Received Pronunciation Syll-bles
Even with a dialect as defined as Received Pronunciation, there is an amazing amount of variation that fits within that category. At last night’s first read through for Shaw’s Candida with the Classical Theatre Company, we ended up discussing possible ways to make further distinctions between classes clearer - It’s not like we can just read Shaw’s endless character descriptions at performances because it would roughly double the length of the play…
The actors, of course, already brings their own energy and interpretation to the characters, so there are already clear distinctions that come built in, but we were able to talk about a number of tiny adjustments that can further raise or lower someone’s class - or point out lateral elements, making them of a similar class, but of another social family (such as Oxford vs. Cambridge influences).
The character of Burgess is clearly of a more working class Cockney background (the play is set near Victoria Park in East London) but even his accent seems to shift a bit depending on whether he’s talking to his daughter, or those of “higher breeding.” Shaw does his best to indicate the dialect in his spelling and grammar: ”Lookee ‘ere, James: do ‘e often git taken queer like that?”
Proserpine, however, is “of the lower middle class,” but there are no obvious indicators of that in her speech - Shaw’s stage directions define this. Candida, Burgess’ daughter, also lacks any clear indications of the extreme dialect of her father. Proserpine especially may benefit from some lower class elements in her speech, such as what happens in the modern London Estuary dialect, with some elements of Cockney seeming to cross-pollinate with RP.
We talked about a number of possibilities for making a distinction between those of the higher echelon and those with a more working-class bent. One element involves changing the number of syllables in a word. Shaw spells the word gradually as grajally when Burgess speaks it. This loss of a syllable is quite common, actually.
Frederick: Fred-e-rick or Fred-rick
comfortable: com-for-ta-ble or comf-ter-ble
actually: ac-shu-uh-ly or ac-shuh-ly
peculiar: pe-cue-lee-er or pe-cuel-yer
Reverend: Re-ve-rend or Rev-rend
The shorter version tends to be more contemporary, less precise, and therefore lends itself to the more middle-class speakers. It’s also the version more commonly spoken by Americans. But this shortening=lowering doesn’t always hold true, since a word like secretary can become secretry for some posh speakers, but it’s one of the possible tools for distinctions we discussed…
(to be continued)
