What is the difference between RP, Queen's English, public school English, BBC English?

Question

Are they all the same thing? And how many people in Britain actually use this pronunciation, (as opposed to simply claiming to use it for the prestige value)? Do they expect foreigners to speak this way, or is it meant to be a sign of exclusivity and class membership?

Answer 1

Well, RP is Received Pronunciation. Queens English is the way her nibs speaks. Public school English is quite close to [B]. BBC favours the Public School Candidate.

So, I suppose you could say that from [B] to [D] there is a lot of similarity, while [A] is potluck.

I do suppose that if you'd like to join their Club, speaking as you are of exclusivity and class membership, then you'd need to communicate effectively with them and that means speak like them, doesn't it?

Quite a bit of When in Rome, be Roman, really.

Cheers, mate!

Answer 2

According to Robert McNeil, they're pretty much different names for the same thing. It's a standardized pronunciation (which does vary somewhat over time), as opposed to Cockney, Cornish, Yorkshire, or any of the other regional variants.