By Olga Smith
In 1956 Nancy Mitford wrote in her book Noblesse Oblige: “It is solely by their language that the upper classes nowadays are distinguished – since they are neither cleaner, richer, nor better-educated than anybody else.” Indeed, the British aristocracy tends to speak with a particular accent, that is RP. But with time their RP is changing. Let’s see how.
I have been listening to the Queen's 21st birthday speech which was recorded in 1947. She speaks very much like her mother. Her vowels and diphthongs are rather tight.
If we listen to her latest speech of the opening of the Parlament, we can see that her speech changed. It has become more relaxed and natural. I assume that after the death of the Queen Mother, the Queen communicated with people whose RP is more general and now her RP sounds less tight and more relaxed.
When I have published my previous blog Elocution Lessons based on RP, I have mentioned Refined RP, which the Queen and her generation and class speak. Some of our students wrote back to me and said that they would like to have Refined RP. I remember when I started my elocution lessons in 2004 I also wanted to learn Refined RP as it seemed so beautiful to me. When I was listening to the Queen’s speeches I thought it would be a good idea if I learn to speak like the Queen. But my tutor Linda James told me that if I do I will become a figure of fun because no one speaks like that anymore, and I will sound very unnatural.
In fact, if you listen to the Queen's grandchildren Prince Wiliam and Harry, you would see that their speech is very different from the speech of their ancestors. There is a general tendency, nowadays, in aristocratic circles to sound more relaxed. In contrast, I have noticed, that some aspiring social climbers, who are not of aristocratic background, but who would like to mingle with the aristocracy try very hard with their RP and sound rather unnatural.
At the same time, not trying at all, such as not pronouncing word endings, not stressing important words, etc, sounds lazy and lacks clarity. Based on General RP and recorded by highly professional actors, our apps and books will make your speech clear by:
Articulating consonants well
Pronouncing the vowels and diphthongs correctly
Mastering the flow of speech
The purpose of our elocution lessons is to help you sound educated and feel at ease in any environment.
Read our popular blog about the benefits of elocution lessons.
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