subject: Futility of pursuing standards in pronunciation [print this page] Futility of pursuing standards in pronunciation
Futility of pursuing standards in pronunciation
Sanjay Arora, Government PG College, Dausa
Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words; be as one that knoweth and yet holdeth his tongue' (Daintith, 1992) 1
These lines of the Bible hold true in terms of compactness of thoughts and ideas while interacting with people in any language. They form the very basics of expression. Even before languages were invented, men did communicate. But it was mainly through sounds, gestures and movements which gradually got converted into words, phrases and then sentences which formed the corpus of a particular language. But with rapid advancement and multiplicity of dialects within the same language, need for standards became urgent. With the spread of civilizations, there was an urgent need to distinguish the educated lot from the non-educated or less educated. Speech formed the primary mode of a message in any language. Out of all the prevalent languages in the world, English today has attained a dominant position and hence forms the focus of the study.
Before we embark upon finding and identifying standards in English in the native and non-native countries, it is important to know its status in India and England and shatter some of the myths regarding pursuing standards in pronunciation.
In the present paper the focus will be on Received Pronunciation (RP) because this has been our target ever since British rule and continues to be so even today. Only the last decade has seen the Network English (the American standard) invading the world because of the spread of multinationals, computers and outsourcing of jobs. RP is still preferable because it has an element of prestige attached to it. It is also known as the Queen's (or King's) English, because it is spoken by the royalty; also considered its preserver. It is also sometimes referred to as BBC English, because it was traditionally used by the BBC. But the fact is that the BBC news presenters are no longer bound by one type of accent. There is enormous variation in their accents.
RP is that standard form of English pronunciation that tells a great a deal about the social and educational background of a person. But in the past few decades the concept of conforming to RP has changed and many people have unhesitatingly started using regional and class accents. The younger generation that traditionally tried to use RP has started taking liberties. In the native land it is mainly due to the influence of the migrants who have been using English as a second language or a foreign language in their countries. A recent report by Nick McDermott suggests this.1a
RP is often believed to be based on southern accents by some in England itself. Others believe it is based on the south-east Midlands; Northampton shire, Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire dialects. But the fact is that standard English is a conglomeration of all these accents and also has elements of Essex and Middlesex speech. This also clarifies the reason for its complexity. Today, RP has three different forms; Conservative RP, Mainstream RP and Contemporary (or Advanced) RP (Received Pronunciation, 2007)2. Conservative RP refers to a traditional accent usually associated with the more cautious older speakers and the aristocratic class and is acquired through extensive practice at elocution sessions. It is RP that is emphasized in most of the public schools around the world and probably for this reason the users of English of some countries seem closer to native accent.
The neutral accent that is the buzz word today is what Mainstream RP is all about. Age, occupation or lifestyle of the user does not become the determining factor. Contemporary RP is the English of the younger-generation. But these days there is a great overlap between Mainstream and Contemporary RP, obliterating the difference between the two. Rather they become important determinants in locating the regional origin of the speaker. A Punjabi speaker for example has a typical accent of pronouncing English words. Here are some examples from the speech of one such speaker and a scholar of English at that (Dhawan, 2007) 3:
1.son-in-law /sn in la:/
2.characters /krekterz/
3.Canada /kna:da:/
It is common among such speakers of English to use the sound /a:/ where the sound /
