Reading, on the River Thames, some 40 miles west of London, is now quite a hotchpotch of accents due to a substantial influx of immigrants from many other countries outside of the UK - practically every waiter/waitress is an Eastern European for example, with non-Europeas non-white people making up a fairly hefty percentage of the rest of the "overseas" populace.
Many of the immigrants' residences are concentrated in certain more centralised parts of this fairly large town (pop. circa 240,000) while most of the indigenous British population live in the outer suburbs some of which can be described as affluently "quite posh" - areas such as Caversham, Christchurch, Woodley, Spencers Wood etc - many of the accents thereabouts could best be described as cut glass crystal "posh" EERP while the "inner" localities contain a right mixture this goes to make Reading quite a multi-cultural area.
Over time, and especially during the latter part of the 20th century, the nature of the "native born" Reading accent has changed quite dramatically as the generations succeeded each other. In the first half of the last century the local accent was really quite rhotic - almost West Country style, quite rural in character - although the actual West Country doesn't really start until you've travelled a further 40 miles or so to the west or south west of Reading, along either the M4 motorway or the main railway line that runs from Reading to Bristol (and then on to Cardiff and South Wales) or down to the West Country proper - into Somerset, Devon and eventually Cornwall, where the pukka West Country accent reigned supreme, with some of the same characteristics now pertaining in the present day GAE accent.
However, Estuary has well and truly taken hold of a fairly sizeable section of the current up and coming generation in and around Reading, even those of non UK origin, and in many it is mixed in with standard Southern English English RP. As time moves on many of the immigrants' offspring grow up speaking just like the "natives" which is a natural process I reckon.
Apparently Queen Victoria acquired a strong aversion to the town of Reading for some reason (maybe she didn't think much of the accent!) and she was not hesitant in expressing this dislike verbally, and when the Mayor and Corporation of the town erected a statue to the Queen sometime towards the end of her reign - celebrating her 60th Jubilee in 1897 - they made sure it was facing away from the town centre.....a wee bit of irony there I reckon.
Yes - Kate Winslet comes from Reading...and yes, it is pronounced as "Redding". ;-)
In the 1980s they built a brand new central library in Reading town centre - making sure they didn't include a sign outside (as with the old building) which said in big, bold letters: "Reading Library" - which could be interpreted in two ways. The new sign is not so basic and ambiguous apparently.
Many of the immigrants' residences are concentrated in certain more centralised parts of this fairly large town (pop. circa 240,000) while most of the indigenous British population live in the outer suburbs some of which can be described as affluently "quite posh" - areas such as Caversham, Christchurch, Woodley, Spencers Wood etc - many of the accents thereabouts could best be described as cut glass crystal "posh" EERP while the "inner" localities contain a right mixture this goes to make Reading quite a multi-cultural area.
Over time, and especially during the latter part of the 20th century, the nature of the "native born" Reading accent has changed quite dramatically as the generations succeeded each other. In the first half of the last century the local accent was really quite rhotic - almost West Country style, quite rural in character - although the actual West Country doesn't really start until you've travelled a further 40 miles or so to the west or south west of Reading, along either the M4 motorway or the main railway line that runs from Reading to Bristol (and then on to Cardiff and South Wales) or down to the West Country proper - into Somerset, Devon and eventually Cornwall, where the pukka West Country accent reigned supreme, with some of the same characteristics now pertaining in the present day GAE accent.
However, Estuary has well and truly taken hold of a fairly sizeable section of the current up and coming generation in and around Reading, even those of non UK origin, and in many it is mixed in with standard Southern English English RP. As time moves on many of the immigrants' offspring grow up speaking just like the "natives" which is a natural process I reckon.
Apparently Queen Victoria acquired a strong aversion to the town of Reading for some reason (maybe she didn't think much of the accent!) and she was not hesitant in expressing this dislike verbally, and when the Mayor and Corporation of the town erected a statue to the Queen sometime towards the end of her reign - celebrating her 60th Jubilee in 1897 - they made sure it was facing away from the town centre.....a wee bit of irony there I reckon.
Yes - Kate Winslet comes from Reading...and yes, it is pronounced as "Redding". ;-)
In the 1980s they built a brand new central library in Reading town centre - making sure they didn't include a sign outside (as with the old building) which said in big, bold letters: "Reading Library" - which could be interpreted in two ways. The new sign is not so basic and ambiguous apparently.