More than any other factor I noticed during my years living there, class seemed to play the biggest role in determining social status. Unlike in the US, where class is merely a measure of affluence, class in the UK is not determined by financial affluence alone. Myriad factors take priority over wealth in determining where you fall in the pecking order: your family’s pedigree, which region of the country you’re from, your occupation (though not your salary), and even how you speak. It’s true: Whereas in the US, we have regional dialects, in the UK they have sociolects, which can be defined as "the dialect of a particular social class". Your accent is expressly tied to your class, so in many cases you can discern someone’s class the moment they open their mouth. source
