Suresh,
> Not just languages, dialects.
Yes, of course.
> Do you find yourself talking say regionally
> accented Italian with someone who has
> a strong regional accent ...
No. But sometimes it's fun to "drop into dialect" if and when there is
one that someone else and I can share.
(People from some regions, e.g. notoriously Sardinia, have a stronger
accent that others. But that doesn't change the language. It would be
an unpleasant mockery to try to imitate them).
> and a more "BBC Italian" (or is it RAI Italian) ...
Unfortunately Italian television (including RAI) isn't the BBC. It
tends to drop too often into poor Italian, frequently with an
"uneducated Roman" accent, but also with other distortions that aren't
necessarily regional. There is more "fashionese" in television
(including mock English) than there is in the language that "ordinary
people" speak.
> with someone who has that kind of educated upper class accent?
I don't think I have an "accent", though sometimes people in the South
tell me that I sound "northern". Most of the time I find that there can
be a dialogue with people from any part of the country without any
perceivable "regional" problem - though some words, sometimes, *can*
have a different meaning depending on local custom. Fifty years ago
"educated" Italian may have been "upper class", but nowadays it's shared
by most people with the "obligatory minimum" of basic education.
Cheers
Giancarlo
