Re: RP - what a Rehearsal in Pretension !

From: Mark Barratt (mark.barratt_at_enternet.hu)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2004 15:36:41 +0200

Mike Henley wrote:

> How did such accent come about?!! Only a backwardly hierarchal society
> like the aristocracy-obsessed little old England would go to such
> lengths in enduring the preposterous, utterly preposterous, vowels and
> intonation invovled and making it the "proper" and "standard" British
> dialect.
>
> It's a big joke, seriously. If you take a pause and think about it,
> and compare it to, say, a Standard American dialect, it's unbelievably
> unnatural. Just imagine the following said in each (American speech
> and "proper" British speech)...
>
> - "Oh no, go home"
> - "Oh no, I won't go home"
> - "send her victorious, happy and glorious"
> - "figure"
>
> Just consider that three-phased A vowel in "Dad" when said with a
> "proper" British intonation. That's enough to make me throw up. *gag*.
> Unfortunately, living in the UK, I hear it on almost daily basis and
> think it's a child abuse issue to induce/force them into such speech.
>
> P.S. Don't say I'm biased because I'm American, not true at all;
> what's does my accent sound like? UK, non-regional. To some it sounds
> like "Americanized English" because I refuse adamantly avoid sounding
> "proper".

[cross-posted to sci.lang]
This post touches upon something which has bothered me for some time,
namely the definition of "RP" (that's "Received Pronunciation", in case
anyone doesn't know).

In the course of making a change in my profession recently (yes, I have
to hang my head and admit to having become an EFL teacher) I've read a
number of English linguistics/language works, and I find an
inconsistency in the usage of this term.

When I first encountered the description "RP", it was described as the
"prestige" accent spoken by the royal family and by others who would
generally be described as "posh", even in southern England. Whilst
speakers of northern English often refer to any southern accent as
"posh", there is a marked difference between this "aristocratic" accent
and what is perhaps better described as "Standard Southern English"
(SSE). The realization of the /&/ phoneme that Mike Henley complains
about is perhaps the most noticeable of these differences.

RP, in early descriptions, is often equated with "BBC English" and I
think that this was indeed what the BBC looked for in its announcers up
until about the 60s. If "BBC English" means anything today, however, I
would say that it means SSE, not RP.

What is confusing is that some writers appear to use the appellation
"RP" to refer to SSE.

Isn't it about time that we junked this confusing term?

Aside, there is an old joke which nicely illustrates the difference
between the pronunciation of /&/ in RP and other English English
accents. It runs: "That girl is so well brought up that she thinks that
sex is what the coal gets delivered in". 

-- 
Regards,
Mark Barratt

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