- Today we're looking at the British English accent of Emma Watson, and how she's able
to change it from this,
- I'm Hermione Granger.
- to this.
- Hey guys, how sick is Channing Tatum's bod.
- All that's coming right up guys, so let's run the intro.
Welcome to Eat Sleep Dream
English, my name is Tom, and I teach fresh, modern British English, so that you can take
your English to the next level and achieve your life goals, whatever they may be. Now
I'm sure you know of Emma Watson, she's a hugely successful British actress. She made
her name playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series.
- It's Leviosa, not Leviosa.
- Now let's talk about her British English accent, she speaks in Contemporary RP.
- You post something on your Instagram account, and you get instant feedback.
- RP stands for received pronunciation. Now this is part two of my series about received
pronunciation. In part one, we looked at the Queen's English, very formal, extremely posh.
Now as you can guess from the name, Contemporary RP, is a more modern version of the Queen's
English. There are certain similarities, but there are also quite a few differences. Contemporary
RP is, it's a more relaxed, informal version of the Queen's English. But it still maintains
that emphasis on clarity and articulation.
- I'm here with BuzzFeed. I'm playing with tiny cute kittens. My day is made.
- There's our first word, kittens, kittens. Now, as a lot of you will have gathered by
now, the T sound in British English is extremely important, and it's a great indicator of what
accent someone has. So just there, for Emma Watson, she said kittens. She used a glottal
T, she didn't fully pronounce that T sound. She said kittens, kittens, she kind of stopped
just before she pronounced the T. So ki, ens, kittens. That's a glottal T, and that's very
normal in many accents in British English, including Contemporary RP.
- I'm playing with tiny cute kittens.
- In the Queen's English, for example, in part one of this series, the Queen would say
that T sound, that true T. She would say kittens. But speakers of Contemporary RP sometimes
choose to use the glottal T. Sometimes they will say a true T, sometimes they'll say the
glottal T. Now interestingly, Emma Watson, has three different ways of saying the T.
She says the glottal T, kittens, she will say with a true T, kittens, and she will also
use an Americanized version, which is kittens, kittens, it's a kind of a D sound.
- I'm playing with tiny cute kittens. We designed for Belle this ring that would sit on her
little finger.
- Here we have some interesting intonation. This intonation pattern is something called
uptalk. It's where the speaker goes up at the end of the sentence, even though it's
not a question, okay? It's an affirmative sentence, but she has gone up, as if it were
a question, as if she were asking you for some information, but she's not.
- A ring that would sit on her little finger.
- That would sit on her little finger, so we're going up at the end. She does this again
later on.
- I just wanted to make sure that we stayed true.
- That we stayed true, going up. Now, the origins of this are debated, linguists are
not entirely sure. There is a theory that it came from Australian English, where it's
much more common. Now why have we had this influence from Australia? Well, it could be
through culture, so television programs, films, things like that. It could be because of movement
of young, British people over to Australia, it's a very popular place to go as a young
person to travel around. And possibly through those travel experiences, people have picked
up that intonation pattern 'cause it's quite catchy, and then brought it back to Britain.
This intonation pattern is mostly found in young, Contemporary RP speakers.
- I just wanted to make sure that we stayed true. Clearly young girls feel like their
voice doesn't matter and what they have to say doesn't really matter.
- Ah, amazing. She uses the same word, matter, and she pronounces it differently within two
seconds of each other. In the first example, she uses an American style T, sort of with
that flap, that matter, matter with a duh sound. Then the second time, she uses a True
T, matter.
- Clearly young girls feel like their voice doesn't matter, and what they have to say
doesn't really matter. And I think I would want her to know that it does.
- Now this sound is really important in received pronunciation and Contemporary RP, is does,
the ah. Now ah, is a defining sound in RP because in Britain, the northern accents don't
have that sound. Whereas the southern accents in RP, generally associated with the South,
does have that sound. Now in the Northern accent it'd be does, that uh sound, whereas
in RP it's ah. Other words that have that sound are like run, or butter, or Sunday,
they all have that ah sound. Here's another example.
- Up!
- Up, up.
- Up. Shut up Harry.
- Up, up, now can you imagine if Harry Potter was set in the North of England, let's say
Yorkshire. What would it sound like? Up, up, up, very different. So that ah sound is a
very distinctive feature of Contemporary RP.
- So many times, when people have told me that I can't do something, it's gonna be too
hard, or whatever else.
- Here's another distinctive feature of Contemporary RP, can't and hard, that aarh sound. Now you
find that sound a lot in Contemporary RP on As, so glass, or grass, or bath, or dance.
In northern accents you would probably have like dance, bath, glass. In American English,
also that same ah sound, so dance, glass, so this aarh sound is particular to Contemporary
RP.
- When people have told me that I can't do something, it's gonna be too hard, or whatever
else.
- Guys, before we continue, let's just take a moment to appreciate these kittens.
- The rose petals, yeah, the lovely rose petals. I had the sound guys play happy.
- Here's a great way to contrast the Queen's English with Contemporary RP, happy. That
E sound at the end, the Y, has E, a long sound, E, happy. In the Queen's English, it's a shortened
version, it's happy, happy, it's an eh sound. This can be applied to any word with a Y on
the end, so very, really, clearly, all those kinds of words. So, in Contemporary RP you
have a longer sound, happy.
- I had the sound guys play happy. The most surreal thing I've ever seen, everyone in
costume in the Beauty and the Beast ballroom.
- Okay, are you ready to dive deep into some pronunciation? Because this is really interesting.
The words that she said were the Beauty and the Beast ballroom, the Beauty and the Beast
ballroom. Clearly she didn't say it like that, she used lots of interesting features. So
the first feature is that Americanized T, beauty, beauty. Then she used weak forms on
and, and the. She didn't say and thee, she said and the, and the, so Beauty and the Beast
ballroom. Now, what's happened there? Now at the end of the word Beast you have a T.
Now a T is a plosive. What is a plosive? It's a sound that is made with air being released
from your mouth. So ta, you could feel the air on your hands. Now, T is a plosive, and
ballroom begins with B, which is also a plosive. Buh, buh, buh, you can feel the air again.
When you have two plosives next to each other like that, the first one is not released.
So you wouldn't say Beast, ballroom. That would take too long. So, you don't release
that first plosive sound, it's Beast ballroom, Beast ballroom. Can you hear that? I'm not
releasing that T, Beast ballroom. Okay, so let's hear that again, let's hear her say
that again.
- Everyone in costume, in the Beauty and the Beast ballroom.
- So can you hear those features now? We've got the Americanized T on Beauty, we've got
the weak forms on and, and the, and we've got the plosive not being released on Beast.
- In the Beauty and the Beast ballroom, in the Beauty and the Beast ballroom.
- And this is great for connected speech, if you want to make your sentences sound more
fluent, and connected, these are the kind of features you need to be incorporating.
Now, just as a general observation about Contemporary RP, you'll notice that there's a real emphasis
on clarity. Emma Watson really tries to articulate all the sounds.
- I loved it as a shorthand for ideas that I found really difficult to express myself.
- Now, just quickly, to show you her versatility and the way that she can change her accent,
let's have a look at her doing an American accent.
- Hey guys, how sick is Channing Tatum's bod?
- As you can see, very different. She has to change the shape of her mouth, extend some
of those vowels, completely different. That's not an easy thing to do, I think she does
it pretty well. So, yeah respect to Emma Watson. I want you guys to tell me what do you think
of Emma Watson's accent, what do you think about Contemporary RP? Is it an accent that
you like? Do you like listening to it? Is it one that you speak with? Tell me in the
comments below. If you know anyone that would enjoy this video, please share it with them.
Thank you so much for joining me guys, this is Tom the Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.