American English has also affected British English pronunciation. For example, the traditional British English pronunciation of ‘harass’ stresses the first syllable ‘harass’, but in the present day English people might stress the second syllable, ‘harass’, as in American English. This can further be linked to the influence of media on English pronunciation. The high production of American TV shows broadcasting on the British TV may influence viewers to viewers to pronounce unfamiliar words with an American accent which then becomes seen as the standard pronunciation. For example, in British English; ‘tomato’ is pronounced ‘tomahto’ but in American English it is pronounced ‘tomayto’.
Another reason for the change in English pronunciation is due to the change in Received Pronunciation (RP). RP was seen as the Standard English Accent and is sometimes called the Queen’s English. It’s a prestige accent ad is associated with a good standing in society and with being well-educated. RP was adopted as the official accent of the BBC in 1992, because they thought it was the accent that everyone would be able to understand- this added to its prestige value, and it became the accent of authority. However, in the late 1950s onwards, RP changed significantly. For example, in RP, the word ‘hand’ was pronounced more like ‘hend’, ‘often’ pronounced ‘awften and ‘tissue’ pronounced ‘tisyu’. In the 1960s, with working-class teenagers going to university in larger numbers and the emergence of celebrities who spoke in regional accents, RP lost some of its desirability. Emerging pop stars, actors and artists had regional accents (e.g. Paul McCartney), and young speakers wanted to imitate them.
Today, RP has been toned down and is rarely heard. This could be because London is now one of the most multi-cultural places in the world, and therefore there is a blur between the accents and the pronunciation of certain words. Broadcasters, although use Standard English when they are speaking, they may have a regional accent rather than RP.
Some linguists claim that RP is being replaced as the most ‘acceptable’ English accent by Estuary English. This is an accent that has roots in the speech found around the Thames Estuary area in London. It contains many similar features to the Cockney accent, e.g. the dropping ‘h’s at the beginning of words (pronouncing ‘hit’ as ‘it’), and pronouncing ‘th’ as ‘f’ (so ‘tooth’ becomes ‘toof’).
For example, Estuary speakers will use glottal stop instead of ‘t’, so ‘bottle’ becomes ‘bo-ul’. They’ll pronounce ‘tune’ as ‘choon’ rather than ‘tyune’, ‘wall’ as ‘waw’, and ‘north’ as ‘norf’. It is used by a lot of people in the entertainment industry- in particular music- and is seen as a commercially acceptable accent. Because of the influence in the media, Estuary English is becoming quite common outside London. You cannot necessarily tell where someone’s from if they use Estuary English as it has become a widespread accent. This is due to people copying the speech of radio and TV presenters.
by
tanya20 (student)
