Can you speak Queen's English?

Johnny   Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:15 pm GMT
Rick Johnson - there's a diary written by an Elizabethan blacksmith in London in which he spells words such as Farthing as "Fardin" and his and hers as "is an ers", suggesting that proto-type cockney pronunciation goes back a loooong time, glottal stops, dropped H's an' awl....

Australian has undoubtedly been heavily influenced by southern english accents and would be classed as southern english in character were it native to the UK. It's far more similar to a cockney accent than it is to a northern english accent for example, furthermore it's far more similar to a cockney accent than a cockney accent is to a northern english accent! Alot of Aussie slang is also characteristically south east english, such as the eponymous use of "mate" for friend, which is shared with londoners. Oz has been influenced by other accents though, as Oz ancestry comes from all over the UK, and Oz English also has a standard which is almost identical to the English standard, whereas cockney is a non-standard dialiect traditionally denoting low class status. The emerging Australian establishment and middle classes would undoubtedly have discouraged use of non-standard (e.g. cockney) words and pronounciations, same as their English counterparts.

There is another very big change happening right now in urban london speech, as the cockney accent is heavily influenced by afro-carib speech. now working class london white youths are as likely to speak like Ali G as they are to speak traditional cockney. This change has happened literally in the last 15 years, and is changing the character of cockney significantly.
English   Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:42 am GMT
Good afternoon

Please allow one to be formally blunt in terms of how the Queen’s English is properly pronounced and eloquently delivered in correct vocal terms.
To begin with one must not neglect to pronounce the beginning letters from certain words, due to this blatant negligence resulted in a crude and rather common tone. Due to the simplicity of the “slang” as it is known, gathered a rather unfortunate following which resulted in the further this barbaric dissection of the English language. Over time this vulgar and lazy fashion of communication was now widely imitated, producing what is now the lax use of verbal conversation now spoken in English everyday life.

Yours respectively English citizen
Milton   Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:22 pm GMT
''To begin with one must not neglect to pronounce the beginning letters
from certain words''

that's right
WH- words should be pronounced with /h/
WHALES and WALES, WHICH and WITCH are not the same thing.
Liz   Mon Jul 30, 2007 5:45 am GMT
<<Good afternoon

Please allow one to be formally blunt in terms of how the Queen’s English is properly pronounced and eloquently delivered in correct vocal terms.
To begin with one must not neglect to pronounce the beginning letters from certain words, due to this blatant negligence resulted in a crude and rather common tone. Due to the simplicity of the “slang” as it is known, gathered a rather unfortunate following which resulted in the further this barbaric dissection of the English language. Over time this vulgar and lazy fashion of communication was now widely imitated, producing what is now the lax use of verbal conversation now spoken in English everyday life.

Yours respectively English citizen>>

LOL! :-))
Joanna   Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:17 am GMT
can anyone give me tip's on how to speak posh english properly!!!!!!!
joanna   Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:20 am GMT
does anybody know any really posh names?
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:20 pm GMT
Joanna:

First of all - move to somewhere like Sunningdale, or Virginia Water, or Esher (all in Surrey) or Sandbanks (Dorset)) or Henley on Thames (Oxfordshire) or Henley-in-Arden (Warwickshire) or Hampstead Garden Suburb (London) or Kensington and Chelsea (London) or Morningside (Edinburgh) or, to what is considered to be the most exclusively expensive village in the entire UK, - Prestbury (Cheshire), just to the south of Manchester - or to any such place where most of the properties are in the highest local council tax bands! There the accents will more or less be 20 carat gold and cut glass quality to suit the environment. Bear in mind the Morningside accent is the Scottish version of a "posh" accent, and also bear in mind that it's now mostly confined to more mature ladies who like to lunch.......the term "class" is now pretty much considered to be an outdated word in the UK these days.

Posh names? Well - I suppose you mean female names.....if the English English "upper class set" is anything to go by, for their wee baby girls they seem to favour names like Emma, Charlotte, Amelia, Isabella, Olivia, Sophie, Emily, Grace among others...... you may well find a fair number of lassies with those names in those places I mentioned.

I don't suppose you're interested in the boys' names?