The Queen's English is drifting down the social hierarchy, scientists in Australia say.
After trawling through archives of Her Majesty's annual Christmas messages since 1952, they conclude that the royal accent is becoming less "posh".
The Queen is not likely to start dropping her aitches
Paul Foulkes, York University
The experts, based at Sydney's Macquarie University, believe the vowel sounds of Queen Elizabeth II have been influenced by subjects who are younger or of lower social standing.
As a result, they say, the Queen's accent is moving towards the standard accent of southern England, away from the cut-glass "upper-crust" accent of the 1950s.
Lead researcher Jonathan Harrington told BBC News Online: "In the last 40 or so years, there have been dramatic changes to the social class structure in Britain and to a certain extent this is reflected in pronunciation.
"It demonstrates that the monarchy, at least as far as the spoken accent is concerned, isn't isolated from the rest of the community."
"Hed" to "Had"
The researchers base their conclusions on an acoustic analysis of vowel sounds from archive recordings of the Queen's annual Christmas message.
They compared recordings from the 1950s and the 1980s with the standard accent of southern Britain, as spoken by female BBC broadcasters.
Writing in the scientific journal Nature, the team say the Queen's pronunciation of vowel sounds has slowly shifted over the years "towards one that is characteristic of speakers who are younger and/or lower in the social hierarchy".
In the Queen's Christmas broadcasts of the 1950s, for example, the word "had" almost rhymed with "bed". But 30 years later "had" migrated halfway to the standard southern English pronunciation, which rhymes with "bad".
Blurring of accents
The researchers say the Queen's English is part of a nationwide trend towards a blurring of accents that once distinguished different social classes.
The standard accent of England - modern, received pronunciation - has been subtly influenced by the Cockney accent, for example, leading to some people dropping the "l" from milk.
And Estuary English has a glottal stop, dropping the "t", as in "a li'le bi' of breab wiv a bi' of bu'er on i'".
Jonathan Harrington is quick to point out that although the Queen no longer speaks the Queen's English of the 1950s, researchers have found no trace of Cockney influences over the years.
Royal stereotypes
And Paul Foulkes, a linguistics expert at York University, UK, says that although younger members of the Royal Family, such as Prince William, have been heard to use glottal stops, this does not extend to the Queen.
He told BBC News Online: "If you look at the way Spitting Image and other professional mimics might stereotype the Queen's speech with words like House pronounced as 'Hice', that is something she would be likely to change to reduce the distance between herself and other people.
"But she is not likely to start dropping her aitches or using glottal stops."
So for the time being at least, the House of Windsor is unlikely to become the 'Ouse of Windsor'.
这并不算是一则新闻，而是名副其实的旧闻，说的是澳洲一研究机构通过对50年代和80年代英女皇伊丽莎白二世（elizabeth II ）圣诞贺词的研究发现最近40多年其口音变化，特别是元音的发音--日渐从优雅的牛津贵族口音趋向于英国南部伦敦社会阶层的口音（伦敦腔Cockney）
其实细细想象不难发现，伊丽莎白二世平时在哪里？要么大多时候住在伦敦西区的白金汉宫（Buckingham Palace），要么住在伦敦西北60英里的温莎城堡(the House of Windsor/Windsor Castle前者使用较频繁)或者苏格兰的别墅中，她的口音不难不染上世俗气，她的外孙威廉王子（Prince William）甚至已经使用美音中的声门塞音（glottal stop）
什么是声门塞音？
通常来说，[t]变音至声门塞音[ʔ]（就是发爆破音或者不发音），如bottle发音为/bɒʔəl/（用中文说的话，bottle的发音不是“包头”，而成为“包欧”）。这种发音在英式英语中并不普遍，最好的例子就是感叹词uh-oh；反而在美国东海岸十分明显，想想这威廉王子和时尚之都纽约不无关系，要么就是他的女友染上了美音进而传上了他，呵呵
（威廉王子全名Prince William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor，哈，这么长的名字移挪到日本战国时期岂不是更和当地武士的口味--自报家门越长越好）
原本打算接着写日本天*的口音，但是想想那个几年前得前列腺的老家伙一直住在东京都的皇宫中，估计也是满嘴市井气了
一种语言，充斥着不同的口音，充满着谐趣，这就好像李肇星永远更改不了浓重山东口音，有人质疑，说什么有伤国家大体，他倒也幽默，“孔孟之言尽出于齐鲁大地”
胡锦涛出生安徽绩溪，但却操着江苏苏北泰州口音，想想奇怪，我这人喜欢钻牛角尖，查询了几次后，发现他在入读清华之前，住在江苏泰州姜堰市，毕业于江苏泰州中学；再想想周恩来，都说中国人有着明显的总理情节，应届政府最难做的职位就是总理一职，但同时也最容易出彩儿，可中国的确没什么出彩儿的事儿，这些都是闲话，周恩来中学生涯在天津度过，一生都割舍不掉天津口音，想想这和胡锦涛的苏北口音不谋而合
没有口音的语言会是怎样，还记得儿时常常翻看的地理图志，南太平洋的一21平方公里的小岛国，名曰 瑙鲁（Nauru），人口一万多一些，官方语言即为瑙鲁语，我想这里一马平川，该不会有口音了吧，嘿嘿
(国会大楼上的伊丽莎白二世骑马铜像)
