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I knew the word "standard" wasn't a good choice even as I was writing it. The distinction I was trying to draw was one where I think there is a fairly sharp line distinguishing 2 forms. Taking as an example, pronunciation of a particular word, "home". A typical Northeastern pronunciation would be [ho:m]. A particularly "common" one might be [h8@m]. Besides these there is one that I've ill-advisedly described as "non standard", though I still can't think of a better word: [hjEm]. There are a load of circumstances, you'd find the first 2 in but not the 3rd. Nobody, for instance, would ever read out "home" in this pronunciation, no matter how often they used it in everyday life. They'd always have the other available for this. If they worked in a mine or on a farm, they may use that pronunciation while discussing work. If they were on a customer help-line, they wouldn't. The distinction applies to a whole raft of other forms. So I'd consider changes in north eastern dialect use to be interplay between these 2 forms, the perceived standard and the non-standard, and with types of work being a major driving force of, rather than in the influence of either RP or estuary speech.
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