Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation (RP) is discussed here as a sociolinguistic phenomenon, as an accent construct that has been enregistered over time within the United Kingdom, based on observations of speech by successive generations of speakers from an elite or establishment background. Social conditions which historically brought this about and which have recently evolved and moved RP away from the centre of sociolinguistic prestige are discussed. The entry gives an overview of recent phonetic analyses of RP speech and transcription systems used in foreign language teaching, and the much-debated issue of naming the accent is reviewed.