NAPKIN OR SERVIETTE?
Dec 09, 2020
0 minutes
According to British linguist Alan S.C. Ross, author of(1956), ‘Non-U’ (non-upper class) people use the word ‘serviette’ whereas ‘U’ (upper class) people use the term ‘table-napkin’. This is, he notes, ‘…perhaps the best known of all the linguistic class indicators of English.’ He argues that the middle classes use ‘fancy’ words to make themselves sound more refined, while the upper classes, confident in the security of their social position, use the same plain words as the working class.
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