PEOPLE
-Received Pronunciation and its origins
-If Standard British did exist, it would be a Southern accent
-Notable phoneticians: Daniel Jones, William Tilly, Henry Sweet
-Edith Skinner/Mid-Atlantic
-Social status & accent
POSTURE
What is the “home base” for the jaw, lips, tongue & sometimes soft palate (aka velum)?
*Sometimes referred to as the vocal tract posture or just the posture!
Analogies for Posture:
The launch pad for the sounds you want to make.
The filter through which the sounds you’re making will pass.
The place to which your jaw/lips/tongue continually return in order to most easily produce your target sounds.
OFRP ORAL POSTURE, aka “THE ENGLISH CHANNEL”
Slight lip rounding
Frequent lip rounding/lip corner protrustion
Active and bunched tip/blade of tongue
Tip/Blade make frequent contact with gum ridge
Raised soft palate (lots of space!)
Slight Tension in the cheek muscles (the buccinators!)
A clue is the THINKING SOUND: /ʌ̈/
Resonance/Placement
Continuing with our idea of The English Channel, we want everything to be moving FORWARD in both OFRP and MRP. Vibrations should be directed towards the area between the alveolar ridge and the inside top edge of the front teeth.
PROSODY
What are the intonations, musicality and stress patterns?
A significant part of British prosody is its staccato nature (in part due to crisp consonants).
PROSODY PROCESS
1. Yes or No Question. “Would you like something a bit different?”
*More Yes/No Question Samples from Geoff Lindsay here: https://www.englishspeechservices.com/blog/british-intonation-meghan-teaches-us/
PRONUNCIATION
RHOTICITY
“Rhoticity” refers to the degree of R-ness within a given accent. Old Fashioned & Modern RP are non-rhotic, which means that R is not pronounced when it is “immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel” (Wikipedia).
GENERAL R RULES: aka “R: The Game of KEEP or TOSS”
If an R is in between two vowel sounds it is produced (aka, we KEEP it!): horrid, barrel, foreign, etc.
If R is followed by a consonant, we DROP the R. E.G. words like “start” or “force” or “nurse” become START, FORCE and NURSE.
If an R is by itself at the end of a phrase, we DROP it and end on the remaining open vowel sound. E.G. “He sent me a letter” would be ‘He sent me a lettuh.”
Linking R, aka “Vowel Sound Sandwich:” when a word ending with an R is followed by a word that starts with a vowel sound, you KEEP the R. E.G. “He sent me a letteR and it was beautiful.” Keep the R in that situation.
Intrusive R: sometimes an R is “added” when a word ends in the vowel sounds commA and THOUGHT and is followed by a word starting with a vowel. E.G. Law and Order becomes ‘Lawr and order;’ Diana and I becomes ‘Dianar and I,” and “My idea of it” becomes “My idear of it.”
R VOWELS!
NURSE /ɜ/
Purse the lips forward a bit and allow the tongue to lie rather flat (it will cup slightly in the center).
Practice sentences:
Dirty flirty Erma is the worst person in the world.
The nerdy attorney learned to firmly set terms with the murderer.
I burnt cursed Ernest's shirt in the furnace.
I certainly heard it first, you pernicious churl!
The earth turns with purpose.
lettER /ə/
Allow the tongue to lay flat. *The schwa vowel is the vowel we find in the first syllable of the word “today.”
Practice words:
After, father measured the pressure. I figured it was a failure. Another flavour, another odour.
The survivors hid in the tower. The soldiers better remember their orders. Had a fever, but now never better!
The teacher was a customer. I covered the papers with leather.
START /ɑː/
Keep the back of the throat open & the back of the dorsum cupped ***See the “Ask List” for more words with this vowel sound.
START 1: “You bought our house in Lissenden Gardens.”
START 2: "Aren't you Archie Leech?"
*Contemporary younger speakers usually retain the /r/ in “aren’t.”
Practice words:
Pardon, but are we far from the farm? I got cards and steak tartare at my party.
Carlotta’s aria pierced my heart. I’m partial to martial arts.
The bazaar is like a market! Charlotte, this is a farce and I shan’t sleep in a barn!
The incarcerated Martian startled the guard by farting.
NORTH/FORCE /ɔː/
Keep lips rounded.
Practice words:
Before the war we could afford horses. It’s glorious in Cornwall and North London in Autumn.
The floor is normally gorgeous but I brought a forlorn faun indoors.
Laura caught Dawn scornfully performing on her lawn all day. I thought court sports required form, you moron.
SQUARE /ɛə/
Let the lip corners relax as the jaw slightly opens. We mainly stress onglide of the diphthong.
Practice words:
I care about the affairs of Mary who wears pairs of flared pants. The scared bears are in my prayers.
Where is the pair of chairs? The heirs varied in their awareness and preparedness.
My parents said sharing is caring.
NEAR /ɪə/.
We start out arched in the front and then release to neutral.
Practice words:
I’ve feared beer for years. I am fiercely serious about meerkats! Clearly, your beard is a bit weird.
Vera steered the sheep nearer the clearing for shearing.
We're here, we're queer, and there's nothing to fear!
VOWELS
STRUT /ɐ~ʌ/
This requires the dorsum of the tongue to cup a bit lower or further back than our American STRUT vowel. Like a little sigh.
I’m done worrying about the blood. The butter musn’t crumble. Once is enough! Trust no one and nothing in a cult!
It was touching, funny and utterly lovely. Have such fun in the sun! Mum, multiple results say we won! Hurry, London is bustling. Mother hasn’t much money. There’s currently nothing to be done about cults. At least my dull son Murray likes to get a curry.
High Frequency Function Words: another, but, come, does, just, much, must, none, nothing, some, us.
Sneaky words! - cult, culture, sultry, hurry, curry, furry, blurry, Murray, tuMULTuous, multiply, multiple, occult, adultery, insult, results, sulfur, vulture, ultra, ultimate, etc.
LOT/CLOTH merge /ɒ/
This slightly rounded, open, back vowel is very similar to the [ɑ] we use in our BATH set, but we add a bit of lip rounding and employ a very short, clipped stress.
Practice words:
I’m sorry I got cross and I was wrong to quarrel. The coffee's not hot, how horried!
Potter profits from knowledge he got from college. What made you stop, you impossible clod?! I want honesty, Maurice!
Tom was often gone for long time to foreign forests.
*High-Frequency Function Words: because, from, got, lot, not, of, often, off, on, want, was, what.
Practice:
All I want is a proper cup of coffee, made from a proper copper coffee pot. Tin coffee pots and iron coffee pots, they're no use to me. If I can't have a proper cup of coffee, made from a proper copper coffee pot, I'd rather have a cup of tea.
**ALSO APPLIES TO THE "ORANGE" SET OF WORDS
Practice: corridor, euphoric, foreign, forest, Florida, historic, horrible, majority, minority, moral, orange, Oregon, origin, porridge, priority, quarantine, quarrel, sorority, warranty, warren, warrior
DRESS /ɛ/
Words with /en/, /end/, /err/, /erry/ use the vowel in the word DRESS:
“This is not a terrible time”
Practice words (PEN/PIN merger in USA):
Get your boyfriend’s attention. I remember I sent them the evidence. Mend the fences!
My intention was never to offend. When she sensed them, she was pretending. It depends on when’s Henry’s getting dressed.
Practice words (SQUARE in USA):
The best berries are strawberries, not cherries. In America they say, “Merry Christmas!
Jerry interrogated the terrorists. Terribly sorry, my error! He perished very terribly in the territory.
TRAP /æ~a/
It is important to note that we use the TRAP vowel for words with /ar/ spellings like Barry/marry/caramel, etc., and words with /an/ or /am/ or /and/ spellings, like man/ hand/family. *Keep the back of the tongue flat and think about spaciousness at the back of the throat.
“The circumstances of their marriage are…”
Practice TRAP + “r”:
Harry and Caroline got married in Paris. We narrowly escaped the arrows. Don't tarry!
The baron is an arrogant character. Carry the caramels to Barry. The sparrow ate carrots.
Practice TRAP + /n, m/:
I fancy a romance with a handsome man. The family has ample lands for animals. Cancel your plans, Nancy.
Vanity can expand your brand. I cannot with the pandemic. Anthony and I managed a band together. Stand by your man.
happY /ɪ/
In more Old Fashioned RP, you will find that the word “happy” with the “ee” sound at the end can drop off to a short [ɪ] sound, as in the word “KIT” – particularly when it is in between two consonants.
Overall, it is more common in Old Fashioned RP, but definitely still happens in Modern RP, especially with “anything” and “everything.”
“Just about everything else.”
Practice words(medial): anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere, everybody, everyone, everything, everywhere.
Practice sentences:
She wants everything to be perfectly boring. Money can’t buy happiness. Tom hates anything in the countryside.
It wouldn’t be prudent. *Patrick Stewart on TNG.
SCHWA /ə/
The schwa vowel, which we’ve addressed previously, is our mid-central vowel. The tongue lies neutrally, the jaw is slightly open, there is no lip rounding. We’ve worked on this sound previously when we looked at lettER words.
Practice: to be, to come, to do, to die, to go, to have, to know, to meet, to say, today, tomorrow, tonight, for now, for later, for after, forever, for the moment, for him, for her, for this, for that, for us, particularly, afternoon, yesterday.
*It also can show up with other unstressed syllables, particularly when followed by an /m, n/:
Practice: What happened?
BATH/PALM /ɑː/
An open, back vowel. No rounding.
The Ask List (should be called The Bath List!) is a handy document that contains (almost) all words in this set. It can be memorized via exposure. It is a helpful guide when marking text.
Practice words:
After I danced with the giraffe I had a bath. For example, in France the glass is half full.
The master had a nasty, ghastly, disastrous past. At last we chanced to pass the castle.
Father asked for an autograph after the finale.
THOUGHT /ɔ̝ː/
Same sound as “NORTH” and “FORCE.” Lip-rounding assists in this vowel change.
*spellings include: al, all, au, aught, aw, ought (i.e. always, fall, audience, caught, brought, law)
Practice sentences:
I thought we’d talk. We saw Paul slaughtering the fawn. She brought a tall bald date. I taught her in law school.
Her jaw is open. His calls were ignored in autumn. We bought it as a precaution. Dawn fought the falcon her daughter.
GOOSE /u:/
Goose words employ more lip rounding than we are accustomed to.
“Do I move like that?”
Practice words:
I approve the movement! Choose to improve. It’s true, I move smoothly about the room.
Remove the blue spoons! The June fruit is too juicy. A group of youths in a pool. Boo, I’m spooky!
**GOOSE preceded by /d, l, n, s, t/ is liquid: /ju/
Think through “ee-yoo”. Make “knew” rhyme with “few!”