Lecture , 8, Lecture Intonation in English Outline Intonation: definition, approaches, functions

British Standard English (RP)

There is a general perception that everyone in England speaks with a plummy English accent. This is not true. In England, there are a wide range of accents that have developed and lived on for a long period of time. Foreigners may have difficulty understanding all these different accents.
In England, the main accent groupings are between the south and the north. The dividing line is believed to start from Shrewsbury to Birmingham and to the Wash. The prestige or posh English accent is known as Received Pronunciation (RP) that is thought to have its roots in the educated language of south-eastern England. It’s more commonly known as the Southern English accent.
The accent spoken in the east end of London is called Cockney. The London accent is quite widespread in many parts in Southern England too. The West Country, particularly Bristol, has a very distinctive pronunciation. This also applies to other rural areas like parts of East Anglia. When you go up north you will find that the West Midlands, especially Birmingham, has a rather different accent of its own. The Birmingham accent is among the most difficult accents to understand according to many people from other parts of England.
Liverpool also has a unique accent of its own which is called the Scouse accent. Many believe that Liverpool has traces of the Irish accent. Other parts of the country that have distinctively different accents are Manchester (Mancunian), Leeds, Sheffield, and particularly Newcastle (Geordie).
It is more difficult to understand people if they live further away from London. Certain accents which are quite difficult to understand include the Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Scottish accents. Basically, the more northern, the more difficult it becomes.
This can be quite surprising, but the Queen’s English is not as commonly spoken as thought. When someone is heard speaking like this, there can frequently be uncalled prejudice against them as being too filthy rich, posh or basically snobbish.
Thus the form of English that in its grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and spelling system does not identify the speaker or the writer with a particular geographical area or social grouping. The accent associated with Standard English is known as 'received pronunciation' or RP
Received Pronunciation (RP) is an example of a non-regional accent of ;
British English, which has been described in detail by very many authors, amongst whom Jones (1962) and Gimson (1962, 1989) are outstanding. The pronouncing dictionary specifying the details of RP which has been ;
regarded for very many years as the most authoritative source is the one first published by Daniel Jones in 1917. This has been updated in many succes­sive editions. Gimson, as one of Jones' senior colleagues, and the holder of the Chair of Phonetics at University College London immediately after Jones, was responsible for the 13th and 14th editions (Gimson 1967, 1977). This 14th edition was in turn the basis for a further revision by Ramsaran (1988). Another excellent and up-to-date pronouncing dictionary which describes RP (as well as a number of other accents of English) is Wells (1990). Wells maintains a historical continuity with Daniel Jones, being Gimson's successor in the Chair of Phonetics at University College London.
The term 'Received', in its Victorian sense of being 'received in polite society', gives a historical clue to the origins of the RP accent. According to Abercrombie (1965), RP developed as an accent of the English public schools (i.e. private schools, in the paradoxical usage of the English), and 'is maintained, and transmitted from generation to generation, mainly by people educated at [these] public schools' (Abercrombie 1965: 12). Wells (1982, vol. I: 10) summarizes these characteristics of RP by stating that:
In England ... there are some speakers who do not have a local accent. One can tell from their speech that they are British (and very probably English) but nothing else ... It is characteristic of the upper class and (to an extent) of the upper-middle class. An Old Etonian sounds much the same whether he grew up in Cornwall or Northumberland.
Although the function of this accent as a marker of socioeconomic status is now a good deal weaker than previously.

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