Истоки и определение британского нормативного произношения
Автор: Хабарова Светлана Зурабовна (преподаватель иностранного языка, ГБПОУ КАТ № 9)
Тип документа: Статья. Аудитория: Преподаватели (фонетисты) английского языка. Дата публикации: 19.11.2015
Описание: Статья на английском языке будет полезна для тех, кто уделяет особое внимание фонетике английского языка. В статье речь идёт о британском нормативном произношении (англ. RP) и его классификациях, а также о диалекте английского языка, на котором говорят в Юго-Восточной Англии - эстуарном английском (англ. Estuary English).


                                                           By Khabarova S.Z.
                                The RP accent
                        Origins and definitions of RP
       It is a remarkable fact that the English have cultivated a concept of
a form of pronunciation which has been considered more  correct,  desirable,
acceptable  or  elegant  than  others.  It  has  always  been  a  matter  of
preoccupation for a  small  section  of  society.  Henry  Sweet  wrote  that
“Standard English… is now a class dialect more than a local dialect:  it  is
the language of the educated all over Great Britain… The  best  speakers  of
Standard English are those  whose  pronunciation,  and  language  generally,
least betray their locality…”[1]
        Daniel Jones retained in his definition  of  RP  a  specific  social
delimination which refers  to  the  “everyday  speech  in  the  families  of
Southern English persons whose menfolk  have  been  educated  at  the  great
public boarding-schools”.[2] By Jones’s time, it  was  widely  agreed  that,
although the base of RP was a southern type of pronunciation, this  form  of
speech was generally considered to be “accentless” and to  be  used  by  the
upper class throughout Britain.
         Since the Second World War, RP is  no  longer  a  prerequisite  for
diplomats or for social success; and even the BBC passed  through  a  period
of great permissiveness in its selection of  newsreaders  for  its  internal
services.
         However, there still exists a widely  held  notion  of  a  standard
pronunciation and this standard is identified as having the features of RP.
         A survey of the comments of grammarians and lexicographers  on  the
pronunciation of English over the last four centuries reveals, in the  great
majority of cases, a single phonological system which has been  evolving  in
time. There is therefore a phonological tradition of a  standard,  of  which
the latest  stages  of  development  of  during  the  20th  century  can  be
observed. This evolving system with its varying phonetic characteristics  is
the most reliable basis for the definition of present-day RP.
         There is a new classification of RP types in  the  6th  edition  of
A.C. Gimson’s “Introduction to the  Pronunciation  of  English”  revised  by
Alan Cruttenden in 2001: general RP, refined RP, regional RP.
         The  authors  have  combined  two  basic   principles   of   accent
classification here: the social and the regional,  showing  that  there  are
neither categorical boundaries between the three types of  RP,  nor  between
RP and regional pronunciations.
         Refined RP is defined as an upper-class  accent  mainly  associated
with upper-class families.
         The  term  Regional  RP  reflects  regional  variation  and  varies
according to which region is involved. It is used to describe  the  type  of
speech which is basically RP except for  the  presence  of  a  few  regional
characteristics which may go unnoticed even by other speakers of RP.


                               Estuary English
         There is one regional type, RP modified towards Cockney, which  has
provoked much discussion in the press under the  name  of  Estuary  English.
The name Estuary English was first used because  such  a  pronunciation  was
thought to have spread from London along the Thames  estuary  and  not  only
into rural areas all around London but also into  urban  areas  remote  from
London. Estuary is said to be being adopted by those wishing  to  avoid  the
stigma of RP as “posh” and by upwardly mobile speakers of local dialect.  It
is often characterized by younger speakers as  having  “street  credibility”
or “streetcred”, i.e. as being fashionable.
         The phonetic features of Estuary English include:  the  replacement
of dark [l] as in field [fiʊd]; the  glottalization  of  /t/  preconsonantly
and before a pause, as in not that [nɒɁ ðæt], eat ice [iɁ aɪs]; the  use  of
Cockney-type realization of diphthongs /eɪ, aɪ/ , as in late  [laɪt],  light
[loɪt]; Cockney-type vowel allophones before /l/, e.g.  cold  [kouud];  /tj/
and /dj/ pronounced as affricates in tune [ʧu:n], during ['ʤu:rɪŋ];  Elision
of /j/ after /n/, as in new [nu:].
         Some other characteristics claimed  for  Estuary  English  are  not
based on Cockney but may be changes more generally in  progress  in  General
RP.
         One intonational characteristic of Cockney  that  has  spread  into
Estuary English, and even more widely, is the use of  the  falling  tone  in
tag questions where the listener (who is supposed to agree) clearly  has  no
relevant knowledge: The postman knocking on the door, `didn’t he?
         Another intonational feature is a spreading  usage  of  preposition
and auxiliary verb accenting, e.g. I didn’t do anything  because  there  was
nothing TO do. You couldn’t have seen me in London because  I  haven’t  BEEN
in London.
         Everywhere else outside English the situation is different  as  far
as RP is concerned because in Scotland and Ireland RP is generally  seen  as
a foreign (English) accent.
-----------------------
[1]    Sweet, H. The sounds of English. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908
[2]    Wyld, H. A history of modern colloquial English. Oxford: Blackwell,
1922