Evolution of the Queen's English

[selrahc4]

Even back in the day (1950's) when the Queen was being criticised for her high-pitched voice when delivering speeches, there were many who mentioned that her normal speaking voice in private was normally lower. So, it makes sense that it was from nervousness, at least partially,.

 

[Lady Bluffton]

I would say don't underestimate the power of television to modify a person's accent or even dialect. Linguists throughout the world are scrambling to find "untainted" subjects who have never travelled more than a few hours from their home and who don't watch television. In the United States, that's a very rare person, indeed. I would imagine the same in England and other developed nations.

Dare say that the Queen does not fall into that category, and can be expected to have an evolving accent / pronunciation...just like the rest of us!

 

[Picmajik]

constantly changing here

I can tell a difference just traveling across my home state with regional dialects. Back in the 70's when President Carter was elected there were many books and magazine articles "analyzing" his accent and how we had at least 9 distinct dialects in our state and on and on. It's just that some in the media were making fun of the fact that if you do not speak as they do the assumption is that you are less educated and we know more, etc. If you do not have their trained "neutral" broadcast voice then you must be a hick, redneck or other country bumpkin. One thing they did get right in some of these articles is that the influence of radio, then TV and our more mobile society has made a difference in homogenizing our accents more. The best example they gave is how Carter's generation would pronounce his last name as "cot-tuh", dropping both r's. My generation would say "car-tuh", just dropping the last r.

I made a point of videotaping my great aunt before she passed on just so I could have copies of some of her stories with her great regional accent and laugh. I was born in Louisiana while my father was in college and when I first moved back to Georgia full time when I was 7 I could barely understand half my relatives. It took a while but soon I sounded more like them but still a mix of both parents. I love being able to pick up on some regional accents now and more often than not I can tell what part of the US someone is from but I'm nowhere near Henry Higgins. It is possible to find some "untainted" accents in rural areas but most of them are older and it is harder to find. I would love to sit down and videotape relatives with family stories just to preserve accents and stories. I love colloquialisms also--where did this phrase come from and whatever does it mean?

As for the "cut glass" accent I can sit and listen to it all day. My mom gets frustrated though as she can't understand it at all if I'm watching any British tv show. I found a book once that I wish I'd bought now explaining the different between U and non-U vocabulary and accents, similar to URP but Americanized.

 

[BeatrixFan]

Well bear in mind that most people don't speak like that and even the Queen has reigned in the Windsor accent. For example, British people no longer say 'Orf' or 'One' instead of "I".

 

[Skydragon]

For example, British people no longer say 'Orf' or 'One' instead of "I".

Errrrr!

 

[BeatrixFan]

Oh you don't? I thought you lot had gone out with the teasmaid.

 

[CasiraghiTrio]

Well bear in mind that most people don't speak like that and even the Queen has reigned in the Windsor accent. For example, British people no longer say 'Orf' or 'One' instead of "I".

It is interesting to me that you say "no longer". So the difference of the Queen's speech is not so much a difference of socio-economic class, but actually is generational?

 

[BeatrixFan]

I'd say so actually. I think it shows with William and Harry who say "Longing" and not "Lornging" etc. I think it's a matter of age.

 

[trinny]

The funniest thing is the image of Princes Harry and William teaching the Queen Mother to do the Ali G finger click and say "Booyakasha" or what ever the saying was. I remember watching them confess to doing so

Oh that was funny!!

This is my memory of it but I could have got it a bit wrong:

It was in a TV show about the late Queen Mother: the members of the family talking about their memories of her ...the boys were saying what a cool Great Grandmother she was, they had been telling her about Ali G and how fantastic they thought he was and they taught her how to do the finger click (as you've said) and to say "Respect!" ...

they all went into luncheon and at the end of the meal she leaned back in her chair, said to her butler (I guess) "Ahhh So-and-So that was very nice ... *does finger click* RESPECT!"

The whole room fell apart laughing!



SORRY TO GO OFF TOPIC, by the way!

 

[WindsorIII]

Very funny! I would have loved to have seen that

 

[zembla]

That's so cute...

 

[Renata4711]

Here's a learned essay on the many ways of pronunciation by the peoples of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and more....

Received pronunciation

 

[isayoldboy]

Well bear in mind that most people don't speak like that and even the Queen has reigned in the Windsor accent. For example, British people no longer say 'Orf' or 'One' instead of "I".

By the way, that's referred to as an "intrusive r". It's still present to a certain extent in the Boston accent, ie "Take a barth". Australians do it as well. But in the UK it's an RP thing.

When I listened to Edward VIII's abdication speech I noticed that his Rs were a little W-like, if that makes sense. It's called rhotacism and is a stereotype of RP pronunciation (think of the stereotype upper-crust Englishman who can't pronounce his r's). The Queen's RP seems to have evolved further from this.

RP used to be taught at speech and drama schools, and you couldn't get a job (for instance) in radio without being able to speak it. You didn't have to be upper class, but you did have to be able to put on the accent. Regional accents are now a lot more present on radio and television.

 

[Renata4711]

Queen's English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Queen's English Society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

God save the Queen's English: Our language is under threat from ignorance, inverted snobbery and deliberate 'dumbing down' - Schools, Education - The Independent

 

[AnnEliza]

Television certainly has a large influence. I have been dismayed thinking the English might pick up American accents. But in fact, I have noticed in recent years that some British words or phrases have entered American speech. For example, more Americans are now saying "in hospital" instead of "in the hospital", "at university", instead of "in college", and "went missing" instead of "is missing". It's interesting.

 

[berengere]

Apparently the younger members of the royal family aren't the only ones whose English is beginning to sound like the rest of us; according to this article, the Queen's English has also become less "upper class" and more in line with the way the rest of the country speaks. Is nothing sacred?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2006/12/04/nqueen04.xml

I've seen reports that the younger royals and their close relations like Prince Edward, Diana Princess of Wales, and the Phillips children are/were using something between regular received pronunciation and Estuary English whereas the older royals still spoke with "cut glass" accents, but apparently the older ones are coming a bit downmarket too.

I wonder if this has to do with the media or whether it's because the members of the royal family meet more middle- and working-class people than they used to.

Frankly, I find this a travesty. HMQ, Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Charles have enviable speech and articulation. PW and PH not so much. I hope they gain some gravitas with age and maturity.

 

[Mermaid1962]

I'm from a part of Maritime Canada that's known for strong accents. According to my husband, every member of my immediate family speaks with a different accent. When I finished high school, we moved to a small community about 30 miles away. My brother, who's four years younger than I, picked up the accent of the junior and senior high schools that he attended. My sister spent considerable time in Toronto before moving back "home". My parents were from different communities that were within a couple of hours' drive from each other. The odd thing with me was that I began hearing my own accent once I moved to a different province.

 

[nascarlucy]

I retained the mid-west accent that my parents and grandparents had but with a twist. The mid-west accent is flat (some people are very flat), not a lot of inflection. If you aren't careful, you can sound monotone to others outside the mid-west. I had a little bit of Southern accent mixed in it but it's so slight that most people don't notice it.

While having my hair done, I met a woman who had been in the navy and was was a specialist in linguistics. She could tell where in the United States the person came from or if they had lived in other places in the United States. I started talking and was amazed that this woman from my speech patterns could tell regionally where I had lived. This woman even knew my family had lived around the Chicago area.

 

[Dymphna]

So many parts of the U.S. have such different regional accents and I've always been interested in where my family's "Baltimore accent" came from. For example, "home" will sound like "hame".

Up thread, someone mentioned the queen pronouncing "home" in a similar way and I've always wondered if some of the "Baltimore accent" might have come from the U.K.

I'm so glad this thread has been resurrected! I didn't know it was here.

 

[Mermaid1962]

There's a theory that North American English is pronounced more like the English of the early immigrants than today's British English is, because the USA and Canada had fewer influences on the language than the UK did in the last three hundred years or so. Presumably the same would be the case for the French who settled in North America at around the same time.

Up thread, someone mentioned the queen pronouncing "home" in a similar way and I've always wondered if some of the "Baltimore accent" might have come from the U.K.

 

[nascarlucy]

I remember reading in an American history book that by the time the American Revolution came about, the speech patterns had changed so much that the American English sounded nothing like the Queen's English. Over time we developed our own speech patterns.

 

[Renata4711]

Aldu, it depends on where you live and in which circles you are moving.

I think there is a huge shift happening in English, ranging from RP via Americanised English to a plethora of dialects.

Youth culture, supported by new media, is playing its part also.

I, an older lady, have caught myself saying "Cool !" to my son. Predictably, he laughed.

 

[Vasillisos Markos]

It is said that the Midwesterners pronounce words with flat accents,which means that the words approximate the dictionary pronunciation. There is not a lot of inflection when it comes to Midwesterners. But we still have our dialects and accents -- just take a look at Chicago, which is a true melting pot.

 

[Lumutqueen]

There's a book on amazon about the Queens English, only noticed it today.

 

[Dymphna]

There's a theory that North American English is pronounced more like the English of the early immigrants than today's British English is, because the USA and Canada had fewer influences on the language than the UK did in the last three hundred years or so. Presumably the same would be the case for the French who settled in North America at around the same time.

I've heard that too. The idea is certainly intriguing.

 

[Dymphna]

I remember reading in an American history book that by the time the American Revolution came about, the speech patterns had changed so much that the American English sounded nothing like the Queen's English. Over time we developed our own speech patterns.

I wish I could go back and compare accents!! I wonder how difficult it would be to understand early American accents.

 

[nascarlucy]

That would be fascinating if they could record a person's voice or people talking back then. I received a book on the American Revolution as a Christmas gift and quotes from people's diaries were included. A lot of Ye and thee and thou were used. The only time you see or hear these words are in the King James Version of the Bible. In the play the Scarlet Letter, these words are also used. This of course was influence from the Queen's English.

 

[lilacmermaid]

That would be fascinating if they could record a person's voice or people talking back then. I received a book on the American Revolution as a Christmas gift and quotes from people's diaries were included. A lot of Ye and thee and thou were used. The only time you see or hear these words are in the King James Version of the Bible. In the play the Scarlet Letter, these words are also used. This of course was influence from the Queen's English.

The funny thing is, the thee/thy/thou was actually the informal one, and you/your was what was used formally. Since thee/thy/thou is archaic now, most people probably think it would have been the opposite.

 

[Renata4711]

The thee / thou etc. is still used in the Book of Common Prayer, by those Anglican churches which still use it. I used to work in a church where the congregation had a choice between the "modern version" and the BCP.
So, the thees and thous won't disappear for a while yet!

 

[KittyAtlanta]

Don't forget the Amish. They still speak the/thy/thou. As for me, I've been exposed to so many dialects and versions of English that most people think I've been to Speach Neutral School. I disagree, but I only hear me cranially(sp?).