There has been a rise in a number of ‘educated’ accents, particularly among young girls

It used to be a first principle that all educated English people spoke alike. There was, of course, the Oxford accent, but that was the exception which proved the rule. There was also a very much greater difference between what was known as the “educated” accent and that of those to whom education did not come quite so easily. To-day accents have so far merged into each other that it is not quite so easy to place people. An elementary school-child is not necessarily labelled, as was the case thirty years ago. Neither dress nor their manner of speaking English marks children of different castes nearly as heavily as formerly.

The result is rather curious. It has given rise, in a number of “educated” English accents, particularly among young women. It is, indeed, almost possible to deduce from their accents that young women come from certain schools. Some have a drawl which is no doubt designed to go with the current disdainful expression. Others exaggerate all the methods of pronunciation noted by Shaw in “Pygmalion,” and anything with an “er” or an “or” becomes the broadest possible “ah” rather drawn out in sound. The old Punch pronunciations of heavy swells are probably the nearest approach to the “they-ah’s “ or “thah’s” and “ Bo-ahs “ which stand respectively for “there” and “bore.” More.

See: The Guardian

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