How did people in the Victorian Age talk?
This depends on which class you belonged to, and what area of London. You can get clues from the way that certain characters in novels spoke – Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, of Baker Street, London would have spoken a very correct formal although wordy English as middle-class educated professional people. But see how the author, Arthur Conan-Doyle had some other charcters speak – the working class or policemen were not nearly as polished or as articulated. Similarly you can read and get clues from Dickens – Oliver Twist is set in London, although earlier in the Victorian era. Another great contrast that you could see would be in the play/movie “My Fair Lady.” A man makes a bet that he can take a common street girl and turn her into a lady fit to go among the upper-class by the time of a special event. You can see the difference in their speech and vocabulary and the change that she makes as he teaches her. Working class Londoners, particularly those from the East End had their own dial
