Masaryk University
Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature
Acceptability of variance of regional speech features in TV shows
Bachelor Thesis
Brno 2019
Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D Michaela Čechová Abstract
In Britain, accents and dialects have been associated also with the social class. However, it has been argued that today's society adopts a more egalitarian view, and as a result, promotes regional accents as a way to preserve one's identity.
The thesis Acceptability of variance of regional speech features in TV shows investigates the development of regional speech in media in the course of 25 years. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part provides definition of the terms connected to the topic, as well as the more detailed presentation of geographic variations of English language in Britain. The practical part presents the findings based on the phonetic analyses of TV cookery shows featuring Fanny Cradock and Jamie Oliver, first broadcast on the BBC channel in the years
1975 and 2001, respectively.
Key Words accent, dialect, variation, Standard English, regional variation, Received Pronunciation,
Cockney, Estuary English, TV cookery show, phonetic analysis Abstrakt
Prízvuky a nářečí v Británii jsou spojovány také se společenským postavením. Ačkoliv existují názory, že dnešní společnost zaujímá spíše egalitární pohled a následně prosazuje regionální prízvuk j ako způsob zachování identity jedince.
Bakalářská práce Acceptability of variance of regional speech features in TV shows zkoumá vývoj regionálních prvků mluvy během časového rozmezí 25 let. Práce je rozdělena do dvou
částí. Teoretická část poskytuje definice termínů spojené s tímto tématem, společně s detailnější prezentací regionálních variant anglického jazyka v Británii. Praktická část prezentuje výsledky založené na fonetických analýzách kuchařských show v podání Fanny
Cradock a Jamieho Olivera, poprvé vysílány na BBC kanálu v letech 1975 a 2001, v tomto pořadí.
Klíčová slova přízvuk, nářečí, variace, Standardní angličtina, regionální variace, televizní kuchařská show, fonetická analýza Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Irena Headlandova Kalischova, Ph.D., for her comments on my work and her valuable advice throughout the writing process. Prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů
(autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.
Brno, 30. 3. 2019
Michaela Čechová Table of Contents
1 Introduction 8 2 The theoretical part 10 2.1 The terms explained 10 2.2 Standard English 11 2.3 English language variety in detail 13 2.3.1 Language variety according to the use 13
2.3.2 Language variety according to the user 13
2.3.2.1 Social variation 13 2.3.2.2 Gender, age and ethnicity 15 2.3.2.3 Regional variation 15 2.3.2.3.1 The north and south geographic divide 17 2.4 The London area in detail 21 2.4.1 RP and its role 21
2.4.1.1 Vowels and consonants in general 22 2.4.1.2 Interesting tendencies in categories of RP 24 2.4.1.3 Variability within RP 24 2.4.2 The London speech Cockney 25
2.4.3 Estuary English 26
2.4.3.1 Cockney - Estuary English compared 27 3 The practical part 30 3.1 Chef's profiles 31 3.1.1 Fanny Cradock 31
3.1.1.1 Procedure 32 3.1.1.2 Vowels 33 3.1.1.2.1 Analysis of the findings 34 3.1.1.3 Consonants 35 3.1.1.4 Analysis of the findings 36 3.1.2 Jamie Oliver 37
3.1.2.1 Procedure 38 3.1.2.2 Vowels 39 3.1.2.2.1 Analysis of the findings 41 3.1.2.3 Consonants 43 3.1.2.3.1 Analysis of the findings 44 3.1.2.4 Consonant clusters explained 45 3.1.3 Comparative analysis of recordings 1 and 2 46
3.1.3.1 Interpretation of the findings presented - vowels 46 3.1.3.2 Interpretation of the findings presented - consonants 47 3.1.4 Conclusion 48
Reference list 50 Sources 52 Appendix A 53 Appendix B 54 Appendix C 55 Appendix D 57 1 Introduction
The way we present ourselves is a part of our identity. In Britain, the peculiarity is that the attention gets attracted by the sound of the individuals, i.e. their accents, rather than their physical appearance. Such attitude manifests the important role of the accents embedded in the culture. Interestingly, an accent is promoted to become a powerful means in conveying the information about its user.
Nowadays, being judgemental towards others on the basis of their accent is regarded as incon• siderate. However, such stance was not always taken in the preceding century; the attitude went through the process of evolvement reflecting social, political and economic events.
Historically, in Britain strict rules were governing accents and dialects. In the professional world, only Standard English was regarded as acceptable for many job positions, certainly if it involved public communication. To speak any other way it would be stigmatised and profes• sional career would be out of reach for those non-standard speakers.
The amount of influence media industry has on public is vast. The national television com• pany, the BBC, have been regarded as a trend setter and broadcaster of the cultural values since the birth of its existence. The regulatory controls the BBC had in place ensured that their presenters were all appearing flawless to the public, whether deliberately or not, the BBC were transmitting a signal of superiority.
Perhaps, the pressure derived from the social events in the 1970's in Britain, where the social movements expressing dissatisfaction with the poverty, housing situation and racial inequality were common, together with the reduction of the barriers to migration, gave rise to the begin• nings of the relaxed attitudes towards regional accents in general.
What the accents mean to people today is quite an opposing story. The younger generation seems to use the non-standard form of English intentionally, possibly, for number of reasons: to disguise or confuse the audience about their regional and/or social background, to demon• strate open-minded social attitude in today's multicultural world, or simply sound trendy and just fit in.
8 This thesis starts with the basic terminology: dialect, accent and Standard English, and then it continues with the more general overview of the varieties of the language. More specifically are discussed the social aspects of the dialects and accents leading us onto regional character• istics of speech. For the purpose of the analyses in the practical part, the theoretical part is then narrowed to the region of the south-east, namely London, and the attention is primarily centred on the pronunciation. The position of Received Pronunciation, as the standard accent of English, and other urban accents such as Cockney and Estuary English are presented.
The practical part engages with the hypothesis: The regionality of speech featuring in TV pro• grams is now more acceptable than it was in the last century. The creation of hypothesis was inspired by the development of the attitude discussed above. High viewership of the cooking programs prompted for the choice of two cookery shows featuring Fanny Cradock and Jamie
Oliver. In the light of findings drawn from the pronunciation analyses conducted in practical part this thesis seeks to confirm the premise.
9 2 The theoretical part
2.1 The terms explained
This chapter defines the terms such as accent, dialect, and Standard English. Furthermore, it attempts to equip the reader with sufficient background information starting with the language variety in general, and then moving onto more specific language variety's classification. Al• though, some of the information presented is likely to be valid for all the English speaking countries, the aim is to keep the focus on Britain with the least dilution.
Uniqueness of English language diversity in England is not likely to be mirrored anywhere else in the English-speaking world. Despite there being many variations, Greenbaum and
Quirk (1990) present us with the unifying statement: "A common core is present in all the varieties so that, however exoteric a variety may be, it has running through it a set of gram• matical and other characteristics that are present in all the others. It is this fact that justifies the application of the name English' to all the varieties "(P-8).
Before introducing language variations in more detail, it is inevitable to clarify two terms that are sometimes used interchangeably, and could therefore cause confusion. Following defini• tions are offered for the consideration of the key terms: a dialect and an accent.
One possible way of regarding a dialect is that it is a substandard, low status, rustic form of language generally associated with the working class. It is perceived as some kind of devia• tion from a norm - from a standard form of language (Chambers and Trudgill, 1980).
Wells (1982) believes that the term dialect is used in the vague way by the linguists; it is linked to any speech variety, which is more than idiolect1 but less than a language. On this basis, it can be concluded that languages consist of dialects. To avoid the confusion he prefers to use the term variety instead of dialect. Such varieties are distinguishable from one another based on any or all of syntax, morphology, lexicon and pronunciation (Wells, 1982).
Deeper into the history of languages look Greenbaum and Quirk ( 1990), who portray the idea that in the times when the population was largely dispersed, communities remote and
1 A person's specific way of speaking
10 communication between them poor, the dialects became so distinct that, as a result they are now regarded as different languages. This is the case of Germanic dialects, currently known as autonomic languages such as Dutch, English, German, and Swedish. However, this process has not been accomplished with the dialects of English, and despite the regional separation of communities within the British Isles and elsewhere in the world, they have not evolved into individual languages (Greenbaum and Quick, 1990).
Usefully simplified the terms are by Roach (2009): dialect is differentiated on the grounds of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and word order. While the accent stands out through the pronunciation differences only.
Speaking of an accent, Chambers and Trudgill (1980) define it as the way the speaker pronounces and thereby he or she differentiates him or herself phonetically and phonologically. A dialect, on the other hand, differs from other varieties grammatically in addition to the phonology. They also claim that, surprisingly, even linguists "use the terms in question in an improvised manner, because dialects and accents frequently merge into one another, rather than being well-defined separate entities" (p.5).
To sum up, Wells (1982) states that every speaker has his or her unique accent, which is characteristic for people belonging to some geographical region and/or social class; it may be typical for the speaker's gender, age group, level of education. The later sections will be devoted to such regional and social varieties.
2.2 Standard English
To portray the complete picture it is also necessary to introduce the term Standard English, which is considered to be a variety of dialect. This section notes the emergence of the standard and its relationships to other dialects.
Trudgill (1999) notices re-occurring complaints from the British public about the decay of
English language. Such public objections, however, are thought to appear every generation and constitute a part of natural process of language evolution. On a more specific note, he records the criticizing tendencies of all the English dialects other than Standard English. The
11 dialects have been regarded as a corruption of the standard, which from a historical point of view is incorrect; Standard English has its origins in the older Traditional2 dialects in the southeast of England (Trudgill, 1999). Centring the focus on the pronunciation, also
Cruttenden (1994) observes that there are complaints of the modern speech being full of mangled vowels and missing consonants. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that language has decayed more now than it had done in the previous centuries.
It is believed that the current form of standard and its prominence materialised because of the geographic location of the capital London, and other major influential cities in the south, such as Oxford and Cambridge. Trudgill (1999) argues that if the capital had been any other city, e.g. York, then Standard English today would be likely to bear resemblance to the northern varieties.
The conventions of written English had been standardized and accepted for centuries. As far as the written discourse is concerned no controversy arises: the English spelling has been mainly fixed in previous centuries, together with standardized grammar, constructions and greater part of vocabulary. However, present-day issues centre on the pronunciation.
The pronunciation or accent of the Standard English dialect is referred to as Received
Pronunciation and is being discussed in more detail in the section 2.4.1.
To elaborate further on the social attitudes of the public, Wells (1982) states that the standard accent was accepted as standard mainly because of the attitude it elicits in its speakers, rather than any particular phonetic quality. This fact is confirmed by Cruttenden (1994), who claims that Standard English accent was a product of a social judgement, and as such, it became a marker of education and class, which was generally expanded through the broadcast of radio and television and supported by the universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Although the standard has never been imposed by any official body, it was willingly adopted to show the position in society. This sensitiveness to variation in pronunciation is typical of the British public. To what extent Cruttenden's statement (1994): "The 'wrong accent' may still be impediment to social intercourse or to advancement or entry in certain professions'
(p.77) is valid today may be answered by of investigation conducted in the practical part.
2 Trudgill identified 13 Traditional dialects in England ( 1999, p 33-5)
12 2.3 English language variety in detail
Turning towards more detail, it can be generally distinguished between two broad categories of varie• ties of language. These are varieties according to the use and the user.
2.3.1 Language variety according to the use
First of all, let us briefly explain what the differentiation according to the use mean. The Register is the defining term and another factor in any study of language varieties. As Wardhaugh ( 1986) points out: "Registers are set of language items associated with discrete occupational or social groups, Surgeons, airline pilots, bank managers, sales clerks, jazz fans, and pimps employ different registers." (p. 51).
Speakers are equipped to employ and switch variety of registers to reflect the situation, the relationship and expectations of the participants (Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018).
2.3.2 Language variety according to the user
A substantial space is devoted to the second category of English language variety. In general, the category is associated with different groups of speakers. The term dialect is discussed at the beginning of the theoretical part chapter, together with the clarification of the interrelationships with the accent and Standard English. Such dialectal variations are the distinguishing factors which help to classify the speakers based on the regional differences and, to certain extend, on the social, ethnical, age and gender relating differences. To illustrate an example, the Standard English dialect is the variation, which has the classifying property of its speakers according to the social rank.
2.3.2.1 Social variation
The difference in dialects and accents is accounted for on both the social and geographic basis.
The later section 2.2.2.3 is devoted to the regionality. A social class, gender, age, ethnicity, education, occupation and income are examples of relevant influencing factors.
13 According to Hudson (1980), in hierarchical social structures of countries like Britain, social class takes precedence over geography, which means that a speaker may be more similar in language to another speaker from the same social group even though they may come from different regions.
As Wells (1982) states: "A person's social position is reflected in the words and constructions he uses, as well as in the way he pronounces them" (p. 13). He compares the situation in
England to a pyramid and illustrates the interrelationship between social and regional variations (see figure 1 below). It is suggested that the bottom line representing working-class accents exhibits largest regional variations. The regional variation is reduced to zero as the social class climbs to the top of the pyramid. In other words, upper-class accents display no regional variation within English whilst the other side of the continuum stratified as a working class discloses broad geographic variations.
Figure 1 Relation between social and regional accents in England
highest class: RP
lowest class: broad local accents regional variation *•
Source: Wells J.C., 1982, p. 14
In addition to the language differences relating to the social class membership, there is also an aspect of personal identity. Universities can be considered as an environment where accents meet from all across the UK. Students of English from Sheffield University offered an interesting outlook, recorded reaction of co-students coming from different areas and backgrounds revealing how strongly they feel about their accents, for their testimonies paraphrased see the Appendix B.
14 2.3.2.2 Gender, age and ethnicity
Unlike the volatile socio-economic factors such as, for example, education, occupation and income, the biological factors which are subject of this section are fairly predetermined.
As far as the gender is concerned, there are obvious biological differences, like the pitch and voice quality, however, as emphasized by Wells (1982); there is no law which prescribes that men must talk differently from women, or no biological reason for individuals from different racial or ethnic origin blacks to talk differently from one another, (p. 18). A speaker's language is therefore influenced by the linguistic environment that he or she is exposed to. Contrary to what might be expected, the fact that a child born and raised in London to Czech parents will sound like other Londoners underpins the superiority of environmental influence.
Wardhaugh (1986) suggests that difference in voice quality may be accentuated by beliefs about what men and women should sound like when they talk. Evident bias where a male speech provides a norm could be recognised in an example when Margaret Thatcher was advised to speak more like a man to match her voice to her position as the British Prime
Minister. By adjusting her pitch, diminishing its range and slowing the tempo, she adopted an authoritative monotonous speaking style, which became her trademark. (Wardhaugh, 1986).
Wells (1982) confirms that findings of a sociolinguistic research consistently uncovered that a female pronunciation is closer to the prestige form. He believes that the reason behind is that women are less secured socially; their security is derived through men. In spite of that, women are more status conscious, and as a result they tend to display indications of higher class - prestige form of pronunciation (Wells, 1982).
Roach (2009) present us with a frequently quoted opinion relating to the age of speakers that younger speakers sound careless when speaking. The rising intonation pattern used in state• ments, sometimes called uptalk or upspeak, is believed to be a feature that arose from copying young actors in American and Australian soap operas.
2.3.2.3 Regional variation
Considering a person's speech, we are given powerful indicators of his or her geographic identity. We are able to ascertain where the speaker comes from or even trace the history as to
15 where he or she grew up and where the speaker lives now (Wells, 1982). According to Hudson
(1980), however, it would be incomplete to just plot a speaker on the map. Due to the geographical mobility, the dialects adjust and blend to fit new environments.
The main parameter for recognizing both regional and social differences is considered to be the accent. Being more specific in terms of geographic proximity of local accents, the fine degree of skill is needed to identify each one. In reality, it is not clear whether it is possible. In the literary world, however, George Bernard Shaw created a character for his Pygmalion -
Professor Higgins, a brilliant linguist whose boundless interest lies in phonetics and dialects, and who evaluates people based on his profound academic knowledge of dialects and uses them as means for his phonetic experiments.
Although American variant is outside the scope of this thesis, for the complete illustration and contrast it is worth mentioning that two thirds of Americans use what we call General
American that reveals nothing about their geographical origin, the exception, to some degree, being the east and the south. Americans make stereotypical judgments based on grammar
(morphology and syntax) rather than pronunciation (Wells, 1982).
Regionality can be assessed from a particular feature point of view. For illustration, let us take a linguistic variable notably typical for English - pronunciation of V. Chambers and Trudgill
(1980) plotted the data on the map of Britain. Figure 2 below shows how the rhotic3 and non- rhotic accents are distributed.
3 Pronunciation of consonant 'r'
16 Figure 2 Rhotic (pink areas) and non-rhotic accents in Britain.
Rhoticity in England in the 1950s and late 20th century.
Source: Adapted from Wikipedia based on Chambers and Trudgill (1980)
Furthermore, they stated that rhotic dialect is a mark of conservative speakers in the rural areas of the south, around Liverpool, and in Northumberland. However, the northern urban dialect such as Scouse, associated with the city of Liverpool, and Geordie, associated with the city of Newcastle, are non-rhotic Chambers and Trudgill (1980).
2.3.2.3.1 The north and south geographic divide
England is geographically divided into the north and the south, which roughly corresponds with the divide of the dialects with phonetically, lexically and syntactically common features into northern and southern. The Celtic countries are not studied as they are considered to be outside the scope of this thesis. On the other hand, London, the political capital and the largest city, is given more attention in the following section 2.4.
17 1) The north
The Linguistic North is particularly interesting for number of reasons. Firstly, the English traditional dialect survived here in the strongest form, and secondly, the local differences in dialects and accents range from village to village and have stronger distinction than any other part of England (Wells, 1986). He also traces numerous characteristics of differentiating pronunciation features of the northern form of English. The summary of the most prominent and protruding traits based on Wells' record are:
• The absence of FOOT and STRUT4 split constitutes a lack of phonemic5 opposition
between the vowels of FOOT and STRUT. In practice, it means that both vowels are
pronounced with /u/ as in cup /kup/, opposed to different realization of RP - /A/ in
STRUT words.
• The absence the BATH broadening, the BATH words use the vowel of TRAP, so that
glass rhymes with gas.
Another interesting point of the northern accent is that there is little or no aspiration on /p, t, kJ. Furthermore, the H-dropping as in hammer /'sema/ occurs in popular accents of the midlands and middle north, although not far north. Widespread is the phenomenon of T- flapping, a process which occurs in connected speech involving the use of /r/ instead of lil in phrases such as shut up and get off(Wells, 1986).
a. Scouse
Being more specific about the north, it is the Scouse dialect and its accent that stands out from other northern variants. The dialect is typical for the Liverpool area, known as Merseyside.
The prosody represents its underpinning trait. In some cases, it employs a rise where RP would use a fall and the visa versa (Wells, 1986). Behind this intonation change a strong Irish influence has been identified arising from the influx of immigrants in the 19th century.
Examples of dominant phonological features include non realization of FOOT - STRUT and
BATH - TRAP split as mentioned above. Less experienced English speakers; most probably foreigners may experience some difficulty comprehending due to long vowel /u:/ occurring in
4 Lexical set, a classification by Wells. For detail and the explanation see the section 2.3.1 5 Relating to the phoneme ( specific sound)
18 words book or cook. The T-flapping is an illustration of another striking feature mentioned earlier.
An article in a local newspaper (Liverpoolecho) provides a useful demonstration of how specific Scouse lexis is. The lexical analysis of a sentence:"/Vo fella, swerve the ASDA, me mate told us it's chockaP goes as follows:
Fella - adult male me mate - adult male (my friend) swerve - avoid chocka - busy
A peculiar use of word like is further demonstration of language differentiation. This lexical item acts as a generic term to be added onto any given word, as in: "I was chatting to my auld fella, like, and the tele just blew up, like" (Guy, 2017).
b. Geordie
The second uniquely distinguishable accent of the north is Geordie; the term is also applied to the traditional dialect and anyone who comes from the area of Tyneside, more specifically the city of Newcastle. Its prominently striking feature is glottalisation of /p, t, k/ both in syllable final position as in chop /tjr>?/ and syllable initial before a weak vowel as in auntie /'ant?i/
Rhythmically, it bears similarity with Scouse.
Morton and Southern, local news reporters from Chroniclelive, have compiled phrases to illustrate how much the illegibility of these two northern accents is compromised by different lexis:
Geordie: Hey I'm clammin', man. I'm gannin' doon the chippie for some scran.
Scouse: I'm starving here lad, I'm going the chippy for a scran.
Standard English: I'm hungry. I'm heading to the fish and chip shop for some food.
19 2) The South
The south of England is more specifically divided into 3 regions: Home countries, East of
England and West countries.
Home countries - areas strongly affiliated and linguistically dominated by London. Namely, these are: Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hertfordshire, Essex, and in addition some parts of
Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Bedfordshire. The section 2.4 is dedicated to this area in more detail.
Geographic area of the east of England is called East Anglia incorporating Norfolk and
Suffolk, Cambridgeshire. The representative feature which makes an East Anglian accent stand out is the pronunciation in FACE words, the vowel is realized with the sound /e:/6 instead of diphthong /ei/ as in Standard English. Furthermore, no contrast between the
GOOSE and GOAT words could be puzzling for an unknowledgeable speaker. This attribute results in pairs such as soup - soap and moon - moan all being pronounced with Iw.l as /su:p/ and /mu:n/.
The typical prosodic feature that determines an East Anglian accent is rhythm; it involves extreme lengthening of stressed long vowels, together with the reduction of certain unstressed vowels, as in thirty-two /'033:.ti tu:/ (Wells, 1986).
The West Country is formed by countries of Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Devon,
Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and some parts of Oxfordshire. The further part of south western England known as Cornwall stands apart, due to its separate tradition and Celtic language influence.
The most representative phonetic characterization of the west of England is rhoticity.
Historical /r/ is preserved in all west accents; moreover its variable traces extend all the way to Reading in Berkshire. Interestingly, the incidence of hyper-rhoticity is a common phenomenon in the west, /r/ is pronounced not only when the following word begins with a vowel, called intrusive /r/, but also in the final position of words such as china /'tjamr/ and banana /ba'na:nr/ (Wells, 1986).
6 A symbol not present in the phonemic chart (see Appendix A), nevertheless it is used to record this sound.
20 2.4 The London area in detail
The capital London has a tradition of exercising linguistic influence on the rest of the country and perhaps the whole English-speaking world. Its upper class lay the foundation for Standard
English, while London working class accent constitutes 'the most influential source of phonological innovations' (Wells, 1986, p. 301).
The pronunciation aspect is presented in more detail to provide solid support when dealing with transcriptions and analyses in the practical part. The following sub-section is devoted to
Received Pronunciation (RP abbreviation is to be used onwards). Although RP does not exhibit direct regional features which connect it to the London area, the link to this region is established on the basis of origin of this accent.
2.4.1 RP and its role
The term RP is sometimes inaccurately interchanged with broader term of Standard English.
RP denotes an accent which has been generally accepted, and as a result, has become well- established, alternatively being also referred to as BBC English, Standard English and
Queens English. Occasionally, it is labelled Oxford English. However, Wells (1986) suggests that this term be avoided, because of the inconsistency of its use. On one occasion it represents a narrow category of upper class RP only, other time it refers to RP in general. He offers an alternative term - Southern British Standard (Wells, 1982).
Nevertheless, there are speakers from other regions who perceive RP as a symbol of the south-eastern political power in Britain, consequently, this being the reason for the growing criticism escalating during the last quarter of the 20th century and moving force for the promotion of the regional working class accents since.
Historically, this attitude has endured major development. The 19th century milestone marked
Burrell's statement7: 'It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed', has long become obsolete.
Another instance indicating reputability of the RP in previous century was in the 1920's when
7 Burrell's statement in Recitation. A handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary School dating from 1891
21 the BBC established a committee for the purpose of selection of the BBC speakers and announcers, who were all required to use Received Pronunciation (Santipolo, 2003).
From the present perspective, it can we concluded that the role of RP within the British Isles has changed considerably. There is a greater tolerance of dialects; as a result regional dialects have become acceptable. Such changes might be responsible for emergence and more open acceptance of Estuary English as discussed later in the section 2.4.3.
Nevertheless, Cruttenden (1994) suggests that a different situation exists when English is considered for the purpose of teaching as the second language or the foreign language. There needs to be a firm model followed by the textbooks, and that is why most textbooks and dictionaries of pronunciation of British English are based solely on RP.
The RP accent is traditionally characteristic for the speakers educated in the public school system, socially coming from the upper or upper middle class. It may be an authentic speech for only a small minority, nevertheless, the majority of English people are at the least exposed to it through TV, radio and many public figures such as former Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom David Cameron, for example, and the most prominent member of British Royal family- the Queen.
2.4.1.1 Vowels and consonants in general
In general, RP operates a strong vowel system. It comprises of nineteen vowels excluding the schwa /a/. Out of these nineteen vowels, six are known as short vowels /i, u, e, A, x, to/, five long vowels /v., u:, 3:, o:, a:/ and eight diphthongs /ei ,oi ,ai, au, au, ia
U3, 83/.
However, a considerable variability influenced by the phonetic environment exists. The system is recorded by Wells (1982) as in the figure 3 below.
22 Figure 3 The RP vowel system
I Ö i: u: 19 Ü9 e ei 01 9U 89 3: o: A D ai au a:
Checked Free
Source: Wells, J.C., 1982, p. 119
Wells (1982) also suggests a list of words to make comparison with other accent easier. This is known as the lexical set, where each item stands for a large number of words which behave the same way in respect of the incidence of vowels in different accents.
Figure 4 The RP lexical set
KID i FLEECE i: NEAR 19
DRESS E FACE ei SQUARE 89 TRAP PALM a: START a:
LOT D THOUGHT o: NORTH o:
STRUT A GOAT 9U FORCE o:
FOOT U GOOSE u: CURE U9
BATH a: PRICE ai happy I
CLOTH D CHOICE letter 9
NURSE 3: MOUTH au comma 9
Source: Wells, J. C, 1982, p. 120
Unlike vowels, the consonant system does not exhibit a great deal of variability, (for the complete list of phonemes see phonemic chart in Appendix A) The existing differences relate to pronunciation of / 0, 6, n, h, 1, r/.
RP belongs to the group of non-rhotic accents. Except in the environments of a following vowel, it has eliminated historical /r/. This occurrence is called R-dropping. However, this process is not absolute, which means that in some cases the /r/ is preserved, i.e. the initial/intervocalic /r/ as in RED. R-dropping principle has no affect on the /r/ in FEARING
/fignrj/, nevertheless Irl is dropped in FEARED /figd/ (Wells, 1986).
23 2.4.1.2 Interesting tendencies in categories of RP
Some typical tendencies have been recorded, although these vary from user to user. A summary based on Wells' (1986) detailed listing is offered below:
Place assimilation as in good girl pronounced as /gug' g3: 1/- this feature is thought to be present in casual speech, however to be precise, its existence is noted in all styles of speech.
Elision, a pre-consonantal cluster reduction, which means that in spoken discourse next day is pronounced as /'neks'dei/.
Unstressed H-dropping as it happens in tell him /'tel im/.
The most conservative variety is characteristic for the following interesting phonetic features:
The openness of the vowels. In addition to the vowel /a?/ represented in TRAP words the realisation has diphthongal character i. e. /see/ or /ex/.
• The occurrence of second element in free positions of diphthongs in NEAR, SQUARE,
CURE words, so for example the pronunciation of NEAR /ma/ is more open and becomes
/nia:/(Wells, 1986)
The more contemporary range of the RP incorporates some regional features. An example in this respect is presented by Wells (1986); it is so called Londonism demonstrated by the sound
/DU/ in GOAT words in opposition to the sound /au/in more conservative variant of RP.
2.4.1.3 Variability within RP
Within RP, a certain variability exists which could make users feel unsure about its correctness. Such examples are illustrated by the alternative pronunciation of the words again
/a'gen/ or /a'gem/, sunday /'sAndi/ or /'sAndei/ often /'ofan/ or /'oftan/. Both the variants are correct and are depending on the preferences of the user.
The similar acceptability is implied with the opposition of sounds III and /a/, being more specific, the word necklace can be pronounced /'neklis/ or /'neklas/. This variation is present in words ending in suffixes , such as -ace, -ity, -let, or the words beginning with weakened prefixes be-, de-, re- as in believe, decide and remember. In such cases both pronunciations
24 are acceptable, although III is considered a traditional RP form.
Another acceptable discrepancy exist in the words poor /'pua / or /'pa:/ and sure /'Jus/ or
/"Jb:/ (Wells, 1986).
2.4.2 The London speech Cockney
The London working class dialect is known as Cockney. Geographically, it originated in the suburbs of east London - the East End. The first mention of the word referring to the contemporary meaning was recorded as early as in around 1600, although the reference was not generally restricted to the working class Londoner, but more geographically specific to a
Bow-Bells Cockney8 (OED)9.
In consequent centuries the Cockney dialect spread into the public awareness. Charles
Dickens' characters are noted to adopt Cockney, most obviously in the substitution of V for
V and vice versa. This feature, however, did not survive in modern Cockney. Nowadays, the pattern of the distribution points to the extension beyond purely working class. Green, in his blog on OED, presents the term Mockney. Such reference was made in 1989 and represents a form of accent more acceptable than broad Cockney. It resembles the more formal concept of
Estuary English10, which is another modern type of speech spreading outwards from London, mainly into the South East of England (Green, 2012).
Presently, total Cockney emergence is demonstrated by the actors in award-winning British soup opera Eastenders, which began to be broadcast on the BBC One in the mid 80's.
Popularity of this program represents a mark of the change of the attitudes and public taste for the accents.
When the lexical apparatus of Cockney is considered, it resonates with the term 'rhyming slang'. An illustrative collection of favourite terms can be found on The Guardian website.
The Cockney typical lexis is used to mystify unintended participants; this is particularly achieved by omitting the rhyming element. For example the rhyme china plate means mate, but with the omission mate becomes simply china.
Person born within the sound of bells of the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, called Bow-Bells. 9 Oxford English Dictionary online 10 Discussed in the following section
25 2.4.3 Estuary English
Another variant, Estuary English, has been identified in London area in the 1980's. The term
Estuary English (abbreviation EE is used onwards) was coined by Rosewarne, at the time a postgraduate student of Applied linguistics at Birkberk College in the University of London, the term first appeared in his article in Times Educational Supplement in 1984. This newly observed variety was further explored by Coggle, in his book called Do you speak Estuary? published in 1993.
Geographically, its heartland is believed to be around the river Thames Estuary; however EE is widely associated with Greater London and even Home Countries (Maidment, 1994)
Rosewarne (1984), in his ground-breaking article, defines EE as follows:
"Estuary English is a variety of modified regional speech. It is a mixture of non-
regional and local south-eastern pronunciation and intonation. If one imagines a con•
tinuum with Received Pronunciation and London speech at either end, EE speakers are
to be found grouped in the middle ground"( Rosewarne, 1984).
Ten years later, the opinions of the various newspapers were recorded on OED website:
"EE is seen as a classless dialect, which could become the standard spoken English in the future. It is viewed as ' high Cockney' typified by Ken Livingstone, a prominent public figure and formal major of London" (OED).
Conversely, some shocking reactions to the novelty were compiled by Maidment (1994), ex• amples of collected quotes from various papers as below: "God forbid that it becomes Standard English. Are standards not meant to be upheld? We must not slip into slovenliness because of a lack of respect for the language. Ours is a lovely lan• guage, a rich language, which has a huge vocabulary. We have to safeguard it". "It is slob- speak, limp and flaccid: the mouths uttering it deserve to be stuffed with broken glass". "It is London of course, but debased London: slack-jawed, somnambulant (sic) London".
There has been attempt to classify EE by demonstrating interlocking relationship with RP and
Cockney., this theoretical model is provided by Maidment (1994). Figure 5 below graphically
26 depicts overlapping relationship of EE, Cockney and RP as well as their positions on the informality/formality scale.
Figure 5 The RP-Cockney pronunciation continuums
[I <—Cockney—> F] [I <— RP—> F] [I <—EE—> F]
Source: adapted from Maidment 1994
What it expresses is that EE represents a more sophisticated model of the speech than
Cockney, it also points out that at its formality peak EE corresponds with the informal variant of RP.
The same view as Maidment's is supported by already mentioned linguist expert on EE
Coggle (1994) who states:
"EE exists between RP and Cockney and is, I claim, serving as a bridge between the various classes in SE England. So, for instance, upper class speakers can move "down market' from RP towards Cockney (by adopting some, but not all the features of Cockney) and Cockney speakers can move "up market' towards RP, discarding certain Cockney features and retaining others. I hope to establish whether or not individual features are adopted or discarded in any particular order (it seems that they *are*)."
2.4.3.1 Cockney - Estuary English compared
Due to the existing interwoven relationship, it is justifiable to list and compare the distinguishing pronunciation features of EE and Cockney variations. Drawing from the classification made by Maidment (1994) and Wells (1994) the most prominent features in common are summarised as below:
• Word final and pre-consonantal glottal stop replacement. Example of glottal stops are:
bit /bi?/, bentley /ben?li/
• L- vocalisation l\l is realised as a back, closes rounded vowel in positions before a
consonant with or without an intervening word boundary or in absolute utterance final
27 position before a pause as in the word milk /miok/, mill /mio/ .Although The Cockney
speaker applies L-vocalisation much more extensively. As a result words feel and fill
are pronounced as homophones /ho/. Similarly the words weld and world have the
same pronunciation /weod/.
• The diphthongal vowels of FACE, PRICE and GOAT would be expected of both the
speakers of the EE and Cockney to be realised as /AI/, /OI/ and /AU/, in that order.
• Yod-coalescence in stressed syllables as in Tuesday /'tfu:zdAi/ and reduce /n'd3u:s/
• Tense vowel in happy words /'ha?pi/ is identifiable in both accents.
The traits mentioned so far occur in both the variants. In addition, the Cockney speech features peculiarities as recorded by Wells (1986 and 1994), supporting the argument of the continuum theory that Cockney reaches further on the presented continuum. Examples of the characteristics include:
• Diphthongization of long vowels: Iv.l becomes liv.l and in final position even hil.
Same diphthongization appears with III in final position, the word busy in Cockney
pronounced /bizai/.
• H-dropping: In Cockney, /hi is omitted, and words like hammer or house are
pronounced respectively /'sema/ and /'a?us/.
• Consonants IB/ and /S/ are replaced by /f/ and /v/ - the words think and father are
therefore pronounced /'fink/ and /'fa:va/, respectively.
• Glottalling of other consonants: /p/ fkJ in final environment as a glottal stop.
Occasionally glottal realisation of / f/ / v/ /9/ /S/ may be occurring in words safer I
sei?a / and southend /sei?and /
• G-dropping means that the pronunciation of the -ing ending is realised as an alveolar
rather than velar nasal as in walkin' /wo:km/.
To conclude, the differences between the two variants also exist on grammatical basis.
Altendorf (2003) and Wells (1996) share the proposal that the major difference between EE and Cockney is grammatical correctness with EE speakers not using non-standard grammatical variants.
Maidment uses [o] symbolising a sound very like what most speakers of English produce for w. Both Coggle and Rosewarne use [w] to symbolise the sound.
28 Encyclopedia.com provides a list of grammatical deviations of Cockney from standard, namely, these are represented by using double negative, as in There ain't nuffink like it, and substituting done and seen for did and saw, as in / done it yesterday or / just seen er.
Typically, question tags are widely used. For example: Well, e knew all abaht it, dinnee?
Propositions to and at are frequently dropped in relation to places, as in They're over me mum
(Encyclopedia).
29 3 The practical part
The practical part considers the following hypothesis: The regionality of speech featuring in
TV programs is now more acceptable than it was in the last century.
This section is broadly divided into two sub-sections each consisting of materials about two chosen protagonist. The content of the sections was compiled with the view of confirming the aim of this thesis, that is, to prove the hypothesis valid. The phonetic analyses of trends in speech features form a prominent part. It considers changes in style of spoken production over the time duration of 25 years in the studios of the BBC. Historically, it had been the BBC's domain to guard the rules of regionality allowed on air, ensuring the rules enforcement since
1920's through to the early 1970's.
For the purpose of phonetic analysis, the popular cookery shows have been selected. Two 5- minute-long footages of the cookery programs featuring celebrity chefs Fanny Cradock and
Jamie Oliver, dating from 1975 and 2001, respectively, are transcribed and analysed.
A set of items, i.e. phonetic, lexical and grammatical specifics, is identified in each of the re• cordings. Its characteristics are compared and conclusions drawn in the light of findings.
30 3.1 Chef's profiles
3.1.1 Fanny Cradock
Mrs Cradock is noted to be one of the first celebrity TV food personalities. She made her first appearance on TV in the 1950's. Her shows presenting the British classic recipes as well as introducing then exotic foods from France and Italy became an instant hit after the food ra• tionings of the post-war period. The TV series lasted until the mid 1970's, and so did her af• filiation with the BBC channel. Her best known programme was titled Adventurous Cooking.
She was known to be a difficult person treating people around her mean. She repeatedly infu• riated her cooking audience. As a result, her TV career came to an end in the mid 1970's.
Thereafter until her death in 1994 she concentrated on extending the list of her cookery books making it over 30 titles in her lifespan (Warren).
Being born into an upper class family in Leytonstone, Essex, her social background suggests that she would be an RP accent user. From the geographical point of view, however, her speech could be influenced by the features of urban accent spilling from London. The premise is investigated in the analysis in the section below.
She was infamous for refusing to wear cook's apron, instead, she famously worked in the ball style gowns. The formality of her attire is parallel with the formality of her speech. However, deeper analysis of speech reveals playful and familiar characteristics. On one hand, formality characteristic of RP is used to maintain the distance, but on the other hand her playfulness with the language represented by the phrases such as: 'curiouspinching movement', lubricat• ing a dry bird', ' it doesn't do much for the birds figure', 'my purse doesn't run to the raw ham these days' is enticing, if not entertaining.
A festive gastronomy episode 'YOUR CfflRSTMAS BIRD', produced in 1975, where Cra• dock shares with the audience a comprehensive guide to cooking a Christmas bird, is the sub• ject of the following analysis. The focus of orthographic transcription is confined to a five- minute fraction starting at the first 40 seconds and lasting until 5 minutes 35 seconds of the episode; the footage is orthographically transcribed by the author of this thesis and is included in the Appendix C for the reference.
31 3.1.1.1 Procedure
Fanny Cradock was randomly chosen as the TV presenter active in the 70's on the BBC chan• nel. Immediately, it was clear that her interesting personality and public speaking manner was inviting for a deeper analysis. The process of selection of the episode marked the initial stage.
Due to the restricted availability of Mrs Cradock's cookery shows online, all videos available on YouTube channel were watched. Concurrently, it was necessary to have the second pre• senter in mind at this stage, also randomly chosen, affiliated with the BBC and active about
30 years later, in order to search for both corresponding and contrasting features. The episode
'YOUR CHIRSTMAS BIRD' was selected, conforming to the aim of the thesis, with com• parisons being substantial part of, and despite both generational and stylistic difference of the two presenters, parallels forming the basis for comparisons were indentified.
From the practical point of view, multiple replays and rewinds were the inseparable part of the process leading to identification of the inventory of vowels and consonants prone to variations, compiled in reference to the theoretical part. Such vowels and consonants form the starting point for the tables 1 and 2 below. With the RP rules in consideration and also confirmed by the pronunciation recorded in dictionaries, i.e. Cambridge English pronouncing dictionary or
Collins dictionary, both used online , words or phrases have been identified in the recording containing the phonemes previously suggested. However, to provide food for thought, the phonemes identified are not always pronounced in agreement with the dictionary pronuncia• tion. These differences are listed in the mid two columns of the Table 1 and 2.
The lexical and grammatical make-up of the recordings carries a less significant focus and is therefore considered to be outside the scope of the analysis. However, some space is devoted to such analysis as there are some interesting instances. Such as usage of French words like jus and jamon de bayonne; in the field of cookery it is not only a common phenomenon, but it also implies its user's refinement and, possibly, good education. The cooking specific word classes include adjectives and verbs. Very conservative representations are used in both cases.
Neutral adjectives identified are good and beautiful; the most evocative in use is delicious.
The cooking verbs related such as unsoaked12 and untrussed are both rather old-fashioned and of a transferred sense meaning full flavoured and untied, respectively.
Full flavoured ham due to the longer process of ageing and usage of aromatic flavourings. In contrast, the ham can be soaked in water to dilute the strong flavour.
32 3.1.1.2 Vowels
The analysis starts with the vowels, keeping them in the separate table 1 as depicted below.
The content relating to the consonants is presented after the vowels' analysis.
Table 1 Vowels observed in the recording 1
Pho• Examples of Dictionary Realised Commentary of
nemes words/phrases Pronunciation Pronunciation features
ltd Absolutely /'a?bsalu:tli / /'a?bsalu:tli / Variability of the
Flatten /'fl getan/ /'flatan/13 openness of /se/
Crash /'kne|7 /'krse|7
Iii Television /'telivi3n/ /'telivi3n/ Variability of /a/
Begin /bi'gm/ /ba'gm/ preference
h:l Thought /'9o:t/ /But/ Transfer of
Stalks /'sto:ks/ /'stüks/ CLOTH set
lu:l Mushroom /'mAjru:m/ or /'mA/rum/ Preference for
/'mAjrum/ Shortening of vow•
els
/awa/ Ours /'auaz/ /a:z/ /aaz/14 Triphthong re•
placed by long
vowel
Programme /'praugrsem/ /'prDugrsem/ Variability of the
Process /'prauses/ /'prouses/ quality in GOAT
Over /'auva/ /'auva/ /'ouva/ words
No /'nau/ /'nau/ /'nou/
lis/ Realised /'nalaizd/ /'realaizdV Shift from /i /
Years /'jiaz/ /'jeaz/ to/e/
13 /a/ is not a standard symbol in the phonemic chart (see Appendix A), nevertheless used to record the change in pronunciation 14 /aa/ is not a standard symbol in the phonemic chart ( see Appendix A), nevertheless used to record the change in pronunciation
33 3.1.1.2.1 Analysis of the findings
Starting with the phoneme /a?/, this phoneme exhibits the largest variation amongst the single vowels discussed. The openness varies from the widest /a?/ as in absolutely; through /a/ in the words such as flatten. As discussed in theoretical section 2.4.1.2 the contemporary variety of
RP allows for the reduction in the openness of this vowel, contrary to the conservative form of
RP which typically allows for greater openness. The phoneme realisation in the recording, however, is inconsistent and, as such, is likely to be a subject of the speaker's preference.
Due to the influence of the transfer of CLOTH set, the development of h\l is in agreement with the contemporary RP inclination, where this vowel is realised as hi. It can be traced in the words thought and stalks. This is in line with the preference for the shorted vowels in the word mushroom; this item has, however, dual standard pronunciation possible as presented by
Cambridge English pronouncing dictionary.
Pronunciation of /i / ranges from /i / to hi. The schwa form tends to represent the more modern version of RP. In the recording, some inconsistency can be noticed with the word television pronounced in a conservative manner with /i / and the word begin pronounced with hi. Moreover, the treatment of /ia/ diphthong seems to follow similar principle. It exhibits a diphthongal shift to /ea/ in the words realised and years.
The triphthong /aua/ conforms to the shortening tendencies in the word ours, although the alternative pronunciation is possible as listed in the pronouncing dictionary. In the recording the observed variety applies the rules of smoothing 15 and therefore the word ours is pronounced with the vowel /as/.
The phoneme hisl is another prominent diphthong identified in the recording. The variability in its quality is noticeable in the words over and no. There are instances where the pronunciation follows the more conservative RP variant, in which case the words are realised with hul sound. Concurrently, these words can be observed to be pronounced in the contemporary manner with /DU/. In addition, the words programme, process or hold follow the principle of modernised accent. Over all, with this phoneme there are tendencies towards more contemporary RP accent identifiable in the recording.
''Reduction of the vowels, i.e.long vowel becomes short; diphthong becomes monothong
34 3.1.1.3 Consonants
Table 2 Consonants observed in the recording 1
Phonemes Words Dictionary Realised Commentary of
pronunciation Pronunciation features
Irl Series /'siari:z/ /'si3ii:z/ R-tapping
Curious /'kjuarias/ /'kjuarias/ R-tapping
Over /'auva/ /'auva/ R non-realised
Super /'su:pa/ /'sju:pa/ R non-realised
Right /'rait/ /'rait/ Approximant
After all /'a:ftar o:l/ /'a:ftar o:l/ Linking R approxi•
mant
There it is /'Sear it iz/ /'Sear it iz/ Linking R approxi•
mant
Itl Put /'put/ /'put/ T-tapping
Butter /'bAta/ /'bAta/ T-tapping
Better /'beta7 /'beta/ T-tapping
Whatever /wnt'eva/ /wnd'eva7 T-voicing
/e/ Think /'Girjk/ /'Girjk/ Regular RP
Thin /'9m/ /'Gin/ pronunciation
Thing /'6m/ /'Gir,/ realised
Through /'Gru:/ /'Gru:/
/a/ Then /'Sen/ /'Sen/ Regular RP
The /'Sa//'Si:/ /'Sa//'Si:/ pronunciation
This /'Sis/ /'Sis/ realised
Dripping /'drrpirj/ /'dnpm/ Regular RP
Doing /'du:.irj/ /'du:.irj/ pronunciation
realised
/i/ Full I'MI /'ful/ Consonant fully
Foil /'foil/ /'foil/ Realised
/j/ Curious /'kunas/ /'kunas/ Yod-dropping Super /'suipa' /'sju^a' l]l is inserted
/tj/ Meet you all /'mi:t ju o:l/ /'mi:tf uo:l/ /tj/ becomes /tJ7
35 3.1.1.4 Analysis of the findings
The phoneme Id constitutes a significant sound in English pronunciation system. According to the non-rhoticity principle, in many cases - for example in the word over - it is not realised as underpinned in the theoretical section. Although interestingly throughout the recording the different kinds of M are identified. Firstly, the apparent demonstration of R16-tapping can be recognised in the words series and curious. This kind of realisation suggests an old-fashioned user. Secondly, the phoneme /r/ in words run and right in the initial position moves towards the standard realisation of approximant, typically the RP feature. The same is valid about the principle of linking /r/ in phrases such as after all, where it is realised as approximant.
The phoneme It/ also exhibits variation in its quality. In the recording, the realisation accord• ing to the T-tapping17 principle is traceable in most of the words such as, for example, put, better and butter. Although the T-voicing18 feature, more typical for the American variety of
English, can be identified in the word whatever.
IB/, 16/, /rj/ and III are the fully realised phonemes respecting rules of RP pronunciation. In contrast, the rules seem to be bent with the phoneme /j/. In the selected word curious it is not clearly pronounced so it can be concluded to be classified as dropped. This process is called yod-dropping and is characteristic of a conservative speech. However, what seems to deviate from the standard is the subtle suggestion of /j/ in the word super. If we consider fairly mod• ern tendencies of the speech analysed, the insertion of /j/ is not to be expected with this par• ticular word as the pronunciation /'sju:pa/would be considered the most conservative variety.
The connected speech features of RP allow for the development of another trait called yod- coalescence as discussed in relation to the modern dialects in section 2.4.3.1; the feature is identified in the phrase meet you there, where the consonant It/ is linked with /j/ together forming /tj/ sound which is, in the recording, realised as /tJ7.
A sound produced by flicking the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth making only very brief con• tact 17 Same process as with R-tapping 18 A sound nearly identical with lál
36 3.1.2 Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver was born in Clavering, Essex, into a working class family. His parents ran the pub which meant that his youth evolved around the kitchen. Following a career path of a cook he went into training. Building his way up to become a sous-chef19 in The River Cafe Lon• don20, his celebrity career started after he was noticed by the BBC crew when filming docu• mentary at this restaurant. He embodied the person the BBC TV producers where looking for, real and genuine, and so the agreement was reached leading to Oliver's debut series called
'THE NAKED CHEF'. Although the title may suggest a chef cooking with no clothes on, it actually represents an implicit meaning of 'striping recipes back to the basics of cooking'.
What made the program such a success was not only the realistic TV style of cooking show, but more importantly Oliver's genuine accent undeniably revealing his regionality and sug• gesting his social status. This special mixture of aspects seems to be what made people watch his shows. Producers realised that turning his accent into an advantage posing as a powerful tool telling a story of a boy from a working class background, who succeeded in becoming a millionaire. It also seems likely that his humble background influenced his attitude towards the people and very reason he abides the principle of giving back to community.
He only stayed with the BBC for three series of 'THE NAKED CHEF', after the year 2001 he signed the contract with the Channel 4 and continued to produce successful shows. He par• ticipated in the programme, titled Jamie's kitchen, with the aim to inspire and help the young people from disadvantaged background. The combination of his care for food with care for 21 people fuelled another charitable project - Jamie's school dinners - which succeeded in its aim to make the school dinner healthier and to force government to review nutritional re- 22 quirements.
From French - a chef who is the second in command. 20 A restaurant by the river Thames, in Hammersmith, London, serving Italian food and famous for employing the top chefs earning a Michelin star in the 90's. 21 Some inconsistency in the title of the project has been encountered, sometimes referred to as school dinners, other times school lunches. 22 the campaign was directly responsible for the British government pledge of £280mil to improve school meals
37 Nowadays, his popularity is not diminishing. His success demonstrated in the business sphere is not mutually exclusive with the accomplishments in personal life. He is a father of five children, married for nearly twenty year to his first love (Moore).
Spontaneous performance of Oliver makes it appear that anyone could become a TV celebrity chef. Informal register removes the barriers between the presenter and the viewers and sug• gests not only approachability, but foremost familiarity and embracement of the audience. The same relaxed message portrays his style of clothing and appearance. The recording selected comes from the part of the episode one, from the season one of THE NAKED CHEF series.
The episode was released in the year 2001 and it is called 'CHEF'S NIGHT OUT'. The foot• age of the video, where Oliver prepares a roast leg of lamb for his fellow chefs, forms the subject of the following analysis. The recording starts at the first 28 seconds and ends at 5 minutes 40 seconds. This five minute footage is orthographically transcribed by the author of this thesis and is included in Appendix D.
3.1.2.1 Procedure
Same procedure as with Fanny Cradock's recording was applied. This time, however, the choice of episodes was much broader. Yet, none episode showing the turkey preparation could be found amongst them. To provide the grounds for comparison of similar lexis with the re• lated phonetic realisation, the focus concentrated on the meat recipe, in this case the roast leg of lamb.
On the operational level, the previously selected inventory of vowels and consonants was used as a departing point. The theoretical part provided the knowledge which suggests that
Jamie Oliver is a user of modern urban accent, typical of the south-east area of England, more specifically London, and is known as the Cockney accent. As a result, the list of phonemes, which became the subject of the phonetic observation, was adjusted to account for the features typical for the Cockney accent.
The choice of informal character of the spoken production is in line with the character of the situation, informality being classified as a common feature of the TV shows. The non• standard language in use is signalled by colloquial phrases such as well chuffed and full whack, meaning very pleased and at the maximum, respectively. These markers are demonstrated in
38 the co-occurrence with non-standard grammatical structures, such as gonna, wanna, kinda and sorta. Familiarity is further enhanced by extensive use of fillers, e.g. stuff like that, you know what I mean, right, belong to the most frequently used ones. Notable is the personal prefer• ence of the speaker for emotive forms of expressions, i.e. affective adjectives such as lovely and lovely jubbly, and dramatically powerful verbs shove and rip off.
3.1.2.2 Vowels
The actual vowel analysis as in the later section 3.1.2.2.1 considers the vowels separately from the consonants. Firstly, the vowels are recorded as in the table 3 below, followed by the consonants recorded in the table 4 with their subsequent analysis in later sections 3.1.2.3 and
3.1.2.3.1, in that order.
39 Table 3 Vowels observed in the recording number 2
Phonemes Examples of Dictionary Realised pro• Commentary of
words/phrases pronunciation nunciation features
ltd Lamb /'la?m/ /'la?m/ Variability in qual• Hand /'ha?nd/ /'hand/ ity of /a?/
Hands /'hsendz/ /'hendz/
Angle /'sengal/ /'e:ngal/
Randomly /'reendamli/ /'ra:ndamlii:/
lul Cooked /'kukt/ /'kakt/ Shift towards hi
Push /"poJ7 /'paj7 applying weak Should (fbd/ WEAK /Jad/ /jad/ form principle
hi Kind of /'kamdav/ /'kamda/ Non-standard
Sort of /'soitav/ /'so:ta/ Colloquial variant
lil Really /'riali/ /'riahi:/ Lengthening 111
Lovely /'IAVH/ /'lAvlii:/ vowel
Empty /'empti/ /'emptii:/
Randomly /'reendamli/ /'ra?ndamlii:/
laisl Down /'daun/ /'deun/ /'daun/ Variable
Now /'nau/ /'neu/ /'nau/ pronunciation /eu/
/au/
Bone /'baun/ /'boun/ /'baun/ Shift in quality in
Almost /'o:lmaust/ /'o:lmoust/ GOAT words
Smokiness /'smaukin /'smoukin
Over /'auva/ /'ouva/
No /'nau/ /'nou/
/aue/ Ours /'auaz/ /a:z/ /'aaz/ Triphthong
replaced by long
vowel
40 3.1.2.2.1 Analysis of the findings
The phoneme /a?/ represents the sound with the astounding variation in quality. The realisation of this phoneme ranges from short vowel /a/ in the word hand to long vowel /a:/ identified in the word randomly. The closest classification of the phoneme in the word angle might be described as the sound /e:/, however, such sound is not represented in the list of symbols of the standard pronunciation chart. The choice of the quality doesn't seem to be governed by any specific rules, and as such, it is not clear whether the preference of the user is random, or it is influenced by other factors, or possibly by social context.
An investigation into the phoneme 115 I in the words push, cook, leads to the conclusion that this non-standard realisation of /a/ instead of /u/ is influenced by the transfer of the weak form principle, as pronounced in the word should, and is defectively carried over to these other words cook and push. Speaking of weak forms, they play the role in phrases such as kind of and sort of, enhancing its final positions and arriving at the non-standard forms kinda, sorta.
On the whole, the weak forms in this case have been promoted to become a signal of collo• quialism.
Observed phoneme /i / in the final position of the words has undergone some revision and became to be known as happy l\l sound which is not classified as a basic standard phoneme in the international phonetic alphabet chart, see Appendix A. Additionally, in the words ending with -y, such as randomly and lovely, a slight lengthening of the vowel can be identified.
From the phonetic point of view, the sound of diphthongal quality identified is transcribed as
/ii:/ and is most obvious in the word empty.
Diphthong /au/ in the recording is undeniably shifted to the /ou/ sound quality. The word bone is the only word identified that is suggesting a subtle remainder of the diphthong /au/. The rest of the items observed, i.e. smokiness, almost, over, follow the shift to the sound /ou/, which does not represent a standard diphthong included in the chart of phonemes.
The variation in the pronunciation of diphthong /au/ is very subtle, nevertheless, it can be identified in the words down and now, where it is realised as a sound between /eu/ and /au/.
Such shift in sound might suggest further changes in pronunciation of other vowels. The diph-
23 As previously pointed it is a non standard symbol
41 thong /ai/ in the words right and knife reveals quality which is not clear cut, nevertheless it would suggest a preparation for the production of the sound /ei/ but then actually produce the sound /ai/.
It would be inconsistent to identify the triphthong /aue/pronounced in its full version in spo• ken production with substantial level of informality. Indeed, concurrently with the multiple contracted grammatical forms in the recording, the pronunciation follows the same contract• ing trend, hence the triphthong is reduced to /aa/
42 3.1.2.3 Consonants
Table 4 Consonants observed in the recording number 2
Phonemes Words Dictionary Realised Commentary of fea•
pronunciation pronunciation tures
Irl Over /'auva/ /'auva/ R non-realised
Right /'rait/ /'rai?/ R non-realised
Fragrant /'freigrant/ /'freigran/ R Approximant
Their own time /Sear aun 'taim/ / /der oun 'taim/ Linking R approxi•
mant
HI Put /'put/ /'pu?/ T-glottaling
Whatever /wot'eva/ /wn?'eva/ T-glottaling
Beautiful /'bju:tifl/ /'bju:?ifo/ T-glottaling
Butter /'bAta/ /'bAta/ T-realised
Thirteen /93:'ti:n/ /93:'ti:n/ T-realised
Often /'t>fan//'t)ftan/ /'oftan/ T-realised
Twenty /'twenti/ /'twenti/ T-realised
/p/ Chop /tjbp/ /tjb?/ P-glottaling
Ikl Secret /'si:krat/ /'si:?rat/ K-glotalling
IQI Think /'Girjk/ /'firjk/ TH-fronting
Three /'9ri:/ /'fri:/
Thing /eirj/ /'fir,/
Thirteen /93:'ti:n/ /93:'ti:n/
161 Then /'Sen/ /'den/ TH-stopping
The /'Sa/ /'da/
This /'Sis/ /'dis/
With it /'WIS it/ /'wid i?/
Cooking /'kukin/ /'kukm/ G- dropping
Going /'du:in/ /'du:m/
43 IV Full I'MI /'fuo/ L-vocalisation
Salt /Suit/ /soot/ /suo/
Whole /haul/ /houo/
Beautiful /'bju:tifl/ /'bju:?ifo/
Little /'htl/ /'lito//'li?o/
3.1.2.3.1 Analysis of the findings
Pronunciation of the phoneme Irl is in agreement with the rules of a non-rhothic accent, as it would be expected. The modern realisation of Irl as an approximant was identified in all ini• tial positions as in the word right, also in the middle position when Irl is followed by a vowel as in fragrant, and in connected speech as in the phrase their own time. The Irl in the latter phrase is used for the linking purpose, and is known as linking R.
24 The phoneme /t/'s realisation as a glottal stop outweighs the rest of the situations where IXl is realised fully. Peculiarities of variability provide an interesting point of this analysis. Typically, the glottal stops are not only used in final positions, such as in the word put but also in the words such as beautiful and whatever. Therefore it would be expected that the treatment of the word butter confines to this rule. However, the word butter in the recording is a fully real• ised consonant. Similarly, with the numbers thirteen and twenty It/ is pronounced. What could serve as an explanation of the latter is the slower articulation of the speaker for the purpose of clarity.
Less common is the occurrence of glottaling in other consonants. In the recording, the glottal pronunciation of /p/ can be identified in the final position of the word chop. An example of another rare use of the stop is identifiable in the word secret, glottalised Ikl is possible in the cluster followed by another consonant.
The phoneme /9/is realised in a non-standard fashion, as a result, the monitored words such as think and thing are pronounced with HI. Such processed is called TH-fronting. Conversely, to what would be expected, the word thirteen is realised in a standard way. The rules of standard
24 Glottal stop is defined by the dictionary.com as a consonant formed by the audible release of the airstream after complete closure of the glottis. This consonant articulation is symbolised by / ? /
44 pronunciation are also bent in the case of phoneme Ibl. It could be stipulated that this pho• neme exhibits modern tendencies for simplification and so the words such as that and then were observed to follow the process called TH-stopping25 and the sound realised is lál.
An interesting phenomenon can be observed with the realisation of the phoneme l\l. The se• lected items, for example full, salt and beautiful, all represent words where the l\l is replaced by the semivowel Iwl in the final syllable position. Such treatment might have an intriguing effect on participants' comprehension due to the sounds becoming identical in different words, as it is discussed in the theoretical part, section 2.4.3.1.
The process known as G-dropping is clearly recognizable in verbs ending with ing, such as doing and cooking. Furthermore, there are also other cluster reductions apparent in the text.
The following table 5 have been compiled to provide an indication of the propensity of treat• ment of the clusters.
Table 5 Consonant clusters observed in the recording number 2
Consonant Words/phrases Dictionary Observed pro• Features com• clusters pronunciation nunciation mentary /st/ First /'f3:st/ /'f3:s/ Elision /nd/ Hand /'ha?nd/ /'hen/ Elision /ft/ Left /'left/ /'lef/ Elision /tr/ Tray /'trei/ /'tjrei/ Affrication /dr/ Dry /' drai/ /'d3rai/ Affrication /str/ Straight /'streit/ /'Jtreit/ Affrication
3.1.2.4 Consonant clusters explained
Throughout the recording, the omission of the unstressed syllable can be observed, repeatedly in words hand and first. This process, known as elision, is a common feature of casual speech and therefore, it would be expected to be present. Moreover, this feature is carried across to the related words such as firstly and handful, resulting in their realisation without It/ and /d/ respectively. Another observed way the clusters are realised in the recording is the process of affrication26 as can be seen /tr/ cluster the word tray is realised as /tfr/ as a result.
25 Th-stopping is a process where the realisation takes form of dental or alveolar stops instead of standard frica• tives /0/ and Ibl 26 The process of changing a stop sound to an affricate
45 3.1.3 Comparative analysis of recordings 1 and 2
Having used the findings from the previous section the following summary in the form of the
Table 6 was created. The consideration was given to 15 phonemes present in the words se• lected for analyses (see tables 1-4) and their realisation was evaluated in both recordings.
Table 6 Vowels and consonants' articulation compared
Phonemes Differentiating features Recording 1 Recording 2 identified27 lad Variable openness •/ •/ Variable length X h:l Sound shortened •/ X lu:l Sound shortened •/ X lul Shift in quality X III Tensing in final position X laisl Shift in quality •/ Shift in quality X •/ Irl R-Tapping •/ X Iii T-Glottaling X Ipllkl P/K-Glottaling X •/ IQI TH-fronting X •/ 161 TH-stopping X •/ G-dropping X 71/ L-vocalisation X
3.1.3.1 Interpretation of the findings presented - vowels
Assessing the vowels in the recording 1, it can be concluded that they display some shorten• ing tendencies. If the phoneme /a?/ considered, the variability of the openness ranges from the articulation realised fully to the reduced form /a/ as in the word flatten (See table 1). More• over, the phoneme h\l is found to exhibit different realisation: the original vowel is replaced by Ivil as in thought /'Got/. Such inclination is further confirmed by the pronunciation of the word mushroom /'mAjrum/.
The words ending /i / do not follow the lengthening tendencies, as it is in the recording 2. The triphthong is also articulated in the shorter variant. Overall, the above facts confirm that the
27 Non-standard features confirmed by the previous analyses
46 vowels follow the shortening tendencies with the occasional incorporation of modern trend.
This trend is best recognised in the changed quality of the pronunciation of the diphthong /au/.
(See Table 1)
Let us turn to the recording 2 and the vowels. Here, the slightly different behaviour is recorded. An obvious variability of the phoneme /a?/ is also identified, although, in this case, the original sound is reformulated in attempt for simplification of a difficult vowel, and such reductions take form of /a:/ and /a/ and /e:/ (For details see Table 3).
Apart from the tensing of the final actually realised as /ii: /, no further lengthening action among vowels is recognised. However, what can be identified is the shift in quality, i.e. the phonemes /u / and /au/ are actually realised as the phonemes /a/ as in the word push /'paf/ and
/ou/ as in the word over /'ouva/. To sum up, it is valid to say that a common denominator among the vowels in the recording 2 is a shift in quality with the tendencies for simplification.
Overall, the vowels have propensity to be fairly stable in comparison to the consonants. Prin• cipally, the consonants in the recoding 2 feature much larger differentiation.
3.1.3.2 Interpretation of the findings presented - consonants
When we consider the information presented in the table 6, it indicates that out of seven items relating to the consonants observed the total of six items were found to differ from the stan• dard in the case of the recording 2; this fact is in a sharp contrast with the recording 1 where only one item deviation is traced.
The consonants analysed in the recording 1 respect the articulation prescribed by the standard.
The only exhibit of a diversion from the norm is found with the phoneme /r/. On a number of occasions, the realisation of this phoneme follows the out-dated and conservative way, i.e. R- tapping principle.
On the other hand, the recording 2 exhibits numerous innovations. When the phoneme l\l is considered, its realisation reveals that glottalisation process is applied, contrary to the re• cording 1, where glottaling is resisted completely. However, even in the recording 2 the glot• tal articulation is not exclusive, interestingly; the word butter is pronounced with the same
47 quality of Itl in both recordings (See Table 2 and 4). The rest of the studied consonants in the recording 2 divert from the regular realisation.
When a more complex view based on the findings is taken, the interesting phenomenon is uncovered relating to the recording 2. The occurrence of features such as L-vocalisation, TH- fronting and G-dropping may suggest the urban dialect called Cockney, whilst other typical markers such as H-dropping and shift in vowels in words FACE, PRICE, GOAT are not real• ised and therefore do not support this categorisation (for detailed overview of the features of
Cockney see section 2.4.3.1.). Although the analyses reveal that consonants are the deciding factor when placing an accent on the continuum, i.e. deciding the variant (see figure 5 in the section 2.4.3) more investigation would need to be done. The observation based on just one recording cannot be taken as conclusive, and thus it remains disputable whether Jamie
Oliver's accent is Cockney, EE or even Mockney. It could only be speculated that his accent is developing towards the direction of EE, when his improved position on the social ladder is assumed. However, the mapping of the speech development of Jamie Oliver is outside the scope of this thesis, what it does is open an interesting debate.
3.1.4 Conclusion
Considering the interpretations of all the analyses presented in the previous section we can now turn to the original hypothesis proposed: The regionality of speech featuring in TV pro• grams is now more acceptable than it was in the last century.
The starting point was the assumption that greater tolerance exists in all areas of life, and so the acceptability of regional features would be a plain demonstration of such a tolerant atti• tude.
Two recordings were assessed and analysed, primarily phonemically. When the related find• ings were compared with what is known as the standard form of English language, it high• lighted the diversion from the standard.
Only marginal differences were recorded in the episode with Fanny Cradock. The realisation of some phonemes range from a conservative manner, as, e.g. the phoneme /r/ pronounced in series or realisation of /j/ in the word super, and progress to the contemporary pronunciation
48 of diphthong /ou/as in the word programme. Nevertheless such realisation is still classified to be within the RP variant.
The phonemic analysis of the recording featuring Jamie Oliver indicates significant diversion from the standard. In addition to the differences in pronunciation it indicates features which are clearly identifiable as non standard in terms of grammatical structures and lexis. On the balance of the features identified, it has been established in the previous section that the clas• sification corresponding with the variant is not conclusive, and as such, it requires further investigation.
To conclude, the findings evaluated may suggest the change in the attitude over the 25-year period, however, the results cannot be taken as a representative interpretation and used for generalising purposes. The shortcoming of the analyses is that the size of the sample evalu• ated. The two 5-minute footages proved too small to allow for the formulation of generalising facts. Nevertheless, the analyses disclose a pattern in development of the speech. By and large, if the pattern is assumed then the modern speech of the 21th century can be concluded to follows the trend with simplifying tendencies, and frequent reductions as demonstrated by dropping sounds.
Unfortunately, since the space is a limiting factor of this bachelor thesis, it doesn't allow ex• ploring the suggested trend fully. Were there the larger space allocated it would be meaningful to analyse a wider sample of randomly chosen participants, presuming more categorical effect on the results.
49 Reference list
Altendorf, U. (2003). Estuary English: Levelling at the Interface ofRP and South-Eastern
British. Retrieved from https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/5517249
Chambers, J. K. & Trudgill, R (1980). Dialectology. Cambridge University Press
Coggle, P. (1994). Estuary English. Retrieved from:
https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/coggle.htm
Cruttenden, A. (1994). Gimson's Pronunciation of English. London: Arnold, 2001.
Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). Grammatical Structures in English: Meaning in Context.
Brno: MUNI Press
Green, J. (2012). Cockney . Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved from:
https://public.oed.com/blog/cockney/
Hudson, R. A. (1996). Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Greenbaum, S. & Quirk, R. (1990). A Student's Grammar of the English Language. Harlow:
Pearsons Education Ltd.
Jacot de Boinod, A. (2014). The Utlimate Guide to Cockney Rhyming Slang. Retrieved from :
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/guide-to-cockney-rhyming-slang
Maidment, J.A. (1994). Estuary English: Hybrid or Hype? Paper presented at the 4th New
Zealand Conference on Language & Society, Lincoln University, Christchurch, New
Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/maidment.pdf
Moore, B. ( 2018). Jamie Oliver - The Celebrity Chef Bio. Retrieved from:
https://www.thespruceeats.com/jamie-oliver-1664994
50 Morton, D. & Souther, K. ( 2017). Geordie versus Scouse. What's the best regional accent?
Retrieved from: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/listen-geordie-
scouse-translator-what-12773637
Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Rosewarne, D. (1984). Estuary English. London: Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved
from: https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/rosew.htm
Santipolo, M. (2003). On Opposite Sides of the Continuum: Standard British English and
Cockney. Retrieved from: http://www.humnet.unipi.it/slifo/articolosantipolo.pdf
Trudgill, P. (1999). The Dialects of England. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Wardhaugh, R. (2002). An Intoduction to Sociolinguistics. Blackwell Publishing.
Warren, A. (n.d.) Fanny Cradock. Retrieved from https://www.cooksinfo.com/fanny-cradock
Wells, J.C. (1982). Accents of English 1: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Wells, J.C. (1986). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Wells, J.C. ( 1994). The Cockneyfication ofRP. Retrieved from
https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/cockneyf.htm
51 Sources
Fine Food Network. (2016, Nov 16). The Naked Chef - Season 1, Episode 1 - Chefs' Night Off.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_gXQvmHL3I&t=261 s
Meganoikz ( 2017, Dec. 10). Fanny Cradock cooks for Christmas part 1- Your Christmas
bird 1975. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kunuXThp51E&t=117s
52 Appendix A
The English Phonemic Chart
monophthongs diphthongs Phonemic Chart i: I u u: 19 ei voiced sheep ship good snoot hero wa.t unvoiced e 9 3: o: 09 01 9Ü
VOWEL S bed teacher bird door tourist boy show ae A a: D ea ai au UP far on h»ir cow
t p b d tf k S1NVNOSNO O Q3 g pea boat tea cheese June car go f V e Ö s z ; 3 fly yxteo think ibis lit zoo shall television • m n n. h 1 r w J man now sing bat 1 love red wet
English Phonemic Chart. Retrieved from http://medschools.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/do-you-want-to- reduce-the-impact-of-your-accent-when-speak-in-voiced-and-voiceless-consonants-english-chart.jpg
53 Appendix B
Testimonies of two students on their feelings about their accents as summarised below:
Jenny, a 19-year-old student from Stockport in Manchester, considers herself to have a strong Mancunian accent, which gives her sense of identity and belonging to Manchester as a region. She believes that her accent is friendlier than the southern accent. This does not only restrict to the accent, it goes further - she believes that this 'friendlier' accent correlate with how people behave and interact within society.
On the other hand, Amman, a 20-year-old student who comes from London, finds his southern accent superior and better than northern. His stereotypical judgement is commonly shared by non-linguists. Moreover, being connected to such s strong and cultural region as London is, he is guaranteed the recognition (even internationally) and provided a sense of security. To con• clude, he suggests links between London and its connotation with money and power, and his accent, expressively, makes him feel part of this prestige.
All about linguists. Retrieved from http://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/
54 Appendix C
Fanny Cradock recording starts at 0:40 and ends at 5:35
Episode transcribed
Now, when I realised that for over twenty years I've been doing Christmas cookery on televi• sion, stage and in national newspaper, I thought the one constructive thing I could offer was a series of items that I've made for Christmas and found out over the years the absolutely easi• est and most delicious and successful ways of doing and this is what I'm trying to share with you in these five programmes starting with Christmas birds and, of course, we start with the most important of all, the turkey, which is after all the British national bird. Now, this curious pinching movement that I'm doing here isn't just silly and it isn't to hide the fact that I'm scared stiff when I meet you all at the beginning of the programme because I am, but to loosen the skin so that afterwards I can put my hand underneath and run it right through the skin so that it holds right away from the breast off the upper part of the bird, like that. You see, turkey, let's face it, traditional as it is, is a very dry bird so if you get leaf thin slices of ham or gam• mon. This is gammon, of course, because my purse won't run to raw ham these days. I don't know whose purse runs to anything? And you get raw ham or raw gammon in these paper thin slices cut the rind off and then run it under the skin and over the upper part of the bird like this. You begin the process of lubricating the dry bird. This is only the beginning of it, you see, and over you go, right up and right over and spread it through, then when you've get these four in, you begin with something else, which is mushrooms and I beg of you, if you decide to copy this, it honestly is the most exciting and delicious way and now I always do my Christ• mas turkey this way. When you do yours, please, not only remove yours stalks but remember to leave the skin on your mushroom and put them in like this. Now you've got the gammon in, the, there's gammon and now you push the mushrooms in like this, of course, they go down a bit while it's doing ehh it starts cooking, in fact they flatten completely by the end of the cook• ing time. As well they might do , because it doesn't' do much for the birds figure, let's face it, but on the other hand it wouldn't do much for ours would it, there we go, pushing them all through, now, when the bird starts to cook the juices from the unsoaked ham or gammon, now, I stress that although it's all written down in the Christmas know-how which you '11 hear about at the end of the programme, the unsoaked gammon provides the salt a far better way than with actual salt, in fact, in really super French kitchens chefs have a thing they call jambon de bayonne, de bayonne ham hanging up and they take little slivers off it and toss it into their sauces and their soups for the salty seasoning which is far, far better as I said it doesn't do much for the birds figure but there it is all that inside. All those juices run down and they lu• bricate it and offset the dryness and gracious me, she's done all that to the bird but she hasn't put the stuffing in. Well, I'm rather proud of this, I think you've some of you've seen it before but I decided the time had come to invent a way of getting the stuffing unto a bird without untrussing it and then being faced with having to truss it all over again, especially when you don't know how to do a trussing job. So now, I fill it into o nylon icing bag with no piper fixed and then all I've got to do is just squeeze until the bird's full and that is full, now before I
55 leave that end I'm going to take a piece offoil and put it over the Parson's nose because it does tend to blacken during the cooking and that finishes that end. Then I take another bag of stuffing, you see, a nylon bag like this and then I push it up there and get that stuffing in that end, and that's all there is to it. Then you lift it onto a perfectly dry baking tin like his, crash, and then a little bit of butter or if you can't run to butter then a little bit of dripping but no dripping in the pan, oh dear me, because you see, if you do this then you can pour good bone stock all around in the meat baking tin and then you make the beginnings of a most beautiful sauce, gravy, jus, whatever you like to call it, because all the other juices run into it as well and like that it gets baked on gas mark 4, there you go, my darling Sarah again, to help me...
56 Appendix D
Jamie Oliver recording starts at 0:28, finishes at 5:49
Episode transcribed
I really, really like roast lamb, I mean, I like roast anything, but I love roast lamb and I do do it quite often, my mum's used to do it a lot as well, but ehm, you know, I love it cause we've like ? ? ? 30 sea salt over and roasted in the oven, that's lovely but I kinda get bored of doin the same thing all the time so I'm always trying to have new ways of doing sort of flavour right stuck in there. So, first thing's first, what I wanna do is get a knife and stick the knife down next to the bone at one end, and just push your finger in there, right, so it just make a bit of room and then at this end, do the same again right next to the bone, stick your finger in there, then in about sort of 8 places around the lamb you wanna get your knife about an inch and half, okay, and stick it in an angle, okay, then shove your hand in there, your finger in there, and just do that kind of randomly but kind of equally and, let's do it on the other side as well, one more I reckon, lovely, so that's that done, put that in the tray. Now, we are talking about flavour, so what I'm gonna to do is, I got this sage here, I wanna rip offjust half of it, so it's just the leaves and I'm gonna keep that for latter, and this half I'm gonna put in pestle n mortal with a clove of garlic. Woman: It seems to a very simple thing to do if you have chefs coming around, I'd expect you to do something incredibly posh and fussy, I suppose. Yeah, well, the funny thing is, if you mention the chefs, the hours they do and stuff like that, right it's almost in their own time they wanna kind of be a little bit more sort of relaxed about it, so d 'you know, what I mean, so I know as long as I get ehm a really nice cooked piece of lamb, you know, they gonna be well chuffed and a glass of wine, they gonna be over the moon. So, with this sage, salt, garlic just smash it up. Now, kind of get all the flavours really going and you can smell all that, d'you know what I mean, so fragrant, yeah, right, lovely and leave the rest of the sage you've got left over whole, okay, and then we gonna have some olive oil, about you know 2-3 table spoons, ehhm just to sort of real oil help the oils and flavour in the leaves to come out and then some lemon juice, give it a little bit of that so just squeeze that in there. Get rid of the pips, so you got your lemon juice in there and just chop up roughly chop up this rosemary I got with it. Just mash it up in your hands, and again, first thing I'm gonna do is get big handful and rub it all over the meat, so straight away the skin's gonna be tastin lovely jubelly, right, then when you put that next to it, you get everything else out of here, right now, job's now, with all these cuts we've made kinda push all these lovely herbs, all the garlic n lemony stuff, get it right in these holes, push it right down, and there's a little bit of salt as well, so you seasoned it inside a little bit, which is great, and down the little holes you've made and that up here next to the bone which gone down about 4 inches and it's right in there, loads of flavour, really get stuck in there, you know, I say it like David Bellamy in younger ??? 31, just shove it all in there, you know what I mean.
Unidentifiable word Unidentifiable word
57 Woman: What else could you use to flavour your lamb ? Oh, my god, I mean, it's basically, at the end of the day, like all cooking should be, you know, use if if whatever you like with lamb you should do, I mean, things I've done is kind of you know get some nice really good dry apricots with like smashed up thyme and butter that works beautiful, ehm, things like, you know, simple things like anchovies and rosemary work so well, they just work really well. Now, you've got all the flavour in there and that secret ingredient which I think is a thing calledpancetta and basically it's Italian version of our streaky bacon and all you need really is about 3-4 slices, thin old slices and just shove it down the gaps, you know. Woman: Where d'you get it from? 32 You can get it from deli, get it from supermarket, ??? , I mean it's all over the place, it's got a slight smokiness to it, you don't want a loads of smokiness, but it's got a slight smokiness to it and it's really, really nice, ehm, all right, personally, and it works for the sage, you know, get it in there, lovely, so now we've done that I'm just gonna put a little bit of salt on top and it's nice to have a nice salty skin and basically that is done I know it's gonna be really really tasty. All you have to do now is take care of it in the cooking, so into really, really hot over, about 250, full whack, I'm gonna get the leg of lamb, I'm gonna put it straight onto the bars, right, and put the empty tin underneath to catch all the goodness and all the drips and all that kind ofmarmity lovely jubelly stuff. Woman: How long d'you cook lamb for. Well, I really like to cook the lamb so it's kind of pink, not bloody pink, but kind of pink, pink and to do that I cook it for about 13 minutes per pound and with an additional 20 minutes a cooking at the end of that. And then, what the trick is then is to rest it....
Unidentifiable word
58