www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Watch an Interview with Bishop Kallistos Ware!

This is a wonderful interview with a great Orthodox thinker and shepherd!

Enjoy!

Gordo

http://www.goarch.org/en/multimedia/video/

Yes, I just watched it. Great Internet video.

Thanks Gordo ... watching it now.

I think Bishop Kallistos always tries to take a balanced view, which is why I respect him. I love his view on the reason he joined the EP, while still maintaining a love for the Russian spiritual tradition...

Gordo

Yes, he is very balanced and objective. He has an open heart and spirit on many things, including the credit he still gives Western spirituality, and also including his ecumenical views and outlook from a purely spiritual Orthodox perspective.

Glory to God!

Alice

His Grace Bishop KALLISTOS is a joy. I love his smile and sense of humor. When he came to the Left Coast a few years ago to deliver a speech, he was so approachable and humble.

I absolutely love his proper British RP.

After listening to it, I can imitate it quite nicely. Of course phonetics helps me.

Thanks Gordo!

It is over an hour long so I'll have to view it later, I'll keep it on my to do list.

Is there an Orthodox EWTN (for lack of a better term)?

I believe that the british RP actually has many tinges of a german accent in it. the way the letter R is pronounced in the past would have been closer to the way the irish still pronoune the R today. The house of Windsor springs from the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert in 1840. He was the son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Germany and his name became that used by the British royal family. Thus much of the educated aristocracy took on his german tinge.

Early BBC recordings show how much RP has altered over just a few decades, and they point that no acccent is immune to change, not even 'the best'. But the most important observation is that RP is no longer as widely used today as it was 50 years ago. It is still the standard accent of the Royal Family, Parliament, the Church of England, the High Courts, and other national institutions; but less than 3 per cent of the British people speak it in a pure form now. Most educated people have developed an accent which is a mixture of RP and various regional characteristics -'modified RP', some call it.

Dear Christoir,

Thank you for that interesting information on the Queen's english.

Zenovia

Dear Criostoir and Elizabeth Maria,

I know that you are both referring to the upper class British accent, sometimes known as the Queen's English, but what exactly do the initials 'RP' stand for?

Thanks!

Alice

...

Dear Alice,

I'm sorry, I should have spelled out what the initials RP mean. It stands for Received Pronunciation and is considered to be the proper British dialect spoken by the educated and ruling class. RP is taught in most British public schools (exclusively private academies). And over the years, yes, it has changed.

English is basically an Anglo-Saxon language (Germanic origin) with an overlay of Latin and French (about 50% or so).

Living languages are always in a process of change. Not too long ago, English went through the Great Vowel Shift. Here in the United States of America, the Northern Cities Vowel Shift is occurring. In the West, we have the 'Valley' Accent with its use of the quotative 'like.' So, too, in England, each region has a distinctive dialect with some pronouncing the final /r/ and others omitting it. Vowels are also different. In fact, it is the change in the vowels and diphthongization which is most distinctive in the English accents you hear.

Many colleges and universities have an introductory linguistics class which is a difficult course but worth it. For my major I took 30 units which included a course in Sociolinguistics and the history of English which covered language change over the centuries. Linguistics is a fascinating field of studies.

English is truly a mix of many languages. dong forget that 1/2 of england alone not to mention whole areas of Scotland were settled by Scandanvians as well as all those Germanic settlers and the Celts. They have all added their bit to the pool. Dialects and accents abound and many dont realise the abundance of both on such a small island. I doubt if Prince Albert introduced anything to the language much. Queen Victoria was herself very German being of the house of Hanover. German had been spoken at Court since the arrival of George I who never spoke English and conversed with his ministers in Latin. Prince Albert is credited with introducing the Xmas tree to Britain.

P

In my humble opinion very few people use RP when they speak standard english. RP has altered slightly but, from my vantage point, the main shift has been in its abandonment by news broadcasters and TV presenters in favour of estuary english. Even here at Oxford RP is pretty much reserved for public speaking. Nobody naturally speaks in that manner. It was a creation of the Oxonions who wished to make a dialect that could be readily understood anywhere in the British Empire. Hence its wide use amongst the media until recently when it became seen as outdated.

Myles nice to see you again. I was only thinking of estuary English. Accents were not wanted for ages on TV and Radio before that, even in the Empire. Thankfully that has now all gone. Nothing like variety.