Are we finally waving goodbye to the Queen's English forever?
Year 13 Language students explore how the English we speak may change with a new monarch on the throne.
The female figurehead of our country, who dedicated her life to her job and her nation, has died. As Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II was a constant in a multitude of lives across the world, symbolising continuity and stability.
The (formerly) Queen's English, also called RP (Received Pronunciation), was known for its prestigious pronunciations such as ‘lawst’ for ‘lost’ and ‘fem-e-leh’ for ‘family’. It has been associated with the Royal Family since the late 18th century. It's a form of English originally adopted by the upper classes who spoke in a ‘posh’ manner and commanded more prestige. A lot of the culture associated with Britain relates to the Royal Family and their unique way of speaking fascinates individuals. It is, of course, the accent that Americans favour when attempting, and failing, to imitate British people. A study was done by the BBC (BBC voices) to determine which British accent was ‘the best’- unsurprisingly, the answer was RP. However, does the language of the nobility truly define us anymore?
In more recent times, the popularity of Received Pronunciation has plummeted yet it remains a distinct symbol of the Royal Family. Only around 2% of native English speakers still use the Queen’s English. Therefore, one might suppose that the Queen’s English died with her, giving way to a new and exciting King’s English…
King Charles is 73 and has grown up in a ‘well-spoken’ family and attended schools where they use language that is considered ‘posh’ to the rest of the population and so it is unlikely that his vocabulary will change drastically. However, as our new monarch and figurehead, it is arguably important that the King understands the people of his country. With the rise of slang and dialects such as MLE among young people, it is possibly vital that he understands that ‘mandem’ refers to a bunch of boys and ‘crep’ means shoes. Otherwise there's a risk he’ll be on a royal visit to an urban secondary school and think the students are talking absolute gibberish...
More realistically, we may see slight shifts, even if it is just an increase in contractions such as ‘won’t’ instead of ‘will not’. After all, why would the figurehead of the country use an entirely different dialect to the rest of their people? It's a well-known linguistic phenomenon that we live in a world of increasing informalisation. Who knows - by the time we have George on the throne, the Christmas speech could be sent out to the whole country on a group message filled with a string of heart eyed emojis... Then again, perhaps not...
Or, maybe, like John Humphries, King Charles will turn out to be a great traditionalist, with rose-tinted spectacles for the language of previous eras. Perhaps King Charles could use this new era of King’s English to bring back words from obsolescence such as the 16th century, ‘gadzooks’, (from ‘God’s hooks') and the 14th century 'cutpurse' (a thief), or our personal favourite: ‘fopdoodle’. A ‘fop’ was a fool and a ‘doodle’ was a simpleton, so ‘fopdoodle’ was a fool twice over. Surely there's a case for bringing that back to the forefront of our language?
Within the Queen’s lifetime, there were subtle changes to the way the Royal Family spoke. Be this because of personal choices, association with other cultures, or social influence. For example, there was a shift in vowels in words such as ‘lost’, which used to be pronounced ‘lawst’, or ‘family’, which used to sound much more like ‘fem-e-leh’. More recently, Prince Harry gave a speech opening with the phrase ‘thank you for the invite’. Despite the harmless appearance of this phrase, the Royal Family typically say ‘invitation’ rather than the atrociously informal (gasp - American?) ‘invite’. We have to remember that language is constantly evolving and changing.
An example of English growing and changing is the development of Commonwealth varieties of English. English has provided a common platform for communication across 54 countries, each country coining the language as their own, and making it their own, developing a new way of speaking with idiosyncratic words that a British English speaker wouldn't necessarily know.
Just ten years ago, countries around the world, and particularly in the commonwealth, envied how the Queen spoke and they tried to sound like her themselves as they believed it to be prestigious. For example, Ghanaian English used English as a lingua franca, but they also coined the RP accent to sound ‘more like the Queen’. They abandoned their own accents and adopted this way of speaking in an attempt to sound more prestigious in their area. Rather than gaining more power and prestige, locals claimed they sounded ‘stupid’ and the accent was quickly dropped.
The English Language spoken in the UK today isn’t solely built upon past forms of English such as that spoken by the Anglo Saxons. The English Language is composed of language from across the world and has come about, partly, through a process called ‘borrowing’ where we have taken foreign words and ‘anglicised’ them (made them sound more English). One great example of this, although not from a commonwealth country, is the word ‘tea’ from 17th century China. Not only have we taken this word, but it involved adopting the whole concept of ‘tea’ and we now use it, particularly in northern regions, to refer to the evening meal.
What new words might King Charles see arrive over the course of his reign? What new concepts might emerge that need naming? Who knows what technology or cultural change might come in the future?
So does a changing monarch really mean a change for language? Probably not. Language changes constantly, with or without the approval of royalty. Nonetheless, whatever he does, and whatever he chooses to say, the new King is the start of a new era and the Queen’s death marks a dramatic cultural shift. King Charles’ next moves both politically and linguistically will be important in our transition into the Carolean era. His first Christmas speech will show us whether it's business as usual, or a break from tradition with a 'Cheers to the New Year!'.
Freya Drinkwater, Y13
Macy Millyard, Y13
Amelie Reeves, Y13
Gemma Cullington, Y13
Cathy Hamilton, Y13
The female figurehead of our country, who dedicated her life to her job and her nation, has died. As Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II was a constant in a multitude of lives across the world, symbolising continuity and stability.
The (formerly) Queen's English, also called RP (Received Pronunciation), was known for its prestigious pronunciations such as ‘lawst’ for ‘lost’ and ‘fem-e-leh’ for ‘family’. It has been associated with the Royal Family since the late 18th century. It's a form of English originally adopted by the upper classes who spoke in a ‘posh’ manner and commanded more prestige. A lot of the culture associated with Britain relates to the Royal Family and their unique way of speaking fascinates individuals. It is, of course, the accent that Americans favour when attempting, and failing, to imitate British people. A study was done by the BBC (BBC voices) to determine which British accent was ‘the best’- unsurprisingly, the answer was RP. However, does the language of the nobility truly define us anymore?
In more recent times, the popularity of Received Pronunciation has plummeted yet it remains a distinct symbol of the Royal Family. Only around 2% of native English speakers still use the Queen’s English. Therefore, one might suppose that the Queen’s English died with her, giving way to a new and exciting King’s English…
King Charles is 73 and has grown up in a ‘well-spoken’ family and attended schools where they use language that is considered ‘posh’ to the rest of the population and so it is unlikely that his vocabulary will change drastically. However, as our new monarch and figurehead, it is arguably important that the King understands the people of his country. With the rise of slang and dialects such as MLE among young people, it is possibly vital that he understands that ‘mandem’ refers to a bunch of boys and ‘crep’ means shoes. Otherwise there's a risk he’ll be on a royal visit to an urban secondary school and think the students are talking absolute gibberish...
More realistically, we may see slight shifts, even if it is just an increase in contractions such as ‘won’t’ instead of ‘will not’. After all, why would the figurehead of the country use an entirely different dialect to the rest of their people? It's a well-known linguistic phenomenon that we live in a world of increasing informalisation. Who knows - by the time we have George on the throne, the Christmas speech could be sent out to the whole country on a group message filled with a string of heart eyed emojis... Then again, perhaps not...
Or, maybe, like John Humphries, King Charles will turn out to be a great traditionalist, with rose-tinted spectacles for the language of previous eras. Perhaps King Charles could use this new era of King’s English to bring back words from obsolescence such as the 16th century, ‘gadzooks’, (from ‘God’s hooks') and the 14th century 'cutpurse' (a thief), or our personal favourite: ‘fopdoodle’. A ‘fop’ was a fool and a ‘doodle’ was a simpleton, so ‘fopdoodle’ was a fool twice over. Surely there's a case for bringing that back to the forefront of our language?
Within the Queen’s lifetime, there were subtle changes to the way the Royal Family spoke. Be this because of personal choices, association with other cultures, or social influence. For example, there was a shift in vowels in words such as ‘lost’, which used to be pronounced ‘lawst’, or ‘family’, which used to sound much more like ‘fem-e-leh’. More recently, Prince Harry gave a speech opening with the phrase ‘thank you for the invite’. Despite the harmless appearance of this phrase, the Royal Family typically say ‘invitation’ rather than the atrociously informal (gasp - American?) ‘invite’. We have to remember that language is constantly evolving and changing.
An example of English growing and changing is the development of Commonwealth varieties of English. English has provided a common platform for communication across 54 countries, each country coining the language as their own, and making it their own, developing a new way of speaking with idiosyncratic words that a British English speaker wouldn't necessarily know.
Just ten years ago, countries around the world, and particularly in the commonwealth, envied how the Queen spoke and they tried to sound like her themselves as they believed it to be prestigious. For example, Ghanaian English used English as a lingua franca, but they also coined the RP accent to sound ‘more like the Queen’. They abandoned their own accents and adopted this way of speaking in an attempt to sound more prestigious in their area. Rather than gaining more power and prestige, locals claimed they sounded ‘stupid’ and the accent was quickly dropped.
The English Language spoken in the UK today isn’t solely built upon past forms of English such as that spoken by the Anglo Saxons. The English Language is composed of language from across the world and has come about, partly, through a process called ‘borrowing’ where we have taken foreign words and ‘anglicised’ them (made them sound more English). One great example of this, although not from a commonwealth country, is the word ‘tea’ from 17th century China. Not only have we taken this word, but it involved adopting the whole concept of ‘tea’ and we now use it, particularly in northern regions, to refer to the evening meal.
What new words might King Charles see arrive over the course of his reign? What new concepts might emerge that need naming? Who knows what technology or cultural change might come in the future?
So does a changing monarch really mean a change for language? Probably not. Language changes constantly, with or without the approval of royalty. Nonetheless, whatever he does, and whatever he chooses to say, the new King is the start of a new era and the Queen’s death marks a dramatic cultural shift. King Charles’ next moves both politically and linguistically will be important in our transition into the Carolean era. His first Christmas speech will show us whether it's business as usual, or a break from tradition with a 'Cheers to the New Year!'.
Freya Drinkwater, Y13
Macy Millyard, Y13
Amelie Reeves, Y13
Gemma Cullington, Y13
Cathy Hamilton, Y13
