Would you change your accent to be accepted, or to gain an advantage? Absolutely! Back in the day when I was a teenager, I endlessly practised a “cockney” accent to get in with a crowd of boys, one of ...

As English dialects go, cockney is one of the most influential. Long considered the preserve of working-class communities in east London, it has shaped the way people speak across the country, from ...

Yiddish is a familiar presence in contemporary English speech. Many people use or at least know the meaning of words like chutzpah (audacity), schlep (drag) or nosh (snack). These words have been ...