杏吧原创

Received pronunciation

Question: How do accents develop and change? More specifically, how do new
accents form, such as those that arose in Australia and New Zealand? Presumably
these are no more than 200 years old.

Answer: Accents and dialects develop and change for two distinct reasons, one
phonetic, the other social. On the phonetic side, speech sounds change because
of the way they are produced and perceived. Feel the position of your tongue
against the roof of your mouth when you say the K sounds at the beginning of
鈥渒ey鈥� and 鈥渃ar鈥�. The tongue makes contact farther forward in 鈥渒ey鈥� than in
鈥渃ar鈥�, because it is anticipating its forward position for the vowel sound EE.
This more forward position has led to changes in which K sounds became CH or SH
or S sounds before EE or E vowels. The Latin word centum began with a K
sound, but Italian cento begins with CH and French cent with
S. These changes were among many that occurred as Latin evolved into modern
Romance languages.

Phonetic changes don鈥檛 happen continuously, though, because language is used
to communicate. If your pronunciation is suddenly different from that of the
people around you, you won鈥檛 be understood. The communicative function of
language provides a social brake on the phonetic causes of change. In any
community, however, phonetic changes can take hold from one generation to the
next. When communities are relatively isolated鈥攁s Australia was from
England during its development鈥攖hey may adopt different phonetic changes.
This is how Australian and English pronunciations have diverged. Two hundred
years is plenty of time for differences to develop.

This kind of divergence brings a more subtle social effect into play. The
information you convey when you talk is not limited to the linguistic meaning of
your words, but includes many things about yourself, such as regional origin or
level of education. Speakers unconsciously (or consciously) tailor their speech
to sound like the person they want to appear to be. This has an influence on the
development of accents and their change: people adopt or reject specific sounds
and sound changes to signal their identification with a particular
community.

Bob Ladd

Professor of Linguistics

University of Edinburgh

Answer: Starting with a relatively uniform speech community, minor variations
in sounds may acquire greater or lesser prestige by association with individuals
or groups who use them.

In Australia and New Zealand, the biggest divergence from English 鈥渟tandard
received pronunciation鈥� is in the vowel system. In the early 19th century, there
was a tendency in southern England, where many colonists came from, to pronounce
the vowel in 鈥渂ad鈥� (known to phoneticians as RP Vowel No 4 or RP 4) in a more
鈥渃losed鈥� position (with the mouth less open) so it sounded more like 鈥渂ed鈥�.
Later, this trend was halted and partially reversed in England. Its southern
base was relatively stagnant demographically compared with the booming North and
Midlands, which kept the more open A in 鈥渂ad鈥�. Today, the very closed version of
vowel 4 is increasingly stigmatised as 鈥渉yperposh鈥� and causes surprise when
heard in old 1940s newsreels.

By contrast, in Australia and New Zealand it flourished, perhaps cementing
solidarity among the older settlers as against the later-arriving Poms, who had
the more open vowel. The 鈥渃losedness鈥� was exaggerated further, causing potential
confusion with RP 3, as in 鈥渂ed鈥�. The latter vowel had to move over to make room
for it, by becoming even more closed and sounding like 鈥渂id鈥�. The vowel in 鈥渂id鈥�
(RP 2) in turn had to become still more closed, to sound like RP 1 鈥渂ead鈥�, which
in turn tended to become a diphthong, sounding something like 鈥渂uyd鈥�. In New
Zealand, the process was similar, except that RP 2 (bid) was pushed into the
centre of the mouth, to sound like RP 10 as in 鈥渂ud鈥� or RP 12鈥攖he sound in
the second syllable of 鈥渃upboard鈥�.

This phonetic musical chairs, caused by an initial point of imbalance in the
system, is known to linguists as a 鈥減ush-chain鈥�. RP 4 鈥減ushed鈥� the others to
make room for itself.

There can also be a 鈥減ull-chain鈥� in which a departing vowel leaves a slot
into which a neighbouring sound can expand. This also happened in Australia.
Once RP 4 鈥渂ad鈥� had moved over to 鈥渂ed鈥�, the long back-vowel of 鈥渂ard鈥� RP 5 was
free to drift to the front of the mouth, without fear of confusion.

Thus, RP 4 has 鈥減ulled鈥� RP 5 after it. In support of this, in Australian
soaps like Neighbours, older characters tend to have accents closer to
received pronunciation, but younger ones have a pronunciation typical of the
system outlined here.

Steve Tanner

Carmarthen

It is often assumed that accents in countries that see large-scale
immigration will diverge from the accents of the settlers鈥� original country. The
reverse may be true, however. The original accent can remain in the country now
occupied by immigrants, while the accent in the nation of origin develops along
new lines. This has occurred in the development of American English.

The first permanent English immigrants to North America settled in Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1607, while 13 years later the Pilgrim Fathers landed further north
at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the
English Language by David Crystal tells us that these two settlements had
different linguistic consequences for the development of American English. The
Jamestown colonists came mainly from England鈥檚 West Country and spoke with the
characteristic burr of these counties. This pattern can still be heard in some
of the communities of the Jamestown region, especially Tangier Island in
Chesapeake Bay. Because of the relative isolation of this area, this 鈥淭idewater鈥�
accent has changed only slightly in 400 years and is sometimes said to be the
closest we will ever get to the sound of Shakespearean English.

The Plymouth colonists, by contrast, came from eastern England. These accents
dominated in what is now New England, and their speech patterns are still the
main influence in this area. An outline of the development of English in all its
forms can be found on the BBC website www.bbc.co.uk/routesofenglish鈥抬诲

This week鈥檚 question

Cutting edge: Is there any scale that measures the sharpness of cutting
implements. I鈥檇 rate a surgeon鈥檚 scalpel as 9.5 out of 10 but an ordinary table
knife as only 2.5. Is there a formal scale, and if not, why not?

Don Wiles

Ottawa, Canada