What about RP???

Question

hello everybody who could tell me about the RP accent?? i have seen that in England it is used to classify people as accents... for an example at the end of an acting course... but what is exactly the RP accent?? why is it so important in England?? in my country (Italy) we don't do this.. if we want to work as a journalist or something like this we have diction lessons but there's no an accent classification... thanks early for the answers

Answer 1

feeltherisingbuzz: bear in mind that global warming also correlates quite neatly with the decline in piracy on the high seas.

I fail to see how pronouncing a glottal stop where RP speakers would have a [t] can lead to juvenile delinquency or teenage pregnancy. Now, a correlation between these two things and being from a poor family makes more sense - and since RP tends to be acquired in posher schools, you get the correlation you mention. The relationship is certainly not causal though.

Feffa90: The situation in Italy is rather similar to the situation in the UK not so long ago. RP was just known as 'clear English' or 'good English'. So diction (or elocution) lessons might involve teaching voice projection and so on, but they might also involve learning to 'pronounce things properly' which means adopting a particular prestige accent.

Answer 2

RP means "received pronunciation" and only 1% of English speakers use this accent. It is a direct result of a fashion whim amongst 18th century aristocracy. They decided it would be fun to lengthen their As and drop their Rs, and have been doing it ever since! Nowadays though, I don't think it's as important for people on TV and radio to use RP as long as they speak clearly. Most English language teachers don't teach it as it doesn't prepare students to hear different accents as they will when they're in English-speaking countries.

Answer 3

While I agree with whitequeen2000's answer on the whole, the demise of RP on British television and in general is sad and very troubling.

It teaches the youth of today that it's ok for them to drop vowels and Ts and generally talk like a commoner or someone from the provinces, and gives them nothing to aspire to.

One can track the decline of RP with the rise in crime, juvenile delinquency and teenage pregnancy, so you see why it is so important, and why its demise is so worrying.