> evolving

Yep, I completely agree with you Rhuby. I think just like other full-blown language communities, this has tended to devolve and evolve into variants and subsets, most of which are still markers of intellectual prestige but not necessarily plum-in-the-mouth social superiority.

And you are surely right that its lack can sometimes prove no hindrance – Melvin Barg’s adenoidal Cumbrian tones have interestingly enough proved resistant to the steamroller of both an Oxford education and sustained work at the Beeb.