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
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
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