Prolonged utterance of rising protege and learner (5)
I believe the answer is:
drawl
'prolonged utterance' is the definition.
'drawl' can be an answer for 'utterance' (drawl is a kind of utterance). I am unsure of the 'prolonged' bit.
'rising protege and learner' is the wordplay.
'rising' says the letters should be written backwards (going up in a down clue).
'protege' becomes 'ward' (both can mean a child in someone's care).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'learner' becomes 'l' (as in a learner driver with L-plates on their car).
'ward' reversed gives 'draw'.
'draw'+'l'='DRAWL'
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for drawl that I've seen before include "Slow, protracted way of speaking" , "Slow speech pattern" , "Accent with slow and lazy delivery" , "Speak in slow tone" , "Speak with lengthy vowel sounds" .)