearing, and lying; during minority to drunkenness, debauchery, idleness, profanation of the Sabbath; dog and prizefighting.
Bloody brilliant!
Eoin
P.S. Someone tell the Daily Mail it isn't a recent development!
Oh, and please do not use the DM words in my presence!
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