"if I Actually Talked Like That, I'd Pull a Gun on Myself": Accent, Avoidance, And Moral Panic in Irish English (The UNMENTIONABLE: VERBAL TABOO AND THE MORAL LIFE OF Language) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Drawing upon some of the materials gathered in the course of a broader study (1) of "the politics of accent" in contemporary Irish English, I bring attention here to an ongoing moral panic of language in Irish society, centering on a new and fashionable accent of Irish English. This new accent, usually termed "D4" (after the postal code of a mostly well-to-do part of south Dublin), has been explained by observers and commentators in the Irish media as a way for younger, newly affluent speakers to "hive off" from the masses, by avoiding pronunciations seen as emblematic either of working-class Dublin identity or of rural Irish provincialism.