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Received pronunciation
*** Shopping-Tip: Received pronunciation
{{English dialects}}
{{IPA notice}}
'''Received Pronunciation''' ('''RP''') is a form of
pronunciation of the
English language which has traditionally been the prestige British
Accent (linguistics) accent (see
prestige dialect). RP is a form of
English English, sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern
England." It is often taught to non-native speakers; used as the standard for English in most books on general
phonology and
phonetics; and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries.
According to ''
Fowler's Modern English Usage'' (
1965), the term is "''the'' Received Pronunciation." Received Pronunciation was also sometimes referred to as '''BBC English''' as it was traditionally used by the
BBC. This term remains in use today, though less frequently than in past decades, as many other accents are now to be heard on the BBC.
In recent decades many people have asserted the value of other regional and class accents, and many younger members of the groups which traditionally used Received Pronunciation have moved away from it to varying degrees.
Many Britons abroad modify their accent to make their pronunciation closer to Received Pronunciation, in order to be better understood than if they were using their usual accent. They may also modify their
vocabulary and
grammar to be closer to
Standard English, for the same reason.
Changing status of Received Pronunciation
Traditionally, Received Pronunciation is the
Accent (linguistics) accent of English which is "''the everyday speech of families of Southern English persons whose menfolk have been educated at the great public boarding schools''" (
Daniel Jones (phonetician) Daniel Jones, ''English Pronouncing Dictionary'', 1926—he had earlier called it "Public School Pronunciation"), and which conveys no information about that speaker's region of origin prior to attending the school.
For many years, the use of Received Pronunciation was considered a mark of education. It was standard practice until around the 1950s for university students with regional accents to modify their speech to be closer to RP. As a result, at a time when only around five percent of the population attended universities,
elitist notions sprang up around it and those who used it may have considered those who did not to be less educated than themselves. Historically most of the best British educational institutions (
Oxford,
Cambridge, many
public school (England) public schools) were located in
England, so those who were educated there would pick up the accents of their
peer group peers. (There have always been exceptions: for example, the
Edinburgh accent had a similar prestige among Scottish accents.)
From the
1970s onwards, attitudes towards Received Pronunciation have been slowly changing. One of the primary catalysts for this was the influence in the 1960s of
Labour Party (UK) Labour prime minister
Harold Wilson. Unusually for a prime minister, he spoke with a strong
Yorkshire accent, exaggerated, some said, to appeal to the working classes his party represented. As a result of the trend begun by Wilson and others in the
1960s, the accents of the English regions and of
Scotland,
Wales, and
Ireland are today more likely to be considered to be on a par with Received Pronunciation, which by the turn of the century was only spoken by around three percent of the population. BBC reporters no longer need to, and often do not, use Received Pronunciation.
The ongoing spread of
Estuary English from the
London metropolitan area through the whole South-East leads some people to believe that this will take the place of Received Pronunciation as the "Standard English accent" of the future. There are, however, important factors that militate against this, including the perceived inferior status and alleged lower intelligibility of Estuary English, which is characterised by the dropping of consonants, and use of the
glottal stop.
Phonology
Consonants
A table containing the
consonant phonemes is given below
{| class="wikitable"
!
!
bilabial consonant Bilabial
!
labiodental consonant Labio-labiodental consonant dental
!
labiovelar consonant Labio-labiovelar consonant velar
!
dental consonant Dental
!
alveolar consonant Alveolar
!
postalveolar consonant Post-postalveolar consonant alveolar
!
palatal consonant Palatal
!
velar consonant Velar
!
glottal consonant Glottal
|-
|'''
stop consonant Stop'''
| align=center | {{IPA|p b}}
|
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|t d}}
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|k g}}
|
|-
|'''
affricate consonant Affricate'''
|
|
|
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|tʃ dʒ}}
|
|
|
|-
|'''
nasal consonant Nasal'''
| align=center | {{IPA| m}}
|
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA| n}}
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA| Å‹}}
|
|-
|'''
fricative consonant Fricative'''
|
| align=center | {{IPA|f v}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|θ ð}}
| align=center | {{IPA|s z}}
| align=center | {{IPA|ʃ ʒ}}
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|h}}
|-
|'''
approximant consonant Approximant'''
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA| w}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA| ɹ}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA| j}}
|
|
|-
|'''
lateral consonant Lateral approximant'''
|
|
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA| l}}
|
|
|
|
|}
Vowels
The
vowel phonemes of Received Pronunciation are shown in the following tables:
{|class="wikitable"
|+ '''Short
Monophthongs'''
!
!
Front vowel Front
!
Central vowel Central
!
Back vowel Back
|-
| '''
Near-close vowel Near-close'''
| align=center | {{IPA|ɪ}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ÊŠ}}
|-
| '''
Mid vowel Mid'''
|
| align=center | {{IPA|É™}}
|
|-
| '''
Open-mid vowel Open-mid'''
| align=center | {{IPA|É›}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ʌ}}
|-
| '''
Open vowel Open'''
| align=center | {{IPA|æ}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|É’}}
|}
Examples: {{IPA|/ɪ/}} in ''kit'' and ''mirror'', {{IPA|/ʊ/}} in ''foot'' and ''put'', {{IPA|/ɛ/}} in ''dress'' and ''merry'', {{IPA|/ʌ/}} in ''strut'' and ''curry'', {{IPA|/æ/}} in ''trap'' and ''marry'', {{IPA|/ɒ/}} in ''lot'' and ''orange'', {{IPA|/ə/}} in the second syllable of ''sofa''.
{|class="wikitable"
|+ '''Long
Monophthongs'''
!
!
Front vowel Front
!
Central vowel Central
!
Back vowel Back
|-
| '''
Close vowel Close'''
| align=center | {{IPA|iË?}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|uË?}}
|-
| '''
Open-mid vowel Open-mid'''
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ÉœË?}}
| align=center | {{IPA|É”Ë?}}
|-
| '''
Open vowel Open'''
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|É‘Ë?}}
|}
Examples: {{IPA|/iË?/}} in ''fleece'', {{IPA|/uË?/}} in ''goose'', {{IPA|/ÉœË?/}} in ''nurse'' and ''bird'', {{IPA|/É”Ë?/}} in ''north'' and ''thought'', {{IPA|/É‘Ë?/}} in ''father'' and ''start''.
{|class="wikitable"
|+ '''
Diphthongs'''
!
! Second component close front
! Second component close back
! Second component central
|-
| '''First component close front'''
|
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ɪə}}
|-
| '''First component is mid-open front'''
| align=center | {{IPA|eɪ}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ɛə}}
|-
| '''First component is mid-central'''
|
| align=center | {{IPA|əʊ}}
|
|-
| '''First component is open'''
| align=center | {{IPA|aɪ}}
| align=center | {{IPA|aÊŠ}}
|
|-
| '''First component is back and rounded'''
| align=center | {{IPA|ɔɪ}}
|
| align=center | {{IPA|ÊŠÉ™}}
|}
Examples: {{IPA|/ɪə/}} in ''near'' and ''theatre'', {{IPA|/eɪ/}} in ''face'', {{IPA|/ɛə/}} in ''square'' and ''Mary'', {{IPA|/əʊ/}} in ''goat'', {{IPA|/aɪ/}} in ''price'', {{IPA|/aʊ/}} in ''mouth'', {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}} in ''choice'', {{IPA|/ʊə/}} in ''cure''.
There are also the
triphthongs {{IPA|/aɪə/}} as in ''fire'' and {{IPA|/aʊə/}} as in ''tower''.
There are some variations in transcription. In particular
* {{IPA|/æ/}} as in ''trap'' is often written {{IPA|/a/}}.
* {{IPA|/É›/}} as in ''dress'' is often written {{IPA|/e/}}.
* {{IPA|/ÉœË?/}} as in ''nurse'' is sometimes written {{IPA|/É™Ë?/}}.
* {{IPA|/aɪ/}} as in ''price'' is sometimes written {{IPA|/ʌɪ/}}.
* {{IPA|/ɛə/}} as in ''square'' is sometimes written {{IPA|/eÉ™/}}, and is also sometimes treated as a long monophthong {{IPA|/É›Ë?/}}.
Characteristics
* Unlike northern
English English and most forms of
American English, RP is a
Phonological history of English short A#Trap-bath split broad A accent, so words like ''bath'' and ''chance'' appear with {{IPA|/É‘Ë?/}} and not {{IPA|/æ/}}.
* RP has the
Phonological history of English short A#Bad-lad split bad-lad split making a difference between {{IPA|/æ/}} and {{IPA|/æË?/}}.
* RP is a
rhotic and non-rhotic accents non-rhotic accent, meaning {{IPA|/r/}} does not occur unless followed immediately by a vowel.
* Like other accents of southern England, RP has undergone the
Phonological history of English consonants#Wine-whine merger wine-whine merger so the phoneme {{IPA|/Ê?/}} is not present.
* RP uses {{IPA|[É«]}}, called
Velarized alveolar lateral approximant dark l, when {{IPA|/l/}} occurs at the
syllable coda end of a syllable, as in ''well'', and also for ''syllabic l'', like in ''little'' or ''apple''.
* The {{IPA|/t/}} phoneme in words like ''butter'' is pronounced as {{IPA|[t]}} rather than
flapping flapped (as in most forms of
American English) or realised as a
glottal stop (as in some other forms of
English English, including
Cockney).
* Unlike many other varieties of
English English, there is no
Phonological history of English consonants#H-dropping h-dropping in words like ''head''.
* RP does not have
English consonant cluster reductions#Yod-dropping yod dropping after {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}}. Hence, for example, ''new'', ''tune'' and ''dune'' are pronounced {{IPA|/njuË?/}}, {{IPA|/tjuË?n/}} and {{IPA|/djuË?n/}} rather than {{IPA|/nuË?/}}, {{IPA|/tuË?n/}} and {{IPA|/duË?n/}}. This contrasts with many East Anglian and East Midland varieties of
English English and with most forms of
American English.
Historical variation
The form of RP has itself changed over the past decades. Sound recordings and films from the first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was standard to pronounce the {{IPA|/æ/}} sound, as in ''land'', with a vowel close to {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, so that ''land'' could sound similar to ''lend''. RP is sometimes known as '''the Queen's English''', but recordings show that even the Queen has changed her pronunciation over the past 50 years, no longer using a {{IPA|[ɛ]}}-like vowel in words like ''land''.
Some old-fashioned forms of RP have some variations in their phonology.
* Words like ''off'', ''cloth'', ''gone'' can be pronounced with {{IPA|/É”Ë?/}} instead of {{IPA|/É’/}}. See
Phonological history of the low back vowels#Lot-cloth split lot-cloth split.
* The
English-language vowel changes before historic r#Horse-hoarse merger horse-hoarse merger may not have occurred, with an extra diphthong {{IPA|/ɔə/}} appearing in words such as ''hoarse'', ''force'', ''mourning''.
See also
*
Accent (linguistics)
*
Prestige dialect
*
English English
*
Estuary English
*
General American
*
Prescription and description
Category:British English
nl:Received Pronunciation
see
Received_Pronunciation
*** Shopping-Tip: Received pronunciation
