Pitch Patterns (Music, Intonation)

SIl: "" :'!' ( 1I\ II: d l\' ti l(" \y ll.lh,," I ' S IIl 'S \t:d , l ' XlT p l lor wo rr l -, 1"1 111111 / ', III Li sl syll.ib!c IS stressed; ac...
Author: Wilfred Holt
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SIl: "" :'!'

( 1I\ II: d l\'

ti l("

\y ll.lh,," I ' S IIl 'S \t:d , l ' XlT p l lor wo rr l -, 1"1 111111 / ', III

Li sl syll.ib!c IS stressed; acce nt marks Illdlc:tlc 1111 ­

1" 'llIdllll l:l! ("

. 1 l ' () II\ I) II : II i1 , :111l III'IIIII
t hc v owe l ill meet; m uch as in Genc ral Ame rican. Note : In RP th c word been uxu.illy prono unce d to rhymc with bean , and not, as in Ge neral Ame rican ,

r,

\\'1111

bin.

" i . " word cnd ings: Th ese arc usu ally pron oun ced not with a schwa bu t with th e ·.Illliid "ccz " or wit h a lengt hened " i.."

Mo re Wo rds in W hich th e Simple Consona nt Is Sounded

Before Full y Pronou nced "yoo"

gradual, individual , procedure, sensual, issue (is' yoo), tissue, schedule (Not es: "sch " sounds like "sh, " not like Ameri can "sk." The plural s of picture and lecture (pik' tyuh, lek' tyuh ) become "pik-t shuh z" and "lek-tshuhz."] Fur ther Phoneti c In formati on See thc very imp ort ant inf ormation in St ress below. Bear in m ind particul arly the non- rhot icity of thc accen t and th c use of the broad , open-throated "A ." T hc imp ortant thin g is to se lect thc specific accent to use in playing a specifi c char act er, such as th c Major in th e Brit ish television seri es Fawlty To wers, or Lord Emsworth of Blandi ngs C as tle in d ram at izati on s of PG . Wode ho usc nov­ els. Rem ember th at people speak in ind ividu al, idiosyncrati c ways, as well as in ways which arc cha racteristic of a particular rcgion and socia l class. It is also wo rth bearing in min d that th e sam e spea ker can pron oun cc the same words diff erently in diffcrent circumstances: education (c dyoo kay' shen ; morc for­ mal); (e dye kay' shen or edge kay' shen; less [ormal). C onson ants

Th cre are very few cha nges from Ame rican consonants, except for th e fact th at

some consonan ts have a mo re forward point of articulat ion, namely "d," " t, "

"k," and "g." In arti cul ati ng "b" thc lips are pressed togcth er for a slightly longcr

tim e th an in an American "b."

Vowels and Diphth ongs

8Y: th e di phtho ng in late, say; mu ch as in Gen eral Ame rican . T his sound is ofte n

but not always shorte ned in words end ing wit h day, so Monday becomes Mond ec,

holiday holidec, etc ., bu t weekday retain s th e full lon g "ay"

a: th e vowel in that, cat; as in American, but som etimes shortened so it sounds like th e "e" in met. O ccasionally a schwa will be inserted aft er the vowel, so that

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Practi ce 1,Llt e " I o l lgn l. C Oll t ra l'lwise, a lan gu agc m ay evolve in a n ew place as it rcru ain s

\ \ "'J( ' y" l1 g " l l l g

a sk?

\th erc

conservative at its pomt of origin,)

if I may tod ay,

Some More Exam ples of Intonation Patterns in British RP I ,\IIH'I ic.m

Would you care for some tea?

Patt ern)

(Brit ish Patt ern)

today, if I may ask? th ere

Would you care for some

Itea? (rising ton e) or tea ? (flat ton e) (Ame rican Pattern )

\\ ',' 1('

you going

/1

un extremely good plan.

111/\

I3riti sh Patt ern s) T hc first patt ern would only occasionally be heard in Gen cral American, II "I IS mor e typical of British int onation; the next two patt erns could bc heard ' " 1.. ,lh British RP and Gene ral American, ( IIII C C

l\j , >I,'

tea? Would you care for some Phonetic Pronunciations Com pared : British RP: wed yoo ke:e fe sem tee Gen eral American : wood yoo ke:R foR sum tee

plan .

tremcl y

exII

11': 1\

Not e: In the followin g exam ples it is possible to hear th e so-called Amer ican pattern, which is, I emph asize, onl y on e of several possible patterns in British RP, but you would alm ost never hear th e British patt ern in Gene ral Ameri can ,

Were you going there today,

good

an good tremcly ex-

if I may ask?

II

\\ ' , 1'

an

plan .

II

11', 1\

an ex-

(British Patt ern ) trem cly good

Idago ing th cre to­

\y,

Wer e you

plan ,

ask? if I may

111/{IIl tunately, it's not quit e the right shade of blue, 11111 11\h

Pattern )

(Ame rican Pattern ) not quite the

day, if I ma y ask?

it's

\for-

going th ere to­

tun-

Wer e you

, ! 11-

Emph asizing the word there ch angcs th c pattern , (British Pattern )

right shade of

\blu­

y,

c.

ate/l-

\ ,",' , iean Patt ern: blu e

ask?

shade of

day if I Ithere to Were you going

40

may

for1111 -

not quite the right it's

tunate-

or

blue.

Iy,

41

IVI" rc

I'I:ld i' T

111111 "W hat are Y'"! stalldillg there lin, I1HlII ? Fi re!" INdl, lie [ired, (//1 right. Ilit the choir stalls, as it turned out. "Good gra cious," I said, "what did you want to do that for?" "Well, you told me to fire!" he said. Can you imagine?Bloody cheek I How dare he contradict me? 1 could use a whiskey and soda...

So I sau! 10

Phonetic pronunciation : sO I scd te him w/\ tyoo stand' eng TH aye faw man' f/\ weL, or wei, hee fAd' awL rIt ' hit THe kw/\ stawlz ez i tond owt', or It, or owt, or It good gRay' shes man I sed wAt dyoo wAn te doo T Hat', or THat, faw weL, or wei, yoo tOLd mec te fA hee sed ken yoo madg' en b Lu' dee cheek' how dee hee kon' tRe dikt ' rnee, or may I kood yooz e wis' kyen sO ' de Not es: The word well, whe n com plete ly un stressed , can also be heard just as a consonant: "I." You will noti ce, too, th at the first syllable of imagine is not pro­ nounced in thi s tran scripti on ; if it is pronounced , it is as th e briefest of schwa s in this very "swallo wed " acce nt, associated in plays and films with th e character of ex-colonial officer s scrving th e em pire in the days of imp erialism, and much ca ricatured, as it is here. For good exam ples of this type of m ilitary character see Major Gowen, played perfectly by Ballard Berkeley, in th e television series Fawlty Towers; and the General played by Sir Alec Guiness in Kind Hearts and Coronets ( 1949), in which Guin ess plays eight victims, and Dennis Price, th eir murderer, has th e plummiest of upp er-class acce nts, as does Joan Gree nwoo d. Th e ironic title comes from the verse "Kind heart s are more than corone ts jAnd sim ple fait h th an Norm an blood " in Alfred, Lord Tenn yson's Lady Clara de Vere. A mu ch more real exam ple of suc h a cha ract er is C. Aubrey Smith, who makes no atte m pt to put on anyth ing in th e way of a special acce nt, as th c bluff , good­ hearted Colonel [ul yan in Alfred Hit chc ock's first Ame rican film, Daphn e du Mauriers Rebecca (1 940), with Lauren ce Olivier as an English aristoc rat, Joan Fontain e as the Ameri can who marries him, George Sand ers (ano the r wonder­ ful plummy accent) as Rebecca's un ctuous cousin, and th e su pe rbly villainous Judith Anderson, who was bo rn in Australia, but who sounds absolutely English, as Mrs. Danvers.

May it please you, m'lud [or my Lord], if I may offer your Lordship some idea of the circumstances in which my client most unfortunately found himself, 1 think your Lordship will realize the extreme provocation he was under. Phon et ic pronunciation : ma y it plcez yoo mlud ', or ml lawd' , if I may 0' fe yaw lawd' ship sAm I de ee' ev TH e se' kern sten sez, or stAn' siz, or sta n' siz, in wich mI klAnt un faw' chne tlec fownd him sclf' I think yaw lawd' ship wei Reee' LIz TH ee iks tReern' pRA ve kay' shen hcc wez An' de Not es: Th e very clear dicti on of this acce n t, with strong final consona nts, is very sim ilar to those accents I heard from judges and lawyers during a trial I attended in a law court in London. For examp les of similar pear-shaped tones, listen to Rob ert Donat as Sir Robert Mort on in Terence Rattigan' s The Winslow Boy ( 1948); Fran cis X. Sulli van as Mr. Jaggers in David Lean's ada pta tio n of C ha rles Dickens' Great Expectations ( 1946); and th e lawyers in the television series based on th e John Mortim er stori es Rumpole of the Bailey, star ring Leo McKern as

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FIlI,,! ),,I , · . " l\Il' llId," ;1sll< lI l" lln l l' lI ll1 III "IllY1'1Il!." W ; IS p.ut n -ul.u ly lIscd W I IC I I

.,,:,I,(·ssillg :1 jlldgc who W, IS ,d:iO: 1 kllight or all aristocrat. Thi s pronunciation

" ."," I"',' 'lhiquiloLISly heard, but the full " m y lord" is no w more usual. "M'lud"

" .. 11' :1111 hell tic Victorian pronun ciat ion . O the rwise, two usual for ms of ad dress

I " ., /iidge were "sir" or "your worship." You will notice that th ere are thr ee

1" " llIlllcial"ions for the word circumstances; all three can be heard , some time s

" \"" IJy I hc same person, in British RP; in th e second two pronun ciati ons th e

", ", III: IS two stresses, as shown, Also, try to use th e British liquid "I," as opposed

I" IIII' Ame rican " L," which you will still find occasionally indic at ed in some of

11 11" ,(' exercises, beac aus e it is some times heard , part icularl y whe n it is a final

''' '11,,1 ill a syllable (see, for exa m ple, th e exercise beginning As your Lordship

111./ " /( '('(//1 ).

I ,·, ,. 11,,,/1, but don't be too long about it, We haven't got all day, you know.

pron unciation : ve' rcc, or Ree, wei bet don't bee too lAng e bIt' , or

vent got awl day yoo nO.

Ik sure to do the British "0 " d iphtho ng, not the American ,

I' I " " II' I IC

I" ,,, I '. it wee ha' , 01,

I '.

!',,"r Lordship may recall, 1had sent to your Lordship's chambers the papers

" 'I:,II,lillg the original brief 1'1" ,,,," ic pronun ciation : ez yaw, or zyaw, lawd' ship, or shep, may re kawL I hcd , " I I Y: IW Lawd ' she ps ch aym' bez TH e pay' pez Ri g/\ din g TH ee e Ridg' neL, or , " ,.j ..

hReef

). ", ",'S, get I' I ' '' '' ('I IC

on with it. We know all about that . pronun ciation: yes yes get An weth it, or it wee nO awl. e bowt' , or

loll ' , ' Il laet

I "' '' ',1 res pectfully submit to your Lordships that twenty years is much too long.

1'1 " ,," I ic pronunciation: I mOst re spekt ' flee, or fe lee, seb mit' tyaw, or te yaw, 1" , ,1 ' , Ilips THet twen' te e yez, or yceez, iz mAch , or mu ch , too lAng , " ,I , 'Ih e variations in the pronun ciati on of a n um ber of words in several of I I" , «xcrcises shows that in upp er-class speec h th ere is great variety, In othe r . ,,', I.. I here is no monolithic syste m of pronun ciati on , and eve ryone actua lly I " .I .. «Iiolectically (in his or her own individual way). I '" ' '' II

rea lly think so?

1'1" " ,, ' I Il: pronunciation: dyoo reee'{ ec, or re:' lee, think sO?

" I, I)Oll' t forget the British long 0 diphth on g.

, i .,

"Jllr l

is adjourned sine die.

1'1 " "" I n: pron unciation: THi s kawt iz e dgo:nd' sl' nee dI' ce " ,I , ."'lII e die is Latin , meanin g "without a day [being nam ed for th e cou rt to of '1>"111 ." Th e pronunciati on of thi s phr ase is rath er oddly anglicized; such " 'i'.I " ' 1..11ion s of Latin date from th e Elizab eth an era, and there are a number of

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,, 11 1< ' 1 ,1I1 /;I I< T/,".I 1,:1111 11 .1 \1 :1." ' " IIS".l11 1 1\111 1.,11 :111.1 A IIIl' li,':I11 ,'''1111 ', ,, 1 1:1\1' """ IIIlI I, ' (\1 111(' 111, :1 1111 I," II I(' P I(\ 11I 11ICi:i1 101l 0 1 1.:11 111. se c th e IIIll ll.l II,'li ' llll lI 1';111

Tl u c « : )ZOIl I;1I 1CC 1,;Il1 gU :lg c Acce nts.

It, " 1/ (I I\(' wr : II I (\ I A \I gl(\,·S ,1\, ' II (\ Ii i; ill is hillt111 1) : 11 111 (! IIf; 1: ndu«! ( I h L: A IIg l,, -S :I XLIII " I' "I ',tll ' IIl i" ;;roll'lI ) ; lI e CX :1I 11 p lcs of words w h ic h h.ivc bccom o ab solut ely En­ 1: 1,',11 ,IS flower .md engende red. \ low th e consonant " I~' was pronounced is un­ I ,,, 1\\' \1; l li .rv c ind ica ted il as th e Frenc h liquid "I," but thi s is an arbitrary choice.

l wish to say that you have performed an invaluable service for the crown, Phon et ic pronunciati on: I wish te say T Het yoo hev pe Iawrnd' en in val' yoo e bl se' vis fe THe, or fthe, kRown

That is, I believe, the task with which history has charged us. Phoneti c pronu nciation : TH at iz I bLeev THe tAsk weth wich his' tRce hez chAgd us, or es

I II

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