her, F : “ommonty used by Engh aul. Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen : An Instruction Manual for 24 Accents and Dialects Commonty ng speaking Actors. Lawrence, KS: Paul eier Dialect Services, 2010. Print THE STANDARD BRITISH ENGLISH DIALECT INTRODUCTION Standard British English, Received Pronunciation or just Standard English, although now losing ground, has had a long run as the prestige dialect of Great Britain. It is not a dialect confined geographically to southeast England ~ “educated” speakers all over the United Kingdom and throughout the former British Empire spoke it and still do, to a large extent. For many decades, the BBC required this sound from its broadcasters, and actors fom all parts of the world were trained at the London drama schools to speak it as their neutral “default” English dialect. For most of the 20" century, this dialect dominated the British culture and, to a great extent, influenced the way actors spoke Shakespeare and other period English drama throughout the English-speaking world. ‘That influence and prestige is far from gone, and there is still no other dialect to rival it for the performance of a host of British dramatists. RP, along with a general American dialect, are the two dialects English-speaking actors use most. CD TRACK 1 SIGNATURE SOUNDS 1 Use of /t/. Whereas medial and final // in many English dialects (famously American dialects) is pronounced as [d], or [¢ ], or is unaspirated or unreleased, the RP rule of thumb is to treat every /i/ as an unvoiced, aspirated, released plosive. RP speakers, and especially English actors, treat this consonant more sharply and explosively than in any other dialect T can think of. (EXAMPLES: better, lot of, shatter, motive, eating, sit down, writer 2. Use of [j]. Following the alveolar consonants //d/n// and /s/ and preceding the [u] vowel (when spelled /, /ui/, or /ew/), the Standard English speaker often (1) intrudes the semi-vowel [3] (omitted by most American speakers, for example) An easy rule for American actors is to use this feature only when it is a possible altemate pronunciation in American English. (One would never pronounce tool as [t ju] for example. And avoid the temptation to say [dju] and [t ju] for do and fo [du] and [tu].) EXAMPLES: duel, during, lure, news, nude, assume, student, tune, lurid, sult, | intuition, supervise 97se, Paul. Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen : An Instrctlon Nanua for 24 Acc 2 Ace og Bag Ser on Manual fr 24 Aces and Dales Common ea 0y The Si °y Hrhish English Dialect tandare CD TRACK 3 RHYTHM, STRESS. INTONATION. TONE Al dialects and accents have characteristic acoustic patterning and tonal qualities. Often i iceessful imitation depends as much on capturing the intonation, rhythm, and tone of a dialect as on capturing the phonemic features. However, one can describe these features only in terms relative 16 other dialects. Any Henke description is difficult if not impossible. Depending on 204 dialect, you will have to make different accommodations to “capture” these features. It has been said that, “ ‘All American men think they are baritones; all Englishmen know they are tenors.” In describing the pitch of American English versus Standard English Speech, atleast in men’s speeck, this is very help Staying with the differences between General American and RP for a moment, several other generalizations may prove helpful: 4 RP speakers are more willing to use high pitches for emphasis while Americans prefer to use volume without so much pitch change. «The difference between stressed and_unsitesse greater than in American English. «ertcans spread emphasis democratically between all the words.of an utterance, Anite RP speakers will tend to choose-a few key words [9 ‘emphasize and pounce veo oce oma higher pitch. This results in a slightly faster pace © RP. 4s Whereas Americans often attack the beginning of an uterine more vigorously in comparison with the treatment of the Tatter half of the utterance, the RP speaker fen tends to reverse this, with heavier stresses ‘coming later in the utterance. «You may have noticed that American speech can be hheard at a greater distance than English speech; ths isnot simply attributable 9 ‘volume but also to a further carrying fone, which in many Americans ig “harder” than that in their English canaterparts. The difference is also due to the sre ‘American devotion to vowels and the greater RP devotion to consonants (Vowels are responsible for the perceived loudness of speech.) syllables_and, words in RP is “This comparison of two well-known dialects is helpful in establishing the characteristics Poth, “overdoing it ere to make the point, Twill speak the following sentence in both dialects: Jean't believe that Harry would really just give uP his job and walk away Homibly exaggerating both dialects, we find thatthe American: ‘e begins strongly and ends weakly. «is slower, louder, harder toned. is lower in pitch. 102 a ee ae; aoe ee:The Standard British English Dialect “ 3. The bath lexical set is perhaps the most famous, but it has its difficulties. You 4 : - may be in genuine doubt about pronouncing fancy, for example. Should it be 4 Ns {fensi] or [fansi}? It may be helpful to suggest that if the word in question, pec ‘Pass for example, can be pronounced long without sounding odd — (p=: :s] - then the RP vowel to be used is (a; but if the word cat, for example, sounds odd Pronounced long - (kee: : t] ~ then keep with («2]. When in doubt, consult a Pronunciation dictionary of British English or check with an RP speaker. [ EXAMPLES: pass, past, dance, chance, ask, answer, laughter, bath, can % | plaza, master half It is bewildering, though, to Out that RP speakers say can [keen], but can't kant}. Also: chat fancy, matter, flag, sabotage, rabbit, malady, casigate, lamp, bag, chastise, parrot, rapid, rack, saffron, maverick, etc. The older the 8 character you play, or the further back in time the play o film is set, then the 7 closer the vowel needs to be, sometimes as close as [€) as in a matter of fact [methos_ev_fekt"] 4. The vowel involved in the shought set is [0]. It is an open, rounded back vowel, Nota heat. RP speakers pronounce it very long, as much as twice as long as 2 t North Americans. Its almost impossible to make this vowel too long or too lip- round. = — eo Ne |. EXAMPLES: anful, daughter, awkward, caught, Laura, call, water, Chall small AS 5: In this, the murse set, and in signature sounds #6, #?, and #8, the words re all Pronounced without r-coloration. R-less is sometimes the term. Non-rhotic is the a y 5 technical term. They all mean the same thing. During the pronunciation of words : in which an /r/ follows the vowel (a post-vocalic//), the tongue tip stays low in the mouth during the /v, effectively silencing it. It is also important that the lips be neutral during this vowel, or even slightly spread, in contrast with Welsh ot ) American pronunciation in which there is some lip-rounding, or in some Noshem British dialects, in which the lips are spread much wider than in RP. [ EXAMPLES: Bird, her, carn, curdle, worm, first, purr, journey, tournament, L_ colonel, berserk The exception to this silencing of the /r/ rule is the linking/r/ — signature sound #14,i 7 js i sseC English- tage MiidlWederts and viatects Commonly used by 1, Pou. Acents and Dit or MARR RAMUA MY Hist Asie “were ‘Speaking Actors. Lawrence, KS: Paul Meier Dialect Services, 2011 The second r-less vowel is [9], as found in the north and force sets, sounded identically in this dialect. Notice that this is the same vowel as in the thought set #4, EXAMPLES: warm, court, sport, morning, sword, quarter, sure, fork, forum _ | And the third is (c] of the start set. Some parts of the American Midwest, Missouri for example, pronounce the sets #6 and #7 almost interchangeably so that harness, which we would list in #7, is sometimes pronounced [hones], while quarter, which we would list in #6, is sometimes pronounced [kwade}] Therefore, depending on your dialect, it may not be enough simply to silence the /71, you may also have to produce a different shape to the vowel [EXAMPLES: harm, card, far, park, army, heart, sergeant, clerk, garden party | And the fourth r-less vowel is the schwa [8] plus /r/. Note that it occurs not only asa weakly stressed, single-stage vowel in words like letter, but also as part of diphthongs such as we find in bear (bee Jand triphthongs or three-stage vowels such as we find in hire and hour [hare, ave]. Of course in your dialect, such words may not be diphthongs or triphthongs. Therefore, if you are from Western Kentucky, for example, and pronounce hire as [has], to imitate RP you will have to make other adjustments too. EXAMPLES: letter, mother, perhaps, pester, rare, inquire, rower, our, hour, lawyer, layer, spare, fire In the goat set, the RP speaker uses a definite diphthong or glide, starting from the 'ip-neutral central vowel [2] and gliding to a fairly close, somewhat liperounded back vowel (u], producing [2u]. A more “refined” sound used by speakers born before 1930 or so, or by loosely defined “upper-class” speakers, begins with fe] ora vowel in that vicinity, producing the brighter vowel this list both ways. American actors shot diphthong is followed by //as in old. {eu}. I will pronounce uld take special care in words where this (EXAMPLES: boli, bold, comb, so, owned, toc, though, lonely, moaning, slowthe Stanaara priusn engusn wuuece SN Lee 10. — Inthese words, the or and cloth sets, RP speakers use the open, rounded back fet bo _ Yowel [p]. For many American actors, the change in lip position is more wee significant than the change in tongue position. Please note that this vowel is short ” noua jud/’and pure. If you are a New Yorker, avoid the glide that you employ ondog . pala [peg] for example; keep it short. The majority of other British dialects use this g sound in these words too. EXAMPLES: dog, obvious, knowledge, collar, along, want, fox, laurel, moral, Austria, Gloucester, cough 11. The diphthong [au] of the mouth set may not be a change for you. However, if you are from Northern Ireland or Australia, for example, and say [b1aun] or ar 4 wor (bxzeun], then this will be a change for you, Cilvi «{tu ylatlens {9 ar ee hRO Heels i wp heundan ¢ fot * ‘now, round, south, doubt, owl, mountain, bough, Paolo, Faust [fr ke 12, In many dialects of English, the /r/ in the following list colors the vowel and seems to be part of it. In RP, however, the /r/ is treated as a consonant that starts the following syllable. Thus, a word like hurry is a definite two-syllable word in ‘ orn ( ‘in RP [ha.z], as opposed to [hoi], arguably a one-syllable pronunciation, You fom ‘must use the open-mid back unrounded vowel [a] for these words, oy pe EXAMPLES: hurry, worry, courage, Durham, borough, furrow, burrow, go AC burro Please note that English place names ending in~borough, like Peterborough, may have this two-syllable treatment, or, in place names like Scarborough, may be pronounced with the single syllable. | 13, Ima similar vein, the /+/ in the words of this list also seems to initiate the following syllable rather than colina te ee that precedes it, Most American 2 Syjji a! actors will also have to open the @owel to [@] 3nd avoid the {€], which is the | a 1 dominant pronunciation in North America, bln» RP ¢ ze EXAMPLES: Harry, marry, Paris, carriage, arrow, Marilyn, Carolyn, parapet 100The Standard British English Dialect 14, The Linking /r/. In this one signature sound, | will lump together both the treatment of /7/ when it terminates on sn followed by a vowel (as in her eyes and here are) and the so-calle /3n which many RP speakers, - intrude an /r/ even when none is present in the spelling” 04+ ~ 2 i tS =F EXAMPLES: here is, there are, her eyes, fear of death, idea of t, Shah of Persia, Spanish Armada only, Maria adores While using the intrusive /r/a great deal, if it is called to their attention most RP speakers would call this a mispronunciation. 15, Many RP speakers, on words like party, will use a short [1] in the last position. ’ EXAMPLES: party, lovely, crazy, pretty, ugly, city, silly, forty: | and in unstressed positions, we laugh, he came, she heard Cx eme vomd Ge go CD TRACK 2 ADDITIONAL FEATURES a. cile endings. The RP speaker invariably pronounces this suffix as [azz], m contrast to many American speakers, for example, who pronounce it [¥] This signature sound applies to such words as: mobile, fertile, futile, tactile {noubart, fstark, fjutart, taktart] and the like b. “tory, -tary, -bury, and similar endings. Particularly for American actors who make two syllables of these suffixes, the English habit of contracting these should be noted. Hence: secretary, laboratory, dictionary. raspberry, Newbury ['seksotar, le'bosotaz, ‘dzkSnut, ‘sazbar, ‘njubsr] c. Many polysyllabie words in RP have their own distinctive stress pattem, different from that of other dialects, For example: DE-ail, cigar-ETTE, alu-MIN-ium, (note the distinctive spelling too), ele-V7Sion, maga-ZINE, BER-nard. 4. There are many words pronounced in RP differently from other dialects of English, not because they belong toa lexical st in which the vowel or consonant ig pronounced differently across the board, but simply because itis idiomatially tha way. These “one-off” pronunciations include: process, program, with, ‘imultancous, lever, lieutenant, leisure, herb, zebra, nonsense, diesel [puouses, pieuguem, wxd, simiternjes, live, leftenent, lege,heb, zebse, nonsens, dizi). If you have a word in your script that you are not absolutely sure of, the best advice is: Look it up in your British \ Engiish pronouncing dictionary \ 101 d Distects for Stage and Screen : Aa Instruction Manual for 24 Accents and Dialect . Draathg acta: Lnoreren ker od wae? isha: Survie Mh Cee eee ealThe Standard British English Dialect * SS#I0 in population, Ascot, stopped, office {popjulersn, esknt, stopt, vfrs} CD TRACK 6 106 My mother can’t answer all her morning calls on her old phone, #303 wa 8 6 4 WDD mat mada kant ansos ot ho mony kolz pn haz outd foun Chicago's called the Windy City. It blows hardest on the shore, Jikagavz kod 9 windi siti it blouz hardist on da fo: Snow flurries fll fast and always when the ground is frosty. > Ri a 3 " 10 Is snav fanz fot fast and alverz wen do giaund 1 fiosti Gary always laughingly disparaged her old, yaudy wardrobe, isa BD Wok is 68 great stereo fight dispaeatd5d hat suid gordi woidsoub We all knew that Houston was the center of the Apollo program, isa 10 Mglo 1s 109 9 wort nju dat hjusten woz do sentas av dt apolau prougsem Clarence Darrow was a noted lawyer who argued avfully ong and hard 0 bo aw aera) klecsons deessu woz a nautid Iojo hu gid oft log ond had 1 assume we all concur on the importance of the matter. DIS M410 G0 i ar asjum wr ol Kagksr on Ot impotns ov da meta 1 : 3 i : s z z = z = = & = z = = = =The Standard British English Dialect 8 A most severe ground frost hurt the potato and com crops. faieier eat maar a 8D 9 meust savio gaund fist hst do patertau and kon kiops 9. The old, grumpy barman called for last orders. 159 137 aera miens dr auld giampr aman ko:ld fo last adoz 10. We can’t pass over New York without visiting her Aunt Martha ws 3982 6 eT wr kant pas ouva nju jok — widaut vizitty haxant mao CD TRACK 7 MONOLOGUE ONE From The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Over tea with Gwendolyn discovers that they are both engaged to Ernest. GWENDOLYN Well, to speak with perfect candour, Cecily, { wish that you were fully forty- as ¢ 5 sis 61is wet to spik wid pafikt kendo sestli ar wif dofu wo fult fott two and more than usually plain for your age. Ernest has a strong upright ‘ ts soos 0 tu and mo dan jugali plem fa jor eid3 — anist_haz 9 stupy apaait nature. He is the soul of truth and honour. Disloyalty would be as § ° rr 5 neitja hi 1z 6a saul ov tu and ona — distort.» wud bi az impossible to him as deception. But even men of the noblest possible moral 10 > 1D 10 imposibé to him 9z disepfon bot iv_men av da noublast posobt mosof Cecily, 107The Standard British English Dialect character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms tis . is i Keioktoa aa ikstimlr soseptobf (0 dt anfluans ov 00 fizik} Jamz of others, Modern, not fess than Ancient History, supplies us with many ww 8 b as av Adazmpdy not les don emfont hist soplarz os wid ment most painfull examples of what I refer to. IFit were not so, indeed, History ° . nS 5s 9 » must pemf igzamplz ov wot ar aa tu if it wa not sou indid hi would be quite unreadable. st wod br Kmart ansidab} ONOLO’ From the same play, Algernon, in conversation with Jack, reveals the existence of an imaginary invalid friend, as useful as Jack’s fictional younger brother, Ernest. You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that 1 is baa ont ju hov inventid a veur just janga biada Kkold snist m ada dat you may be able to come up to town as often as you like, I have invented an 18 1 1 ' ju mer br eibt to kam ap to taun oz ofiyo7.ju lark at hav mventid on invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that | may be able to s ‘4 wis 6 8 1 it inveljoabt pamanont ?invalid kold banbar in oda dot ar mer br exbt toThe Standard British English Dialect go down into the country whenever pu daun into do kant wenevas at Juz banbat ‘tz pafiktlt I choose. Bunbury is perfectly invaluable, If it wasn’t for Bunbury’s extraordinary bad health, for instance, ok wi Wi M4 invieljabt fitwoznt fo banbuz tksusdnut —baed hel® — fax_nstons I wouldn’t be able to dine with you at Willis’s tonight, for I have been really ot ood i 5 at wodnt br eit to dain wid ju ot wilisiz tonait fara ov bin ral engaged to Aunt Augusta for more than a week. ingerdd.tu ant ogasta fo mo: dan 9 wik TES 109 VUQUUTEET eee