Theory of English Phonetics = Теоретическая фонетика английского языка. Учебно-методическое пособие

Standard english pronunciation. Social and territorial varieties of english pronunciation

Mark: And you don’t remember the last time you went or the last thing you bought?

Shirley: Oh yeah, I ………………. a pair of …………………

in Mallorca.

17.Read the article “Those Royals don’t ‘arf talk common” and do the tasks following it.

THOSE ROYALS DON’T ‘ARF TALK COMMON

Strangely, fashions in accent move up the social spectrum, not down, and have smuggled a good deal of cockney into the palace, finds

Stuart Wavell

Professor Henry Higgins, that apoplectic pedagogue of pronunciation, would be incandescent: his pupil, Eliza Doolittle, is teaching the nobility how to talk properly.

According to new research, accent percolates from the lower to the upper class, not the other way round. More surprising still, perhaps, the royal family is speaking a mixture of old cockney and Berkshire rustic.

“What are predominantly working-class pronunciations are picked up by upper-class speakers.” said Charles Jones, professor of English language at Edinburgh University. “There are some characteristics of what was definitely lower-class English in the last century which arc now features of tipper-class speech – not vice versa. I suspect that Queen Victoria, were she alive today, would regard some of the pronunciation of the present royal family as rather vulgar”.

This inversion of what most people consider to be the natural order, with the Queen’s English at the apex of the linguistic pyramid, has interesting implications for our class-based society, It throws into confusion the adage of George Bernard Shaw that “it is impossible

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for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some oilier Englishman despise him”. Suddenly, a cockney flower girl and Stanley Holloway are top drawer.

Jones has compared 1930s recordings of upper-class speakers with the speech of their modern counterparts, as well as today’s royals, to discover unmistakable signs of the upward mobility of cockney. “For example, in the 1930s they said ‘caught’ and ‘bought’: they now say ‘cawt’ and ‘bawt’. It seems that yesterday’s vulgar is today’s posh”.

Cockneys and the upper social bracket share other distinctive sounds that are unheard among the middle class, such as a lengthening of certain short vowels. “Off” becomes “orf”; “often” becomes ‘’orften” and dog becomes “dawg”.

Paul Kerswill, lecturer in linguistics at Reading University, says the Queen is not quite sure if she should say “orf” or “off”. “It is a case where lower-class speech and upper-class speech coincide. It is a curious phenomenon that you have the same form top and bottom, and a different form in the middle.”

In common with older members of the upper class, the Queen and the Prince of Wales articulate the word “man” in an accent almost indistinguishable from cockney. The result is best illustrated by one of Harry Enfield’s female creations: “Young mayhn, young mayhn!”

The highest and lowest social strata also tend to drop their aitches and the “g” from “ing” endings. Graham Pointon, the BBC’s pronunciation adviser, cites a classic instance: “There is a story of Edward VII walking down a London street and meeting the writer Frank Harris, who was wearing a rather loud coat. The king said: ‘Mornin’, ‘arris, goin’ ratlin’?’ It sounds terribly upper-class but exactly the same as a cockney would sound if he had just got out of the gutter.”

The royals are merely the best-known exemplars of the downtop phenomenon. But according to 1inguists, in one respect they have parted company with most of the upper class by evolving certain speech patterns of their own.----

“The royal family’s accent is one of a kind,” said Pointon. Its most notable feature is a mangling of the “ou” sound to produce a hard “a”. So “There’s a mouse down at the house” would be rendered as “There’s a mace dane at the hace”.

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Standard english pronunciation. Social and territorial varieties of english pronunciation

Prince Charles is found to be the most enthusiastic exponent of this pronunciation. If, in his prankish mode, he were asked to repeat the phrase “There’s a mouse down your trousers”, he would be likely to say: “There’s a mace dane your traysers”.

Kerswill commented: “It was never regarded as correct to say ‘traysers’. Even among the non-royal upper class, it is quite unusual to hear that vowel. Charles uses it more than the Queen does”.

Astonishingly, there is one group of people who duplicate this idiosyncrasy of the royals’ accent – Berkshire farm labourers. “It is typical of rural working-class speech in Berkshire to say ‘hace’ instead of ‘house’ and to use words like ‘mace’ and ‘dane’ for ‘mouse’ and ‘down’,” said Kerswill.

What mechanism can possibly account for this surreptitious invasion of cockney and Berkshire rustic into royal discourse? The obvious explanation – the influence of television – is discounted by experts. “One of the most popular programmes is Coronation Street but we are not all speaking with Mancunian accents. It doesn’t work that way at all,” Jones insisted.

Nor are the royals courting popularity with the lower class, Pointon believes. It is true that Princess Margaret briefly adopted some rock’n’roll slang in the 1950s (“See you later, alligator”) and the Princess Royal experimented with a Merseyside accent during the Beatles era in the 1960s, but these were passing fads.

Yet experts agree that the main reason for emulating working-class speech is to do with gaining social acceptability. “People take the mickey out of posh public school accents,” said Kerswill. “Teachers at Marlborough told me it’s a real problem for their pupils. When they come home they switch to something more streetwise. It is one reason why the upper-class accent is being lost. Teenagers want to be cool and older people want to avoid sounding like iffs”.

For much the same reasons, middle-class speech is also on the move. But instead of finding inspiration in cockney and rural accents, it has turned to the inflections of south London, notably the glottal stop. This is characterized by swallowing the “t” in words such as “water” and “football”.

“It has spread from London and covered most of England,” said Kerswill. “Basically, a glottal stop at the end of a word – as in “a lo’

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of” – is more acceptable than in the middle.” He predicts an even more widespread acceptance of the glottal slop throughout society.

Kerswill believes the Queen’s contact with young people has modulated some of her vowels. For example, 40 years ago she might have said: “The fet cet set on the met” whereas, today she is more likely to say: “The fat cat sat on the mat”. Thanks to Diana, Princess of. Wales, Princes Harry and William, can fall back on everyday English, insulting them from the complex tonal process at work among the older royals.

A basic rule of linguistics is that changes in pronunciation can only occur through face-to-face contact when a natural desire to accommodate the other person’s accent comes into operation. The extent of this was shown when researches wired a travel agent’s shop for sound to hear the sales girl exactly replicating the accents of customers from across the social spectrum.

This suggests a possible scenario. The royals seem at their most relaxed in rural surroundings, such as Windsor in Berkshire, where locally born retainers have been part of their everyday lives and have become to some degree representatives of the ordinary public. To make themselves understood, the royals have adopted some local speech patterns for “streetwise” conversations, perhaps reverting to another accent among themselves.

While Kerswill agrees this might be one explanation, it does not resolve the cockney conundrum: “I just don’t see how the two groups would have met.”

He ventures the alternative theory that the accents of the upper and lower classes are linguistic rock-pools, stranded by the tide of Estuary English.

“The people at the top and the bottom of the social pile could be more isolated from their members of society. That means their speech is more conservative and has changed less from previous times. So they have retained the older forms of speech through lack of contact with the middle class, whose speech is more innovative.”

Whatever the truth there is now a riposte to the question posed in The Importance of Being Earnest: ‘’’Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?”

(Source: The Sunday Times, 14 December, 1997)

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Questions and Tasks

1)Answer the questions.

1.Why did Charles Jones let himself say that “Queen Victoria would regard some of the pronunciation of the present royal family as rather vulgar”?

2.How has the apex of linguistic pyramid changed? How has the upper-class pronunciation changed since 1930-s?

3.What curious phenomenon does Paul Kerswill mention?

4.How does the story of Edward VII prove the title of the article?

5.What speech patterns of their own do the royals produce?

7.What accent duplicates the idiosyncracy of the royals’ accent?

8.How does television influence the invasion of cockney accent?

9.Name the royals who experimented with cockney accent.

10.What is the main reason for emulating the working-class speech?

2)Explain in English.

1.Professor Henry Higgins would be incandescent...

2. ...yesterdays vulgar is today’s posh.

3.down-top phenomenon

4.passing fads

5.social acceptability

6.…exactly replicate the accents

7.‘streetwise’ conversations

8.…modulate some of her vowels

10.surreptitious invasion of cockney and Berkshire rustic into royal discourse

11.on the move

12.cockney conundrum

3)What pronunciation tendency is touched upon in the article? Read more on the phenomenon and discuss it in class with the other students.

1.Parsons G. From RP to Estuary English. Hamburg, 1998.

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2.Rosewarne D. Estuary English // The Times Educational Supplement, 1984. URL: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/ estuary/rosew.htm

3.Rosewarne D. Estuary English: tomorrow’s RP? // English Today, 1994. – Vol. 10, No. 1.

4.Wells J. C. Transcribing Estuary English: a discussion document / J. C. Wells // Speech Hearing and Language: UCL Work in Progress. – University College London, 1994. – Vol. 8.

5. Wells J. C. Pinning down Estuary English: Abstract for a lecture / J. C. Wells. – Sweden: Lund, April 1998.

18.How will it sound in Standard English?

1.I ‘ave ‘ad bad luck wi’ men.

2.I dunno, I ‘aven’t seen ‘im.

3.‘e ‘ad a decent set o’ lungs, an’ a job wi’ the Gas Board.

4.You look awful, tese [beɪɡz] on yer [faɪs].

5.Goin’ to the [sɪti:]? – Yeah, [dænsi:n].

6.Tere’s a mace dane at yer hace!

7.I spoilt tis [blæɪdi: mi:vk].

8.[laɪdi:] mebbe you’d like t’ window up?

19.What is Multicultural London English? Using resources given below present an illustrated talk on the topic.

1.Bindel J. From Cockney to Jafaican. URL: http://www. spectator.co.uk/article/from-cockney-to-jafaican

2.Brown J. Jafaican and Tikkiny drown out the Eats End’s Cockney Twang. URL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ uk/this-britain/jafaican-and-tikkiny-drown-out-the-east-ends- cockney-twang-357032.html

3.Cheshire J., Hall D., Adger D. Multicultural London English and social and educational policies. – Queen Mary University of London, 2017.

4.Cheshire J., Fox S., Kerswill P., Torgersen E. Ethnicity, friendship network and social practices as the motor of dialect change: Linguistic innovation in London / Sociolinguistica – International Yearbook of European Sociolinguistics, 2008.

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Standard english pronunciation. Social and territorial varieties of english pronunciation

5.Cheshire J., Fox S., Kerswill P., Torgersen E. Language contact and language change in the multicultural metropolis. URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-linguistique- appliquee-2013-2-page-63.htm

6.Kerswill P. The objectification of ‘Jafaican’: the discoursal embedding of Multicultural London English in the British media. The media and sociolinguistic change. – Walter de Gruyter, 2014. URL: http://eprints.whiterose. ac.uk/93713/1/17_Kerswill_corr.pdf

7.Kerswill P. Inventing Jafaican: ‘Multicultural London English’ in the British media. URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/ linguistics/events/deptseminars/06mar2015-inventing- jafaican-multicultural-london-english-in-the-british-media. html

20.Prepare a factfile on one of the phenomena: Cockney, Estuary English, Uptalk, Multicultural London English, in the form of a journal and discuss it in class in a role-play. During the role-play act as one of the linguists or phoneticians – specialists in this problem and express their possible opinion on the subject. Study the works of several of linguists and prove your point of view.

21.Listen to two speakers saying the text below and fill the gaps with the missing words. First you will hear a Jamaican speaker and then you will hear a Cockney speaker.

When I was a kid I ………………. My parents were

………………. the same age, but actually my ……………..…..’s ten years older ………………….. my …………………. . She was only twenty- ……………………… when they got married and he was ……………………. – ……………………… . I was their …………………….. child – I’ve got …………………

older ……………………. .

22. An American speaker and a Cockney speaker said the sentences below and a Southern English speaker wrote

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THEORY OF ENGLISH PHONETICS | ТЕОРЕТИЧЕСКАЯФОНЕТИКААНГЛИЙСКОГОЯЗЫКА

them down wrongly. Correct the spelling mistakes and state the differences in pronunciation.

EXAMPLES: American We need a leader of milk. litre Cockney I can’t ear my art beating!,

1.Don’t worry – it doesn’t madder. .............................................

2.I need reading glasses because I’m short-sided. ......................

3.Come on – what are you wading for? .......................................

4.My grandfather’s hair gets wider every year. ............................

5.I don’t like being seeded by the door in a restaurant. ...............

6.I ate getting my air cut. .............................................................

7.You should old it with both ands. ..............................................

8.My airbrush is in my andbag. ....................................................

9.Newtown’s in a valley between eye ills. ...................................

10.Don’t worry – is dog’s armless. ................................................

23.Read the text below. Which words contain a T which would be pronounced as a /ʔ/ in a Cockney accent? Which words contain an H which would be cut? Underline them. Then listen and check.

In this picture we can see a waiter holding a bottle of water. You can see both his hands but you can’t see his face. You can also see a woman with long hair sitting at a table – you can just see the back of her head.

24.Answer the questions.

1.Is it possible to speak about Standard Russian language (are there any phonetic and grammar rules which may be considered signals of correct speech; may use of vocabulary be a marker of Standard Russian language)?

2.Is there any linguistic research about how many Russians speak correct language?

3.Do accents play any role in the life of a person?

4.What language is taught in schools? What is the attitude to different accents in schools?

5.Interview a number of people (members of your family, your classmates, teachers) about the use of their native

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language. Ask them whether they speak differently at home and in the institute, at school or work; whether they speak differently on the phone; whether they like the way they speak; whether the way they speak has been affected by where they live; whether they’ve made fun of the way somebody else speaks or anyone has made fun of the way they speak; whether they speak the same way as their parents. Analyze the results of your interview and present them in the form of tables and diagrams. During the presentation in class use those tables and diagrams. Compare the results of your research with the results received by other students.

25.Choose one of the most popular British politicians / actors / pop stars and prepare his/her dossier. Include information about his/her background, education, political career; look through newspaper and magazine articles and interviews about this person. Pay attention to his/her pronunciation: analyze it from the point of view of his/her origin, age (does he/she have regional accent or what type of RP does he/she speak). Find out and list the characteristic features of the pronunciation of a person. Prove the results of your analysis with video or audio materials.

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A LIST OF SOURCES USED

1. Нечаева Е. С. Социальная стратификация современного бри- танского произношения: методическое пособие к спецкурсу.

М.: АПК и ППРО, 2007. 44 с.

2. Нечаева Е. С. Теоретическая фонетика. Семинары: учебно- методическое пособие по теоретической фонетике английско- го языка. 2-е изд., испр. М.: МГПИ, 2011. 80 с.

3. Шевченко Т. И. Теоретическая фонетика английского язы- ка: учебное пособие для академического бакалавриата. М.:

Юрайт, 2023. 196 с.

4. Ashby M., Maidment J. Introducing Phonetic Science. Cambridge University Press, 2013. 222 p.

5. Cheshire J., Hall D., Adger D. Multicultural London English and social and educational policies. Queen Mary University of London, 2017. URL: https://www.academia.edu/85584326/Multicultural_ London_English_and_social_and_educational_policies (дата об- ращения: 2.11.2023).

6. Hewings M. English Pronunciation in Use. Advanced. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 192 p.

7. Jette G., Hansen E. The Sounds of English Around the World. An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press, 2023. 385 p.

8. Leontyeva S. F. A Theoretical Course of English Phonetics. M., 2011. 360 p.

9. Lindsey G. English after RP: Standard British Pronunciation Today. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 153 p.

10. Kelly G. How to Teach Pronunciation. Pearson Education Limited, 2001. 164 p.

11. Kerswill P. Inventing Jafaican: ‘Multicultural London English’ in the British media. URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/ linguistics/events/deptseminars/06mar2015-inventing-jafaican-

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