Hogwarts students and dialect

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 45640


Working  class jobs in the wizarding world could be associated 
with non-standard  dialect  or pronounciation without imagining a 
separate school for the working classes.

Any way you slice it, half of all the students leaving Hogwarts 
leave in the bottom half of their class. Consider a  Muggleborn 
student  from a working class background. Call him Stan. He 
qualifies for Hogwarts, but only just, and he leaves after his fifth 
year with an O.W.L. or two. Without wealth, family connections or 
impressive academic credentials, he's not up for the plummy 
jobs, but he manages a living as a bus conductor. He pals 
around with others of his sort, and their  dialect becomes a 
badge of identity. They're capable of a more cultivated speech, 
but using it  with each other would be putting on airs.

Stan knows that in his  class-bound society, nobody's paying 
him to think...or wants to.  So if famous Harry Potter wants to 
pretend to be Neville Longbottom, Stan's not going to argue 
about it...though he might pass the word on quietly.  Then Stan 
has a little fun pretending to be oh so surprised. "I knew it!" 
indeed.

Plus, JKR creates some symmetry with clueless but cultivated 
Draco Malfoy, who didn't recognize famous Harry Potter either.

Or perhaps Stan and Ern are *way* smarter than they look and 
are actually some of Dumbledore's infamous spies.  MAGIC 
BUSDRIVER? :-) TAGSWATCH, are you listening?


Colin and Dennis Creevy, on the other hand,  have no working 
class accent.   Wouldn't JKR be perpetuating a stereotype if they 
did?  As for Hagrid,  Hagrid's dad could have clung to his 
regional accent despite his Hogwarts education (Never be 
ashamed of who yeh are) and encouraged his son to do the 
same. 

Pippin