The Queen’s English
Claire Foy’s Accent in Netflix’s The Crown
The Crown is a biopic1 drama television series on Netflix, which tells the story of the early reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The first season depicts events from 1947 to 1955.
Actress Claire Foy plays the young Queen Elizabeth in the show and she adopts an old-fashioned British English accent to do so. Let’s look at how she does this:
Image © Netflix
The TRAP Vowel /a/ – “man” or “men”?
Listen to this audio clip from The Crown (it is played once at normal speed, then once slowed down):
Is Claire Foy (as the young Queen Elizabeth) saying man or men?
(audio clips from The Crown and interviews are taken from trailers available on Netflix’s official YouTube channel)
Listen to how Claire Foy (as Queen Elizabeth) says the /a/ vowel in man and that (again once normal speed, then slowed-down):
Notice how it sounds more like the “e” vowel in men and debt (I will transcribe this vowel as /ɛ/).
Next listen to a clip of the actual Queen in 1947. This clip is taken from a speech given on the Queen’s 21st birthday. Listen to the /a/ vowel in manhood and that:
It’s certainly more of an /ɛ/ vowel sound too. In fact, it sounds like there is a diphthong (two vowels) in this case, and it could be transcribed [ɛæ].
Now let’s listen to a clip of Claire Foy speaking in her usual accent. Here she is saying had a massive responsibility. Listen to the /a/ vowel:
Now listen to the Oxford English Dictionary pronunciation of man and that:
In upper-class accents in the 1940s, the /a/ vowel was pronounced very close to /ɛ/. Nowadays (in a Standard Southern British English accent – or SSBE) it’s pronounced /a/.
The HAPPY vowel – /i/ or /ɪ/?
The way that people used pronounce the “y” endings of words has also changed. Listen to Claire Foy (as Queen Elizabeth) say unnecessarily:
Now listen to Queen Elizabeth in 1947 say opportunity:
Notice how the final vowel sound is similar to the /ɪ/ vowel sound in lid or tin. Nowadays SSBE2 speakers pronounce it as the /i/ vowel sound in lead and teen. Listen to the Oxford English Dictionary pronunciation of opportunity:
The SQUARE vowel – /ɛː/ or /eə/?
This vowel sound used to be pronounced as two vowels (a diphthong). Listen to Claire Foy (as Queen Elizabeth) say aware:
Now listen to Queen Elizabeth in 1947 say heirs and declare:
Notice how you can hear the sound move between two vowels. This is why some dictionaries and outdated pronunciation textbooks transcribe this vowel sound as /eə/. However, listen to the Oxford English Dictionary pronunciation of heir:
In this recording of a contemporary speaker you’ll hear just one long “e” vowel. This is why I prefer the transcription /ɛː/ for this vowel. It’s a more contemporary pronunciation.
The GOOSE Vowel /uː/
An old-fashioned pronunciation of this vowel is made much further back in the mouth (similar to an Italian or German “u”, or a French “ou”). Listen to Claire Foy (as Queen Elizabeth) say who:
Next listen to Queen Elizabeth in 1947 say who:
Now listen to the Oxford English Dictionary pronunciation:
Notice that the contemporary pronunciation by the dictionary sounds a bit brighter – that’s because it’s made more forwards in the mouth. Most SSBE speakers will now use a more forward GOOSE vowel (which is why you may have heard the term GOOSE-fronting).
The above vowels are only a few ways in which Claire Foy changes her accent to sound more like the Queen. You’ll spot other interesting features if you listen carefully!
If you have any thoughts, then please comment underneath. Otherwise, why not spend some time exploring the vowels of SSBE on my interactive vowel chart.
1 a biopic is a biographical film. The standard pronunciation is /ˈbʌɪəʊ pɪk/ “BIO-pic”, but lots of people say /bʌɪˈɒpɪk/ “bi-OP-ic”.
2 SSBE stands for the Standard Southern British English accent. It is a contemporary “standard” accent, also known as a modern version of RP.
If you are particularly interested in the Queen’s speech, you might want to take a look at how the Queen’s accent has changed over time in this journal article: Monophthongal vowel changes in Received Pronunciation: an acoustic analysis of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts by Jonathan Harrington et al. (2000, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 30: 63-78).
This is fascinating! Thank you! x
Thanks, Charlie :)
I think one area where Claire Foy doesn’t pull off a mid-century British accent was with the STRUT and COMMA vowels. Her pronunciation sounded much more contemporary to me than Elizabeth’s pronunciation of those vowels in the 50s. I haven’t really listened to a recording, however. It was just my impression when listening to the only episode I saw.
Hi Joe
I actually found these reasonably accurate as they sounded more back and open to me compared to a modern SSBE accent. Other aspects I found that she did well were less aspiration of /p, t, k/ in stressed syllables, and the CLOTH and CURE lexical sets. Even though I mentioned her use of TRAP and HAPPY vowels above, her pronunciation of these vowels does vary in the programme. Regardless, I think she does a great job overall – especially because thinking about the accent is only one of many things an actor has to concentrate on in performance.
If only one could reprogramme one’s own speech to permanently speak like that
Well, it is possible to change the way you speak. Different people will have different degrees of success depending on their ability and the training they receive.
On a side note, some actors will stay in the character’s accent for the entire time they are shooting a film (regardless whether they are on set or not).
Thank you! This is so interesting, especially as it’s become apparent in The Crown that the accents are immensely important. Prince Philip’s accent sounds a little strange so I assume it is to make us understand that English is not his mother tongue and that the British actor Matt had to modify his speech (?).
When you say “modern” accent, are you referring to “received” as it’s taught (I suppose) in most schools?
I’m glad you found it interesting :)
When I say “modern” I’m referring to what linguists call Standard Southern British English, which is spoken in the South East of England. RP (Received Pronunciation) has a lot of baggage and I like to avoid that term.
Thanks for this, very interesting indeed. One thing I got from this is that we Americans have retained the older “goose” vowel. Of course we have many other older versions of speech as well, but that’s a different story and also variable by region. I feel like the goose vowel is consistent amongst all speakers of American English, and Canadian as well most likely..
I’m glad you enjoyed the article. Actually, there is variation of the GOOSE vowel in North America and some GOOSE-Fronting among younger speakers. Have a listen!
Extremely interesting. For us foreigners, the old-fashioned sound for “who” sounds easier, as we can relate it to the French “ou”, the Spanish, Italian, German, (etc) “u”, whereas the modern “who” sounds less clear, not precisely brighter, as you say, but as a mixture, with a little bit of “ü” (German) or “u” (French). I for one, was convinced that this sound wasn’t standard, but rather a feature of the Northern Irish accent, where they pronounce “house” like “heüs”, almost like the Dutch translation “huis”!
Yes, the old-fashioned “who” does sound similar to Spanish “u”, French “ou”, German “u’, etc. Glad you found it interesting!
The LOT vowel said by Claire and the actress playing Margaret is more like the THOUGHT vowel (e.g. in the word STOP).
[…] and older Queen Elizabeth II respectively aren’t just lauded (quite rightly), they’re dissected, with column inches and videos devoted to quite how they pulled it off (or should I say […]
I wonder why the word “scrutiny” is pronounced as something like “scrusherny” by Claire Foy? Was it pronounced like that by the Queen herself?
Could you give a link to show me where she says this so I can listen?
Yes, I can give you the link. I saw the clip in a Chinese dubbing app called “Fun Dubbing”. The following link would let you see the clip but listen to the dubber’s voice — which copied exactly how it was pronounced by Foy. https://moive2.qupeiyin.com/home/show/share/sharefrom/other/app/1/id/MDAwMDAwMDAwMLGHumWCi8yYsN2EZQ
Even though the dubber’s accent is good, she isn’t imitating Foy’s accent 100%. For example, the first vowel in “spotlight” doesn’t sound like how either a Brit or an American would pronounce it. Similarly, the word “scrutiny” doesn’t sound right at all. It should not be [ˈskuːʃini], but rather [ˈskruːtɪnɪ] (or [ˈskruːtənɪ] or [ˈskruːtn̩ɪ]).
Wait, this might be the right link for you to listen to the original voice of Foy:
https://moive2.qupeiyin.com/home/share/original_video/app/1/course/MDAwMDAwMDAwMLCdoqqCe9CY/uid/MDAwMDAwMDAwMLGduqmCe8iWsN14cg
You’re right that in this clip it sounds like “scrusherny” [ˈskruːʃəni]. Her tongue is approaching the gum ridge to make /t/ but doesn’t quite make it and so we hear a fricative sound instead (which we interpret as /ʃ/). In informal, spontaneous speech words may have different pronunciations (or rather “soundshapes”). Richard Caudwell (https://www.speechinaction.org/) talks about this extensively in his work. But this isn’t the pronunciation found in careful speech now or in the past. I presume the English-speaking editor of The Crown didn’t notice anything strange when they were editing and kept the clip! You can listen to modern pronunciations here: https://youglish.com/pronounce/scrutiny/english/uk?
Thank you very much for your expert opinion! That is really helpful :)
Isn’t “scrusherny” just the result of spirantization?
You can term the change in this particular word as spirantization if you’d like, but more generally it’s the process of lenition that tends to happen in casual, rapid speech. Geoff Lindsey talks about this in his video here: https://youtu.be/mgPRqjJCUyE?t=389