The Queen's Accent
Another difficult morning ahead. The Press Secretary wondered why he had not taken early retirement. The papers were full of the Queen's accent ! They were saying that in spite of her accent having changed over 50 years which had brought her closer to her people, the monarchy was still an anachronism and the results of the referendum were perfectly in keeping with the mood of the country! Given that the referendum had split the country in half, the Queen would be extremely cross if she read this.
According to The Journal of Phonetics, the Queen's accent had gradually changed over the years and the phonetician had listened to every Queen's Christmas message since 1952!
How boring, the Press Secretary thought. He quickly put these unloyal thoughts from his mind as he read the report.
It was the vowels that had done it. 'Thet men in the bleck het' in 1952 had now become 'That man in the black hat' in 2006.
Thank goodness, the Press Secretary thought. Now people were opening their mouths wider and experimenting with a wider range of vowels much to the relief of foreign students visiting NERD.
"Thet men in the bleck het" he said aloud just as the Queen came into the study.
"Have we got a visitor?" the Queen asked brightly.
"No, no, just musing aloud" he replied quickly. He folded the paper just in time as his eye caught another observation about the accents of the rest of the family which stated that Anne's accent was suburban, Edward had a tough of Cockney and the nieces and nephews spoke Estuary!
"You do know that the stables near the orchard are almost ready" he said breezily to distract her.
"Excellent"the Queen said
"We will put ads on our website and try to encouage paying guests to give them a break from NERD - only monarchists need apply" she laughed.
Visit the Queen's site for info on Italy www.queeninitaly.com
According to The Journal of Phonetics, the Queen's accent had gradually changed over the years and the phonetician had listened to every Queen's Christmas message since 1952!
How boring, the Press Secretary thought. He quickly put these unloyal thoughts from his mind as he read the report.
It was the vowels that had done it. 'Thet men in the bleck het' in 1952 had now become 'That man in the black hat' in 2006.
Thank goodness, the Press Secretary thought. Now people were opening their mouths wider and experimenting with a wider range of vowels much to the relief of foreign students visiting NERD.
"Thet men in the bleck het" he said aloud just as the Queen came into the study.
"Have we got a visitor?" the Queen asked brightly.
"No, no, just musing aloud" he replied quickly. He folded the paper just in time as his eye caught another observation about the accents of the rest of the family which stated that Anne's accent was suburban, Edward had a tough of Cockney and the nieces and nephews spoke Estuary!
"You do know that the stables near the orchard are almost ready" he said breezily to distract her.
"Excellent"the Queen said
"We will put ads on our website and try to encouage paying guests to give them a break from NERD - only monarchists need apply" she laughed.
Visit the Queen's site for info on Italy www.queeninitaly.com
posted by colbor at
6:41 AM
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