The Role of Accent as a Class Marker in the James Bond Films

Abstract

Within British, and certainly English, society, the accent referred to as Received Pronunciation (RP) has existed, and largely continues to do so, as a prestige accent. While its origins are tied to the Southeast, it otherwise exists as a class-based accent and is thus not tied to region. In its more conservative varieties, such as U-RP (Upper-Class) (Wells 1982a), this accent represents the upper-classes, and middle/upper-middle class speakers in varieties such as Near-RP and mainstream RP respectively (Wells 1982a; Wells 1982b). Thus, an English individual from the North, South, or anywhere else within the country can speak RP, given that anyone within England can be a member of the upper-echelon class groups. As such, an accent associated with the upper classes in England will have the connotations of this group bestowed upon it; likewise, accents perceived as working class will have the associated connotations in interlocutors’ minds. Connotations can, of course, be both positive and negative, but given the linguistic capital ascribed to RP as a marker of its speakers’ wealth, status, and power (Bourdieu 1991), then this becomes a ftting accent for literary characters for whom such attributes are desirable. In terms of Fleming’s literary James Bond, Tony Bennett explains that “the screen identities of most of the actors initially considered for the part of Bond”, such as James Mason and David Niven, “re-Volume