Monday, 12 September 2011

brɑən sjuːəl

credit: habsboys.org.uk
credit: courtauld.ac.uk
Brian Sewell was born in Kensington on the 15th of July, 1931. He is an Old Haberdasher, which means he attended HABS, a public (= independent) school by the full name of Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School.  He then went to the Courtauld (/ˈkɔːtəʊld/) Institute of Art, a college of the University of London, where he graduated in 1957. So much for the speech-forming years of [ˈbrɑən ˈsjuːəl].

When you listen to his enunciation in various clips available on the internet, you will discover that his poshness varies quite a lot. The plummiest variant I've heard so far is to be found in his series 'Brian Sewell's Grand Tour of Italy'. Try to find a video clip by typing "last of the medici" into your browser and enjoy it.

There's even a Brian Sewell audio sampler.


Here's a list of words taken from the above-mentioned video clip:

from outside
frəm ʔaʊtˈsaɪdɦ
show
ʃ̱əʊ
Medici
ˈmedɪʧeʱ
try
tçrɑːɪ
sire
sɑːɜ
heir
ʔɛːɜ
to lead
thʊ liːːdh
alcove
æɫˈkəʊv
altar
ˈɔːɫtɑ
panniers of fruit
ˈphænɪɜˑz̥ əv̥ fru | th
grapes
ɡreɪ | ps
chin
ʧɪnː
dinner time
ˈdɪnɜː thaːɪmː
boys
bɔːɪ | z̥

Some people say that Brian Sewell speaks posher than what the Queen does.
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5 comments:

  1. Phillip Minden12 September 2011 at 21:25

    As I remarked somewhere on John Wells's blog, that's what's so remarkable. He speaks something like achieved RP in spite of the fact that he seems to have had an RP upbringing. Maybe the point is the difference between lower-upper RP and upper-upper RP, and he now speaks achieved U-RP.

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  2. Phillip Minden12 September 2011 at 21:29

    Forgot to add, of course he sounds posher than the queen, but not smarter (in the sociological sense).

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  3. Anonymous13 September 2011 at 12:25

    How about a bit of Brian Blessed next? He's also in a peculiar world of his own when it comes to speech habits. Quite a character!

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  4. Ed21 September 2011 at 09:11

    Diana Athill is another candidate for poshest speaker.

    Sewell frequently has [a] rather than [æ] in TRAP, whereas the Queen always has [æ]. In the clip that you mention, listen to how he says "grand palace". He uses [a] in both words.

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  5. Phillip Minden21 September 2011 at 10:40

    Yes, it seems since the 60s, TR[a]P, TH[oː]T and L[ɔ]T or even L[o]T are considered posh, even inside England. Another interesting feature for somebody born in 1931.

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