CRAIG BROWN: Come on, Herry, you sound like a bad Dick Van Dyke

Is Prince Harry gradually losing his English accent? The first indication that the trial may have begun came in 2018 when he introduced his son Archie to the public.

“Wow, he already has a LITTLE bit of facial hair,” he cooed, pronouncing “little” like it had two “d”s in the middle.

His autobiography “Spare,” first published in early 2023, is full of Americanisms. The phrases appear on just one randomly selected page: “Good Weed,” “Dude,” “Yeah,” and “Somehow.”

The book was ghostwritten for Harry by an American author, JR Moehringer, so it is possible that some of these Americanisms came from Moehringer rather than Harry. But this year, Harry has started using American expressions when speaking.

He says “awesome,” “dude” (which he pronounces “dood”) and “you guys.” And he pronounces “arse” with a sharp “a,” the American way: “ass.”

Prince Harry follows his great-great-uncle, the Duke of Windsor, who also married an American and moved abroad. In an interview in exile in France in 1969, the Duke is heard pronouncing the syllable “prog” in the word “progress” to rhyme with “frog.” He pronounced the words “command,” “example,” and “brass” with short “a,” as in “back.”

He also pronounced “new” as “no.” “Establishment was a dirty word for me until about 15 years ago,” he told the BBC interviewer. Oddly, he pronounced “ago” as “agow,” which makes him sound more like Dick Van Dyke, who plays Bert, the Cockney chimney sweep in Mary Poppins, or like “Meereh Puppins.”

Unlike Prince Harry, the Duke of Windsor never lived in America, so his sneaking Americanisms must come from his wife – who always called him “The Dook” – and not from his adopted home of France.

The Duke of Windsor’s grandfather, King Edward VII, spoke with an accent that betrayed the royal family’s German roots.

Prince Harry at the ESPY Awards in Hollywood this July. Is Prince Harry gradually losing his English accent?

Prince Harry’s great-granduncle, the Duke of Windsor, pronounced “ago” as “agow,” which makes him sound more like Dick Van Dyke, who plays Bert, the Cockney chimney sweep in Mary Poppins, or Meereh Puppins.

“Spare” was ghostwritten for Harry by an American author, JR Moehringer, so it is possible that some of these Americanisms came from Moehringer rather than Harry

His biographer Jane Ridley says that in kindergarten he and his siblings “spoke German like their native language, even to each other… His fluency in German hindered his ability to speak English.” So much so that an actor was hired to teach him how to speak. But at the age of 16, his foreign accent was still clearly visible.

The writer and cartoonist Max Beerbohm reported: “He spoke with a strong German accent, very guttural.” For example, instead of saying, “Why?” He always said, “Vy?”

Of course, most accents change over time, however stable we may imagine them to be. During the war, when she was 14, Prince Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered a message on the radio to evacuated children.

“Thaisands of yew in thees countreh hev hev hev hed to leave your Haimes and be separated from your fathers and Methers,” is close to what it sounds like.

A decade later, on her 1951 Commonwealth tour, she gave a speech in which she announced: “They delighted in the ability to then once again impress the air presenters.”

She begins an early Christmas show called “Heppy Christmas” and then mentions, “May ain femileh awfen gether rrn to watch… Finally, that’s hay, I’m picturing you now.”

Penny Dyer, Helen Mirren’s voice coach on The Queen, felt that her accent was at least partly determined by her deep-rooted sense of duty.

“Some of that stiff upper lip thing about not being allowed to show emotion and putting duty before emotion, which is absolutely what you have to do growing up in the royal family… you literally froze, so .” With the vowel forms that are normally rounded, like “oh” and “ow” and “o” and “awe,” you lose the lip rounding – the actual stiff upper lip provides what is called lateral fixation.’

Harry’s autobiography Spare, first published in early 2023, is full of Americanisms. The phrases appear on just one randomly selected page: “Good Weed,” “Dude,” “Yeah,” and “Somehow.”

Helen Mirren as Queen. Penny Dyer, Helen Mirren’s voice coach on The Queen, felt that the late queen’s accent was at least partly determined by her deep-rooted sense of duty

But over the years, the queen’s accent changed subtly, becoming more relaxed and less noticeable. For example, she stopped pronouncing the word “lost” to rhyme it with “forced,” and where she had once pronounced “fam-e-lee” “femileh,” she now said “fam-e-lee.”

“Lawst” became “Lost” and “hames” became “Homes.” My friend and fellow columnist Tom Utley points out that the royals used to pronounce the letter “a” as “e” – “I wish you all a Merry Christmas.”‘.

But now Princess Kate and the younger generation pronounce “e” as “a”: “I wish you all a Varry Marry Christmas.”