Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure in traditional upper class England "what" is much more polite than "pardon"

I see this in so many Monty Python sketches. It's all I can think of.
Lots of polite "What?"s from the cast.

In British English people used to talk about the distinction between U (upper class) and non-U (middle and lower class) speech. This is less relevant now, but it would have been when Monty Python was filmed.

Non-U often prefer words of French origin (or at least more obviously French origins). You see this is the non-U preference for serviette over napkin, settee over sofa, and toilet over lavatory or loo. I've heard this suggested as borrowing from French in an effort to appear more sophisticated, but I'll withhold judgment there.

Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure in traditional upper class England "what" is much more polite than "pardon"

I see this in so many Monty Python sketches. It's all I can think of.
Lots of polite "What?"s from the cast.