This book concisely describes ways in which today's standard British English speech differs from the upper-class accent of the last century, Received Pronunciation, which many now find old-fashioned or even comic. In doing so it provides a much-needed update to the existing RP-based descriptions by which the sound system of British English is still known to many around the world.
The book opens with an account of the rise and fall of RP, before turning to a systematic analysis of the phonetic developments between RP and contemporary Standard Southern British (SSB) in vowels, consonants, stress, connected speech and intonation. Topics covered include the anti-clockwise vowel shift, the use of glottal stops, 'intrusive r', vocal fry and Uptalk. It concludes with a Mini Dictionary of well over 100 words illustrating the changes described throughout the book, and provides a chart of updated IPA vowel symbols.
This book is an essentialresource for anyone interested in British pronunciation and sound change, including academics in phonetics, phonology, applied linguistics and English language; trainers of English teachers; English teachers themselves; teachers of voice and accent coaches; and students in those areas.

Provides an update to phonetic descriptions which have become outdated over the past half-century of rapid sociophonetic change Includes a Mini Dictionary of over a hundred common words which illustrate the changes described throughout the book Presents a succinct analysis of 21st century British speech, showing how it differs from the classic RP descriptions of the 20th century

Autorentext

Geoff Lindsey is Honorary Lecturer in Linguistics, and Director of the Summer Course in English Phonetics, at University College London, UK. He works internationally as a pronunciation and accent tutor and is co-editor of the online dictionary CUBE. He has also worked in film and TV as a writer and director.

Inhalt
Introduction: What was RP?.- Part I. Changes: General observations.- Chapter 1. The power of writing.- Chapter 2. The special relationship.- Chapter 3. Getting stronger.- Part II. Vowels.- Chapter 4. The anti-clockwise vowel shift.- Chapter 5. FLEECE, GOOSE and other diphthongs.- Chapter 6. GOAT, GOOSE and FOOT backing.- Chapter 7. A LOT more common.- Chapter 8. KIT still going strong (but happY never existed).- Chapter 9. FOOT even rarer, but still common!.- Chapter 10. Weak vowel merger.- Chapter 11. Two kinds of BATH.- Chapter 12. PRICE and MOUTH.- Chapter 13. The decline of the centring diphthongs.- Part III. Consonants.- Chapter 14. More aspiration (and affrication).- Chapter 15. /t/ and /d/ a new si-chew-ation.- Chapter 16. /t/ and /d/ a new chrend.- Chapter 17. Epen-t-thesis.- Chapter 18. Syllabic consonants a little less certain.- Chapter 19. Glottal stops, part 1.- Chapter 20. Is /l/ following /r/?.- Chapter 21. G-dropping and H-dropping.- Chapter 22. Fings to come?.- Part IV. Stress.- Chapter 23. The love of alternating stress.- Chapter 24. Westwards toward America?.- Part V. Connected speech.- Chapter 25. Linking /r/.- Chapter 26. Glottal stops, part 2.- Chapter 27. Vocal fry.- Part VI. Intonation.- Chapter 28. Falls.- Chapter 29. Yes-no questions.- Chapter 30. Continuation patterns.- Chapter 31. Uptalk.- Part VII. Mini Dictionary.