[Queen's Voice] Hello you laah-v-ely people,
[QV] Welcome, one and all, to today’s lesson in how to talk like the Queen of England-
- side note, Elizabeth II is actually Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
That’s over 16 countries, and no, she doesn’t own them all anymore because, yes, we worked
out that owning other people is a bad thing- it just took us some time because apparently
we’re slow but now we’re really, really sorry about it.
Except for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland… who we’re never letting go.
Probably. Maybe.
We’ll see. Again, so sorry.
Not you, Cornwall, you’re English, get over it.
Subscribe for more red, white and blue fun!
Oh wait… that describes a lot of different flags
Today I’m going to give you my ‘top tips’ for speaking like a royal- just in time for
the new series of The Crown to come out on Netflix.
- [QV] And for you to irritate everyone around you.
Is it weird to be getting voice lessons from a deaf girl? Maybe. Watch my ‘Why I Have
A British Accent’ video for more on that. But basically: I put a lot of work into this
voice, I should use it for something! Also, lipreading is fun and that’s how I work
out what people sound like so I thought I’d share some of my learning.
Tip number 7:
[QV] Avoid modern conventions.
By which I mean: Americanisms. The Queen does not use the word ‘like’ as punctuation.
Don’t drop your ‘t’s or your ‘h’s and avoid slang.
[QV] Obviously.
Tip number 6:
[QV] Slow down and pronounce everything.
The Queen has an incredibly languid way of speaking because… well, she’s the Queen,
no one is going to tell her to hurry up!
This means that she pronounces almost every bit
of a word.
For example, in my normal voice I’ll say ‘particularly’:
‘pehr-tic-uly’ but
in my Queen voice I would really take my time and hit all of those vowels with:
‘par-tic-yoo-lahr-ly.’
It's longer.
Equally: February: feb-rue-air-ree
“Why...?” I hear you ask.
[shrug]
She’s the Queen. You can wait for her to get to the end of the sentence in her own
darn time.
Tip number 5:
[QV] Purse your lips, open your throat and drop your jaw.
But try to look attractive… I guess?
According to my mother: In finishing schools they used to make girls talk with the stone
of a plum between their teeth and that’s how they learnt to make very rounded sounds.
And why we call that accent ‘plummy’.
Broaden your sounds and imagine that plum stone.
Tip number 4:
[QV] Strange vowels.
Long vowels are particularly important when mimicking the Queen’s accent.
Firstly, always use long vowels: [QV] bath, grass, dance and can’t.
And then just mess everything up. Take your vowels and smush them together.
For instance:
The Queen makes the /æ/ vowel found in BAT, MAN, ACTION and THANKS with a close jaw and
a sort of smile like the /e/ found in MET & MEN.
So take the /e/ and you have: BAT, MAN, ACTION, and THANKS.
She also eats her /o/ sound so GO and SLOW become GO and SLOW
And she loves an ‘oo’! The Queen makes her /uː/ sounds very far back in the mouth,
a standard British speaker would have the tongue further towards the centre in words
like TOO, NEW, SOON, WHOM so they become TOO, NEW, SOON and WHOM.
If you get stuck just keep saying ‘ears’ when you mean ‘yes’ and the rest will
fall into place.
Tip number 3:
[QV] ‘Y’ not ‘ee’.
If a word ends in a weak ‘y’, British people will make a short, weak /i/ sound,
but the Queen will say /ɪ/ a more open sound: so SILLY becomes SILLY
So, when I say the word ‘marry’ my mouth finishes with a smile, when the Queen says
it she ends with her mouth closed: [Q] marr-eh. Try it with the word ‘finally’: finall-eh.
Although it is most noticeable in words that end in a y like [QV] carry and hurry.
Tip number 2:
[QV] Make space around your ‘r’s.
British people tend to use an ‘r’ at the end of a word to roll straight into the next
word. For instance ‘mother. and. Father.’ would be said ‘motherand father’. The
Queen leaves a gap as she pronounces every word so the ‘a’ of and stands alone: ‘mother
and father.
However, funny things happen to ‘r’s in words like INSPIRE and POWER as the ‘r’
is, again, eaten becoming INSPIRE and POWER.
But ‘r’ can also be powerful such as VERY and MERRY becoming VERY and MERRY.
[QV] And finally..
Top tip number 1:
[QV] Make your words dance.
A distinctive feature of the Queen’s speech is her intonation pattern: it’s high-falling
but doesn’t quite hit the bottom tone and instead glides down rather slowly:
[QV] The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
Or my grandfather’s favourite:
[QV] There was a young gourmet from Crediton, who took pate de fois gras and spread it on,
a chocolate biscuit, he murmered ‘I’ll risk it’ and his tomb bears the date that
he said it on.
In conclusion: it’s mainly her vowel sounds that are different from a standard GB accent,
but one must also focus on one’s intonation and one’s delivery.
Now let’s pronounce some words together in the Queen’s accent. Say it with me as
you see it on the screen:
[laugh, scough]
Yeah...
A fun fact for the end of the video:
The Queen’s English is not considered an accent. It’s a slower speech pattern distinguished
by elongated vowel sounds.
And give yourself a gold star if you get this joke (warning: it’s niche)
Q: What’s the definition of a crèche? [/krɛʃ/ /kreɪʃ/]
A: It’s a collision between two motor vehicles in Kensington.
[crickets sfx]
Nevermind.
Thank you so much for watching, let me know in the comments what British based videos
you’d like to see me make next. Are there any burning questions you have about the English
that you’re just dying to know? Are you also confused about the difference between
the United Kingdom and Great Britain? (Don’t worry most of us are)
I really enjoyed making this video so looking forward to having more fun making similar ones.
See you in my next video!