MAJOR ACCENTS IN THE UK RP as the

MAJOR ACCENTS IN THE UK. RP as the British national standard of pronunciation Tanya Lytvyn 4 ‒ B

Outline 1. RP as the British national standard of pronunciation: 1. 1. Socio-historical survey of RP/BBC English; 1. 2. Phonological and phonetic dimensions of RP/BBC English;

1. RP AS THE BRITISH NATIONAL STANDARD OF PRONUNCIATION 1. 1. Socio-historical survey of RP/BBC English. In 16 th-17 th century it was recommended to follow the speech model of educated pronunciation in the court and the capital. Thus, the roots of RP are in London (London region and the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Surrey). By the 18 th century a prestigious pronunciation model had been characterized as the speech "received by the polite circles of society". By the 19 th c. London English had acquired social prestige and had lost some of its local characteristics. It was finally fixed as the pronunciation of the ruling class.

In the mid 19 th c. there was a rise in education. Teachers needed a certain model to teach their pupils. London English / Southern English was chosen for this purpose. It was then termed as Classroom English, Public School English / Educated English. At the beginning of the 20 th c. Southern Educated English was spoken by rather a small group of people who had public school education (Oxford, Cambridge). The need for a recognized norm for public and other purposes (descriptions for teaching) launched the movement to establish Educated Southern English as the STANDARD ACCENT. In 1930 the term "Standard Pronunciation" was replaced by "Received Pronunciation".

The British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) adopted RP for the use by its news-readers since 1920 s. Until the early 70 s of the 20 th c. it was the only accent demanded in the BBC's announcements. That is why RP often became identified with BBC English. Only over the last 40 years, both the BBC and other British national radio and TV channels have been increasingly tolerant of the accent of their broadcasters. Before World War 2, RP was characteristic of upper-class speech throughout the country.

The second half of the 20 th century witnessed the radical changes in RP's social base: 1) the advent of radio & TV has led to a greater number of speakers, in various layers of society, using RP; 2) the social structure of the British society has lost much of its earlier rigidity; 3) access to higher education has led to a relaxation of view on prestige in pronunciation.

Today RP/BBC English does not constitute a single variety. Three main types of RP are distinguished: 1) General RP; 2) Refined RP; 3) Regional RP. There’s also recognized adoptive RP, spoken by those who acquire the accent after childhood. General / mainstream RP reflects the pronunciation of middle class educated speakers. Refined RP is an accent associated with upper-class families (the number of its speakers is declining). Regional RP is basically RP with the presence of a few regional characteristics which go unnoticed even by other speakers of RP.

1. 2. Phonological and phonetic dimensions of RP/BBC English The PHONEME INVENTORY of this accent consists of – 20 vowels; – 24 consonants.

In the system of vowels there are: v 10 monophthongs: /I/, /e/, /æ/, /ə/, /3: /, /ʌ/, /α: /, /þ/, /o: /, /U/; v 2 diphthongoids: /i: /, /u: /; v 8 diphthongs: /e. I/, /a. I/, /o. I/, /əU/, /a. U/, /Iə/, /εə/, /Uə/.

The system of RP consonants consists of: 1) those typically associated with a noise component (17): /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /ʃ/, /ჳ/, /s/, /z/, /h/, /tʃ/, /dჳ/; 2) sonorants – those without a noise component (7): /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /1/, /r/, /j/, /w/.

According to the PHONOTACTIC SPECIFICATION of /r/ occurrence, RP is a non-rhotic or r-less accent, i. e. /r/ does not occur after a vowel or at the end of the words. It may be claimed that /r/ in RP has a limited distribution, being restricted to pre-vocalic positions.