It was the British Broadcasting _Company_ at this time, owned by a
consortium of wireless companies, who feared the "chaos" attendant on
the expansion of radio broadcasting in the USA at the time.
Business-wise it did not work out very well, and in 1927 it was taken
over by the government and became a "Corporation", with a
public-service "charter".
"Its first operating license restricted broadcasting to news and
information from just four news agencies. Daily broadcasts began in
Marconi's London studio, 2LO...in the Strand. A news bulletin went out
at 5:33 p.m., along with a weather report, spoken by the Director of Programmes, Arthur Burrows, in an authoritative RP accent."
Burrows also played Father Christmas in _The Truth About Father
Christmas_, thought to be the first broadcast drama. And he was the
first "Uncle Arthur" on _The Children's Hour_.
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee
on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations
for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news
readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which
both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My impression is that it was not until the 1970s that a wider range of accents began to be heard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC
On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:...
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee
on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations
for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news
readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which
both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish
Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the
wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.
On 2024-11-15, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:...
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee
on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations >> for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news
readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which
both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the
wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.
I know Scottish accents vary regionally, but by religion? Or are
Calvinists, Episcopalians, & Roman Catholics very unevenly distributed geographically?
Ar an cúigiú lá déag de mí na Samhain, scríobh Adam Funk:
On 2024-11-15, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:...
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee >> on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations >> for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news
readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which >> both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the
wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.
I know Scottish accents vary regionally, but by religion? Or are Calvinists, Episcopalians, & Roman Catholics very unevenly distributed geographically?
I read Athel’s phrasing as describing someone with a) a Scottish accent who b)
may occasionally be wrong but is never uncertain. (As the adage puts it about surgeons.)
There are some Church of Ireland accents in the Republic of Ireland; Leo Varadkar, the former taoiseach, has one of them, from his time in a Church of Ireland secondary school.
I assert that there are some people native to rural areas of the west of Northern Ireland where I can hear much more Irish in their prosody and pitch than is usual for NI, and those people have Irish surnames and are usually of Catholic religious identity, but to my knowledge that hasn’t been studied.
In NI for most people, most of the time, you can’t tell from their speech unless the name of the letter H comes up.
I can’t comment on corresponding variation within Scotland.
On 2024-11-15, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:...
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee
on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations
for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news
readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which
both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish
Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the
wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.
I know Scottish accents vary regionally, but by religion? Or are
Calvinists, Episcopalians, & Roman Catholics very unevenly distributed geographically?
On 2024-11-15, Aidan Kehoe wrote:
Ar an cúigiú lá déag de mí na Samhain, scríobh Adam Funk:
On 2024-11-15, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
On 2024-11-15 10:20:14 +0000, Ross Clark said:...
So the RP accent became known as "BBC English". The Advisory Committee >>>>> on Spoken English was set up in 1926 to provide approved pronunciations >>>>> for new words and foreign names, and as an authority to support news >>>>> readers against the inevitable complaints. A fascinating body in which >>>>> both Daniel Jones and George Bernard Shaw were involved.
My recollection is that John Reith spoke as you'd expect a Scottish
Calvinist to speak, but he insisted that people who spoke on the
wireless ("radio" was lower class) should speak RP.
I know Scottish accents vary regionally, but by religion? Or are
Calvinists, Episcopalians, & Roman Catholics very unevenly distributed
geographically?
I read Athel’s phrasing as describing someone with a) a Scottish accent who b)
may occasionally be wrong but is never uncertain. (As the adage puts it about
surgeons.)
Aha! That makes more sense than my interpretation.
There are some Church of Ireland accents in the Republic of Ireland; Leo
Varadkar, the former taoiseach, has one of them, from his time in a Church of
Ireland secondary school.
I assert that there are some people native to rural areas of the west of
Northern Ireland where I can hear much more Irish in their prosody and pitch >> than is usual for NI, and those people have Irish surnames and are usually of
Catholic religious identity, but to my knowledge that hasn’t been studied. >>
In NI for most people, most of the time, you can’t tell from their speech >> unless the name of the letter H comes up.
I can’t comment on corresponding variation within Scotland.
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