Received Pronunciation 2 (Traditional)
To access the Traditional RP Audio Study Syllabus please click here
Notes for Learning the Traditional RP Accent:
Traditional RP is no longer spoken much in the UK in recent decades. Yet the accent is a ‘must have’ for actors wishing to audition for certain roles in period dramas etc.
R.P. stands for Recieved Pronunciation. It has no strong geographical origin in comparison to other British accents, though historically it tended to be the speech of upper class parts of London and some of the home counties. Historically, traditional R.P. was associated with education, profession, the language of public school, and often referred to as “B.B.C. English” or “Queens English”. However over recent decades many features of traditional R.P. have morphed to become a more neutral accent “modern R.P.” though there are still a few native speakers of traditional R.P.
Modern R.P. has been shaped by recent influences from Cockney and Estuary English, subtly changing the quality of certain vowels, voice quality and processes of connected speech. Only a small percentage of the population of the U.K.(5-7%) are actually native R.P. speakers even though it is the most widely heard and understood of the British accents internationally. It is also usually the accent learnt by non-native learners of British English, who wish to improve their English pronunciation and communication.
Tips for learners:
-While the phonemic sound symbols for standard R.P. and conservative R.P. are mostly the same, the accents can sound very different due to variations in voice quality and certain other nuances that are not illustrated in broad measurements of phonemic symbols.
-Traditional R.P. has a very fronted voice quality with a resonance caused by a natural point of tension around the lips, teeth and front muscles of the mouth.
-/l/ is always ‘clear’ before a vowel, and ‘dark’ in syllable-final positions when not linking a following vowel sound.
-R.P. is non-rhotic, meaning the consonant /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel sound, but not a consonant sound.
-/j/ is not dropped following alveolar consonants in words such as “neutral, tutor, assuming”
-/h/ is not dropped except in certain unstressed mid-phrase pronouns.
-the diphthong /əʊ/ in words such as ‘home, know’ has a more raised and fronted starting point in traditional RP.
-the diphthong /eɪ/ in words such as ‘rain, day’ has a more raised and fronted starting point in traditional R.P.
-Native traditional R.P. speakers only pronounce »word final ‘r’ if the next word starts with a vowel and sometimes use the intrusive ‘r’
