Not the "Queen's English"

A letter of mine published in the Globe and Mail, March 1 (text subscribers only):

A 'plummy' difference

MARK COLLINS

March 1, 2008

Ottawa -- Doug Saunders (His War Secret Out, Harry Likely To Be Redeployed - Feb. 29) says that Prince Harry has "a plummy accent." Hardly. The Prince's accent is quite different from the "Queen's English" spoken by both his grandmother and father. Their posh accent is formally known as "Received Pronunciation," and was also called "BBC English."

The Prince's accent is much closer to "Estuary English," the southeastern English accent - think Mick Jagger - that is increasingly widespread among younger persons of good education and family. In fact, the spread of Estuary English is helping break down the class barriers that differences in accent between the classes did so much to keep strong.

References sent with the letter:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-RECEIVEDPRONUNCIATION.html
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/
http://www.freelists.org/archives/lit-ideas/10-2007/msg00398.html

A quote from the last reference:

London is another city of the plain (cf. the atrocity called "Estuary English" that charming Prince Harry speaks).

Mark C.

Posted by markc at March 1, 2008 11:30 AM