Dialects and accents of British English

The United Kingdom is probably the most dialect-obsessed nation in the world.

Accents of British English depend on the place where English language is spoken. We should take into account that it isn’t the same language spoken in the countryside than language spoken in the city and, above all, we know that accent varies according to geographical areas (North, South, etc)

Now, I’m going to show the accents of British English and their features:

 *Received pronunciation: is the closest to a ``standard accent´´ that has ever existed in the UK. Although it originally derives from London English, it is non-regional. It emerged from the 18^th and 19^th century aristocracy. Some features of received pronunciation are:

    -Non-rhoticity, meaning the `r´ at the end of the words isn’t pronounced. Ex: mother (muhthuh).

    -Trap-bath split, meaning that words like ``bath, can’t or dance´´ are pronounced with the broad –a in father.

   -The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in Southern England.

*Cockney: is probably the second most famous British accent. It originated in the East of London. It shares features with other dialects. Its features are:

    -Raised vowel in words like ``trap (trep) and cat (cet).

    -Non-rhoticity: the `r´ at the end of the words isn’t pronounced.

    -Trap-bath split: words like ``bath, can’t or dance´´ are pronounced with the broad –a.

    -London vowel shift: the vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney ``day´´ is pronounced /daei/.

    -Glottal stopping: the letter `t ´is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) between vowels.

    -L-vocalization: the `l´ at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound. Examples: ``pal´´ can seem to sound like ``pow´´.

    -Th-fronting: the `th´ in words like ``think or this´´ is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word: ``thing´´ becomes ``fing´´, ``this´´ becomes ``dis´´.

*Estuary English (Southeast British): is derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to ``General American´´ in the US. Features:

    -Similar to Cockney, but in general Estuary speakers don’t front `th´ words or raise the vowel in trap.

    -Glottal stopping of `t´ and l-vocalization are markers of this accent, although there’s some debate above their frequency.

*West country (Southwest British):  it refers to a large swath of accents heard in the South of England. Characteristics:

    -Rhoticity: `r´ is pronounced after vowels.

*Midlands English: it can be divided into East Midlands and West Midlands. The most famous of these dialects is Brummie (Birmingham English). Here, I show some features:

    -The foot-strut merger: the syllable in ``foot and could´´ is pronounced with the same syllable as ``strut and fudge´´ (ʊ).

    -System of vowels: short i in ``kit´´ sometimes verging toward kit (`keet´) and extremely open ``loose´´ diphthongs.

    -A variety of unusual vocabulary: some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word ``thou´´.

*Northern England English: accents and dialects spoken in north of the midlands, in cities like Manchester, Leeds an Liverpool. Their features are:

    -The foot-strut merger.

    -Non-rhoticity, except in some rural areas.

    The diphthong in words like ``kite and ride´´ is lengthened so that ``kite´´ can become something like /ka:it/.

    -Unique vocabulary includes use of the word mam to mean mother, similar to Irish English.

 

*Geordie: it usually refers to areas of Northeast England but it mainly refers to people of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Features:

    -The foot-strut merger.

   -Non-rhoticity.

    -The /ai/ diphthong in ``kite´´ is raised to /ei/.

    -The /au/ diphthong in ``about´´ is pronounced /u:/ in strong dialects. ``Bout´´ can sound like ``boot´´.

*Welsh English: it refers to accents and dialects spoken in the country of Wales. Features:

    -Usually non-rhotic.

    -Syllables tend to be very stressed, and the prosody of the accent is often very ``musical´´.

    -The letter `r´ is often trilled or tapped.

*Scottish English: it refers to English spoken in the country of Scotland. We must know that Scottish English is different than Scots.

Scots has a strong influence on how English in Scotland is spoken. Features:

    -Rhotic, with trilled or tapped r’s.

    -Glottal stopping of the letter `t´ between vowels. It is similar to Cockney.

    -Monophonic pronunciation of the /ei/ and /ou/ diphthongs. Ex: face /fe:s/, goat /go:t/.

The King´s Speech

                           THE KING´S SPEECH

 I am going to talk about the King´s speech film. This film is based in the  problem of the King George VI had to speak fluently. In this film the main characters are: George VI interpreted by Colin Firth, his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon interpreted by Helena Boham Carter and the therapist Logue interpreted by Geoffrey Rush.

Colin Firth is the actor who interpreted George VI. His accent is the RP standard English.

There is non-rhotic “R”. The “R” is not pronounced in final position of syllable or word. Example car /kɑ:/

Also there is a variation between long vowels and short vowels. Example foot /fʊt/ and food /fuːd/

The character of the King George had an illness. He was stutter that did not permit him to do an speech because he repeated the same syllable and in other cases he could not finish the words. For this he had to listen jibes about his stutter from the members of his family as his brother who imitated the King George´s VI. It is showed in the first speech of the 1925 British Empire Exhibition.

 

 

 

At the end of the film the King George VI get to talk a complete speech where he announced the beginning of the Second World War with Germany.

Helena Boham Carter is the actress who interpreted the King´s wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She has an RP Standard English.

There is non-rhotic “R”. The “R” is not pronounced in final position of syllable or word. Example bird /bɜːd/

Also there is a variation between long vowels and short vowels. Example bird /bɜːd/ and friend /frend/

In the film she is showed as the constant support of his husband and the person who encourages him to pass his stutter and looked for the therapist Lionel Logue.

Geoffrey Rush is the actor who interpreted the Dr. Lionel Logue. He is an Australian as the truthful Dr. Logue. It is studied by the director of the film to do more credible the language´s features. His English is an Australian; this is seemed to RP English.

The short vowels correspond to the lax vowels in the RP English and long vowels correspond to tense vowels in RP English.

In consonants appear the non-rhotic “R” that does not appear in final syllable when it is followed by a word that begin with a vowel.

Lionel Logue is not a truthful therapist; he is an unsuccessful actor who helps people with their speech problem.

  He came from a humble family; it is showed with his consult which is inside his house and the word that he uses to refer to the arrogance of the King George´s VI. One of the most important objectives of Dr. Logue is to convince George VI that he can do a complete speech.

The features of the historical films are:

- They talk about a historical moment.

- They use the features of the language of this historical moment.

- They show the class that the characters belongs upper class, middle class or working class.

 

God saves...the Queen's English!

Elizabeth, the British Queen has been ruling the United Kingdom for more than five decades and, for many people worldwide, she and the members of British Royal family are considered to be the speakers of “Standard English”. The language of the Queen stands for the Received Pronunciation (RP), but surprisingly even the Queen’s accent has changed gradually over the years.

But what about the history of Queen’s English?

The Oxford dictionary defines Queen’s English as “the English language as written and spoken correctly by educated people in Britain”, in other words, it is the most accurate, conventional or standard British English. The term though is very controversial. The history of the phrase goes back at 16^th and 17^th centuries, when the souvereign’s language was supposed to be the model version for language use, both in spoken and written forms, that people should be able to use. Also, it was regarded as a language of respect and admiration, a language of great prestige, as it was mainly used from upper classes, aristocratic cycles and court, maybe because of its conservative or more posh forms. The phrase was firstly used as “King’s English” for the king James I, declaring that it is not about the Queen’s usage of the language but it refers mostly to who was the ruler of each period in the country. Nowadays though, the well-known phrase has been associated with the current queen, Elisabeth.

Does the Queen’s English stand for the traditional English?

According to sociolinguists, the speech of older people tends to reflect the state of the language when they had acquired it, and moreover gives us a sense of what the community norms about language where like when he or she was a child (ex.50 years ago). So, one can assume that the Queen’s speech reflects the language standards of another era. But no. As reported by the Australian linguistics experts, Queen’s speech seems to have change through the years. After analyzing her recordings of the annual Christmas messages they noticed the change in her accent.

But how is that possible?

The answer is behind the fact, the changes that happened in the social structure of Britain, had an impact not only on society but on the language as well, and furthermore, this change influenced the “palace’’ as well, as a part of the community that did not remain unaffected. Of course, this is not considered that strange as changes in language, and changes in society are an unavoidable process. Language change is a natural phenomenon and is impossible to prevent it.

Let’s have a closer look.

To begin with, there is a change in the way Queen pronunciates the verb “had”. The analysis of the vowel sounds found in the recordings of her speech reveal the change occurred. More precisely, Queen’s “had” sounded like rhyming with “bed”, rather like the new form, that is rhyming with “bad”. Researchers, support that this shift in vowel sound is a characteristic of younger generations or people who belong to a lower social class. In addition, what  has been observed is a blurring of accents in the Queen’s speech, and also, the dropping of some letters, for instance “l” from the word milk, that made many consider it as an influence of Cockney accent. The –th ending is comparatively rare in her recent recordings too.

So, the next time someone will tell you that he or she speaks the “Queen’s English”, now you know…!

  

Sources:      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1080228.stm

                   http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist1/Rdgs/QueenSpk.pdf

                   http://oxforddictionaries.com/

Britain all over the world; Their inventions

Here you have some of the British inventions that revolutionized the world:

The World Wide Web

You should not confuse it with the Internet (a global system of networked computers invented in the USA), the World Wide Web, invented by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, is the system of interlinked documents accessed via the Internet. The World Wide Web is most commonly experienced as the system behind the concept of web pages and websites. Berners-Lee first proposed the concept of the World Wide Web in March 1989, later pitching it at CERN along with Belgian scientist Robert Cailliau. CERN then publicly introduced the project in December of 1990. The first website, info.cern.ch, went live at CERN on 6th August 1991. Interestingly, Berners-Lee, although realizing the potential for immense personal profit from his invention, chose instead to gift the idea to the world, requesting no payment.

Television

A Scottish engineer, Baird is considered to be the inventor of the television. One thing’s pretty certain: it was he who produced a live, moving, greyscale television image from reflected light. It was in his rooms in Soho, London, that in 1925 he made a technical breakthrough: successfully transmitting a 30-line vertically scanned image of the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy. He went on to demonstrate the world’s first colour transmission in July 1928, and from 1929 to 1932 BBC transmitters broadcast TV programmes using the 30-line Baird system – before later switching to a rival electronic system.

Flush toilet

Sir John Harrington, 1567, godson of Elizabeth I invented the flush toilet. Not Thomas Crapper as popular myth promotes. Crapper was a 19th century plumber who promoted bathroom fitting and even patented a few of his own, but not the flush toilet. Indeed the S bend, an important part of the modern flush toilet was invented  by Alexander Cummings in 1775. Cummings also patented the modern flush toilet although it was improved on by a locksmith called Joseph Bramah, in fact a Bramah is still in use today at the British House of Lords

The Postage Stamp

England invented the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. Before that, prepaying the postage had been voluntary. The result? Chaos. Much of the time the poor postie was left trying to find the addressee in order to redeem the cost. Hill, a schoolmaster and civil cervant, had written a pamphlet in the 1830s explaining why Britain’s postal system was so in need of reform. Costs could be reduced dramatically if the sender prepaid the postage, he argued. Some people opposed his ‘wild’ scheme, but in 1840 the Penny Black was born – and within a dozen or so years, the number of letters being sent had rocketed from 76 million to nearly 400 million.

Viagra

If you suffer from erectile disfunction you have the British to thank. Andrew Bell, David Brown and Nicholas Terrett filed a patent in 1991 after investigating drugs for heart conditions.After the invention, millions of pills have been sold all around the world and millions of men have become happier.

Music in the UK

The United Kingdom has always been a major exporter as well as importer of music. It has influenced and has been influenced by many different kinds of music like church music, Western music and old traditional folk music, while at the same time continental developments have had an impact on its form too. Musicians from the British Isles developed some different kinds of music, such as Celtic chant, Contenance Angloise, rota (a kind of vocal round where voices enter each at a time), and the carol in the medieval era.

The Baroque music was late arriving to England due to trends in the UK and developments in music. Folk music in the UK also has traces of Jamaican and Indian music and it flourished until the era of the Industrialization when different types of music began to become popular. This led to two folk revivals; one in the 19th century and the other one in the mid 20th century.

Popular music began to spread in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and in the 1930s British dance bands were created due to the American Jazz. These British dance bands were played on the radio as well as during social occasions.

In the 20th century influence from the United States altered the form of music in the UK once more, which led to the explosion of the British Invention. This meant that pop and rock bands from the UK, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, became popular in the USA and had a major impact on the music industry there.

Source: http://www.england.org.za/england-music.php#.ULPO4eQ3s3g

The Neoclassical Period

It was a movement of arts, literature, theatre, music and architecture, based on the Ancient Greece of Ancient Rome.

We first started with the period of Restoration (1660-1700). One of the most important writters was John Milton and his most famous work is "Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained" which talks about the temptation of Christ.

Another one is John Locke , known as the Father of Classical Liberalism wrote "Two Treatises of Government", probably his most known work and it is a work of political philosophy.

During the 18th century  appeared the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason): movement that changed the point of view of the period to a rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues.

In the Augustan Age,the most  poet is Alexander Pope. His greatest mock-heroic poem was "The Rape of the Lock".

Another one is Daniel Defoe who wrote fictional books.His most important work is "Robinson Crusoe" which narrates the travels of Alexander Selkirk.

 

Jonathan Swift did another.He made the best known full-length work called "Gulliver´s Travels", a satire and a classic of English  literature.

Finally, another one was Samuel Johnson, an English writter and another important poet who contributes the English literature.He wrote "A Dictionary of the English Language" which influenced dictionaries in the history of the English language.

Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature

Renaissance Literature

It was a movement originated between the 14th and 17th century , firstly in Italy. The main changes were the innovation in culture and, of course, in Literature.

During the Renaissance we have famous poets that marked this period about the history which was happening. We have in Tudors' Dynasty Sir Thomas More who was a Lord Chancellor and canonised by the Pope. His most famous play was "Utopia".

 

Another one is John Skelton who made satires , or Sir Thomas Wyatt who is well-known by his play "Whoso list to hunt" which makes reference to Anne Boleyn , Henry VIII´s second wife.

Then we have the most famous English poet : William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

He was an English poet  and playwright. His plays were comedies, histories and tragedies. His most famous plays are "Hamlet"," King Lear", "Othello", "Macbeth" and "Romeo and Juliet", based on an Italian tale. 

                                                                                                

In the Jacobean period, the most important poets were Thomas Middleton, a playwright and poet who wrote the famous "A Game at Chess", a satire about the proposed marriage of Prince Charles.

John Ford was another poet less famous but he is known by his tragedy "'Tis Pity She´s a Whore" written in 1633.

The last one is Andrew Marvell, a metaphysical poet and politician who was a colleague and friend of John Milton. His most famous work are "To His Coy Mistress" , "The Garden" and "An Horatian Ode".

 

Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature

 

Magazines in the UK today

The English language in the UK changes from time to time and may vary from place to place. Its alteration can be influenced by social and political changes and it may also have to evolve to accomodate for the technological advancement,the latest innovations, as well as for entertainment and leisure activities.

The way language is used today in magazines varies according to the audience it is addressing.Magazines take into consideration sex,age,cultural and geographical backround.

There are, for example, nowadays in the UK, fashion magazines that address the new generation of teenagers and young women and for that reason they use language that is familiar to those readers. The use of "slang" language is often seen in the pages of these magazines when referring to events or things that are of interest to young girls in the UK today. Language there, is used as it is spoken nowadays, and not as it is written,  in a formal manner. For example, the use of "fab" instead of "fabulous" is a lot more common in the fashion magazines when referring to clothes or make-up.One can also find language, words used and written in the form they are used in some social networking websites.For example there is no comma or space in between words, (e.g. "#BestNightEverCampaign"). Magazines try to attract more readers in this way,as they use forms of language that are more familiar to the audience they address.The contents of these magazines are of interest to young girls and so the language in them has to be used accordingly.

There are magazines in the UK now that address people who are interested in politcs,news,finance and business.These magazines are,therefore,concerned with issues for which one cannot speak using "slang" or the form of language used by teenagers and younger people today in the UK.The language used is a lot more formal than in fashion magazines, and the vocabulary a lot more varied.Words such as "austerity budget" and "head a new coalition" will be used here as the readers of these magazines are concerned with the content of these articles, as well as with it being respected in terms of the language used.

It is typically thought that older people, and not teenagers, are more interested in reading newspapers and magazines concerned with politics,finance and business issues. It is commonly found that older people are spoken to in a more formal register,which shows respect. So the language used in such magazines will inevitably be more formal as that shows respect to the readers as well as to the content of the articles.

Americanisms in UK magazines

Many people have always considered British English to be the ideal form of using the English language.Hence,many magazines in the UK have published their articles using the words originating in the UK.However,in recent years and due to globalization, many American words have made their way into the daily vocabulary of people in England and hence in the magazines of the UK.Such words are referred to as "Americanisms". 

"Americanisms",words that have originated in America and are now used in the UK are, for example, "transportation".Originally, in the UK that would be written and referred to as "transport". Moreover, magazines in the UK are now using words such as "shopping cart" instead of "shopping trolley", or "heads up" when referring to a business meeting.Invented verbs such "schmooze","angst" are used instead of talking about "conversation" and "anxiety" respectively. Prepositional verbs such as "face up to a problem" and "consult with" are now used, instead of their original forms "face a problem" and "consult". 

This has caused much controversy,as experts are arguing the British English is in danger of being "tainted" by these Americanisms and therefore,people in the UK will forget how to use their language in its original form.

The languages today have been affected by globalization and it would be very difficult,if not impossible, to try to change the way languages all around the world,including British English,evolve.



Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14201796

James Bond´s Films

I am going to centre my post in the different accents that have the actors of this saga.

James Bond is a British secret agent called Agent 007 that is sent to areas where there was a conflict that concerned Britain (usually a murder). This agent has been interpreted by six different actors but I am going to talk about these three: Sean Connery (Scottish), Pierce Brosnan (Irish) and Daniel Craig (English). They are from different zones of UK and their accents are different although they have to adopt a more Standard English to do films.

The first of these actors is Sean Connery. He did the first films of James Bond when Ian Fleming (the author of James Bond saga) still writing the novel.

The accent of Sean Connery is graver than the other accents of the rest of UK. It is showed in the use of rhotic accent. He pronounces “R” sounds after vowels as in farm, first and better. Also the vowels sounds use to be longest than the other English vowels.

The second actor is Pierce Brosnan. He interpreted the films of James Bond during the 90´s. His accent is more similar to the Standard English.

There is a non-rhotic “R” at the end of syllables or word as in water. The vowels are pronounced as diphthongs similar to American English. “Th” becomes a “t” or “d” in first syllable of words as thing and this.

The last actor who interpreted James Bond is Daniel Craig. He is who interprets the last films of James Bond. His accent is the nearest to the Standard English. In this accent has importance the length of vowels as sit /sit/ or sea /si: /. 

There is non-rhotic accent in final position of syllable or word (/pɑːk/) they only can be pronounce if the words ends in “r” and the other begins with a vowel.

These films are action films. In action films always there is a hero in this case James Bond, a girl who helps James Bond in his investigations, a villain that is the guilty of the conflict. The final of these films use to be that James Bond resolves the problem and kill the villain. In these films the vocabulary uses to be a weapon vocabulary or a vocabulary relates with spying.