By
Obododimma Oha
Every language has varieties, each representing some groups in the society and their ideologies. English is sometimes talked about in terms of its variety, according to the class, region, age, etc. One variety is Queen's English. That raises questions: Does the queen have a variety of English, all alone, one person? Does it not suggest something about language and meaning being in the hands of the powerful and the rich in society?
The identification of a variety of English as Queen's English is an identification of a variety as being superior to others because it is used by someone who is very highly placed in society. In other words, it is an identification of an identification!
Queen's English or Received Pronunciation (RP) at the phonological level is considered superior English and this means that all other varieties have to take whatever it selects as correct in the language. Obviously, that is prescriptive and difficult to observe. That is one difficulty in the use or inclination to Queen's English. Not all in the royal court can even speak what the Queen speaks!
The focus in this essay is that with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, what was called "Queen's English" has to become "King's English." A friend, Rotimi Taiwo, observed that in a Facebook update recently. He wrote:
Now that the Queen is gone, the King's English is it!
One comment from Ikenna Kamalu stated: "Prof. I guess this implies a shift from "Queen's English" to "King's English" as a form of standard variety."
It appears that the variety was named during Queen Elizabeth's reign (from 1952 to 2022). So, it took identification from the queen. That is another identification of the variety! Now that Britain is under a king, it has to become "King's English."
Renaming, that is it. Taiwo is playfully harping on that string. From queen to king! I even see gender there. Can gender make a difference in the English, even as Britain moves from queen to king in its tradition of rulership? No one can say. But a queen spoke as a queen. The king will speak as a king, knowing that the world is waiting for his voice to anchor itself.
The Queen's preferred variety may still be the King' variety. Then, he would be suggesting sleeping in the same room as the late queen.
From some criticisms, the late queen endorsed British colonial adventures and so was guilty of colonial evils and unjust warfare. (See https://l.kphx.net/s?d=1341424833515545332&extra=Q1RSWT1ORyZMTkc9ZW4tVVM%3D&g=41c3378cb897b7b1f857da1701bbe3c2 for one of these). It is a way of saying that she led Britain somewhere and left the country somewhere and that she would account for these on the Judgment Day. A lesson to many rulers: rulership is great responsibility, and this is in addition to how one has run personal life!
The King's English being the same as the Queen's English means being of the same ideology; it means having the same voice.
It's all about leadership style. Where the queen was not sympathetic, the king may be. In that case, we cannot quickly conclude that queen's expression is the King's expression, too. These are two different reigns, two different periods, two different Englishes!
The idea of Queen's English has been transformed here. It refers to the voice of leadership that should be ready to condemn injustice, not spearheading it . The King's English, therefore, should not just be a beautiful utterance in speech. It needs to be a leading voice of virtue.
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