Do you have a strong regional accent?

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by SleepyButch

Stong? no. I tend to pick up the regional accents pretty quickly.

I can do this. A weird thing about me is that I pick up speech impediments.



If I'm talking to someone with a lisp, I will catch myself subconsciously replicating it. I'm a vocal chameleon but I can't 'do' accents on demand. They sneak up on me.

Originally Posted by Daniela

I can always tell when someone speaking Spanish has an Argentinian accent (they sound like my parents!), although I'm a little lost at picking up Cuban vs. Puerto Rican, for example.

I wish I could help with this. I've dated both a Puerto Rican and a Cuban and they had very similar speech patterns but both lived in South Florida, so I'm sure their dialect is different from those who live in Puerto Rico or Cuba.

Originally Posted by Ginger

To say someone's accent is "abrasive" seems oppressive to me. Maybe classist, definitely regionalist. Some accents are "deeper," in my opinion, than others—more thoroughly immersed in the way of speaking in a certain region. Why is that a bad thing? An "abrasive" thing?

Abrasive means rough, not good or bad. Just like some people have gravely voices. Their voice might be described as 'gritty'. Some make careers out of it, like Joe Cocker.

Some accents are more rough, like Bostonians and some native Rhode Islanders. Part of it is the accent itself and part of it is the delivery. Very 'you talkin' to me?' when excited and 'eh, whataya gonna do?' when relaxed. Thick; rich with character.

I find English accents to feel very smooth, like water flowing down a quiet creek (pronounced CREAK by me and CRICK by my dad, who has been in MS all his life). The words flow seamlessly and, from my experience, the peaks and valleys are not as distinguishable as with North Easterners. It's very relaxing to me and I could listen to it for hours. I love Scottish and Australian accents too.

Here, there are a lot of stops and starts and the volume goes up, up, up. Most days it feels like home, because I am Italian and that's how I am, but some days it feels like someone broke the control button on the speakers.

[Kätzchen]

I am not sure that I have much of a regional accent. My voice is soft, more a long the vibrational sound of an alto. Slightly smokey. Sometimes people will ask where I am from, trying to place me where they think I might belong.... but even then, I dont think my voice belongs to a regional place known for 'accents'.

I do have quite a few relatives in the south (Texas, Tennessee, Carolina areas and a few other southern/mid-western regions), but I was born and raised in Idaho.

I am a resident of the Pacific Northwest, of many years now.

[grenade]

Originally Posted by Ginger

To say someone's accent is "abrasive" seems oppressive to me. Maybe classist, definitely regionalist. Some accents are "deeper," in my opinion, than others—more thoroughly immersed in the way of speaking in a certain region. Why is that a bad thing? An "abrasive" thing?

I'm the someone who found and still finds it abrasive at times.

It's the harshness, the bluntness. It's foreign to me. It's been explained to me numerous times and I certainly try to not take it personally. Sometimes, I try and fail. It is what it is.

I grew up in Kansas and Texas. I grew up with slow drawls, "honey, sugar, and baby". "Yes, ma'am" and "where y'all headed?" Life here is slow paced and laid back.

It's more of a cultural difference issue than one of oppression.

[cinnamongrrl]

Seeing how I'm Massachusetts born and bred, people expect me to have a strong accent. I have to explain that I grew up in western and central Mass, anf only out further east do you really get THAT accent...

But everyone who is from here knows that I'm from "away" as they say in New England. And not even so much by my accent but by how fast I talk. That's a New England trait I'm not likely to lose lol

[imperfect_cupcake]

I found some enlgish accents to be hard on my ears. I *hate* plummy accents, they make my brain curl. And all the different dutch accents, I loved amsterdam the most - hard, and guttural with sharp edges but everything is sweet and diminutive lol. But I dislike "RP" (properly announciated and upper class educated style) dutch. It sounds like they have a piece of cheese stuck in the back of their throat.

Some accents will sound pleasing and lovely to a listener's ear. I loved West Country UK accents the best. Then south east working class London, then Geordie and Yorkshire accents. But plummy makes me want to pull my ears off.
There is nothing wrong with the people who have those accents.

I also can't stand certain kinds of music because it hurts my ears, the way it jangles in my brain. Doesn't mean they are crap musicians. I love accents many people hate. Some people probably don't like the sound of mine. In fact, having been a foreigner, I know they don't. I've been told. Oh well.

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by imperfect_cupcake

I found some enlgish accents to be hard on my ears. I *hate* plummy accents, they make my brain curl. And all the different dutch accents, I loved amsterdam the most - hard, and guttural with sharp edges but everything is sweet and diminutive lol. But I dislike "RP" (properly announciated and upper class educated style) dutch. It sounds like they have a piece of cheese stuck in the back of their throat.

Some accents will sound pleasing and lovely to a listener's ear. I loved West Country UK accents the best. Then south east working class London, then Geordie and Yorkshire accents. But plummy makes me want to pull my ears off.
There is nothing wrong with the people who have those accents.

I also can't stand certain kinds of music because it hurts my ears, the way it jangles in my brain. Doesn't mean they are crap musicians. I love accents many people hate. Some people probably don't like the sound of mine. In fact, having been a foreigner, I know they don't. I've been told. Oh well.

Ok, I had to look up "plummy"...is it a snooty upper-class British accent? One example gave Hugh Grant as an example. But yeah, I'm not a big fan of snootiness in any culture/language. lol

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by Daniela

Ok, I had to look up "plummy"...is it a snooty upper-class British accent? One example gave Hugh Grant as an example. But yeah, I'm not a big fan of snootiness in any culture/language. lol

I was wondering too! Thanks for doing the research on that because I'm lazy.



I actually like Hugh Grant but as a whole package...the next time I see something with him in it, I will pay better attention to his voice and less about his mannerisms.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by stargazingboi

yes, different parts of the country have different words and wordings for things, like:

In Mass...we say: where is the bubblah?
translation: where is the water fountain/drinking fountain

In Mass...bang a left at the light
translation: take the next left

In Mass...I'm gonna swing by the packie, you want somethin?
translation: I'm heading to the liquor store, would you like me to pick you up something?

In Mass....that is wicked cool!
translation: That's great!

I could go on....but yeah...it's an interesting little thing to observe. Sometimes it's like we aren't even speaking the same language when I am talking to folks here in the midwest

LOL! Sounds like home. Love that Dirty Water.

Nobody knows what a coffee frappe is here, my dad always called it a coffee cab, either way you can't get one. They don't have coffee anything. Except coffee. And it's only recently that I've been able to get iced coffee. I would go to a coffee place and ask for an iced coffee and they would look at me strange and say they don't have it. I'd be like do you have coffee? Do you have ice? Put 'em together. They'd just shake their head no.

And it's always trash here, even when it's clearly garbage or should I say gahbidge cause that's how it sounds when I say it. I'd say put it in the garbage and people would just look at me. It's put it in the trash or put it in the poubelle.

I had to stop saying I was going to take the T. People thought I was getting a cup of tea.

You can't get an elastic here, it's a rubber band.

Here it's not a packie or a liquor store. It's the SAQ.

But everybody knows what wicked pissah is!

The Grant fella is an oik when you watch/listen to proper 'plummy' or RP English. Best example I can think of is in a film such as Anthony Asquith's The Importance of Being Earnest [1952]...the one with the inimitable Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell and Micheal Redgrave as Ernest. Now *that's* RP!

If you're a Wilde fan then this version is a must see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044744/news?ref_=tt_nwr_sm

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

*snipitty*
But everybody knows what wicked pissah is!

Not everyone! Iz like bostin', mint or rippah?

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Daktari

Not everyone! Iz like bostin', mint or rippah?

LOL. Let me clarify. I meant everyone I've met in Montreal seems to be familiar with the term wicked pissah. As soon as they hear my Boston accent they say "Hey you're from Boston aren't you? Wicked pissah."

I didn't mean everyone in the world. Sorry. Poor communications skills .

[Blade]

If you are from here then no I don't have an accent. If you are not from here then yes, I have been told I have a thick accent. I have spoken with many people who loved it and one person who continually corrected me and even told me she didn't know if she could date someone who talked like I do. LOL she was an English teacher go figure. Said she had dated someone from my general area and hated listening to them talk.

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

LOL. Let me clarify. I meant everyone I've met in Montreal seems to be familiar with the term wicked pissah. As soon as they hear my Boston accent they say "Hey you're from Boston aren't you? Wicked pissah."

I didn't mean everyone in the world. Sorry. Poor communications skills .

Originally Posted by Daktari

The Grant fella is an oik when you watch/listen to proper 'plummy' or RP English. Best example I can think of is in a film such as Anthony Asquith's The Importance of Being Earnest [1952]...the one with the inimitable Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell and Micheal Redgrave as Ernest. Now *that's* RP!

If you're a Wilde fan then this version is a must see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044744/news?ref_=tt_nwr_sm

Originally Posted by Daktari

Not everyone! Iz like bostin', mint or rippah?

Ya'll aren't makin' much sense right now. I need some translatin' up in here. Where ma Southern peeps at?

[Daniela]

Originally Posted by Daktari

The Grant fella is an oik when you watch/listen to proper 'plummy' or RP English. Best example I can think of is in a film such as Anthony Asquith's The Importance of Being Earnest [1952]...the one with the inimitable Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell and Micheal Redgrave as Ernest. Now *that's* RP!

If you're a Wilde fan then this version is a must see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044744/news?ref_=tt_nwr_sm

But seriously, I had to look up "oik" too.

So Hugh Grant's not a good example? And you don't like him?

[girlin2une]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

But everybody knows what wicked pissah is!

I had no idea what "wicked pissah" is but looked it up... It is "the way a person in New England would describe something as being really awesome"...

[Cin]

Originally Posted by girlin2une

I had no idea what "wicked pissah" is

I meant everybody where I live knows what it means. I really need to brush up on my communication skills. Sorry about that.

[imperfect_cupcake]

Originally Posted by Daniela

Ok, I had to look up "plummy"...is it a snooty upper-class British accent? One example gave Hugh Grant as an example. But yeah, I'm not a big fan of snootiness in any culture/language. lol

No. Hugh Grant is an actor and thus speaks RP english. What BBC broadcasters use and with a slight southern, thus very slight plummy accent. A strong plummy accent is far more pronounced. But he does have a bit of one. Edit to add: now that I think of it, some of his roles have had stronger plum than others...

It's not snooty. Snooty is more of an attitude. The queen speaks with a Strong plummy accent. It's hooking the back of the tongue softly against the palate at the end of "o" and prolonging certain vowels - like you are talking around a plum. Strong plummy accents are also called "horsey" accents.

It's a bit nasal, long open vowels and over articulate. People try to make it stronger to appear more upperclass. And that's when it's gets very annoying.

The accent I picked up was a cross between sauf an' east london, yeah? South London is very relaxed and sloppy and east London is choppy so along with my west coast canuck and Polari slang, people had no clue where the fuck I was from after 10 years.

So to explain, a south London accent is Lauren (and her best best mate) in this clip, whereas david tennant (dr who/the teacher), is speaking with a very soft and "educated" scottish accent.

South London and Scottish



And an east London accent is Dell in this clip:

East London accent, expressions and slang


I managed to pick up quite a bit a bit of Polari living in the east end (London drag queen/queen chat-slang and wot-not) gay scene. Click on the link

a fabulous drag queen explains Polari

[imperfect_cupcake]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

LOL! Sounds like home. Love that Dirty Water.

Nobody knows what a coffee frappe is here, my dad always called it a coffee cab, either way you can't get one. They don't have coffee anything. Except coffee. And it's only recently that I've been able to get iced coffee. I would go to a coffee place and ask for an iced coffee and they would look at me strange and say they don't have it. I'd be like do you have coffee? Do you have ice? Put 'em together. They'd just shake their head no.

And it's always trash here, even when it's clearly garbage or should I say gahbidge cause that's how it sounds when I say it. I'd say put it in the garbage and people would just look at me. It's put it in the trash or put it in the poubelle.

I had to stop saying I was going to take the T. People thought I was getting a cup of tea.

You can't get an elastic here, it's a rubber band.

Here it's not a packie or a liquor store. It's the SAQ.

But everybody knows what wicked pissah is!

Lol a closes friend of mine that I used to do research with is from Boston. I used to take the piss out of him (tease the shit out of lol) when he got drunk and argumentative (in a fun way) "poor bugger, he's got three 'R's in his name and he can't pronounce a single one."

Received Pronunciation

Rp: a Social Accent of English

Received Pronunciation, or RP for short, is the instantly recognisable accent often described as ‘typically British’. Popular terms for this accent, such as ‘The Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’ are all a little misleading. The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one type of accent.

RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. In other words, they avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised vocabulary characteristic of regional dialects. RP is also regionally non-specific, that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background. But it does reveal a great deal about their social and/or educational background.

Well-known but not widely used
RP is probably the most widely studied and most frequently described variety of spoken English in the world, yet recent estimates suggest only 2% of the UK population speak it. It has a negligible presence in Scotland and Northern Ireland and is arguably losing its prestige status in Wales. It should properly, therefore, be described as an English, rather than a British accent. As well as being a living accent, RP is also a theoretical linguistic concept. It is the accent on which phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries are based, and it is widely used (in competition with General American) for teaching English as a foreign language. RP is included here as a case study, not to imply it has greater merit than any other English accent, but because it provides us with an extremely familiar model against which comparisons with other accents may be made.

What’s in the name?
RP is a young accent in linguistic terms. It was not around, for example, when Dr Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1757. He chose not to include pronunciation suggestions as he felt there was little agreement even within educated society regarding ‘recommended’ forms. The phrase Received Pronunciation was coined in 1869 by the linguist, A J Ellis, but it only became a widely used term used to describe the accent of the social elite after the phonetician, Daniel Jones, adopted it for the second edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1924). The definition of ‘received’ conveys its original meaning of ‘accepted’ or ‘approved’ — as in ‘received wisdom’. We can trace the origins of RP back to the public schools and universities of nineteenth-century Britain — indeed Daniel Jones initially used the term Public School Pronunciation to describe this emerging, socially exclusive accent. Over the course of that century, members of the ruling and privileged classes increasingly attended boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Harrow and Rugby and graduated from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Their speech patterns - based loosely on the local accent of the south-east Midlands (roughly London, Oxford and Cambridge) — soon came to be associated with ‘The Establishment’ and therefore gained a unique status, particularly within the middle classes in London.

Broadcaster’s choice
RP probably received its greatest impetus, however, when Lord Reith, the first General Manager of the BBC, adopted it in 1922 as a broadcasting standard - hence the origins of the term BBC English. Reith believed Standard English, spoken with an RP accent, would be the most widely understood variety of English, both here in the UK and overseas. He was also conscious that choosing a regional accent might run the risk of alienating some listeners. To a certain extent Reith’s decision was understandable, and his attitude only reflected the social climate at the time. But since RP was the preserve of the aristocracy and expensive public schools, it represented only a very small social minority. This policy prevailed at the BBC for a considerable time and probably contributed to the sometimes negative perception of regional varieties of English.

There’s more than one RP
A speaker who uses numerous very localised pronunciations is often described as having a ‘broad’ or ‘strong’ regional accent, while terms such as ‘mild’ or ‘soft’ are applied to speakers whose speech patterns are only subtly different from RP speakers. So, we might describe one speaker as having a broad Glaswegian accent and another as having a mild Scottish accent. Such terms"]Sounds Familiar HomeRegional VoicesLexical VariationPhonological variationGrammatical variationSocial VariationChanging VoicesYour VoicesCase StudiesActivities
Received Pronunciation

Rp: a Social Accent of English

Received Pronunciation, or RP for short, is the instantly recognisable accent often described as ‘typically British’. Popular terms for this accent, such as ‘The Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’ are all a little misleading. The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one type of accent.

RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. In other words, they avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised vocabulary characteristic of regional dialects. RP is also regionally non-specific, that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background. But it does reveal a great deal about their social and/or educational background.

Well-known but not widely used
RP is probably the most widely studied and most frequently described variety of spoken English in the world, yet recent estimates suggest only 2% of the UK population speak it. It has a negligible presence in Scotland and Northern Ireland and is arguably losing its prestige status in Wales. It should properly, therefore, be described as an English, rather than a British accent. As well as being a living accent, RP is also a theoretical linguistic concept. It is the accent on which phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries are based, and it is widely used (in competition with General American) for teaching English as a foreign language. RP is included here as a case study, not to imply it has greater merit than any other English accent, but because it provides us with an extremely familiar model against which comparisons with other accents may be made.

What’s in the name?
RP is a young accent in linguistic terms. It was not around, for example, when Dr Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1757. He chose not to include pronunciation suggestions as he felt there was little agreement even within educated society regarding ‘recommended’ forms. The phrase Received Pronunciation was coined in 1869 by the linguist, A J Ellis, but it only became a widely used term used to describe the accent of the social elite after the phonetician, Daniel Jones, adopted it for the second edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1924). The definition of ‘received’ conveys its original meaning of ‘accepted’ or ‘approved’ — as in ‘received wisdom’. We can trace the origins of RP back to the public schools and universities of nineteenth-century Britain — indeed Daniel Jones initially used the term Public School Pronunciation to describe this emerging, socially exclusive accent. Over the course of that century, members of the ruling and privileged classes increasingly attended boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Harrow and Rugby and graduated from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Their speech patterns - based loosely on the local accent of the south-east Midlands (roughly London, Oxford and Cambridge) — soon came to be associated with ‘The Establishment’ and therefore gained a unique status, particularly within the middle classes in London.

Broadcaster’s choice
RP probably received its greatest impetus, however, when Lord Reith, the first General Manager of the BBC, adopted it in 1922 as a broadcasting standard - hence the origins of the term BBC English. Reith believed Standard English, spoken with an RP accent, would be the most widely understood variety of English, both here in the UK and overseas. He was also conscious that choosing a regional accent might run the risk of alienating some listeners. To a certain extent Reith’s decision was understandable, and his attitude only reflected the social climate at the time. But since RP was the preserve of the aristocracy and expensive public schools, it represented only a very small social minority. This policy prevailed at the BBC for a considerable time and probably contributed to the sometimes negative perception of regional varieties of English.

There’s more than one RP
A speaker who uses numerous very localised pronunciations is often described as having a ‘broad’ or ‘strong’ regional accent, while terms such as ‘mild’ or ‘soft’ are applied to speakers whose speech patterns are only subtly different from RP speakers. So, we might describe one speaker as having a broad Glaswegian accent and another as having a mild Scottish accent. Such terms

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/so...pronunciation/

[girlin2une]

A long read, but well said!! ❤️

Originally Posted by Daktari

Received Pronunciation

Rp: a Social Accent of English

Received Pronunciation, or RP for short, is the instantly recognisable accent often described as ‘typically British’. Popular terms for this accent, such as ‘The Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’ are all a little misleading. The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one type of accent.

RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. In other words, they avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised vocabulary characteristic of regional dialects. RP is also regionally non-specific, that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background. But it does reveal a great deal about their social and/or educational background.

Well-known but not widely used
RP is probably the most widely studied and most frequently described variety of spoken English in the world, yet recent estimates suggest only 2% of the UK population speak it. It has a negligible presence in Scotland and Northern Ireland and is arguably losing its prestige status in Wales. It should properly, therefore, be described as an English, rather than a British accent. As well as being a living accent, RP is also a theoretical linguistic concept. It is the accent on which phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries are based, and it is widely used (in competition with General American) for teaching English as a foreign language. RP is included here as a case study, not to imply it has greater merit than any other English accent, but because it provides us with an extremely familiar model against which comparisons with other accents may be made.

What’s in the name?
RP is a young accent in linguistic terms. It was not around, for example, when Dr Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1757. He chose not to include pronunciation suggestions as he felt there was little agreement even within educated society regarding ‘recommended’ forms. The phrase Received Pronunciation was coined in 1869 by the linguist, A J Ellis, but it only became a widely used term used to describe the accent of the social elite after the phonetician, Daniel Jones, adopted it for the second edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1924). The definition of ‘received’ conveys its original meaning of ‘accepted’ or ‘approved’ — as in ‘received wisdom’. We can trace the origins of RP back to the public schools and universities of nineteenth-century Britain — indeed Daniel Jones initially used the term Public School Pronunciation to describe this emerging, socially exclusive accent. Over the course of that century, members of the ruling and privileged classes increasingly attended boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Harrow and Rugby and graduated from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Their speech patterns - based loosely on the local accent of the south-east Midlands (roughly London, Oxford and Cambridge) — soon came to be associated with ‘The Establishment’ and therefore gained a unique status, particularly within the middle classes in London.

Broadcaster’s choice
RP probably received its greatest impetus, however, when Lord Reith, the first General Manager of the BBC, adopted it in 1922 as a broadcasting standard - hence the origins of the term BBC English. Reith believed Standard English, spoken with an RP accent, would be the most widely understood variety of English, both here in the UK and overseas. He was also conscious that choosing a regional accent might run the risk of alienating some listeners. To a certain extent Reith’s decision was understandable, and his attitude only reflected the social climate at the time. But since RP was the preserve of the aristocracy and expensive public schools, it represented only a very small social minority. This policy prevailed at the BBC for a considerable time and probably contributed to the sometimes negative perception of regional varieties of English.

There’s more than one RP
A speaker who uses numerous very localised pronunciations is often described as having a ‘broad’ or ‘strong’ regional accent, while terms such as ‘mild’ or ‘soft’ are applied to speakers whose speech patterns are only subtly different from RP speakers. So, we might describe one speaker as having a broad Glaswegian accent and another as having a mild Scottish accent. Such terms"]Sounds Familiar HomeRegional VoicesLexical VariationPhonological variationGrammatical variationSocial VariationChanging VoicesYour VoicesCase StudiesActivities
Received Pronunciation

Rp: a Social Accent of English

Received Pronunciation, or RP for short, is the instantly recognisable accent often described as ‘typically British’. Popular terms for this accent, such as ‘The Queen’s English’, ‘Oxford English’ or ‘BBC English’ are all a little misleading. The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one type of accent.

RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak Standard English. In other words, they avoid non-standard grammatical constructions and localised vocabulary characteristic of regional dialects. RP is also regionally non-specific, that is it does not contain any clues about a speaker’s geographic background. But it does reveal a great deal about their social and/or educational background.

Well-known but not widely used
RP is probably the most widely studied and most frequently described variety of spoken English in the world, yet recent estimates suggest only 2% of the UK population speak it. It has a negligible presence in Scotland and Northern Ireland and is arguably losing its prestige status in Wales. It should properly, therefore, be described as an English, rather than a British accent. As well as being a living accent, RP is also a theoretical linguistic concept. It is the accent on which phonemic transcriptions in dictionaries are based, and it is widely used (in competition with General American) for teaching English as a foreign language. RP is included here as a case study, not to imply it has greater merit than any other English accent, but because it provides us with an extremely familiar model against which comparisons with other accents may be made.

What’s in the name?
RP is a young accent in linguistic terms. It was not around, for example, when Dr Johnson wrote A Dictionary of the English Language in 1757. He chose not to include pronunciation suggestions as he felt there was little agreement even within educated society regarding ‘recommended’ forms. The phrase Received Pronunciation was coined in 1869 by the linguist, A J Ellis, but it only became a widely used term used to describe the accent of the social elite after the phonetician, Daniel Jones, adopted it for the second edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1924). The definition of ‘received’ conveys its original meaning of ‘accepted’ or ‘approved’ — as in ‘received wisdom’. We can trace the origins of RP back to the public schools and universities of nineteenth-century Britain — indeed Daniel Jones initially used the term Public School Pronunciation to describe this emerging, socially exclusive accent. Over the course of that century, members of the ruling and privileged classes increasingly attended boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton, Harrow and Rugby and graduated from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Their speech patterns - based loosely on the local accent of the south-east Midlands (roughly London, Oxford and Cambridge) — soon came to be associated with ‘The Establishment’ and therefore gained a unique status, particularly within the middle classes in London.

Broadcaster’s choice
RP probably received its greatest impetus, however, when Lord Reith, the first General Manager of the BBC, adopted it in 1922 as a broadcasting standard - hence the origins of the term BBC English. Reith believed Standard English, spoken with an RP accent, would be the most widely understood variety of English, both here in the UK and overseas. He was also conscious that choosing a regional accent might run the risk of alienating some listeners. To a certain extent Reith’s decision was understandable, and his attitude only reflected the social climate at the time. But since RP was the preserve of the aristocracy and expensive public schools, it represented only a very small social minority. This policy prevailed at the BBC for a considerable time and probably contributed to the sometimes negative perception of regional varieties of English.

There’s more than one RP
A speaker who uses numerous very localised pronunciations is often described as having a ‘broad’ or ‘strong’ regional accent, while terms such as ‘mild’ or ‘soft’ are applied to speakers whose speech patterns are only subtly different from RP speakers. So, we might describe one speaker as having a broad Glaswegian accent and another as having a mild Scottish accent. Such terms

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/so...pronunciation/