The birth of Standard English and the demise of Cockney

 

                        True/False

1. Cockney has always been thought of as vulgar. False

2. The pronunciation of thrust in Cockney in Elizabethan times was /θ/ False, it was /frʊst/

3. The pronunciation of chain in Cockney in Elizabethan times was /tʃeɪn/ False, it was /tʃaɪn/

4. The pronunciation of mother in Cockney in Elizabethan times was /ð/ False, it was /mʊvə/

5. In the late 18th century speech became a class marker. True

6. Johnson believed it was possible to fix language. False

7. Public schools are private. True

8. No formal guidance about spelling and pronunciation of English before the 19th century. False, that happens in the 18th.

9. RP speakers today have a more relaxed way of pronouncing certain vowels. True 

10. RP speakers today normally use the glottal stop in the middle of the words butter and later. False

11. RP has been influenced by Cockney. True. RP nowadays uses sounds that in the past were considered vulgar.

12. At public schools boys are forced to use RP. True

13. One in twenty people in England speak what Burchfield calls received standard. False(one in fifty)

14. The invention of television turned public school English into BBC English. True

15. People who spoke public school English were considered more intelligent, more trustworthy, and even better looking. True

 

People to Remember

1. Professor, Sir. Randolph Quirk - An expert on Cockney    

2. Bob Barletrop - Grammarian and linguist

3. Jonathan Swift - He proposed an Academy to regulate English       

4. George Bernard Shaw - Playwright and spelling reformer   

5. J.C. Wells - An expert on accents of English           

6. Dr. Robert Burchfield - Editor of the OED  

7. James Boswell - Johnson’s biographer   

8. Henry Machyn - He kept a diary.           

9. Samuel Johnson - Author of a dictionary 

10. Pat Butler - BBC announcer