01355383 Varieties of English and Cultures of English Native Speakers 07 | Page 7

And what could be a better model than the
accent that was used by the kings? Therefore,
at the end of the 17th century, the Received
Pronunciation (RP), or the King’s English,
became the norm of English.
According to Crystal (2005), before the 17 th century,
there were no attitudes or stereotypes attached to
regional accents or dialects. There was no perceived
connection between someone’s social class and the
way they spoke. People just used the accents of
where they were from and did not get judged for it.