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Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation (RP) is the British English accent regarded as the standard one, carrying the highest social prestige, since as late as the very early 20th century.[1][2] It has also been referred to as Queen's English or King's English. The study of RP is concerned only with matters of pronunciation, while other features of standard British English, such as vocabulary, grammar, and style, are not considered.

Language scholars have long disagreed on RP's exact definition, how geographically neutral it is, how many speakers there are, the nature and classification of its sub-varieties, how appropriate a choice it is as a standard, how the accent has changed over time, and even its name.[3] The speakers who conventionally use RP have changed the accent to such a degree over the last century that many of its early 20th-century traditions of transcription and analysis have become outdated or are no longer considered evidence-based by linguists.[4] Still, these traditions continue to be commonly taught and used, for instance in language education, and RP remains a popular umbrella term in ordinary British society and in linguistics. Standard Southern British English (SSBE) has been considered by some as an evolution of RP that is now commonplace (its name referring to Southern England),[5] although SSBE has also been used by some linguists as a synonym for RP.[6]

  1. ^ Wells (2008), p. xix, paragraph 2.1.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cruttenden (2014), pp. 74–81.
  4. ^ Lindsey, Geoff; Wells, John C. (2019). English after RP: standard British pronunciation today. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-04356-8.
  5. ^ "English accents have changed so much that two big ones are brown bread". Metro. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
  6. ^ "Brits still associate working-class accents with criminal behaviour – study warns of bias in the criminal justice system | University of Cambridge". www.cam.ac.uk. 17 January 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2025.

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