Evolution of the Queen's English


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Elspeth

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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?:lol:

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.
 
I would be interested in hearing how the Queen's English changed from QEII's grandfather and her father to her, too.
 
I think the reason's fairly obvious - her Majesty's been watching too much television. :lol:
 
Your right, I bet she is secretly a fan of EastEnders!:lol:
 
selrahc4 said:
This was all covered 6 years ago. Why is it "news" again now?
Click to expand...

It's the same person - Professor Harrington - too, but he's moved from Sydney to Munich. I wonder if he's reporting old news or has updated the study ....... or perhaps he's a bit of a devil and made a whole new batch of researchers listen to all those Christmas broadcast tapes. :ROFLMAO:
 
lord_rankin said:
Your right, I bet she is secretly a fan of EastEnders!:lol:
Click to expand...

Hmmm...Someone quickly sendher a DVD with QI and a couple of CD's with the reading of Stephen Fry...That ought to put her back in place...:flowers:
 
I think I heard the Christmas speech where she talked about 'hame' I always enjoy Sylvia Peter's broadcast of Elizabeth II's coronation as an example of what a really upper crust accent sounded like. When Sylvia announced, "Hehur Mejesty" it was quite enchanting.

I think the upper crust English accent kept the lower jaw very clenched. It was hard to pronounce the really rounded vowels like Oh and Ah.
 
Do you have a link to that? I have never seen it and think it would be really interesting.
 
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I remember that twenty-first birthday broadcast from South Africa, where "my whole life" sounded quite a bit like "may hale lafe." When she did that voice-over for the documentary about her life a few years ago, I remember being struck by how deep her voice was compared to the early broadcasts, where it was almost painfully high-pitched.
 
ysbel said:
I think the upper crust English accent kept the lower jaw very clenched. It was hard to pronounce the really rounded vowels like Oh and Ah.
Click to expand...

I love imitating peoples accents and your absolutely right about the clenched
jaw, it takes a concerted effort to replace the Oh and Ah sounds when your
speaking, another a couple weeks practice and I should have it down pat! ;)
 
Skydragon said:
The Queen's English is no longer so posh: researcher

Queen Elizabeth II's famous cut-glass accent, the Queen's English, is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific analysis of her famous Christmas broadcasts found.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/04122006/323/queen-s-english-longer-posh-researcher.html
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For me this is a very pleasant fact. It shows IMHO that the queen evolved from her very privileged and secluded environment to the experience of British life in all its aspects and on all its levels. It shows IMHO that she is not only talking to the people but actually listens to them. Listening in on that amount of people over the whole time of her reign must necessarily lead to an adaption of her English to that of her subjects.

Much more interesting IMHO is the way she has obviously destilled the essence of her people's English and adopted that for her own way of speaking. While she is not lon ger speaking a "posh" English, she (I said that due to the examples that have been published) she speaks now a rather "correct" British English - isn't that a nice development?:flowers:
 
Well, apparantly "The Queen's English" refers to Queen Victoria's English. Because she had a German accent, she over-annunciated words such as "Axe" making them sound like "Ix". The court didn't want the Queen to sound unusual so they all took on that style of speaking which was then adopted by her descendants and spread to the Upper Classes, the BBC etc. Whether it's true or not I'm not sure.
 
Elspeth said:
I remember that twenty-first birthday broadcast from South Africa, where "my whole life" sounded quite a bit like "may hale lafe." When she did that voice-over for the documentary about her life a few years ago, I remember being struck by how deep her voice was compared to the early broadcasts, where it was almost painfully high-pitched
Click to expand...

I loved your observation, Elspeth...good chuckle here :lol:

I think it pretty common place among the aging that as they grow older, their voices tend to deepen..a lilttle like their ears. Their ears always seem to droop..haha

There is a difference in HM english, when comparing it to that of her younger years, but I find it quite endearing.

Like in the Rolf Harris documentary (painting commissioned for her 80th) where asked if seeing herself age bothered her, she replied...'Naaahhh'.

Now, would have Elizabeth ever projected such a wonderfully unrefined sound in her youth?.lol.
 
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I think it's funny because my grandmother always speaks with a cockney accent but occassionaly she'll say, "Lorst" or "Orf". For example, she might say, "I waz dahn that noo 'appy shoppa you know, got orf da bus en ar saw Reenee Bones en she sed 'Gawd blimey, arm all lorst on this noo root". So I think generally the estuary accent and the Queen's accent are mingling alot now.
 
Madame Royale said:
Like in the Rolf Harris documentary (painting commisioned for her 80th) where asked if seeing herself age bothered her, she replied...'Naaahhh'.
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It's easy to imagine that she picked this one up from Harry. :D
 
I have a question as regards accents, the fact that the Queen's accent are mingling means that RP is no longer in use?. I know that RP is not the common people accent, but as I am studying to be an english tacher, I´m learning RP, and it is of my concern.
thanxs a lot!
 
RP is still heard just as Birmingham accents are still around. The only differewnce is that the media isn't fronted by only RP accents.
 
Sorry, this might be a stupid question, but what is RP?
 
RP is "Recieved Pronunciation" and is the more technical name for the "Queen's English".
 
Madame Royale said:
Like in the Rolf Harris documentary (painting commissioned for her 80th) where asked if seeing herself age bothered her, she replied...'Naaahhh'.
Click to expand...
that was rather shocking wasn't it but I quite enjoyed it, i dont think i would have ever imagined the queen saying 'naaahh". I wish there were a video on the net of that. I do wonder what else the queen says that we would never expect her to say.
 
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The simple fact is that the English language is a constantly evolving one.
This process is only speeding up, owing to television and globalisation, hence Her Majesty's seemingly quick descent into a "lower" form of English.
If we were to jump forward in time, just a few hundred years, we would have enormous trouble keeping up with a conversation in our own language!
In some ways it's a sad thing, as the Queen's English really is a lost art, but it's also interesting to study how English has changed over the centuries.
 
I don't know.... I still hear the same vowel pronunciations in her latest commonwealth speech. The same clipped, clenched speech of always for HM, at least I can't hear any difference.
I remember reading in Brian Hoey's book on Charles (the first one, at 30 or something) that Charles has mostly his father's voice and accent (obviously, of course) but his vowel sounds are his mother's. With Prince William, I used to hear the same Philip-Charles voice, only now William's is highly altered. Maybe his university years, stepping from the Etonian class to the upper middle class, is what did it.
 
Oh!!!! My God!!!

The articles submitted by the members have broken my heart. Oh! My God! This isn’t happening!!!!:ohmy:
I admit that the language is an alive and ever-evolving structure, which is deeply affected by the environment at large (society, the sprit of times, and other developments). However, it is sad that URP tends to undergo rather unpleasant changes. I am trying so hard to acquire this veneer named the URP….
 
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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 :eek:


Estuary English is a pet hate of mine, as is deep regional accents on television presenters these days. I mourn the days of crisp clear speech on the television and love the likes of Stephen Fry all the more, for his precise manner of speaking.
 
Elspeth said:
I remember that twenty-first birthday broadcast from South Africa, where "my whole life" sounded quite a bit like "may hale lafe." When she did that voice-over for the documentary about her life a few years ago, I remember being struck by how deep her voice was compared to the early broadcasts, where it was almost painfully high-pitched.
Click to expand...

That happens because of the recording medium and how it changes over the years. If you have a tape of your voice from some years back, play it and listen to yourself -- your voice might sound a little higher.

Also, when you hear yourself talk, you are listening from the inside of your own head by convection (sound bouncing off the bones in your skull), so your perception of how you sound may be different from how you actually sound. It's always such a jolt to hear yourself recorded because recording isn't done by convection. :)

Another thing is the vocal cords do tend to stretch with age and use, making the voice seem lower as we get older -- this isn't true with everyone, but it does happen. Also, when she is more relaxed, her voice may be lower. I have a low voice myself, but when I need to speak up or into a microphone, it does go up in pitch a bit. The mechanics are fascinating -- I could be here all night. :D

On the topic of the relaxation of the Queen's English, it's partially due to evolution of the language itself, and partially due to societal relaxation and more of an attempt at egalitarianism...well, in public, anyway...
 
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