Received Pronunciation 2

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Notes and Tips for Learning the RP Accent:
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 surrounding counties. Historically, conservative/traditional R.P. was associated with education, profession, the language of public school, and sometimes referred to as “B.B.C. English” or “Queens English”; the accent of newsreaders etc. However over recent decades many features of traditional R.P. have migrated to give a more neutral accent referred to here as “modern R.P.” though there are still native speakers of traditional R.P.

Modern R.P. has been shaped by recent fusions with Cockney, 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 despite it being the most widely heard and understood of the British accents internationally. It is usually the accent taught to non-native learners of British English. A further development of R.P. in the south-east area is the emergence of Estuary English, which is a fusion of R.P. and the accents of the Thames Estuary.

Tips for learners:
-Phonemically, the sound symbols for standard R.P. and conservative R.P. are mostly the same, but the accents can sound very different due to variations in voice quality and certain other details that are not illustrated in broad measurements of phonemic symbols.

-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 ‘clear’ before a vowel, and ‘dark’ in all other environments.

-R.P. is non-rhotic, so /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel sound, but not a consonant sound.

-/j/ is not dropped following alveolar consonants in words such as new, duty, tune, assume.

-/h/ is not dropped except in certain mid-sentence pronouns.

-the diphthong in words such as ‘cone’ has a starting point further back and lower in standard R.P. as opposed to conservative R.P.

-the diphthong in words such as ‘mate’ has a starting point further back and lower in standard R.P. as opposed to conservative R.P.

-Native R.P. speakers only pronounce »word final ‘r’ if the next word starts with a vowel and often use the intrusive ‘r’