How has “standard” British pronunciation changed over time? Any real examples?

Posted by Mental_Buy_7670@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 63 comments

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on my thesis in linguistics, focusing on how pronunciation standards in British English are changing in the 21st century.

I’m particularly interested in how traditional Received Pronunciation (RP) compares to more modern forms like Standard Southern British English, and how these are actually used today in:

television
radio
public speeches
education

I’ve been analyzing examples like David Attenborough and modern BBC presenters, but I’d really value input from native speakers.

If you have specific examples (TV shows, presenters, public figures, etc.), I’d really appreciate it if you could share them.

Thanks a lot in advance - any insight would be incredibly helpful!

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nonsequitur__@reddit

There is no standard “British” pronunciation. The SSE accent is regional and distinctly southern English (the clue is in the name), whereas RP was not.

We have many more regional accents on tv and radio, including news programmes, nowadays. Very few aren’t somewhat regional and many are broader.

Lots of kids say random American words and use American pronunciation e.g., for “route”, “mobile”, from watching YouTube etc.

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Mental_Buy_7670@reddit (OP)

Sure, I get your point I just meant that SSE functions as one of the most widely accepted reference accents today

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nonsequitur__@reddit

I see. It doesn’t really here, other than in the south, but I understand if it does for non-Brits.

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Mental_Buy_7670@reddit (OP)

Then what would you is the most common? If it can be defined at all

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Genuinely, there isn’t one. Perhaps there are less dialects and accents shown in media still, but in real life there just isn’t a widely used accent. Not even in England, let alone Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Accents tend to be identifiable down to the town - there are at least 8 identifiable accents in my county and there are variations at borders too, I imagine it’s the same for most counties. Sorry that isn’t helpful - I believe in the US, for example, there’s a general American accent and that sometimes an accent is fairly consistent over a whole county or state, which is unimaginable here.

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mewikime@reddit

I'm from Barnsley. Nevermind about accent variations between the towns and cities in South Yorkshire, there are variations between the villages

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Fearless-Hedgehog661@reddit

One that's doing my nut in is the controversial pronounciation of controversy. It's conto-versy, not con-trov-ersy.

I don't recall the latter being a thing until about 20 years ago.

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Brodelyche@reddit

Americans stress the first syllable “LABatory” “CONtroversy” whereas we do second syllable “LabORAtory” “ConTROVersy”. Weirdly it’s the other way around for French words like “croissant” or “ballet”

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nemmalur@reddit

I can remember the conTROVersy pronunciation being prevalent in the UK in the 1980s and being marked as distinct from the US version, CONtroversy.

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Fred776@reddit

It's not the US version. It's the traditional British version. See https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/controversy.

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nemmalur@reddit

Nevertheless, I definitely heard the TROV version more in the UK 40-50 years ago. Which raises the question of where it came from if the other one is more traditional.

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Fred776@reddit

Yes, I heard it about that time too and I have a feeling that it was starting to become more common because I remember people commenting on it back then.

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Heathy-Heatherson@reddit

Yeah its always been conTROVersy.

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SuddenlyDiabetes@reddit

Can I add Qatar to the list? It grinds my gears when the news is on and they say "Cutter"

God help us both if they ever say some shit like "after the recent con-trov-ersy in Cutter"

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Brodelyche@reddit

Loads of younger people now speak "YouTube English" where they have British accents but American emphasis. Words like "progress", "status quo", "debut". They also all say "gotten" and "couple times" (instead of "couple of times")

Meanwhile, in my lifetime, I've noticed middle class/upper class people going from saying "translation" or "transport" with a short "A" (as in "ban") to a long one as in "barn" when they want to sound posh. This is especially noticeable since REALLY posh people often used to have short "A" sounds on words like "grass" or "Telegraph" (as in "ban"). You can probably still hear King Charles saying it that way.

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Fred776@reddit

I remember reading that the "correct" way to pronounce "graph" used to be with a short A, even though the long A would be used in "bath" and "glass", but most southerners these days use the long A for "graph".

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mellios10@reddit

My Dad (80 ish) from the South still says a short A when talking about the Daily Telegraph but a long A on any other simliar words, Bath, Path etc.

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ProgressMiserable878@reddit

Most southerners pronounce bath with an r in it. I always correct friends from the south and tell them there is no r in Bath. 🤣 I'm 60 and from Lancashire but lived 14 yrs in London and so i find when I'm talking to them I speak with a Southern twang. 🙄

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Brodelyche@reddit

My dad was the same.

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Fred776@reddit

That's interesting - thanks! It seems to confirm what I remember reading.

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siblingrevelryagain@reddit

Might not be quite what you’re looking for, but I heard Rachel Reeves say “getting people off of…” the other day.

Can’t bear it, it’s entered everyday parlance now 🤬

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Brodelyche@reddit

Yeah that’s everywhere now. Also “lay down” instead of lie (although lots of Brits did that before US influence, to be fair).

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VibesOfHarish@reddit

I pronounce issue as ish-oo, which is how everyone I know has pronounced it from across the UK.

I remember watching the news about 10 years back, maybe during Brexit, and they kept saying iss-yu. I was so baffled.

Noticed it more and more, and with other words that I'd give the sh sound to that actually were reported using the ss sound, like pressure.

I'm not sure if I answered your question properly but your topic made me think about this.

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Brodelyche@reddit

It’s the other way round. Iss-yu is the older, posher pronunciation. Along with suit pronunced see-yute.

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Methylamine69@reddit

You might be Sean connery if you say Ashociate

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VibesOfHarish@reddit

Haha. I wondered if anyone would misinterpret that.

A-so-she-ate.

Hope that helpsh.

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Fred776@reddit

This is called "yod coalescence". Historically, it would have been iss-yoo and it is still present in certain speakers, especially if they have been trained for acting or broadcast. Over time, the combination of "s" and "y" morphed to a similar "sh" sound.

There is a related phenomenon called "yod dropping" where the "y" sound is lost entirely. This is especially apparent in American speakers, when they say things like "nooz" for "news". There are words in British English that have largely lost their "yod" - at one time people would have said "syoot" for "suit". I still say "pursyoot" for "pursuit", which remains a bit more common than "syoot" I think, but many people say "pursoot" these days.

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dorperfinance@reddit

English born and raised to English parents, West Sussex. I say “per-shoot” and you’ve just had me saying it out loud about ten times. Am I saying it weirdly?

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Fred776@reddit

No, you have gone down the "yod coalescence" route though, where the "sy" of "persyoot" has morphed to a "sh". For many people these days it's been dropped altogether to a simple "s".

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LionLucy@reddit

I call it a “syoot” and I’m in my 30s, am I doing it wrong?

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Fred776@reddit

You aren't doing it wrong, no, but it's relatively rare compared with how it used to be. There might be regions where it remains more in use (I think maybe you hear it in some parts of Wales for example). It's like I say "poor" like "poo-wer" and not exactly the same as "pour". That's getting rarer but is still pretty common in NE England.

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Heathy-Heatherson@reddit

I've always said ish-yoo, so in between those two.

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MichaSound@reddit

I always assumed it was because most BBC reporters are privately educated. The big giveaway for me is always 'iss-you' instead of 'ish-oo'.

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PossibleGlad7290@reddit

RP is so grating in the ears to me. Keira Knightley, Jack Whitehall, Emma Watson, horrendous. But I can watch or listen to anything pre-1960s and I’m fine with it.

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davidbrianson23@reddit

I genuinely think I’m the only person born after 1989 that pronounces “wrath” “roth” and not “rath”

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BigJDizzleMaNizzles@reddit

Aluminium is being shortened to aluminum by stealth and stupidity.

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Aaaahfuckit@reddit

I believe studies showed that brits in general prefer regional accents to RP so modern shows and news presenters are more likely to have regional accents now. I cant site and specific studies but its worth you looking into.

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ExpectedBehaviour@reddit

Depends on the specific regional accent. Also depends on the listener – the English specifically are more likely to like RP than the Scottish, Welsh, or Northern Irish, who tend to perceive it as cold. RP also tends to be a bit "marmite" – people either actively like it or actively don't with little middle ground.

Yorkshire and Scottish accents are apparently considered to be the most "honest" and "trustworthy". Scouse, Geordie, and Brummie accents fare much less favourably and are more widely associated with poverty, criminal behaviour, and laziness.

Here's a link to a study about this from Cambridge University: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1462013/full

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nonsequitur__@reddit

That surprises me - I’m English and prefer almost any accent to an SSE accent, and RP is only slightly less grating.

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No_Room_3932@reddit

The royal family. There’s a video on YouTube where a guy takes you through Elizabeth II’s speeches and shows you how her pronunciation changed over the decades. It might be him or someone else who also talks about how Charles’s pronunciation is different from his mother’s and from William’s.

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Quix66@reddit

That’s Dr, Geoff Lindsey on YouTube.

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No_Room_3932@reddit

Thanks. He randomly came up on my feed and I couldn’t remember his name.

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Quix66@reddit

The other guys’s channel. https://youtu.be/g0qShxkuS7Q?si=9I9hkXIgcYhDGmoo

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Pleasant-Pineapple72@reddit

You might be interested in checking David Attenborough's first broadcasts and compare to today's. Sound equipment may have affected this.

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Karl-Pilkinghorn@reddit

Highly unlikely that anyone who speaks in RP will be floating around on Reddit. This way of speaking is almost exclusively reserved for the aristocracy and the elite.

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Active_Definition_57@reddit

I would say that's not wholly true. There are some parts of SE England where the local accents have pretty much disappeared and many people speak what I would consider RP with the 'posher' elements toned down. I am from Hertfordshire, attended a comprehensive school and I think I speak a mix of RP and 'estuary' with the former probably the dominant part.

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Karl-Pilkinghorn@reddit

I hear what you’re saying - I’m also in the SE. But I’d argue that if it’s RP with the posher elements toned down, it’s not really RP.

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Familiar_Radish_6273@reddit

I was watching an old episode of French and Saunders yesterday and my goodness Jennifer Saunders has such a plummy accent! I think she's close to RP, but might have toned it down in the past 30 years. Joanna Lumley is another one who's as close to RP as you can get these days.

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Karl-Pilkinghorn@reddit

Ah, Joanna Lumley - I could listen to her all day! I can only dream of being as plummy and elegant as her!

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EmzyM@reddit

She is the epitome of class.... I've also never heard a bad word against her, and I think I would be heartbroken if I did!

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pondribertion@reddit

For a "standard English" accent, my first thought would be English presenters of national news. For example, Clive Myrie or Mary Nightingale.
But this is always a southern accent, so "a" sounds like "ah" in certain words like "path" and "cast", but not words like "bat" and "cat".
To me, the northen accent sounds more "neutral", for example listen to presenters Anita Rani or Ranvir Singh. They speak in a very "plain" English accent.

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herwiththepurplehair@reddit

I have no issue with accents, my own local accent is little known (Lincolnshire) because not many people really speak it like my grandparents did. It's the slow creep from "lazy" language (an'ibio'ics, nuffin etc) that starts to creep into written language until you have no idea what people are trying to say!

Speak how you like but please for the love of god spell it right....

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Free_Clerk223@reddit

Wtf is British pronunciation? I live in galsgow and I absolutely do not pronounce shit like folk in Kent do

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largepoggage@reddit

Also from Glasgow, and it’s obvious what they mean. Pricks. I’m sure folk from the West Country to Yorkshire hate it just as much.

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Fred776@reddit

You can find a lot of information about this on Geoff Lindsey's YouTube channel and in his book "English After RP".

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Randomfinn@reddit

Manchester Voices is a research project from Manchester Metropolitian (and has an amazing display in the central library) that touches on a lot of your themes:

https://explore.manchestervoices.org/

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Temporary-Leek5045@reddit

There's been a bit of a shift to the American pronunciation of words, if you follow the history it comes split from:
Merriam Webster trying to standardise the language, American English struggling with the /\^/ sound (think mum/mom).
Then, as America became a kind of international media giant in the 90-00s, people from working class would watch more TV (Think Sky, NTL, Virgin Media etc).

However, the UK has now started to build more media, the film industry in the UK is expanding. And, with the likes of Fable (Video game, leaning into quintessential English style), more people will hear different English accents.

English accents are something that the UK actually now admires, and they can even play a critical role in how much we trust politicians - that has changed dramatically over the years.

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