English pronunciation is gradually changing, although it continues to reflect both geographical and social differences among speakers. No longer is it true, if it ever was, that all educated people speak with Received Pronunciation. Even RP itself is gradually changing, largely due to influence from the speech of London and the southeast -- the accent sometimes known as Estuary English, which nevertheless may encounter resistance in other parts of Britain, as well as from those who dislike change of any kind in language.

What are the main changes we observe this century in RP? I divide them into three periods: the early years up to the second world war, the mid-century years from the forties to the sixties, and the years reaching from the social revolution of the seventies until now. In each period I identify five important pronunciation changes.

In the early twentieth century

• the vowel in words such as cloth and cross switched from being that of thought to that of lot;
• people stopped making a distinction in pairs such as flaw and floor;
• the quality of the "long O" vowel changed (goat, home, know);
• the quality of the "short A" vowel changed (back, man);
• people stopped using a "tapped" r-sound between vowels (very sorry).

Nowadays we listen with amazement to British films of the thirties and forties, made before these changes took place.

In the mid twentieth century

• words like sure, poor, tour started to sound identical to shore, pour, tore;
• the weak vowels in words such as visibility, carelessness drifted away from the sound of kit;
• people started to insert a t-sound in words such as prince, making it sound like prints;
• a ch-sound became respectable in words such as perpetual, and a j-sound in graduate;
• the glottal stop started to replace the traditional t-sound in phrases such as quite nice, it seems.

These changes have still not been completed. Middle-aged RP speakers are often inconsistent about them..

In the late twentieth century

• the vowel sound at the end of words such as happy, coffee, valley is growing tenser;
• the OO-sounds of goose and foot are losing their lip-rounding and backness;
• the glottal stop extends into ever more phonetic environments (not only, but also);
• in certain positions, the l-sound is changing into a kind of w-sound (milk, myself, middle)
• ch- and j-sounds are spreading to words such as Tuesday, reduce (like chooseday, rejuice).

The newer pronunciations may be heard in the speech of young people whose parents would blanch to hear them.

It is too soon to say whether demographic changes - notably the influx of West Indians and South Asians - will have any lasting effect on our pronunciation. (But the pronunciation of ask as "ax", a variant of considerable antiquity in English, is now no longer restricted to quaint rural dialects. On the contrary, it has become an urban black characteristic.)

Pronunciation preferences

A survey of people's pronunciation preferences conducted by the speaker some years ago showed a number of age-related differences:

• nephew (younger people no longer say "nevvew");
• suit (the "syoot" form is on its way out);
• primarily (increasingly stressed on the second syllable, not the first).

The changes in these words could be accounted for by simply saying that we are becoming more American. This hypothesis is disconfirmed, however, by other words in which the newly favoured pronunciation is taking us away from the American form -- most strikingly

• zebra (younger people favour the "zebbra" form, but Americans say "zeebra").

The speaker is now conducting a new pronunciation survey. Everyone interested is encouraged to participate, by indicating their preferences in a hundred or so words of uncertain or disputed pronunciation. How do you like to pronounce a shopping mall? the plural of youth, youths? the name of the month February? garage? scone? voluntarily?

Note: the collection of data for this survey is now complete. The following invitation therefore no longer applies. JCW, 1999.
To take part, go to this website - http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/poll98.htm
or send an e-mail to j.wells@ucl.ac.uk
or write to

	Prof. J. C. Wells
	Dept.of Phonetics and Linguistics
	University College London
	Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT