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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

RP - what a Rehearsal in Pretension !

How did such accent come about?!! Only a backwardly hierarchal society like the aristocracy-obsessed little old England would go to such lengths in enduring the preposterous, utterly preposterous, vowels and intonation invovled and making it the "proper" and "standard" British dialect.
It's a big joke, seriously. If you take a pause and think about it, and compare it to, say, a Standard American dialect, it's unbelievably unnatural. Just imagine the following said in each (American speech and "proper" British speech)...
- "Oh no, go home"
- "Oh no, I won't go home"
- "send her victorious, happy and glorious"
- "figure"
Just consider that three-phased A vowel in "Dad" when said with a "proper" British intonation. That's enough to make me throw up. gag. Unfortunately, living in the UK, I hear it on almost daily basis and think it's a child abuse issue to induce/force them into such speech.

P.S. Don't say I'm biased because I'm American, not true at all; what's does my accent sound like? UK, non-regional. To some it sounds like "Americanized English" because I refuse adamantly avoid sounding "proper".
  

Top answer

[nq:1]How did such accent come about?!! Only a backwardly hierarchal society like the aristocracy-obsessed little old England would go to ... my accent sound like?

  • [nq:1]How did such accent come about?!!
  • Only a backwardly hierarchal society like the aristocracy-obsessed little old England would go to ...
  • my accent sound like?
  • UK, non-regional.
  • lang) This post touches upon something which has bothered me for some time, namely the definition of "RP" (that's "Received Pronunciation", in case anyone doesn't know).
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97 Answers
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[nq:1]How did such accent come about?!! Only a backwardly hierarchal society like the aristocracy-obsessed little old England would go to ... my accent sound like? UK, non-regional. To some it sounds like "Americanized English" because I refuse adamantly avoid sounding "proper".[/nq]
(cross-posted to sci.lang)
This post touches upon something which has bothered me for some time, namely the
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[nq:2]How did such accent come about?!! Only a backwardly hierarchal ... like "Americanized English" because I refuse adamantly avoid sounding "proper".[/nq]
[nq:1](cross-posted to sci.lang) This post touches upon something which has bothered me for some time, namely the definition of "RP" ... so well brought up that she thinks that *** is what the coal gets delivered in". Regards, Mark Barrat
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[nq:1](S)peakers of northern English often refer to any southern accent as "posh", there is a marked difference between this "aristocratic" ... appear to use the appellation "RP" to refer to SSE. Isn't it about time that we junked this confusing term?[/nq]
Yes. Let's call SSE what it is: Estuary English!

RP survives, but only in British Columbia, oddly.
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[nq:2](S)peakers of northern English often refer to any southern accent ... Isn't it about time that we junked this confusing term?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes. Let's call SSE what it is: Estuary English! RP survives, but only in British Columbia, oddly.[/nq]
Huh? I've found British Columbians to sound a lot like Californians, with Washington State being more of an island of northern Midwestern speech
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[nq:1]It's a big joke, seriously. If you take a pause and think about it, and compare it to, say, a Standard American dialect, it's unbelievably unnatural.[/nq]
We'll need to wait for Mr. Riggs, our resident Buddhist, to comment on "if you take a pause and think about it, and compare it to ...". It is hard enough for me to think about the taken pause; comparing that pause to a dialect is quite
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[nq:2](S)peakers of northern English often refer to any southern accent ... Isn't it about time that we junked this confusing term?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes. Let's call SSE what it is: Estuary English! RP survives, but only in British Columbia, oddly.[/nq]
John Wells insists there's no such thing as Estuary English, and since you've set the followups away from me, I won't see your response, and I wo
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[nq:2]It's a big joke, seriously. If you take a pause ... it to, say, a Standard American dialect, it's unbelievably unnatural.[/nq]
[nq:1]We'll need to wait for Mr. Riggs, our resident Buddhist, to comment on "if you take a pause and think ... hard enough for me to think about the taken pause; comparing that pause to a dialect is quite beyond me.[/nq]
If I'm our resident Buddhist, Martin,
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[nq:1]Of course, there's the example of Julia Child, and the experiences of some Brits which have told me that California speech was close to some British dialects. So, maybe you're right, but still..huh?[/nq]
John Kerry's younger sister was on British radio the other day. For the first four or five sentences she sounded totally (RonE: 'veddy') English - monied Southeastern English: not perhap
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[nq:1]John Kerry's younger sister was on British radio the other day. For the first four or five sentences she sounded ... Estuary; she spoke with what I call Modern RP or BBC. Then a few American pronunciations started to creep in.[/nq]
Or, after your initial impression, given some time, you began to notice the Americanisms that had been there all along.
[nq:1]All the same, even then, dur
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[nq:1]All the same, even then, during the meat of the interview, she sounded more like a well-brought-up English gel who had spent some time in America rather than a well-brung-up American ho who had spent some time in the Southeast of England.[/nq]
"Gel" is equivalent to "ho"?

SML

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