it is estimated that only 3% of the
population of the UK speak pure RP. RP in case you don't know, stands for 'received
pronunciation'. All the main dictionaries in the UK including the Oxford English
Dictionary the Cambridge English Dictionary the Collins dictionary give a
phonetic transcription for all words using RP. If you're learning English,
British English as a foreign language then your textbooks will be written in
RP and if you have Siri, Alexa or Google home sets of British English then it's
RP you'll be listening to. At the time of recording anyway.
Ok Google hello hello what can I do for you? There you are that's RP English. Google
doesn't do regional accents up is also sometimes called 'Standard British
English' or 'Oxford English' or 'BBC English' or the Queen's English though this last
one is a little misleading because the Queen doesn't speak RP I'll explain that
in a moment. Have you ever wondered where this accent
originated? Today we're going to look at who speaks it where it's spoken and the
history of this accent and, with a little help from my cousin Tarquin, say hello Tarquin Well hello We're going to look at the standard RP that I speak more or
less and the posh English that the Queen Boris Johnson and maybe Hugh Grant speak.
so if you want to know more then Hello and welcome to LetThemTalkTV so it's the
language of the dictionaries, when you look up a word in an English dictionary
next to that you'll have the phonetic script that tells you how to pronounce
the word in RP so that means lots of people speak RP right? Wrong actually,
think about British accents as a spectrum on the one side you have RP and
on the other you have a strong regional accent or maybe some people say a
dialect such as Scouse from Liverpool or Geordie from Newcastle or Glaswegian from Glasgow or cockney from London. Very few people will have a pure
RP accent almost everyone will fall somewhere along the spectrum what about
me well I may have an accent which is not far from RP but like
most people you can hear a regional accent it's a London accent in my case as
I was born and grew up in London so for example people tell me that I say 'mumfs'
instead of 'months' and I sometimes say but instead of but so my accent it's not
quite RP so who speaks it, who speaks this RP accent? Well it's the accent of
the middle classes of the East Midlands and the South of England it's kind of an
official definition. While this might be true to an extent it doesn't tell the
whole story firstly most middle class people in The South don't speak a pure
RP is usually a hint of a regional accent secondly, and depending on the
background and the education, you can find RP speakers throughout the UK so
and I'm going to contradict myself a little bit here but although generally
it's a more southern accent and generally it's more middle-class the
distinguishing feature of RP is that you cannot determine where the speaker is from
or his or her social class. It is regionally nonspecific and class neutral.
As I said that's a generalization but it is generally more
a southern accent and generally more a middle-class accent but there are many
many exceptions to that rule but that's why The Queen, Boris Johnson all
these people I mentioned don't speak RP rather it's a posh accent because we
know exactly their social class just from listening to them. Boris Johnson
went to Eton and Oxford and the Queen is, well, she's the queen, so that
probably puts her amongst the upper classes I would say. It's strange isn't
it that this form of English is the one which, along with standard American
English, is the most widely taught pronunciation in the world and yet very
few native speakers actually speak it. let's have a look at the history how
come this accent of all the English accents became the standard the phrase
Received Pronunciation was coined in 1869 by the linguist AJ Ellis received,
by the way, has the meaning of accepted or approved. The term only became widely
used after the publication of the English Pronouncing Dictionary in 1917
by Daniel Jones he called the accent 'Public School Pronunciation'. If you're
unfamiliar with the British schooling system public schools are elite private
schools where the royalty and the toffs send their kids.
it was the accent of the ruling class. By the way don't confuse public schools
with state schools where plebs like me went to. Jones use that accent
because the ruling class went to the public schools such as Eton before
going on to study at Oxford. What's that? Oh it's Boris Johnson went to Eton
Oxford David Cameron, the former prime minister, Eton and Oxford. Theresa
May went to Oxford. Doesn't seem that much has changed. Anyway when making a
pronunciation dictionary you need a reference point as a standard and for
that they chose received pronunciation which was loosely based on an elite
accent of the East Midlands that around Oxford and Cambridge and London to some
extent. During the 14th and 15th century the East Midlands had become not only
the most populated but also the wealthiest part of England and for that
reason it became seen as the standard. The BBC adopted this as its standard
pronunciation in 1922 they thought that if they chose a regional accent it would
alienate some listeners or that a regional accent might
less understood by non-native speakers. The BBC had and still has a large
audience around the world. Interestingly during the Second World War one of the
BBC's principal newsreaders was Wilfred Pickles who had a broad Yorkshire accent
why did they do this because the Nazis were broadcasting propaganda in English
over the radio to Britain and while they could copy the RP English the BBC
believed they couldn't copy a strong regional accent so people would know
that they were listening to a genuine BBC newsreader. A regional accent gave
its broadcast authenticity. So does the Queen and the royal family speak RP? No
not at all this is what people might call a posh or an upper-class accent or
an aristocratic accent. There has been a kind of revolution over the last sixty
years because now the RP accent is a middle-class accent and the
public-school accent is now considered something different entirely. The Queen,
Prince Harry all the royal family, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees Mogg, David Cameron and
all the aristocracy speak with a public school accent or an upper-class accent
or a 'posh accent' a lot of people call it. So let me give you an example to show
you what I mean. Take this word [often] I say often. That's how I was brought up to say
it often some people these days say of-ten that's okay. that's okay you may be
the child of Beelzebub but that's okay language is not a static thing and a lot
of people say that and that's fine but how does the Queen say this word? Do you
know? is it often is it of-ten no she says 'orfen' listen to this: it's a reminder of
for us as all giant leaps often start with small steps. In Fowler's modern English usage,
1926. I have a copy right here he says that there are two ways to pronounce
this word often and 'orfen' well that's not the case today.
The dictionaries in fact only give one correct pronunciation in British and
American English in British English often and in American English - okay no
mention of 'orfan' no mention of of-ten. By the way the Queen also says "orff" "I'm orff
to the races" so that was RP in the 1920s but it's not
now. Some people call it a 'conservative RP' but it's not it's a historical RP
that would be a more appropriate term. By the way looking for a good book about
the English language Fowler's modern English Usage is wonderful if you're
looking for a style guide about the English language about usage and
pronunciation it is dated. 1926 however there is an updated version written in
2004 I think I haven't read the updated version. I'm using this one is probably
why my English sounds a bit weird. Anyway I'll put a link to both editions in
the in the [description] somewhere. So a common misconception is that the Queen's
English is standard English well no it isn't. Accents constantly change over
time it used to be the case that if you wanted to work in a in a so-called good
job then you lost your regional accent. you might take what they called
"elocution lessons" to speak correctly but since the, may be the 1960s, as a result
of social changes in society speaking in RP has become less important in
the workplace and in society in general. Nowadays you'll hear regional accents in
the media, in government, among university professors and the civil service. So
young people today feel no pressure to lose their regional background and for
that reason a pure RP accent is quite rare and sounds rather old fashioned.
somewhat bizarrely when you do meet people speaking perfect
RP they are often educated abroad English-speaking schools outside the UK
don't belong to any region and the RP still has a prestige. So just to give you
a couple of examples of people who speak like that.
Freddie Mercury beautiful RP accent isn't it? He had his own idiosyncrasies
but he has an RP action there is no trace of a regional accent he speaks with a
perfect British accent and yet where'd he grow up? In Zanzibar and he
went to school in Mumbai. That's going very, very well
and it's getting better every day you know because I think it's a it's a new
tour and we're learning a lot after every show So listen how he says TOUR with two syllables tou-er that's RP bites somewhat old-fashioned
today's generally set as one syllable 'tour' then he says 'better every day' of
stressing BETTER and EVERY as separate words without a linking R today we
would probably say "better-r-every day" can you hear the intrusive R "better-r-every
day" with the word SHOW he has a very rounded O show show, while I'd say 'show'
So he speaks RP but with a foot in the past and a hint of posh English. Listen again He moved to London when he was 18
but there's nothing of India and nothing of London in his accent whatsoever and
he's certainly not unique Richard E Grant someone else who speaks with this
perfect RP sounds a bit old-fashioned. where did he grew up? Why in Swaziland.
I remember when I was a student and to make ends meet
I worked in a call centre which sent vehicles to broken-down cars around
London and there was a guy there his name was Benjamin that had this
beautiful pronunciation he sounded like a BBC presenter from the nineteen
fifties when he spoke he would say something like "Oh madam let me reassure you that you
shan't be waiting long. One of our vehicles will be with you presently." One
day I said to him "wow! Benjamin your accent is so perfect and that wonderful
diction. May I ask, where are you from? where did you learn the accent?! "oh yes
certainly I'm from Lagos in Nigeria! Obviously went to a fancy school in
Lagos. I imagine reserved for the elite. The irony is that if you meet someone who
speaks a perfect British RP then he or she might well have been educated abroad.
The British almost all have some kind of regional accent. So be careful if you are
learning English as a foreign language if you are too good you'll sound so
British that no one will believe that's your British and that's pretty ironic
isn't it? So now let's compare RP with posh
English or the Queen's English and remember that even among upper-class
English speakers there are pronunciation differences
but we won't dwell into that today. I want to keep this linguistic part
relatively brief I mean Hugh Grant speaks posh English he was educated at
a private school and Oxford and you can hear his poshness but he doesn't sound
anything like the Queen. So we are making some sweeping generalizations but I
don't want this video to be 12 hours long in standard RP we have an [AA] sound in
words such as "married", "have", "cat" while in posh English it's kind of pronounced
somewhere between an AA and an E an [EH] sound "merried", "heve", "Ket" okay
the O sounds sometimes in posh English becomes OR. 'gone' becomes 'gorne'
it rhymes with "dawn". 'O' as we ve've already seen becomes 'Or' 'often' is a homonym of 'orphan' okay
OFF rhymes with NORTH 'off' - 'north' in RP. The O sound becomes much
rounder so, go, show. and low in standard RP go, show, low, in posh English the Y
the end of the word is pronounced [EE] in standard RP but in posh English it's
pronounced [E] diary becomes diar-e silly becomes sill-e. In standard RP
in fluent speech you might drop a T in the middle of the word with a consonant
cluster such as Christmas not many people say ChrisTmas but in
posh English you might hear it ChrisTmas in Standard RP you often drop unstressed
syllables in some long words such as comfortable which becomes comfortable
vegetable becomes vegetable medicine becomes medicine but in posh English
they might continue to say comfortable vegetable medicine. With words ending in
an -iar sound with two syllables in standard RP they have only one in posh
English or maybe one and a bit such as fire in standard English and 'far' in posh
English 'choir' becomes 'quar'. 'liar' becomes 'lar' 'higher' ;highr' in standard RP you might put
in an intrusive R when there is a word that ends with an OR sounds and the next
word begins with an [A] sound but in posh English you don't. So for example "law and
order" I would say "law-r-and order" can you here be intrusive are there. There's an R
which isn't there when it's written. "law-r -and order" but if you're speaking posh
English you might say them all the separate words "law and order"
or I'd say "here-r-and there" In posh English you might hear them say
"here and there." But now let's get a few sentences with my better
educated and more intelligent cousin Tarquin. So Tarquin are you ready to
compare the differences between RP and posh English? I'm ready old bean. After the party we went onto the veranda where I shot a lion in my dinner jacket. After the party we went on to the veranda where I shot a lion in my dinner
jacket how do he get into your dinner jacket? That's story for another day, old
boy. My housemaid has gone off with my valet how the blazes am I going to
fasten my breeches now? My housemaid has gone off with my valet how the blazes
am I going to fasten my breeches now? The Bentley broke down on the way to the
Opera so I had to take the underground with the Oiks.
Never again! The Bentley broke down on the way to the Opera so I
had to take the underground with the oiks! Never again. Now that we've had Brexit we won't need to talk with those horrible people in
Europe anymore Now that we've had Brexit we won't need to talk with those
horrible people in Europe anymore. Where the f**k is 'Yerp'?
I fired my Butler because he forgot to chill the Chardonnay I fired my Butler because he forgot to chill the Chardonnay I say young lady
you look ravishing fancy going for a spin in my Aston Martin? I say young lady
you look ravishing fancy going for a spin in my Aston
Martin? For my birthday Papa bought me a racehorse For my birthday Papa bought me
a racehorse We had a splendid game of elephants Polo. We had a splendid game of
elephant polo. The girl by the whirlpool is looking for a new fool The girl by
the whirlpool is looking for a new fool I was late for the debutantes ball
because my postilion had been struck by lightning I was late for the
debutantes ball because my postilion had been struck by lightning. What the
hell does that even mean? who wrote this stuff? What type of life
do you lead? You're not normal Don't forget to listen to our podcasts
you can find them we've got a another youtube channel called Zeitgeist
Banana or you can find Zeitgeist Banana on all those places where you find
podcasts such as Spotify iTunes and the other ones that I
can't remember right now
A question I have is whether the video presenter is correct about the linking r. In his example of a "posh" accent that he used (clip of Freddie Mercury speaking), I felt like I still heard a linking r ("betteR-every day"). And here's a video of the queen from 1957 where she says "as they aRe-at this moment." Also, when he himself mimics a "posh" accent, it felt like he was using a linking r, too (although that may be because he's used to using the linking r in his regular RP speech and didn't mean to do that while mimicking the posh accent).
Which also means I'm wondering whether he got the intrusive r ("lawr-and-order") thing correct or not. If present-day RP speakers are using the intrusive r, does/did the posh accent really not have this at all?
The excrescent r, like the open vowel in park and car, is a feature of US English, chiefly in the Northeastern states. The close o in "off" and "often" doesn't have an analogue in the US that I'm aware.
As for the Queen's English, it seems that she has deliberately changed the way she speaks, perhaps to better communicate with younger people. Source: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160202-has-the-queen-become-frightfully-common
really irrelevant to the video, but what do you think of thne WH pronouncing /HW/. E.g., HWhite, HWhich, Hwhether, HWhip, etc. It is also more old fashioned......