I would not take that bet. The article even lampshades this exact view; quote, "accents such as Cockney never did arise because working class Londoners were una

I would not take that bet. The article even lampshades this exact view; quote, "accents such as Cockney never did arise because working class Londoners were unaware of how the aristos talked. They knew perfectly well". Language change has more to do with social group identification than it does with ignorance of how other people (whether separated in time or space) speak. The availability of high-fidelity recordings does nothing to change that.