U AND NON U

• What are U words?

  Words associated with the upper class
• what are non-u words?

  words associated with the middle class
• who theorised U and Non-U?

  Professor Ross in 1954
• what did Ross suggest?

  middle class speakers attempt to sound like the upper class

  a number of m/c lexical choices acted like shibboleths

  m/c speakers wrongly chose pretentious or euphemistic words over words which they believed were associated with the working class
• what is a shibboleth?

  words which give you away and expose where you are originally from
• examples of U words

  Dentures

  Ill (in bed)

  sofa

  serviette

  cemetery

  pudding

  perfume

  preserve
• examples of Non-U words

  false teeth

  sick

  settee

  napkin

  graveyard

  sweet

  scent

  jam