The Queen’s English

👑 Almost nobody speaks like the Queen anymore, except perhaps her son Charles. Have you ever heard her English accent? It is very special. Play this clip and listen to one of her rare public broadcasts, followed by a brief explanation of how the English pronunciation and its relation to class has evolved during her reign. This is the transcript: “Twenty-five years ago, my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes […] It’s inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you, a successor to the kings and queens of history, someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never rarely touches your personal lives […] but it’s possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us.” What you just heard was Queen Elizabeth II’s first televised Christmas message on the BBC. You will probably have realised how very unusual her accent is. The cut-glass pronunciation sounds more like the kind of English spoken by the British upper classes in the 1940s and 1950s and is sometimes called ‘Conservative Received Pronunciation’. Almost nobody speaks like the Queen anymore, except perhaps her son Charles. Harry’s generation of British Royals tend to speak using received pronunciation – or RP –, the standard form of British English pronunciation, based on educated speech in southern England. This modern form of RP has dropped most of the “posh” vowel sounds used by the Queen and older royals. But although Harry, William and Kate speak mainly RP, not many people, even royals, use pure RP anymore. Harry, especially, tends to adapt his accent to suit his audience. The BBC, too, has changed its pronunciation. Whereas RP used to be the only accent you would hear from radio and TV presenters on the BBC, from the 1960s the corporation began accepting presenters with regional accents. Today, instead of trying to be a guardian of high-status RP, as it was in the past, the BBC actively promotes the inclusion of different accents. The aim is to reflect the way real people in Britain speak, not encourage everyone to speak in the same way. But why would anyone want to change their accent? George Bernard Shaw wrote in 1916: “It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.” The way a British person spoke certainly used to be a clear indicator of their class background, and for a country obsessed with class, that labelling was fundamental. But attitudes are changing, fortunately. While RP is still seen as a high-status accent, it’s certainly not the requirement for professional success it once was. Business people and politicians have realised that if being yourself means using a natural regional accent, that’s sometimes the best way to make a connection with people.