The Voice and Diction of Conversation : Page 68

What seems to be really more important than uniformity, and in the nature of speech more possible, is a certain level of refinement of diction. Even a foreigner, while he cannot overcome a certain accent, can yet speak English with an accent that sounds as if he is a gentleman. There is a way of pronouncing English which makes a person sound "cheap" and uncouth, and a way which sounds as if one paid one's taxes and did not live on the water front. Many radio programs suggest the difference probably very much better than written words can describe it. The careful conversationalist can listen to them and learn. The diction which in England is notorious for sounding "cheap" is the London Cockney; in America, it is the East Side New Yorker's erl for oil, and goil for girl. According to Bernard Shaw, "People know very well that certain sorts of speech cut off a person for ever from getting more than three or four pounds a week all their life long — sorts of speech which make them entirely impossible in certain professions."