THE SECRET GARDEN ACCENT GUIDE

RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION (RP) AND NORTHERN ENGLAND (YORKSHIRE)

Dialect/Accent Coach: Indira Rampersad

Part 1A: What Affects the Voice

To really get the hang of any new accent, or any new vocal quality for a character, it helps to understand what
shapes a person's voice in the first place.
Internal Factors
- Physical Traits: hormone levels (more testosterone = thicker vocal folds = deeper voice), age, facial
structure, hearing ability, damage to vocal chords, etc. Think about the physical traits of your
character(s). How is their voice different from yours?
- Mental State: Think about if your character is outspoken or more reserved. Are they generally more
joyful or sorrowful? Do they talk to a lot of people frequently or very few?
External Factors
- Surrounding Voices: What accents did your character(s) grow up hearing? Were they specifically
taught to speak a certain way?
- The number one thing that affects a person's accent is what they grew up hearing the most.

Part 1B: Brief History: The Climate Theory

There is an interesting theory that suggests climate had a heavy hand in the development of language, and
thus, the development of different accents around the world. Understanding this theory is really helpful when
taking the first steps to developing a new accent. What was it about the climate that affected early accents?
Temperature
- The act of speaking expels hot air from your body. It’s one of the many ways humans regulate their
body temperature
- Warmer climates meant that the mouth would be more open and the voice would be a bit louder and
up-tempo, in order to let out more hot air
- Colder climates meant that the mouth would remain more closed and the voice would be a bit more
reserved/quiet in order to conserve body heat
Humidity
- Humid climates meant that there was more control over the voice (think about how you’re always better
at singing in the shower). Languages that developed in more humid climates tend to have specific tonal
delivery as part of the language itself simply because the people have more control over the use of their
voices (the same series of consonants and vowels could mean something different just through a
change in tone. Japanese is a good example of this)
- Drier climates meant that the voice became less precise. Languages that developed in more dry
climates relied more on the words themselves in order to convey nuance (think about how English
speakers have so many words for the same concepts)
Socioeconomic Status
- Even within the same general area there may be drastically different climates depending on a person’s
socioeconomic status.
- If people work long hours in a hot factory, their voices may become louder to compensate for the
conditions

The Secret Garden has two very specific settings/climates: A British colony in India and then the North York
Moors, where most of the story takes place. The British colonists would have been taught to sound like the
typical upper class members of English society but at Archibald Craven’s estate there are two accents to be
heard: the RP accents of masters of the house and the yorkshire accents of the household servants.
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Part 2A: Front-to-Back Resonance
Vocal Resonance, put simply, means where the voice feels like it’s vibrating when in use. Most often people
are referring to singing when they talk about vocal resonance (chest voice vs. head voice) but when it comes to
accents, resonance works a little differently. Think back to the Climate Theory
Front Resonance
- If you live in a warmer climate your voice will likely resonate more towards the front of your face
Back Resonance
- If you live in a colder climate towards the back of your throat

Part 2B: How to Change Front-to-Back Vocal Resonance

It is important to make sure you can change your voice to the resonance that suits the accent you’re
attempting. If you try to impose the accent on top of the incorrect resonance, it is very easy to slip out of it. (It
would be like trying to surf while standing on the wrong part of the board).
Step 1: Identify Your Vocal Resonance
- Pick a tongue twister or a line you have in the show and say it in your regular voice. Where do you feel
it vibrating? Is it towards the front of your face, somewhere in the middle, or towards the back of your
throat? If you're having trouble, plugging your ears can make locating the resonance easier.
Step 2: Move Your Resonance Forward and Backward
- As you move your voice forward, you should feel and hear it become more nasally. You may also find
that your voice becomes a little louder, even without you putting extra power into it.
- As you move your voice backward, you should feel and hear it become more rounded and muffled. If
you accidentally sound more like Patrick Warburton (Kronk) then you’re on the right track! You may find
it harder to speak with a Northwestern American accent in this resonance and that’s a good thing.

Part 2C: Up-to-Down Vocal Resonance

Getting this down is not as crucial as learning to manipulate your front-to-back resonance but there are some
up-to-down variations in different English Accents specifically that are helpful to know. Changing this
resonance shouldn’t mean that your pitch goes up and down, only that you feel a change in the vibration.
- In Received Pronunciation (RP) the voice resonates a little lower in the throat (think about how you feel
a knot in that area when you are about to cry)
- In Northern England (Yorkshire) the voice resonates a little higher in the throat (think about where your
soft palate is located)

To summarize, based on the settings of The Secret Garden you will need to get the hang of one of both of
these types of vocal resonances.

Received Pronunciation (RP)

- English people of a high socioeconomic status, meant to mimic the aristocracy
- Back Vocal Resonance due to a cold climate
- Down Vocal Resonance to make the voice as reserved and formal as possible
North England (Yorkshire)
- English people of low socioeconomic status
- Middle-Back Vocal Resonance due to a cold climate but long work hours
- Up Vocal Resonance to allow the voice to speak more casually

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Part 3A : The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
When it comes to pronunciation, there’s a different kind of alphabet that can be used to more easily describe
sounds. The IPA is the sometimes strange looking symbols that will appear next to words in the dictionary.
Once you have the basics of phonetics down, it’s easier to identify how different consonant and vowel sounds
change from one accent to another. Below are each of these possible sounds with examples of words in which
they appear in a typical Northwestern American accent.
Consonants
/b/ - buy, verb, baby /d/ - doubt, add, mind /dʒ/ - jail, challenge, gell /ʒ/ - usual, massage

/f/ - fine, safe, painful /g/ - go, dialogue, flag /h/ - have, hope, hallway /k/ - kind, occupy, cackle

/l/ - like, fall, please /m/ - maybe, form, imp /n/ - can’t, neck, know /ŋ/ - bring, finger, drank

/p/ - power, trap, party /r/ - real, red, ready /s/ - same, mice, except /ʃ/ - shop, issue, motion

/t/ - too, turtles, skirt /tʃ/ - choose, watch, chain /θ/ - thanks, bath, nothing /ð/ - the, either, breathe

/v/ - very, leave, vixen /w/ - wise, switch, awhile /y/ or /j/- yes, yield, use /z/ - busy, zebra, exactly

Vowels
*When the “ː” appears after the first part of the symbol, it means that it is a long vowel sound
/iː/ - me, see, we /i/ - happy, cookie, wary /ɪ/ - chip, sick, distribute /eɪ/ - say, paid, valet

/ɛ/ or /e/ - bed, said, exit /æ/ - wrap, attack, laugh /ʌ/ - luck, some, country /uː/ - shoe, chew, true

/ʊ/ - good, put, stood /oʊ/, /eʊ/ or /o/ - no, boat /ɑː/ - far, cart, start /ɒ/ - talk, want, hot

/ɔː/ - door, shore, fork /ɜː/ or /ɝː/- bird, herd, stir /ə/ - about, ahead, felony /ɚ/ - mister, standard

/ɑɪ/ - might, try, advice /ɑʊ/ - towel, cow, amount /ɔɪ/ - toilet, annoying, join /ɪə/ - hear, near, fear

/eə/ - wear, hair, declare /ʊə/ - tour, pure

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Part 3B: Basics of an RP Accent
This accent is also called “the Queens English”
Consonants
- Most consonants are clearly pronounced in this accent
- There is a particular emphasis on the letters /b/, /k/, /p/, and /t/
- Pronunciation of /r/ is a bit more conditional
- /r/ is only rhotic (pronounced as a “hard r”’) when it is followed by a vowel sound
- This rule includes when a word ending in /r/ is followed by a world beginning with a vowel
- There are a few consonant changes specific to certain words like the start of “schedule” becomes /ʃ/
Vowels
- /oʊ/ is even more rounded
- /æ/ becomes /ɑː/ (with some exceptions, like the word “can” renames the same)
- /ɒ/ remains roughly the same but is a bit more rounded, closer to /ʊə/
- To sound really fancy the /i/ at the end of many words can be softened to a /ɪ/
- The “ile” ending of words is always pronounced like the word “aisle”

Examples of RP
- Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9v85Bc1fR0

Part 3C: Basics of a Yorkshire Accent

The easiest way to summarize a Yorkshire accent is that you sound like you have a cold but you don’t mind it.
Consonants
- Often but not always, /h/, more specifically the actually letter “h” is not pronounced
- Sometimes /t/, more specifically the actual letter “t,” in the middle and at the ends of words is
glottalized, meaning that is replaced with a light /h/
- When a word ends in a “y,” the /i/ is pronounced as a short /ɪ/
- The light /l/ becomes a sound that isn’t present in a Northwestern American accent. It becomes a “dark
l” which is written like this: ɫ. A ɫ is pronounced from the very back of the throat, making the tongue
more rounded in order to lean into the sound.
- /ŋ/ simply become /n/ unless it is a one syllable word
Vowels
- /ʌ/ becomes /ʊ/
- Words with /æ/ remain roughly the same but you can lean into them even further
- /oʊ/ is a bit trickier because what it changes to is not a sound typically made in a Northwestern
American accent. /oʊ/ becomes /o:/ which basically means that the end of the /oʊ/ is cut off
- /eɪ/ doesn’t change quite so easily either. Words with this sound become /eː/ which, similarly to the
sound above, means that the end of the sound is not included and the first part of the sound is made
longer instead
- /ɑɪ/ mostly remain the same but sometimes are softened to an /æ/
- Pronunciation of /r/ is the same as in RP

Examples of Yorkshire
- Sophie McShera Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCElro34UW8
- Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tTT_87Hh8