Would you like to speak with a British accent? What if I told you that there is no singular 'British' accent? In fact, linguists estimate that there are 40-60 regional accents across the UK, some of which exist very close together geographically. For instance, you can listen to Manchester's 'Mancunian' accent and then Liverpool's distinct 'Scouse' accent after just a 50-minute car or train ride. Some southern English accents, such as 'Received Pronunciation', are associated with social prestige, but can the south claim to have the oldest English accent? Or does another UK region take the title? The story is messier than you might expect.
你想用英国口音说话吗？ 如果我告诉你没有单一的“英国”口音怎么办？ 事实上，语言学家估计英国各地有 40-60 种地方口音，其中一些在地理上非常接近。 例如，只需乘坐 50 分钟的汽车或火车，您就可以听到曼彻斯特的“Mancunian”口音，然后再听到利物浦独特的“Scouse”口音。 一些南方英语口音，例如“公认发音”，与社会声望有关，但南方人能声称拥有最古老的英语口音吗？ 或者英国的另一个地区是否会获得冠军？ 这个故事比你想象的要混乱。
The first version of English, Old English, originated in the 5th and 6th centuries when tribes from northern Germany arrived in east England, a region now called 'East Anglia'. Their Germanic languages mixed with existing Latin and Celtic languages and became Old English. "It makes sense to think of East Anglia as being the source of the earliest variety of English as we know it," says Kerri-Ann Butcher, a lecturer in English Language at the University of Leeds. Over the next few centuries, English absorbed many other languages arriving from places like the Netherlands and Scandinavia. The associated linguistic changes did not happen in an orderly way across the country.
英语的第一个版本是古英语，起源于 5 世纪和 6 世纪，当时德国北部的部落抵达英格兰东部，该地区现在称为“东安格利亚”。 他们的日耳曼语言与现有的拉丁语和凯尔特语混合，成为古英语。 利兹大学英语讲师克里-安·布彻 (Kerri-Ann Butcher) 表示：“认为东安格利亚是我们所知道的最早的英语种类的起源是有道理的。” 在接下来的几个世纪里，英语吸收了来自荷兰和斯堪的纳维亚半岛等地的许多其他语言。 相关的语言变化并没有在全国范围内有序发生。
With all these different influences, the English language became messy and inconsistent. But in 1476, some spelling norms became standardised with the arrival of the printing press. Nowadays, the words 'blood', 'food' and 'good', which all contain two letter Os, sound different, but back then, they might have rhymed. Between the 12th and 18th centuries, something known as the Great Vowel Shift happened, where some vowel sounds across the country changed. For example, the vowel sound in 'foot' and 'strut' used to be pronounced the same, but then people in the south began pronouncing 'strut' differently. Danielle Turton, sociolinguist at Lancaster University, says the northern pronunciation is absolutely the original one. "It was the south that branched off and created this new vowel."
由于所有这些不同的影响，英语变得混乱且不一致。 但到了 1476 年，随着印刷机的出现，一些拼写规范变得标准化。 如今，“血液”、“食物”和“好”这三个词都包含两个字母O，听起来不同，但在当时，它们可能是押韵的。 在 12 世纪和 18 世纪之间，发生了被称为“元音大转变”的事情，全国各地的一些元音发音发生了变化。 例如，“foot”和“strut”的元音过去发音相同，但后来南方人开始以不同的方式发音“strut”。 兰卡斯特大学社会语言学家丹妮尔·特顿表示，北方发音绝对是最原始的发音。 “正是南方分支并创造了这个新的元音。”
So, there you have it. While East Anglia may have been the home of the earliest English sounds, it did not stick to the original pronunciations like accents in northern England did. And while many think Received Pronunciation is an older-sounding English, in fact, it didn't exist until the 18th century. The north of England wins!
那么，你就明白了。 虽然东安格利亚可能是最早英语发音的发源地，但它并不像英格兰北部的口音那样坚持原始发音。 尽管许多人认为标准发音是一种听起来更古老的英语，但事实上，它直到 18 世纪才出现。 英格兰北部获胜！
