The Queen's English: By analysing recordings of the Queen's Christmas
speeches, researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney have discovered that
her accent has
become considerably less "posh" over the past few decades, drifting from
the "cut-glass" upper-class English accent that was once
de rigeur
towards the standard non-upper-class southern-English accent. In particular,
her vowels are now similar to those of female BBC announcers.
(
accompanying RealAudio piece)