The King's Speech: Charles III's accent

A discussion of the King's RP accent and how this upper class British accent differs from modern SSB (Standard Southern British).
0:00 RP (Received Pronunciation) and SSB (Standard Southern British)
0:49 The King's vowels
2:45 The King's consonants
4:09 Weakening and 'mumbling'
5:15 Emphasising and gesturing
If you want to speak British English clearly and confidently, I recommend this course from accent coach Luke Nicholson:
info: improveyouraccent.co.uk/engli...
sign up: course.improveyouraccent.co.u...
Picture credits:
Thumbnail Charles:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Empire flag:
Auckland War Memorial Museum
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationa
Beatles black and white:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Library of Congress note: No copyright found
Beatles colour:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Public domain
Young Charles:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Пікірлер: 1 100

  • @DrGeoffLindsey
    @DrGeoffLindsey Жыл бұрын

    0:00 RP (Received Pronunciation) and SSB (Standard Southern British) 0:49 The King's vowels 2:45 The King's consonants 4:09 Weakening and 'mumbling' 5:15 Emphasising and gesturing

  • @chenzenzo

    @chenzenzo

    Жыл бұрын

    I'm you 999th like and am an impressionist/linguist. It's wonderful to hear your analysis of King Charles. He's a great speaker and it's honestly quite soothing to hear him.

  • @cliffordcasnermillar4976

    @cliffordcasnermillar4976

    9 ай бұрын

    How does Prince Andrew compare to the King since he is 12 years younger?

  • @wifegrant

    @wifegrant

    5 ай бұрын

    Eh, English Zimbabweans and South Africans still speak with RP. However, it has a slight twist to it. My grandmother, who was very British, spoke with an RP accent.

  • @embreis2257

    @embreis2257

    2 ай бұрын

    as with his mother, I have been able to easily identify him just by his voice and the manner of his speech for decades - ever since I listened to his marriage vows pressed on a vinyl record in the early 1980s. 🤭

  • @vhawk1951kl

    @vhawk1951kl

    Ай бұрын

    It is merely how one of the tribes speak and how we recognise one another, and there are of course endless shibboleths to detect which is which, if the sound alone does not suffice

  • @WSS_the_OG
    @WSS_the_OG Жыл бұрын

    I quite enjoy how Charles speaks. Sounds a bit formal, but at the same time, rather relaxed and relatable.

  • @spawel1

    @spawel1

    8 ай бұрын

    very relatable, living in a big palace with gold from all over the world 😀

  • @bourbon2242

    @bourbon2242

    8 ай бұрын

    @@spawel1 isn’t that what everyone thinks about their own home, even if that isn’t literally how it is

  • @tinttiakka2028

    @tinttiakka2028

    7 ай бұрын

    ​@@spawel1 God save the king! Poor browns and blacks of the world should give thanks to the British

  • @spawel1

    @spawel1

    7 ай бұрын

    @@tinttiakka2028 why?

  • @Joaohcd

    @Joaohcd

    4 ай бұрын

    ​@@tinttiakka2028O britânico menos racista:

  • @franticranter
    @franticranter Жыл бұрын

    It would be interesting to see his accent compared to William or Harry, to see how much they've been influenced by Charles' RP and Southern Standard British English

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes, a future video.

  • @Kim-lc3fv

    @Kim-lc3fv

    Жыл бұрын

    The sons don't sound as if they speak RP at all. In fact, they even substitute "me" with "I" as an objective pronoun, but that's a different subject...

  • @gavalav6791

    @gavalav6791

    Жыл бұрын

    Janet Streetporter once said William and Harry ‘sound like they’re from Croydon’. Maybe the posh side.

  • @sarahberney

    @sarahberney

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes I'd be interested in this too. I thought Princess Diana's accent was an interesting hybrid

  • @thejoin4687

    @thejoin4687

    Жыл бұрын

    @@sarahberney There were three people in that accent, so it was rather crowded.

  • @Thomassina1
    @Thomassina1 Жыл бұрын

    I like his accent, easy on the ears, clear, using few words, well chosen and articulated. Once heard him recite a poem, is a wonderful speaker, could easily do an audio series.

  • @vhawk1951kl

    @vhawk1951kl

    Ай бұрын

    The King does not have an accent , nor do any of our tribe, he merely speaks clear unaccented well-modulated English, the ability to emulate which perfectly is a species of shibboleth.

  • @louisehenry760
    @louisehenry760 Жыл бұрын

    Just discovered this channel. It is everything I ever wanted, thank you for your content!!! Delighted to hear about the differences between traditional RP and modern SSB!

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thanks so much for letting me know!

  • @annelbeab8124

    @annelbeab8124

    Жыл бұрын

    Same here. I wonder what the analysis of Lord Sumption would be like.

  • @slangyrussianwords5972

    @slangyrussianwords5972

    Жыл бұрын

    Top

  • @AztlanOz

    @AztlanOz

    Жыл бұрын

    I believe in gender equality, he’s not posh he’s just an old slapper, thats highlighted by his choosing that strumpet over his (former) good wife

  • @matthewbartsh9167

    @matthewbartsh9167

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes. One feels...I mean, I feel the same way.

  • @GrayCatbird1
    @GrayCatbird1 Жыл бұрын

    As a non-native English speaker I found this video incredibly instructive and clear to understand why the King's accent sounds distinct when I don't have the knowledge or ear to do so myself.

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you.

  • @peterlabrie9762

    @peterlabrie9762

    11 ай бұрын

    When Charles III cracks a joke, it has more punch because you are getting humor in formal package.

  • @martineinfrance
    @martineinfrance Жыл бұрын

    As a French I find the King's accent very pleasant and understandable to listen to.. Well spoken English is always a pleasure to the ear..

  • @jm9673

    @jm9673

    Жыл бұрын

    And it is so rarely heard nowadays due to “dumbing down”.

  • @martineinfrance

    @martineinfrance

    Жыл бұрын

    @@jm9673 yes, all languages change, as society changes and not always for the best!

  • @joseeallyn9950

    @joseeallyn9950

    Жыл бұрын

    The French speak clearly and correctly. I travelled to France (from USA) with a Canadian family in the next row who spoke beautiful French. From their looks they were not Canadian born. It is good that the language is uniform and understandable from Canada to Haiti to Africa . I have a house in a remote town in France. One neighbor is understandable ( my French is minimal!) and we chat for hours. My other neighbor is inscrutable and mixes Occitan with French, I am quite lost !!

  • @martineinfrance

    @martineinfrance

    Жыл бұрын

    @@joseeallyn9950 not all French speak correctly unfortunately, as in all languages, particularly today. Many regional accents too.. I 'm glad you meet people understandable. I find with American accents if they speak too fast, it takes a few minutes to adapt and finally understand. Same with Canadian, French and English. It' s when living in the country that you learn a language and I remember watching BBC in the UK taught me a lot! It was such a good English. I've never been to the US or Canada unfortunately but worked in an American environment which helped me a lot as there are slight differences.

  • @joseeallyn9950

    @joseeallyn9950

    Жыл бұрын

    @@martineinfrance Thank you for your reply. As I said, my French is minimal but I struggle on as my husband is deaf and I need to translate. He speaks and writes French really well, but deafness in old age is a real problem. I think that the reginal accents are valuable , but vanishing fast as media takes over the languages. It is fascinating to me that so many of the Old Languages that were ironed out with the introduction of constructed 'French' still exist, at least in part in rural France. Occitan, was the most widely spoken and written language and indeed Dante decided not to write in it , but 8 verses are still in the language even though the rest is in Italian. That my neighbour who was born and raised in The Limousin, still uses it mixed in with the much later French is interesting, at least to me. The vision of Our Lady in Lourdes spoke in Occitan, not French. I learn a great deal at Mass as The Romance Languages based in Latin are easier to understand than English which is a mixture of mostly Germanic languages and some Old French. Very few Saxon words survived the Danish/French invasion of 1066.

  • @aleksandra_in_the_woods
    @aleksandra_in_the_woods Жыл бұрын

    As a person who's mother's tongue is not English, I find the King's accent pleasant and understandable. When we combine this accent with the King's timbre of voice we receive speeches lovely to listen. I wish to us all more voices like the King's one

  • @WendyTheCat86

    @WendyTheCat86

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Nilguiri I wonder who’s the real fool here

  • @MrPip9999

    @MrPip9999

    Жыл бұрын

    Me too. I like King Charles's accent. But I also like Mr Bean has no accent at all. . When he speaks no sound comes out of his mouth. It's the best.

  • @teresa955

    @teresa955

    Жыл бұрын

    I like King Chsrles' voice and accent too. It's out of the ordinary. Makes my ears pleasant

  • @howard1beale

    @howard1beale

    Жыл бұрын

    Whose not who's

  • @travissample5798

    @travissample5798

    Жыл бұрын

    Exactly.... g girl when I said.. period t. 0 need to put Alfred and what I said was the Google algorithm and I have to speak in southern American speech in order for my own Google algorithm to understand what the f*** I'm saying. Is very very funny the English language. For example I called a call center in 2010 and a very old Indian woman who spoke standard Indian English lingua Franca set and I quote quotation marks honey I do not understand where you learned English in the world because I have never had anyone speak English to me in this manner. Where are you from ? And I said honey I was raising Houston Texas in the southern part of the United States and we speak English here and just because you can understand what the English that I'm speaking does not mean that my English is improper or unintelligible;; I ended up having to spell numbers to this person. WTF

  • @QHiguchi
    @QHiguchi Жыл бұрын

    I have often wondered how/why he could sound so down to earth & friendly while maintaining unmistakably posh RP characteristics - and then comes this excellent video! Many thanks. As you point out, aside from purely phonetic features, his general mannerism plays a big role; so does, perhaps, our knowledge that he can be an absolute comedian when he chooses to. Whatever you think of him as a person, long live the king's accent!

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Yes, I like to think he'd enjoy the video. He grew up putting on accents from the Goon Show.

  • @rezashia3135

    @rezashia3135

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindsey I wonder what he made of the accent of his one time favourite comedian Spike Milligan?!

  • @lucyfisher8347

    @lucyfisher8347

    Жыл бұрын

    You make me sad - can RP speakers not be down-to-earth and friendly? Perhaps we just need to try harder!

  • @QHiguchi

    @QHiguchi

    Жыл бұрын

    @@lucyfisher8347 Oh no Lucy, my apologies - the RP itself is a lovely variety. In fact, that is what I aspired to when I spent a lot of time learning English; I am almost emotionally attached to it. You know, it was the combination of being a King and having RP that I was talking about.

  • @sasukesarutobi3862

    @sasukesarutobi3862

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindsey I do hope those accents and impressions include Min's "manual trill". Seeing him performing that would be something else.

  • @GoodMusicManiac999
    @GoodMusicManiac999 Жыл бұрын

    His accent is very poised and clear. Also, he's a good speaker too, which helps alot in understanding what he's saying even for people who aren't native English speakers like myself.

  • @jpatino3547
    @jpatino3547 Жыл бұрын

    I simply love King Charles accent and tone. He's so refined and easy to understand.

  • @Asidders

    @Asidders

    10 ай бұрын

    He reminds me of Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey.

  • @loveisall5520
    @loveisall5520 Жыл бұрын

    His Majesty could've been a voiceover artist, he has such a beautiful spoken voice, deep and resonant.

  • @annerector8765

    @annerector8765

    Жыл бұрын

    INDEED!

  • @rezonthe

    @rezonthe

    Жыл бұрын

    I agree, and you can tell he’d much rather be doing that than some of his royal duties.

  • @Lioness1499

    @Lioness1499

    Жыл бұрын

    I prefer Prince Harry's speaking voice. It is so beautiful.

  • @loveisall5520

    @loveisall5520

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Lioness1499 Unfortunately it goes with the empty space between his ears. He's always been a dunce and still is.

  • @Lioness1499

    @Lioness1499

    Жыл бұрын

    @@loveisall5520 Maybe that why he was born with heart of compassion and love like his mother Princess Diana. That's is why he shines head and shoulders over the Brits line you. He so blessed to have billion of people around the globe who adores him of all nationality.

  • @davidgrandy4681
    @davidgrandy4681 Жыл бұрын

    As a Canadian, all I know is that I can understand every word that the King says. With many UK TV shows I keep the close captioning on because frequently I need to have the "new" English deciphered. The words are the same but in shows like Shetland I miss many many of those words.

  • @MsElinorh

    @MsElinorh

    Жыл бұрын

    “Closed” captioning. Or is this RP speech from you? 😄

  • @meriadecdarfaouet7139

    @meriadecdarfaouet7139

    Жыл бұрын

    Franco-American here, mostly French, not a native English speaker: I have the same experience. With people like Charles, it's as if my brain wouldn't even "tag" the speech as either FR or EN. Just... speech. While, as you say, I need closed captions with many British productions (and it's an issue with many, like News, live reporting, etc, when the option is not available and/or reliable). Now, I've seen closed captioning so many times in, like, BBC documentaries (same in the US, but not that often). English language does come in many varieties :) It adds colors, no worries. Note that it also happens in France (in French), but rarely - and considered a bit rude, though necessary. It's almost taboo to apply it to French speakers from other parts of the world (from Québec to Africa). A pity, because we just want to understand them, and they should not feel offended: not a shame to speak the language in their own way. I think...

  • @RicktheRecorder

    @RicktheRecorder

    Жыл бұрын

    @@MsElinorh Sub-titles

  • @almostfm

    @almostfm

    Жыл бұрын

    's tough, bruv, innit?

  • @meriadecdarfaouet7139

    @meriadecdarfaouet7139

    Жыл бұрын

    @@almostfm Aye. Keep the heid an’ cairry oan.

  • @TerezatheTeacher
    @TerezatheTeacher Жыл бұрын

    How did Dr Geoff Lindsey get the King to show up for his video and say "do like and subscribe!" at the end? I admire this level of commintment :D

  • @zephyr755
    @zephyr755 Жыл бұрын

    This is wonderful. I studied with Gimson and O'Connor >50 years ago, and it is lovely to see those phonetic symbols revisited and reappraised in the context of the King's accent. Thanks for not being judgmental - you give a very fair and measured account, particularly with the fascinating element of dropping entire words and phrases. Will take a look at your book.

  • @moritzjohanneskellner7125
    @moritzjohanneskellner7125 Жыл бұрын

    This is really so interesting! Thank you for this video.

  • @mr.rusiruchitrasena-univer3839
    @mr.rusiruchitrasena-univer3839 Жыл бұрын

    Splendid and very informative videos. RP and its variants fascinate me and I love watching your videos and learning from their insights ! Love to see more videos like these !

  • @FionaEm
    @FionaEm Жыл бұрын

    Just found your channel 🙂 As an Aussie, it fascinates me that a small country like England has such a huge range of accents, from west country to Cockney to RP to Scouse and so on. Our accent is comparatively uniform, even though we're a huge continent with hundreds or even thousands of kilometres between major population centres. Re: the royals, I've often noticed that William and Harry don't sound as 'posh' as their father. It makes them seem more down-to-earth somehow.

  • @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    Жыл бұрын

    I grew up in the English Midlands. As you moved between villages a few miles apart you could hear the accent change back then.

  • @petesmitt

    @petesmitt

    Жыл бұрын

    There are some differing accents with certain Australian born; Aboriginals (real Aboriginals, not those 'identifying' as Aboriginal) speak English with a distinctive accent that most Aussies will recognise as Aboriginal; then there's the 'wog' Aussie accent, spoken by those of Southern European descent.

  • @FionaEm

    @FionaEm

    Жыл бұрын

    @@petesmitt I'm aware of that, which is why I said 'comparatatively' uniform 🙂

  • @Dave_Sisson

    @Dave_Sisson

    Жыл бұрын

    @@petesmitt There also WAS the Adelaide accent, which has sadly almost died out, the former foreign minister Alexander Downer was one of the last public figures with it. It was quite distinct from the speech of other parts of the country and allowed people who spoke with it to be identified as growing up in Sth Aust.

  • @petesmitt

    @petesmitt

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Finnfreya1 I've got an Anglo workmate that grew up in a 'wog' area in Melbourne and all his schoolmates were Italians; he developed the wog accent even though his family spoke normal Aussie; he's in his 30's and everyone that hears his accent thinks he's of Southern Mediterranean origin; so it exists and is still common although changing demographics are diluting it.

  • @sofiacandidori1006
    @sofiacandidori1006 Жыл бұрын

    As an italian, the king's pronunciation, it's a lot easy to understand because he pronunce the vocals similarly we do in italian

  • @Arol00007

    @Arol00007

    Жыл бұрын

    His father was Italian prince, wasn't he?

  • @Bison_Beans

    @Bison_Beans

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Arol00007 Greek but mostly grew up in the UK, I believe

  • @antonio_carvalho
    @antonio_carvalho9 ай бұрын

    I love these explorations of the Royal Family's mannerisms. Excellent video as always!

  • @NarsFromMars
    @NarsFromMars Жыл бұрын

    An Anglomaniac from Iran here🙋 Linguistic nuances always fascinate me, and this video made my day, even in this difficult times of protests.... #mahsaamini

  • @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    Ай бұрын

    Nice to hear from you in Iran.

  • @EriniusT
    @EriniusT Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for talking about this relaxed speaking style characteristic of RP, I've noticed that before with people like Winston Churchill but I didn't know it was something any linguists paid attention to

  • @rin_etoware_2989

    @rin_etoware_2989

    Жыл бұрын

    i always thought it was because of, or is said as a joke for, Churchill's gargantuan appetite for alcohol. i would also be remiss to not point out, ahem, underidoderidoderiododeridoo, at this point.

  • @resourceress7

    @resourceress7

    Жыл бұрын

    @@rin_etoware_2989 Not being British, I'd love to know what that last part means.

  • @sliftylovesyou

    @sliftylovesyou

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@resourceress7 at any rate that is what we are going to try to do said in the "we shall fight on the beaches" speech by churchill, but he said these words in a single seconod

  • @resourceress7

    @resourceress7

    Жыл бұрын

    @@sliftylovesyou thanks

  • @nonnayourbsns1001
    @nonnayourbsns1001 Жыл бұрын

    This is one of the best videos ive seen in a While

  • @RGVLMR
    @RGVLMR Жыл бұрын

    Dr. Lindsey, thank you for this video! Very informative. I think the King has such a wonderful timbre and quality of voice. Maybe you can make that your next video! Again, thank you for your time and efforts in making this.

  • @quoquo100
    @quoquo100 Жыл бұрын

    I think even Queen’s accents had changed, if comparing her earlier speeches with more recent ones

  • @marmac83

    @marmac83

    Жыл бұрын

    Her accent seems non-existent now..

  • @boio_

    @boio_

    Жыл бұрын

    @@marmac83 bruh 💀

  • @paulgabolinscy2502

    @paulgabolinscy2502

    Жыл бұрын

    Hugely🇬🇧

  • @Nilguiri

    @Nilguiri

    Жыл бұрын

    @@marmac83 You mean it's like yours. EVERYBODY has an accent.

  • @SamanthaIreneYTube

    @SamanthaIreneYTube

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Nilguiri r/whoosh

  • @531c
    @531c Жыл бұрын

    Always been fascinated by the way people speak including facial and body gestures. As well as class accents, we have regional accents and dialects. I'm so glad I stumbled upon your video and have subscribed for further information. On a personal level, my job means I frequently get to speak to very well educated people whom are usually very wealthy, and people who are not very well educated and are quite poor. I end up mimicking slightly not to mock but to smooth the conversation. I must get the book

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you. Adapting our speech to those we're talking to is called accommodation. I do it a lot -- it's not really deliberate but of course I notice myself doing it.

  • @charleswhite758

    @charleswhite758

    Жыл бұрын

    * who are usually very wealthy

  • @531c

    @531c

    Жыл бұрын

    @@charleswhite758 correct.

  • @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    Ай бұрын

    @@charleswhite758. Yes. « Who » not « whom » when it is the subject, not the object, of the verb. There seems to be a plague of misplaced whoms on the internet at the moment.

  • @charleswhite758

    @charleswhite758

    Ай бұрын

    @@531c Feel free to use the edit facility!🤣

  • @aosth5
    @aosth5 Жыл бұрын

    Your style of editing is very helpful.

  • @rdevrij
    @rdevrij Жыл бұрын

    Dr. Geoffrey Lindsay, What an extraordinarily fine presentation! Thank you, ever so much.

  • @rezashia3135
    @rezashia3135 Жыл бұрын

    That was incredibly informative and entertaining for us all! May God bless his Royal Highness King Charles III!

  • @FannomacritaireSuomi
    @FannomacritaireSuomi Жыл бұрын

    As a phonetics student, I find this video absolutely fascinating!

  • @isabellepelletier2540
    @isabellepelletier2540 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you for another excellent video!

  • @jonasdaverio9369
    @jonasdaverio9369 Жыл бұрын

    I saw your blog post about the obsolete use of IPA in English years ago, and found it to be one of the best ressource on pronunciation online. It came to me as a big surprise when I saw KZread recommending me your channel just now, and realising it was the same Geoff Lindsey. Thank you for your work

  • @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    @mauvegreenwisteria3645

    Ай бұрын

    What’s IPA, please ?

  • @Lucas-gf6zm
    @Lucas-gf6zm Жыл бұрын

    Great! Very clear and dynamic. Excited to follow up on your videos.

  • @andreap.7213
    @andreap.7213 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Geoff, for this great video. Very interesting and inspiring!

  • @user-yf4lz4ol8v
    @user-yf4lz4ol8v Жыл бұрын

    I really appreciated your analysis of King Charles' accent. On a side note, I must confess that I stumbled upon your website a few years ago and became a great fan ever since. It would be interesting to make a video about Bertrand Russell's unusual accent even within the spectrum of classic RP. The most unusual RP I've ever heard.

  • @roxieeyeleers4465
    @roxieeyeleers4465 Жыл бұрын

    I am so glad I found you!!

  • @hirsch4155
    @hirsch4155 Жыл бұрын

    British accents fascinate me. As an American I can’t “do” any of them , but from study and watching various media I am starting to get good at identification. I recently asked an English expat at my AA meeting, after listening to him speak, if he was from Leeds, I was close he said - Halifax. I was “chuffed” to be just a few miles off! Also I now know there’s a city named Halifax close to Leeds lol.

  • @scampi9588

    @scampi9588

    Жыл бұрын

    You’re use of ‘chuffed’ is excellent use of British dialect mate

  • @irenejohnston6802

    @irenejohnston6802

    Жыл бұрын

    @@scampi9588 even better to say 'dead chuffed'. By the way, there are more layers in Liverpool than the media depiction of so-called Scouse. A word I didn't hear growing up in South Liverpool, Lancashire, before politicians changed our name to Merseyside in the early 1970s. Lancashire lass aged 82.

  • @contagiousintelligence5007

    @contagiousintelligence5007

    Жыл бұрын

    I’ve been to Halifax in July. It used to be a booming textile town, but alas, not anymore

  • @hirsch4155

    @hirsch4155

    Жыл бұрын

    @@scampi9588 Thanks man :)

  • @butterflymoon6368

    @butterflymoon6368

    Жыл бұрын

    @@scampi9588 your

  • @jamesmcinnis208
    @jamesmcinnis208 Жыл бұрын

    What I particularly like about Charles's accent is his voicing of what I call the "strangled vowel," as in Paul, thought, or caught. Most Brits pronounce it way back in the throat and quite exaggerated. His pronunciation is much more subtle and, to my ear, pleasant sounding.

  • @thehearth8773
    @thehearth8773 Жыл бұрын

    Your videos are just as fascinating for a native english speaker as for a non-native! I'm an engineer by schooling and trade, but linguistics is an area that's always fascinated me, and these breakdowns of features English has, from a perspective that doesn't make any assumptions about what the listener's dialect sounds like, are very interesting to see!

  • @mimisanjuan8026
    @mimisanjuan8026 Жыл бұрын

    Really love the entire video. But my favorite part actually was the end card. lol That's so creative.

  • @chenzenzo
    @chenzenzo Жыл бұрын

    He speaks quite beautifully when you take the time to listen to him. It's a fine thing hearing the king in his elements.

  • @chenzenzo

    @chenzenzo

    Жыл бұрын

    Many Americans speak quite the same way, more particularly very old Bostonians from recent years and New Yorkers from the early twentieth-century and late nineteenth century.

  • @RockDove5212
    @RockDove5212 Жыл бұрын

    This is fascinating! Please do more on the King, and other older royals with this accent. Subscribed! Please do voice quality that you mentioned at the end. I like it that you give clear examples. Younger female voices with this accent ( Kirsty Allsop, Sarah Beeny, Louise Thompson, singer Wendy James' gorgeous 80s voice) would be interesting too. Thank you!

  • @walterweiss328
    @walterweiss3284 ай бұрын

    I found a new soft spoken gentleman and videos I will binge on for sometime, cause this is very naturally interesting material, thank you!

  • @Theredundantrose
    @Theredundantrose Жыл бұрын

    @DrGeoffLindsay Thank you! What a charming and amusing way to present phonetics! Loved it and subscribed!

  • @oak_
    @oak_ Жыл бұрын

    Watching this video 3 months after it came out and was surprised because i had already forgotten liz truss was prime minister

  • @kelrogers8480
    @kelrogers8480 Жыл бұрын

    Please do something on how Elizabeth II changed over time. There are marked differences between her speech in the 1950s and present day.

  • @tonybaroud6820

    @tonybaroud6820

    Жыл бұрын

    👋I’m really impressed with your comment, if you don’t mind friendship where are you from?

  • @albinjohansson5975
    @albinjohansson5975 Жыл бұрын

    Just came across your channel, and have to say you are both a good educator and entertaining! I think the person who has the most clear RP accent i've ever heard is Miriam Margolyes. Listening to audiobooks narrated by her is really relaxing.

  • @e.r.4077
    @e.r.4077 Жыл бұрын

    Pleasure to hear this!

  • @tonygumbrell22
    @tonygumbrell22 Жыл бұрын

    The King's speech sounds to me distinguished but at the same time natural to him, so unaffected, and although very British perfectly clear to an American, pretty astonishing really.

  • @ushoys
    @ushoys Жыл бұрын

    Charles not only pronounces words well, what he says is actually worth listening to. He was by far the best speaker at last year’s climate conference in Glasgow, much better than any of the politicians in attendance.

  • @astra1360
    @astra1360 Жыл бұрын

    Amazingly well done! Thanks a lot for your analysis!

  • @danielarrate669
    @danielarrate669 Жыл бұрын

    Many thanks Geoff for this lingo analysis. Much appreciated 😊

  • @MacKenziePoet
    @MacKenziePoet Жыл бұрын

    This could not be more interesting, especially for those of us who very much enjoy the King's english.

  • @hsepo
    @hsepo Жыл бұрын

    Whatever it is I really like King's English pronounciation. It sounds very nice, elegant.

  • @theshivers1967
    @theshivers1967 Жыл бұрын

    I love your analysis.

  • @the_neutral_container
    @the_neutral_container Жыл бұрын

    Thanks! That cleared up a number of questions about RP for me. (Stephen Fry also totally does the 'mumbling' like that.)

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    I discuss Stephen Fry in my Weak Forms video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/d5WMu8OsZZvFm8Y.html

  • @nemonemini

    @nemonemini

    2 ай бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindseyThanks! I'd love an analysis of the pronunciation tricks used by Nigel Hawthorne to make Sir Humphrey Appleby sound posh even with the simplest phrases like "Yes, indeed" or "Most inappropriate" or "Very droll" or "Of course" or "Quite so".

  • @SeverityOne
    @SeverityOne Жыл бұрын

    The King's speech... wasn't that his grandfather? 🙂 For me as a Dutchman, there are similarities with Princess (formerly Queen) Beatrix, and her son, King Willem-Alexander. Whilst her pronunciation is very formal, his is more like the standard region-less accent (which the Dutch like to call "accent-less") that you need to speak to get ahead in life. But she was born in the late 1930s, whereas he is from the late 1960s.

  • @abvwtube
    @abvwtube Жыл бұрын

    Indeed the speech of your new King and your new Prime Minister are a world apart. I'm a dutchman and learned to speak English in the seventies and Charles sounds just as my English teacher learned us do it. I have no difficulty to understand him. When I hear Ms Truss speak I am constantly distracted by things that sound very strange to me. For instance there is the pronunciation of the r. That seem to be replaced by a w "Bwillanty Bwitish".

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    I think a huge number of people around the world are still being taught RP pronunciation, meaning that modern speakers are harder to understand. The main culprit is the inability of British EFL phonetics to update itself.

  • @1000pollak
    @1000pollak Жыл бұрын

    I am a subscriber and enjoy many of your videos. Imitating Charles has been a "party piece" of mine for years, and I met him a few years ago. He did all the things you demonstrate! Definitely my favourite so far of your videos.

  • @urasam2
    @urasam2 Жыл бұрын

    That was a really excellent video! So interesting! I really liked the way you slowed down some words

  • @lenbantay3993
    @lenbantay3993 Жыл бұрын

    I love how King Charles speaks. He sounds very honourable. His voice is soothing and very manly.

  • @jamessergeant2136
    @jamessergeant2136 Жыл бұрын

    Fascinating thank you! The line I heard was that you could approximate Prince Charles by saying ‘ears’ for yes and ‘near’ for no.

  • @longhaulblue1145
    @longhaulblue1145 Жыл бұрын

    Thank you. It was both informative and entertaining.

  • @KMR1776
    @KMR1776 Жыл бұрын

    Wow. Time to bring this accent back. It's wonderful

  • @nancygreene7911
    @nancygreene7911 Жыл бұрын

    Very interesting thank you. I live in Southern U.S. and I love all of the variances of the British accent. My condolences on the loss of your Queen and best wishes for the new King.

  • @jshepard152

    @jshepard152

    Жыл бұрын

    🇺🇸 🇬🇧

  • @thedamned8202
    @thedamned8202 Жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the video Dr. Lindsey. Is the vowel /ɒ/ really pronounced in RP or is it just /ɔ/? I'm a Persian speaker and I've never heard the word lock being pronounced like the Persian word lâk /lɒːk/.

  • @neuroleptik121
    @neuroleptik121 Жыл бұрын

    As a French people trying to really improve my pronunciation and prosody, theses videos about the differences beyond classic IP for RP. IPA which I learnt after highschool because nobody in France during English classrooms want to teach it, to relearn German, English, Portuguese and for my hobby : conlonging. The differences between the official written phonology of English and the reality I heard from TV is quite huge. You show so much expertise and peadagogy(gia ? tha hability to give knowledges to students, how we say/write it ?) and your accent is very clear to me whereas from American or young Londoners it's often needed to me to put English subtitles sometimes. Where does your accent come from ? As a French I can't The other one about contractions was plusplus-supergood 🙂 It was said that contractions with not were not informal. And I tried to avoid them. 🙃 I did not understand too how to pronunce basic words in a fluent and fluid sentences such as : to, two, too, as, and, where, were, was and so many others. We can boost our level when we discover the famous Schwa (pronunce with a v in French, German also), and boost again when we better understand the new SSB. So a great massive thanks to you, in a lonely comment because I was quiet about this before. It's important for me to encourage a great original and no-French channel. Your work, It's just gold for stangers who prefer British EnglishES over the American One that we hear most of the time. And a great ressource for curious natives too, for sure. I'll also get a deeper look on CUBE pronunciation dictonnary ! If you're golden, CUBE's true cavern of Ali-Baba :-)

  • @EmilyTienne
    @EmilyTienne Жыл бұрын

    Quite fascinating. Love this kind of analysis.

  • @johnbarclay88
    @johnbarclay88 Жыл бұрын

    I was watching an interview of the late Patrick Leigh Fermor to see what this great traveller and writer sounded like, given that he lived outside Britain for most of his life from age 18 and must have had to make himself intelligible to many thousands of non-native English speakers. I was surprised to find his accent was such an extreme version of RP that I could barely understand it myself!

  • @marna_li
    @marna_li Жыл бұрын

    One thing that interest me is how his way of speaking changes between being in a formal setting vs more casual or private setting. We have seen clips when the late Queen Elizabeth was in the role of granny to her grandchildren, or having friendly conversations with her staff. It is like they have different personas depending on context, with different ways of speech.

  • @chumleyk

    @chumleyk

    Жыл бұрын

    Who doesn't

  • @tonybaroud6820

    @tonybaroud6820

    Жыл бұрын

    👋I’m really impressed with your comment, if you don’t mind friendship where are you from?

  • @clod8

    @clod8

    Жыл бұрын

    That seemed to be the way in the mid 20th Century; even Americans changed their accents on radio, films and tv from the 1930’s-1960’s. I think the Queen was very conscious about how she was “supposed” to sound.

  • @faithlesshound5621

    @faithlesshound5621

    Жыл бұрын

    @@clod8 The Queen was heavily criticised for her way of speaking in the late 1950s by Lord Altrincham and deliberately changed it, presumably with professional help like her father had.

  • @MrPercy112
    @MrPercy112 Жыл бұрын

    Nicely done, Doc, I enjoyed that.

  • @Lumenum
    @Lumenum Жыл бұрын

    Definitely subscribing! :) highly interesting and practical content, thank you!

  • @Vinemaple
    @Vinemaple Жыл бұрын

    Lovely! Your videos are so useful! Have you done one on the Trans-Atlantic accent? I'd love to hear your in-depth analysis!

  • @sarahberney
    @sarahberney Жыл бұрын

    Thanks I enjoyed this video. It may not be fashionable to say so but I actually enjoy listening to king Charles speak. Suggestion: perhaps pop your book deets in the description box? I'm not finding it easily enough grrrr

  • @dreamer_4937
    @dreamer_4937 Жыл бұрын

    This was brilliant!! Love it 😂

  • @AnthonyDibiaseIdeas
    @AnthonyDibiaseIdeas Жыл бұрын

    Excellent. Thank you. I grew up in Toronto as the son of Italian parents and now I live in Los Angeles so I am thoroughly intimidated. Such a beautiful language.

  • @oliversmith2
    @oliversmith2 Жыл бұрын

    Well, that was interesting. I have never given much thought to how people speak. I am sure that some actors would find this information extremely useful. Liked and subscribed.

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you!

  • @alanm6329
    @alanm6329 Жыл бұрын

    Great video! I would love to see an analysis about how Kate Middleton's accent has evolved over the years, seemingly into a more conservative RP than William or Harry's.

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    Thank you. I haven't studied her properly, but my vague suspicion is that she was previously uber-posh and they've tried to tone her down a bit. Could be wrong.

  • @rezakarampour6286

    @rezakarampour6286

    Жыл бұрын

    Search . What the Media Won't Tell You about King Charles . '

  • @deustectips9519
    @deustectips9519 Жыл бұрын

    Love this (prof Higgins) never thought about it, other than the way someone speaks. Shared this with my 78 mother, who found it also fascinating (and yes 78 and using YT 😉).

  • @rezakarampour6286

    @rezakarampour6286

    Жыл бұрын

    Search . ' What the Media Won't Tell You about King Charles . '

  • @louern123
    @louern123 Жыл бұрын

    i’m so glad you added actual clips of him speaking otherwise i wouldn’t have followed 🎉

  • @lindahandley5267
    @lindahandley5267 Жыл бұрын

    This was just great! I've always been fascinated with the English accent and just how many dialects there are. To me, cockney is the hardest to understand. King Charles' accent seems VERY sophisticated! Of course, here in America, we have many different accents too. I was reading up on the subject and in a study that was done, Ireland seems to like our Deep South accent the best! Good for me!

  • @rezakarampour6286

    @rezakarampour6286

    Жыл бұрын

    Search . ' What the Media Won't Tell You about King Charles . '

  • @heatherstubbs6646
    @heatherstubbs6646 Жыл бұрын

    As a Canadian, I found this fascinating and great fun. My grandfather, born into a middle class family in Battersea, emigrated to Canada in the early 20th Century, reinventing himself by adopting an upper class accent. I grew up with RP in my ears, so when I played Madame Arcati in Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit”, she must have sounded very posh, because RP was the only English accent I knew how to imitate. I never slurred quickly through words, though. 😉

  • @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    Жыл бұрын

    Coming from Battersea I suspect he was working class rather than middle class? The British middle classes are the professionals, the working class work with their hands.

  • @heatherstubbs6646

    @heatherstubbs6646

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Tom_KZread_stole_my_handle His father was a coal merchant’s clerk. My grandfather used to say he was a true Cockney because he was born within the sound of the Bo bells (that spelling is probably wrong) but I think he’d have to have mighty good hearing if that were the case! He was a born mimic, and could do a really good Cockney accent.

  • @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    Жыл бұрын

    @@heatherstubbs6646 It's Bow bells, the bells of St Mary-le-Bow in the City of London. At the time your grandfather was born Battersea would have been a pretty tough part of London.

  • @heatherstubbs6646

    @heatherstubbs6646

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Tom_KZread_stole_my_handle This is very interesting! When I was studying in London in the early 1970’s, I I looked into applying for landed immigrant status. That’s when I learned that my grandfather was the son of a coal merchant’s clerk, born in Battersea. Who knows why the family was there? I guess that’s where the work was. By the time I was in London, my relatives were in Richmond. I’m a big fan of Anne Perry’s mystery novels, which are set in London about the time my grandfather was born. She describes the rough areas of London vividly.

  • @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    @Tom_YouTube_stole_my_handle

    Жыл бұрын

    @@heatherstubbs6646 Coal would likely have come up the Thames and been distributed by rail from Clapham Junction railway station or thereabouts. There are many railway sidings in Battersea to this day. Land was cheap there and of poor quality. There was a lot of industry along the Thames and Battersea power station to the south of the river and Lots Road on the opposite bank, although not built when your grandfather left. prior to the turn of the 20th century there would largely have been villages to the south of Battersea with the big housing construction which resulted in everywhere being absorbed into Greater London starting around 1900. In the Sherlock Holmes stories, Chiswick, now in west London was described as being in the countryside.

  • @rosemaryjamir23
    @rosemaryjamir23 Жыл бұрын

    It's really good channel. Thank u Dr. Lindsey

  • @bnap3221
    @bnap3221 Жыл бұрын

    Brilliant video, thank you so much

  • @tonyclifton265
    @tonyclifton265 Жыл бұрын

    wow.. this is brilliant. liked & sub'd. i've also noticed a "buckingham palace" micro accent shared by prince andrew and the duchess of cambridge in which vowel elision is so clipped now that they hardly pronounce vowels at all - only voiceless consonants. it struck me as i realised that when andrew said "m'strepsteen" he was trying to say "mister epstein". kate's vowels are so consistently absent that i actually find her utterances quite hard to understand. my brain has to work hard to insert the missing vowels

  • @iTube22100

    @iTube22100

    Жыл бұрын

    I assume from your nickname that you are English mother tongue. It is comforting for a foreigner like me to know that even a native speaker has a hard time understanding Catherine and, as far as I'm concerned, William and Harry too as it was Prince Philip!!!

  • @seandaugherty9171

    @seandaugherty9171

    Жыл бұрын

    If you think their differences in accent are hard to understand, just put yourself in my shoes. I'm from California, and my aunt is from the northern part of Florida, very close to the state of Georgia. I prefer to text rather than talk to her on the phone because I can't understand a word coming out of her mouth!

  • @WreckItRolfe

    @WreckItRolfe

    Жыл бұрын

    It's interesting, as in other accents it's more common to drop consonants.

  • @RicktheRecorder

    @RicktheRecorder

    Жыл бұрын

    All young people today, including the posh, gabble and elide so it is hard to follow what they are saying.

  • @schniggs2011
    @schniggs2011 Жыл бұрын

    I think the King’s speech pattern and accent is “elegance itself.” I could listen to people like him or, say, Sir David Attenborough speak all day.

  • @zosoart
    @zosoart Жыл бұрын

    what a brilliant and fascinating video!!

  • @simonvaughan6017
    @simonvaughan6017 Жыл бұрын

    Fascinating stuff. The other day, I finally got round to watching Prince Andrew's infamous interview with Emily Maitlis, and it struck how much more "modern" or "middle-class" his accent was than Charles's. Of course, he was born in 1960, ten years after Anne, when those cultural and linguistic shifts you mention were beginning, so that must account for it in large part. On the other hand, William sounds posher to me than Andrew, so maybe there are other, more individual factors involved.

  • @mysticjen379
    @mysticjen3798 ай бұрын

    I’m from Liverpool and I would say “id is” for “it is” 🙂 We also drop h’s, add r’s to link words, mix t with d. For example “Av got/d de winder-ropen” (I’ve got the window open) and I also say fillim instead of film. In Irish there is an invisible vowel between l and m apparently! And yes there is an s on t’s like in “devosed” (devoted). I’m from the Irish diaspora so my pronunciation is heavily influenced by the Irish speakers in my family only two or so generations before me. Not everyone in Liverpool has it in their accent - the Scouse accent changes slightly depending which part of Liverpool you’re from and which ethnic background/tongue. For example North Liverpool (where I’m from) sounds different to South Liverpool (what we call the South end). Different cultural groups settled in different parts of the port city and their respective languages influenced the English pronunciation and, oddly, form of Scouse accent.

  • @britishaussie22
    @britishaussie22 Жыл бұрын

    My grandfather very much spoke like this, my dad and his brothers were all born in the 50's/60's and still sound posh but it's definitely not quite as pronounced. Myself having lived in Australia since I was a kid still have quite a lot of RP influence but obviously a lot of Australian too so my accent is very mixed (I used to work in film and always got the piss taken out of me by Aussies when asking which "r'm" cast and crew were staying in at hotels when on away jobs). My cousins in the UK have a really weird accent, it still has traces of RP but also quite a big influence from Multicultural London English. It's amazing to see how an accent can evolve over such a relatively short time.

  • @vdenise

    @vdenise

    Жыл бұрын

    i can relate with your story , my self an Australian but both my grandparents English, they arrived in the country right after 2nd ww , their accent influenced the hole family and i have the same problem with my accent, people have trouble understanding where im from

  • @UCR2eBQ
    @UCR2eBQ Жыл бұрын

    Thank you, Dr. Lindsey. I always liked the king's voice. Now I know that I like RP, too

  • @Lousysalsero
    @Lousysalsero Жыл бұрын

    As a former teacher of English as a foreign language (not my mother tongue) in Flanders, I can only say: this is a SUPERB video! Interested in more.

  • @c.h.benwan3793
    @c.h.benwan3793 Жыл бұрын

    Hi Geoff! Am I right to say coalescence is a thing of Charles's speech (e.g. Tuesday) but not in the late Queen's? Also, I feel like Charles's /r/ is really an alveolar approximant vs her mother's tap. What do you think? Again, thanks for your great work.

  • @eh1702
    @eh1702 Жыл бұрын

    In the recently-former Soviet Union, I came across people - in an area where a jamming mast had been located - who had heard almost no spoken English in their lives, and who had taught themselves English pronunciation from dictionaries almost exclusively. They absolutely sounded like elderly Oxbridge professors. Not QUITE like the Queen asa little girl, but not far off it.

  • @edronc2007
    @edronc2007 Жыл бұрын

    Already subscribed. This is fascinating.

  • @lydgate6268
    @lydgate6268 Жыл бұрын

    Was just watching the king, then the Wired accent expert, and now I've found a new favourite KZread channel.

  • @MarvinClarence
    @MarvinClarence Жыл бұрын

    Hi Dr Lindsey, what would be your advice for those trying to learn this accent for various reasons?

  • @DrGeoffLindsey

    @DrGeoffLindsey

    Жыл бұрын

    As with learning any accent, it depends largely on the person doing the learning: their own language/accent, their 'ear', their tolerance for technical detail, their motivation and the time they can put in. For those with a good ear, there's no shortage of recordings of Charles to listen to. If you want a range of old RP speakers, the Pathé news website (or channel here) is a fantastic resource. For those who can read technical material, there's no shortage of descriptions of RP, e.g. Daniel Jones's Outline of English Phonetics or the first edition of Gimson's Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. If you're coming at it from contemporary SSB, and know a bit about phonetics, you could even use my book to work through the differences. Actors are sometimes helped a lot by a simple, general piece of advice. According to the actor who played Charles in The Crown on Netflix, he was helped by his dialect coach's advice to 'talk through his teeth'. But that kind of thing doesn't per se fix all the details which can go wrong.

  • @MarvinClarence

    @MarvinClarence

    Жыл бұрын

    @@DrGeoffLindsey Thank you, Dr Lindsey!

  • @mircorizza5609
    @mircorizza5609 Жыл бұрын

    As a non-native English (I'm Italian motherlanguage) there are some kind of English accents that helps me to understand a speech. There are other accents where I am struggling to catch the speech. Liz Truss' accent it is pleasant to me because I can understand enough, especially when she is not talking faster. Some American accents look like more easy to understand to me but some others not. I've got more difficult in writing, especially talking than in understanding the listening.

  • @ginghamt.c.5973
    @ginghamt.c.5973 Жыл бұрын

    Loved the way you said "Laike" and "sebsraibe" in the style of the King at the end !

  • @marianoignacioscotti5158
    @marianoignacioscotti5158 Жыл бұрын

    Lovely ! Simply gorgeous !! Un abrazo, from Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧