Vile signeds
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Steve Bell takes us behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace, where Prince Charles discusses the GOAT ("tately", "naybody") and MOUTH "vile", "signeds") diphthongs with his mother the Queen:
Some background:
See John Wells' blog for more discussion. A list of the "lexical sets" including GOAT and MOUTH is here.
Andrew said,
November 21, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
I can follow just about everything, except Vile Signeds. What does that mean?
[(myl) Vowel sounds.]
language hat said,
November 21, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
Vowel sounds.
language hat said,
November 21, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
Oops, didn't see the red editorial addition.
Philip Spaelti said,
November 21, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
Vile Signeds = vowel sounds
Philip Spaelti said,
November 21, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
Well, hat, it seems we were all commenting at the same time ;-)
Mark Liberman said,
November 21, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
John Wells examines a YouTube clip of the Queen, and observes:
He doesn't report fact-checking Bell's characterization of Prince Charles' accent.
Nicholas Waller said,
November 22, 2008 @ 9:56 am
The UK satirical animated television show 2DTV had a nice play on the Queen's accent… David Beckham explains to Her Maj that he and Posh Spice call their house Beckingham Palace after her Buckingham Palace. "Well feck off back there then" she says, followed by "Ah, here come the Kents".
But it is not the Duke and Duchess of Kent who hove into view from off-frame, it is Tony and Cherie Blair.
See it (15secs) at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzs8CP7TH38
j-bird said,
November 25, 2008 @ 12:50 am
Wow, the "boggler boggler" sounds that the bus makes are brilliant!
Ray Girvan said,
November 26, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
ML > a YouTube clip of the Queen
It's interesting to compare the 1957 Christmas Broadcast. To a large extent, although it's obviously RP, the Queen's accent never was as stereotypically U-RP as depicted in the Bell cartoon. It does have the classic "cloth->clawth" type of substitution, as in "awfen" (0:55) and "lawst" (1:55); and in some cases the "trap "-> "trep", as in "meneged" (4:51) and "stend" (5:18). But as can be heard at the start of her 2006 House of Commons speech, she doesn't say "hice".
Ginger Yellow said,
November 27, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
"David Beckham explains to Her Maj that he and Posh Spice call their house Beckingham Palace after her Buckingham Palace. "Well feck off back there then" she says, followed by "Ah, here come the Kents". "
cf the old joke:
"What's the definition of 'creche'?"
"A car accident in Surrey."