For guidance on how to use this accent breakdown, see How to Work on an Accent.
People
The educated speech centered in and exported from Southeast England, often referred to as “Received Pronunciation” or RP, has been considered the standard, or prestige, accent of England in one form or another for centuries. In 1917 Daniel Jones described the accent as the “everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk [had] been educated at the great public boarding-schools.” Thus, RP has traditionally been an accent of affluence, social prestige, and political power. Although it is the accent found in English pronouncing dictionaries and for many years was the accent of the BBC, it is estimated that only approximately 3% of English people actually spoke RP in 1970.
Since language is constantly evolving, today’s RP is not the same as it was several decades ago. We will be focusing on a rather conservative, 20th-century version of the accent, one which dialect coach Erik Singer describes as, “the best accent to use today in the plays of Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Restoration comedy, or really anything English that takes place before the 1980s where a specific class or regional accent is not required.”
Our Samples
There’s no substitute for time spent with your samples! Copy a word or two at first, then short phrases, and soon you’ll be talking back to them with some fluency.
Prosody
RP can be described as more economical in its use of syllable stress than many American accents. RP speakers tend to stress fewer words per sentence than their American counterparts. Unstressed syllables tend toward greater vowel neutralization, and emphasis is marked by pitch and duration more than volume. These features have been described by Gillian Lane-Plescia as giving RP a “rattle-rattle-bing” rhythm.
Pronunciation
A great resource for RP pronunciation is available at https://howjsay.com/. Simply look up the word you want to pronounce and the website will say it for you.
Key Vowel Sounds
GOAT → [əʊ̯]
Practice: Oh no Flo, don’t go home with Joe!
LOT/CLOTH → [ɒ]
Practice: A throng of robbers often longs for toffee.
THOUGHT → [ɔ̝ː]
Practice: All this talk of slaughter is awful.
BATH → [ɑː]
Practice: I’d rather ask a giraffe to dance.
RP makes a distinction between BATH and TRAP. Careful not to over-generalize the BATH sound to TRAP words.
TRAP → [æ]
Practice: Patrick actually planned to axe the piano.
Additionally, there are some “set jumper” words that are included in the TRAP set in RP: marry, Harry, carry, Carolyn, carriage, Marilyn, Paris, arrow, parapet
R-Dropping
RP is a non-rhotic accent, meaning that the R sound is only pronounced when it comes before a vowel sound. In most cases, an R that comes after a vowel will not be pronounced. The exception is when that R “links” into a following word that begins with a vowel, as in “the lette-R-of the law”.
NURSE → [ɜː]
Practice: The surly nurse cursed as the girl blurted her worst words.
START → [ɑː]
Practice: Start the car, Barney!
NORTH/FORCE → [ɔ̝ː]
Practice: Unfortunately, George is quite a bore.
NEAR, SQUARE, CURE
Practice: The poor seek a cure near St. Mary’s Square.
lettER → [ə]
Practice: Bakers are better when they butter their batter containers.
Key Consonant Sounds
Fully released, voiceless T
The /t/ sound tends to be fully released and unvoiced.
Practice: Betty bought a bit of butter.
Front R
The R sound [ɹ] is made with the tip of the tongue angling upward toward the alveolar ridge rather than by bunching the back of the tongue.
Practice: Round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran
Liquid U
The vowel sound /u/ is preceded by the glide /j/ (“oo” becomes “yoo”) in the following contexts:
- When spelled <u>, <ui> ,or <ew>
AND - When preceded by /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, or /s/
Practice: Duke, tune, news, lute, suit…
…but not “do”, “too”, etc.!
Posture
The jaw tends to ride higher for most RP speakers than in so-called “general” American. The lips and tongue tend to be more active and slightly more muscular and precise than in SCGA. Some lip corner retraction is possible. Alveolar consonants /t/, /d/, /n/, and /l/ are made with the tip rather than the blade of the tongue.