Professor Higgins is a man who can say where a person comes from by his or her accent. Britain was a very class-ridden society, and accent was a very good marker of one s social class. Stages in language development 1. At that stage Eliza is a common flower girl from Lisson Grove. Eliza s accent is made to emphasise the ugliness of the Cockney speech.
Cockney accent is regarded as being one of the least prestigious accents in Britain.
The following excerpt aims at illustrating what Eliza s speech sounds like. E LIZA . All my voylets trod in the mad. E LIZA . The use of double negative is very common.