In reply to:

. My (English) mother had fits over this. My (Zild-speaking) father was happy that all the pretension had been dropped. I just spoke Zild like all of my contemporaries (sounds of vowels being flattened underfoot).

My maternal grandparents had a big influence on my speaking habits - I can blame them for many of my personality trays. I am grateful that they cured me of the Zild habit of pronouncing "women" and "woman" in exactly the same way. I hate that - I find myself silently screaming (sometimes not so silently) "it's wimmin for crying out loud!"