G-droppin', jaw-droppin', top-drawer-droppin' facts
Careful with your careful enunciation - if you try too hard, you'll sound a bit lower middle and Hyacinth Bucket. Droppin' Gs, and even aitches, can be posh, but it's a special kind of posh, known as "county". Huntin', shootin' and fishin' is the name of the game, and posh totty is always game. How to Speak Posh, by Mark Barrowcliffe in The Times:
I could just slightly posh up my own accent and get away with that. However, I am nothing if not ambitious. I decide to go county. This is the huntin', shootin' and fishin' accent of the landed gentry. It's characterised by its brief endings to words, clipped consonants and short vowel sounds, probably best summed up by Edward VII's enquiry to Lord Harris, who had made the mistake of wearing a brown bowler at Ascot: “Goin' rattin' 'arris?”
Pronounced differences
RP The “neutral accent” of Radio 4. SingING, not singin'; little, not li-ool.
Hyperlect As RP, but more identifiably posh. Brine trisers for brown trousers. Princess Enn, not Princess Anne.
County The accent in which you marshal hounds and warn poachers just before you shoot them. Huntin', shootin', fishin'.
Sloane A lazy version of county, slurring its pronunciation under the influence of estuary English. Yaah, not yes; riii, not right.
Medja Not quite as languorous as Sloane. RP, rather than county, with some urban overtones. Gestures towards the glottal stop without quite going so downmarket. Tony Blair. Cool, yeah?
Posted on 09/30/2009 5:27 PM by Mary Jackson
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