The Big Question: Are regional dialects dying out, and should we care if they are?

Why ask this now?

The British Library launches its Sounds Familiar website today, which is an archive of accents and dialects across the United Kingdom, designed to " capture and celebrate the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the 20th century". The website allows users to hear examples of dialects and accents from all over the country, including some recorded more than 50 years ago. The library hopespeople will add their own contributions, to help expand the archive.

Are the nation's dialects dying out?

No, according to Jonnie Robinson, the curator of accents and dialects at the British Library sound archive, who says it is a popular misconception that distinctive regional voices are disappearing. Britain has a rich heritage of different accents and dialects - where else would you find the words " cob", "barm cake", "scuffler" and "bread cake' all meaning a bread roll? - which have their origins in the Anglo-Saxon era 1,500 years ago and which are now deeply embedded in our culture. But, as is well known, the English language is constantly changing. Due to a complex combination of influences, some words will inevitably disappear from common usage - who today uses "groovy" or "vagabond" non-ironically - only to be replaced by others - such as "chav" - which become absorbed into the everyday lexicon.

Is there a difference between an accent and a dialect?

An accent is simply variations in pronunciation and the sound of words, while a dialect is speech that involves distinctive words and grammatical constructions. For instance, the word "nuffin" is "nothing" with a Cockney accent, while "nowt" is the same word in a Yorkshire dialect.

Pronunciation of the word "bath", as the accompanying map shows, varies greatly around the country - with a short "a" mainly in the North, the drawn out "aa" sound in the South-east and the more rustic "ah" in the South-west and East Anglia. But accent and dialect can also be closely related: Geordie dialect words include ones such as "bairns" or "lass", while it is also possible speak with a Geordie accent, such as "all reet" instead of "all right".

Where is there the greatest change?

The south-east of Britain has seen the greatest loss of variety with the encroach of suburbia, so that the distinctive rural voices of parts of Oxfordshire, Suffolk and Kent, which were common 50 years ago, are heard no more. The influence of London, particularly due to commuting, has also minimised the distinctiveness of accents in other towns such as Reading and Oxford.

Other conurbations, such as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands have had a similar affect on satellite towns. In central London itself, the Cockney twang of the East End has been diluted by successive waves of immigration and the dispersal of traditional communities since the Second World War.

Rural areas with much less population movement have seen the least change - dialects and accents in regions such as South-west England, northern Scotland and Northern Ireland have remained relatively unaltered over the centuries. While in urban areas there is continual evolution.

What is RP?

Received Pronounciation is simply what has become the neutral accent of the middle classes, although since it is very rare in Scotland, unusual in Wales and dying out rapidly in Northern Ireland, some argue that it should be described as an English, rather than British, accent. In linguistic terms it is a very young accent and was not in evidence when Dr Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1757. Its origins lie in the public schools and universities of the mid-19th century, who gave voice to the ruling classes of the Empire, leading to its subsequent spread downwards and adoption by the expanding middle classes of the early 20th century.

Originally called Public School Pronunciation, the term Received Pronunciation was first used by the phoneticist Daniel Jones in 1924. There is no such officially defined style of language as "The Queen's English" - although the British Library website notes slyly that the Queen speaks an almost unique form of English. Only about 2 per cent of the population now speak RP. Estuary English, defined first in 1984, is deemed to be a hybrid of RP and South-eastern accents, often called "Mockney" and used by some, including Tony Blair, to give a more working-class slant to their speech.

What part does television play?

Today, probably a lot less than people think. The adoption of Received Pronunciations as the official style of speech by the BBC under Lord Reith in the 1920s was because he believed it would be the most widely understood form of English in Britain and around the world. This accelerated the spread of RP as the standard form of speech for the middle classes and reinforced stereotypically negative perceptions of regional accents. Now the BBC is actively promoting regional accents among its broadcasters, too much for the tastes of some people, particularly the likes of Radio 4 listeners, who have objected to the erosion of RP usage.

What are the new influences?

Unquestionably the main ones have come from immigrant Asian and Caribbean communities, which settled in particular parts of Britain. Many such words began as limited dialect words but became universal. London-Jamaican, for instance, is predominantly a youthful dialect, which sometimes uses words where letters are transposed such as "aksing" for "asking" and has also given us "diss" (insult) and "nang" (cool).

Bradford-Asian, meanwhile, has introduced words derived from Hindi or Urdu such as "chuddies" (underpants) or "desi" meaning typically Asian. Birmingham Pakistanis gave us the word "balti", now the word for both a type of curry and the dish that it is served in, but most often used to denote a "bucket".

The use of the interrogative "innit" at the end of the sentence has been attributed to the influx of both Asian and Caribbean words, but may have spread so rapidly because it has similarities with speech patterns among people in Wales and South-west England.

Does it matter if you speak with a regional accent?

It used to be widely believed that you could not get a job in the BBC, or the upper reaches of the Civil Service and the City, if you had a regional accent. While there were never any strict rules about this, it was undeniable that a certain type of Oxbridge-educated Englishman, who would naturally have spoken with RP, tended to dominate the professional classes up until recently. But in today's more diverse, pluralistic society, and thanks to the influence of ethnic minorities, regional - and ethnic - accents are more celebrated than ever.

Sounds Familiar is at www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar

A changing language

Old words

* Hadaway - traditional Geordie (Tyneside) expression for "get away" or "you must be joking"

* Cob - one of many different regional words, this one is from Derby, for a simple bread roll

* Crome - a type of hook, used to drag weeds out of ditches and used only around parts of East Anglia

New words

* Chav - originally Romany slang from Kent (chavi, meaning child), it may also derive from the Spanish "chaval", meaning lad

* Chuddies - Hindu word for underpants, popularised by the comedy Goodness Gracious Me

* Balti - originated from the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham, it refers to a type of curry named after the wok-style dish it was served in