RP AS THE STANDARD ENGLISH ACCENT.

English has always had its regional pronunciations. Yet as early as the 16 century, one regional accent began to acquire social prestige. For reasong of politics, commerce, and the presence of the Court, it was the pronunciation of the south-east of England, and more particulary, that of the London region, that the prestige was attached. The early phonetician John Hart notes (1569) that it is in the Court and London that ‘the flower of the English toungue is used’. Already in those times pronunciation was a marker of position in society: those eager for social advancement felt obliged to modify their accent in the direction of the social standard. With times RP has come to symbolize a person's high position in society. During the 19th century, it became the accent of public schools, such as Eton and Harrow, and was soon the main sign that a speaker had received a good education. It spread rapidly throughout the Civil Service of the British Empire and the armed forces, and became the voice of authority and power. Because it was a regionally 'neutral' accent, and was thought to be more widely understood than any regional accent, it came to adopted by the BBC, when radio broadcasting began in the 1920s. During WW2, it became linked in many minds with the voice of freedom, and the notion of a "BBC pronunciation" grew. Today, with the breakdown of rigid divisions between social classes and the development of the mass media, RP has altered much over just a few decades. Less than 3 per cent of the British people speak it in a pure form now.
It is associated with the south-east, where most RP-speakers live or work, but it can be found anywhere in the country. Accents usually tell us where a person is from; RP tells us only about a person's social or educational background. RP is a special accent - a regionally neutral accent that is used as a standard for broadcasting and some other kinds of public speaking. RP is widely used in the academic world, both in Britain and globally. Along with General American., it is the most common model accent in teaching English as a foreign language. Many Britons abroad modify their accent to make their pronunciation closer to RP in order to be better understood than if they were using their usual accent.

There are many people in England who do not speak RP though their English in good and correct. They speak Standard Englsih with a regional type of pronunciation. Phoneticians usually divide English speakers into three groups: 1. RP speakers of standard English (those who speak Standard English without any local accent). 2. Non-RPspeakers of Standard Englsh (those who speak E with a regional accent). 3. Dialectal speakers Within RP itself three main types aredistinguished: 1. The conservative RP, the general RP form, which is heard on the BBC, and the trend-setting, or advanced RP form, associated with certain social and professional groups.

-CURRENT CHANGES IN RP.:

REALIZATIONAL CHANGES: Vowels: /i:/ and /u:/ are diphongized in final position, as in SEE or TWO. // Diphthong /oʊ / has changed its quality and became /əʊ /, its starting point now is a mid-central unrounded vowel, instead of back and rounded /o/, the transcription of the phoneme was changed in 1962// About 50 years ago /æ/ was considerably less open and tenser than is now customary. Triphthongs may lose their mid element, as in FIRE [faə], SCIENCE may be smoothed to /saəns/, POWER – to [paə]. Similarly, a diphthong will lose its second element when followed by another vowel, e.g., THROWING /ˈθrəʊɪŋ/ will become [θrɜɪŋ]. Consonants: L-vocalization. /l/ in the final position or in a final consonant cluster is now undergoing a process of vocalization (becoming a vowel). Thus in the words such as MILK, SHELF, TABLES,, the tongue tip may make no contact at all with the alveolar ridge. /w/, or rather a new kind of diphthong is used, so that MILK is [miwk] or [miok], SHELF is [∫eof] or [∫ewf], TABLES [‘teiboz], APPLE [‘æpo], ST PAUL’S CAHTEDRAL /powz/.

SYSTEMIC CHANGES: the only recent change that is now completed is the loss of /ɔə/ from the phonemic inventory, as in the words YOUR /jɔə/-/jɔ:/, POOR/pɔə/-/pɔ:/, SURE /ʃɔə/- /ʃɔ:/ TOURIST/’tɔərist/-/’tʊərist/or/’tɔ:rist/.

LEXICAL CHANGES: There is a strong trend towards selecting / ə / instead of unstressed /i/ in weak syllables. This usually occurs after /l/ and /r/, as in ANGRILY /’æŋgrili/ v. /’æŋgr ə li/, LAZILY (‘leizili/ v. (leiz ə li).

DISTRIBUTIONAL CHANGES: The most noteworthy trend concerning a change in the occurrence of a phoneme is the loss of /j/ after alveolar consonants /s/ and /l/, as in ALLUDE / ə ‘lu:d/, SUPER /’su:p ə, SUIT /su:t/. Coalescence /t+j/ and /d+j/ is increasingly common, e.g., /’edju:keit/ - /’eʤu:keit/, STATUE /’stætju:/ - /‘stætʧu:/, TUESDAY /’ʧu:zdi/

STRESS CHANGES: the changes affect adjectives ending in ‘-able’, ‘ible’. It tends now to fall later in the word, as in ‘APPLICABLE – APP’LICABLE, ‘FRAGMENTARY – FRAG’MENTARY, etc. The feminine suffix ‘-ess’ increasingly attracts primary stress in words like ‘COUN’TESS, ‘STEWARDESS. RE’SEARCH has given way to ‘RESEARCH, ‘HARASS to HA’RASS.

The most observably spreading change on the suprasegmental level occurs in sentence intonation. This is especially common among young people, but not exclusively so. The change lies in a tendency to use a rising nuclear tone on a statement where a fall might be expected. The (presumably unintended) effect may be one of reluctance to commit oneself, or of diffidence. We cannot be sure if the rising intonation conveys meaning, or is habitual.

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