hyperlect

Etymology

From hyper- + -lect, Ancient Greek affixes meaning literally “overspeech”, that is, the speech of the overclass.

hyperlect means the variety of a language that is spoken by the aristocracy. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

HYPERLECT — [Noun] The linguistic register of a hereditary aristocracy or socially closed elite, characterized by exclusive pronunciation, lexicon, and syntactical constructions. From the combining form hyper- (from Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér), meaning "over, above") + -lect (from Ancient Greek λεκτός (lektós), "chosen, spoken"), thus literally "overspeech" or the speech of the overclass. Unlike acrolect (which denotes a standard prestige dialect accessible through education) or mesolect (which describes a fluid register of social compromise), hyperlect is a rarefied sociolect, defined by birthright and exclusive social performance. It is the precise, almost ostentatiously lazy rounding of an 'o' in a London club, the careful, distancing glide of a final 'r' in a Boston drawing-room, and the subtle omission of articles that transforms a statement into a shared secret—the audible architecture of a world that assumes it will never have to explain itself.

noun

The variety of a language that is spoken by the aristocracy.“Quite distinct from received pronunciation or BBC English, hyperlect now sounds, in our more egalitarian sonic society, affected and outdated, and has largely been abandoned by the younger generation in favour of a more neutral version, either based on radio and television speak, the over-voice of documentaries, what used to be called 'speaking nicely', or a version of so-called Estuary English.”