How to Speak in a Posh English Accent
Some people seem to have a natural propensity for accents; they pick them up quickly and sound convincing. For some professions, particularly acting, this is a very useful talent. While a posh English accent is more about a way of speaking than an actual accent, you take much the same approach to learning it. You need to be aware that accents do change and modify over time, and this is particularly true of the posh English way of speaking. If you listen to the upper class accents of English people in the 1930s and 1940s, for instance, you will notice that nobody really speaks like that any more. The most usual way of speaking people mean when they speak of a posh accent is "Received Pronunciation, (RP)."
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Instructions
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Listen to the BBC World Service. Received pronunciation was adopted in 1922 by Lord Reith, the general manager of the BBC, as the broadcasting standard. Though regional accents are now much more acceptable, many presenters still use RP. This is one variation of what may be termed "posh". Other people associate a posh accent with members of the royal family. This is not quite the same as RP. For instance, members of the aristocracy have a tendency to pronounce "house" as "hice." Not very many people in Britain today speak like this.
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Pronounce your words properly. Do not over-articulate, however, as this will sound false. Use short vowel sounds. Do not cut off the ends of words in a lazy manner, particularly consonants. These should be quite clipped. Be aware that there are many English accents (not to mention Welsh and Scottish). There are also subtle variations even within the regions: for instance there is a strong or broad Liverpool accent (often called "Scouse"), whereas there is a much more refined Liverpool accent, which is milder.
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Watch lots of British films, learning the subtleties and the various regional accents and dialects. Listen to audio books narrated by British actors. Visit a voice coach and ask for lessons. Soften your voice. Pronounce your words properly.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Radio image by Ewe Degiampietro from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Awful. Modern RP, such as that of Jeremy Irons, elongates the vowels. So, 'nasty' becomes 'narrrrsteh'. Whoever wrote this pathetic article should be ashamed of themselves.
