6. Language change in progress

Australian researchers have been recording Xmas greetings by Queen Elizabeth II over 40 years. The result is striking: even the Queen, it turned out, is liable to change her accent from the highly conser­vative U-RP closer to a more democratic BBC announcers' pattern.

According to classification by Alan Cruttenden 2003, "The Introduction into the Pronunciation of English", current changes in RP are grouped ac­cording to the degree of process completion:

1. Содержание

   • National Standards
   • Regional Standards
   • Local Accents
   • 2. Major accent types: British and American
   • American English lacks the short vowel /o/, it is replaced by a vowel /a:/ which is similar to rp vowel in father:
   • The rp vowel /o/ can also be replaced by a long vowel /o:/:
   • Consonants
   • Word stress
   • Intonation
   • 3.British regional features
   • American regional features
   • 5. Social Variation: Social factors and social markers.
   • 6. Language change in progress
   • Processes almost complete
   • Changes well-established,
   • Recent innovations