Weak Forms in Pride & Prejudice

Even in a classic BBC period drama, spoken English is FULL of Weak Forms! They include: to, and, of, for, from, but, am, are, were, could, a, the.

The unedited scene is here:

[andrewclarke]

You turned Pride and Prejudice into the King's Speech

[TerezatheTeacher]

As my Czech students would say: "But he DID NOT SAY the words! I didn't HEAR them!" Czech people get very distressed when told "where" and "were" are not exactly the same thing. I've just graded an essay full of "we where in a zoo".

[HamishGarland]

Now I want to watch Pride and Prejudice again.

[nicholaswright]

Barbara Leigh-Hint’s performance of Lady Catherine on the other hand seems to emphasise strong forms as part of her obnoxiousness. “Eez that mye nephyeeww? Whe’ah hahz heee beeen!?”

[davidwelty]

The interesting thing about actress Jennifer Elle is that she was born and raised in North Carolina and speaks in real life in an American accent. Her British accent is perfect. Her mother of course is British. She can change between the two with ease.

[ezb]

My favorite example of weak forms that confuse non-native speakers is “Ahmahnuh” (emphasis on first syllable). This translates to “I am going to…” It’s made even harder to understand by the fact that the whole thing is unstressed in the context of the sentence: “Ahmana go HOME now.” “Ahmana visit MARy next week.”

Of course, English is not alone in this characteristic. French speakers swallow up all sorts of sounds, including a number of syllables so weak that they aren’t pronounced at all anymore, such as the third-person plural verb endings and the “ne” of the negative formation “ne … pas.”

[eleanorchapple]

That was hilarious! Elizabeth was not impressed!

[adriftingboat]

To me the most beautiful voice in RP English belonged to actor Ian Richardson . Could you use him as an example of enunciation in a video ? What do you think about the voice of the late actor, Alan Howard, my other favourite ?

[malcolm_in_the_middle]

This is very interesting! All of the examples you've shown so far are in Received Pronunciation or Posh English. Could you explore the other accents as well? Especially non-British ones like southern African, Australian and American?

[valkyriesardo]

What interest me about this example is why the sound of Firth's speech remains so appealing despite the imperfections.

[nigelogilvie]

"Aborrence"?? It's abhorrence. there's an "H" in there. "Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb".

[Arkylie]

Pretty sure some of these would've been written as contractions rather than full words. Still, very interesting clip!

[pinklady]

Honestly, I much prefer the older-schooled RP speech that is more distinct than today's, especially spoken on telephone. .
"But" is pronounced as
/bʌt/, not /bət/; "of" as /ɔf/, not /əf/

Today, we hear today's RP words that sound confusing to older-schooled elocutionists from the past. For example, your today's RP speakers say "I'll buy nine" as /ʌɪl bʌɪ nʌɪ/. To me on the phone, it sounds like "oil, boy, none (or nun)." How confusing!

[kingprince]

I don't speak like this and I'm a native. I say every word clearly and loudly like a proud Brit should. people who swallow their words are damn disgraces.

[alexrafe]

Sorry, when you chose the BBC’s mid ‘90s production of Pride and Prejudice you completely over rode my concern about your topic, English weak forms and how these are expressed among English speakers. I know this version benefited from more money spent on it with more lavish costumes and filmed in actual great houses.

And the odd thing is I really like a lot of the cast, both central characters and lesser figures. Having done a bit of acting at the amateur level I know how central the director is in how characters behave. So I place a lot of my disappointment at how the characters were directed. Julia Sawalha must have loved playing silly ridiculous Lydia, after having to be silly self absorbed Edina’s censorious introverted daughter, but even ridiculous characters in Austen function within the constraints of her style and age. Lydia in this production was unhinged and REALLY annoying. And therefore not even slightly amusing. Colin Firth was subdued rather than quietly commanding as David Rintoul expertly played Darcy in the 1980 version. He projected his confidence and sense of superiority quietly but clearly in a way Firth never got near to doing. Above all, the 1980 version benefited from Fay Weldon’s brilliant adaptation of the novel that Andrew Davies never came close to matching. Weldon’s version captured the sense of playful irony that was the essence of Austen’s style. She also captured the amusement and enjoyment of watching the absurdities of others in social situations, like parties and dances that Lizzie derived from observing them, and her dialogue gave Elisabeth Garvie the tools to play it. Poor Jennifer Ehle often looked stranded with over serious lines and directions that robbed her of the enjoyment and amusement Lizzie showed watching her absurd cousin Mr Collins, or Lady De Burrgh, or Kitty. And Weldon would often brilliantly place many of the observations made by the narrator in the book into the mouths of characters in order to project the tone, and mood that Austen would write to literally set the stage to advance the story. So she succeeded far better in bringing the novel and the characters to life and the sense of comic irony that characterises so much of Austen’s work than Davies managed.

The earlier adaptation is not as visually eye catching as the 90’s version, with most of the scenes played on stages. It’s clear that it had a much more modest budget. But the brilliance of the ensemble work between the main characters and between them and supporting characters is excellent, almost without exception. Everyone in practically every role played their parts beautifully. Elizabeth Garvie and David Rentoul brought Elizabeth and Darcy and the evolving romance and their relationship to vivid life in a way I never experienced or felt engaged by in the ‘90s adaptation. Alison Steadman had a lot to live up to in trying to exceed Priscilla Morgan’s matchless Mrs Bennet. Sadly the script didn’t help her come even close. Joanna David did a very good job playing Lizzie’s favourite Aunt Gardener, if only Barbara Shelley hadn’t really shone in the role first. She was perfect.

Of course I recognise that being so impressed by the earlier version probably went some way to make it more difficult to appreciate the later version on its own merits. But I do think that if it had really come close to matching the earlier version I would have been able to come round to it to some extent. I think the reason that didn’t happen was because either Davies or the director Simon Langton missed in trying to capture the tone of sophisticated irony that infused so much of Austen’s work. And which Weldon proved so adept at doing in her adaptation.