Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie

Accent - Received Pronunciation

RP (received pronunciation) is the very posh sounding accent that is spoken by the Queen. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as being a 'standard accent' of Southern England.

Phonological features of RP

The phonological features of RP are defined by:
- Use of the trap/bath split – the long a (/a:/) in words like ‘bath’.
- H-retention – /h/ is always pronounced in initial positioning in words like ‘house’.
- Non-rhoticity – Not pronouncing the /r/ at the end of words like ‘mother’.
- Conservative vowels – sounds like they ‘ought to’.
- Yod-coalescence – includes the /j/ (pronouned ‘y’) sound in words like ‘rain’, ‘Spain’ and ‘Tuesday’.

Shibboleths

We call these features shibboleths which means they are a feature of a group.
In this case, they are features of the RP accent.

Ways of looking at RP

RP is prescriptivist (prescriptivism is all about there being right and wrong uses of English. Prescriptivists believe we should promote the right uses and shun the wrong uses) – it is associated with Standard English (SE).
RP carries overt prestige (a very open form of status) – it has high status due to association with ‘The Establishment’ and is labelled ‘The Queen’s English’.

Ways of looking at RP (cont.)

RP is an artificial construct – it doesn’t offer any clues about background (and so is regionless).
RP is outdated – only about 2% of the population use it.
RP is universally recognised – it is the most widely recognised ‘English’ by foreigners.

Accent - Theories About Received Pronunciation

RP (received pronunciation) is the very posh sounding accent that is spoken by the Queen. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as being a 'standard accent' of Southern England.

Giles

In Giles' Capital Punishment experiment, five groups of students were given the same script (four oral and one written).
All were spoken in a different accent: RP, Somerset, Welsh and Brummie.
- RP was rated highly in competency and reliability, but was rated low in persuasiveness and was seen as 'posh and snobby'.

AC Gimson

AC Gimson argued in 1962 that there were times that RP could be a decided disadvantage, especially in social situations where empathy and affection are needed.
This is backed up by Linda Mugglestone who believes that RP’s prestige is on the wane.

Jonathan Harrington

Jonathan Harrington has investigated the Queen’s accent over 50 years of her Christmas speeches and believes that her accent has started to move towards a general Southern English accent.
This has been done via her interactions with people who don’t speak RP and a gradual reduction in her accent.

Case study: George Osbourne

Whilst in his role as Chancellor, Osbourne was seen to drop his RP accent and use an accent closer to Estuary English (see section on Estuary) when speaking to workers.
He used things like ‘kinda’ and ‘Briddish’ instead of ‘kind of’ and ‘British’.
He was seen to be using his RP again in Parliament.

Giles and Powesland

Giles and Powesland had a speaker who delivered a talk about psychology to two sets of students.
- One set had the talk performed with an RP accent and the other had the talk performed with a Brummie accent.
The group voted the RP speaker as higher saying that the Brummie was less intelligent.

Accent - Brummies

Brummies don’t have the most flattering qualities attributed to them. In a question about accent discrimination, Brummie is a perfect go-to example. Here are a few more studies you can use:

The University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen conducted a study of jokes, and they found that Brummie was often the funniest and RP was the unfunniest.

Worcester College

Worcester College played participants clips from a police interview.
Brummie suspects were significantly more likely to labelled as guilty. Participants labelled the Brummie accent as more likely to be poor and working class.

Peter Trudgill

Peter Trudgill has investigated variations in relationship to show variations of in class and regional forms. The triangle shows that as social class decreases, regional variation increases.

1Language Levels

1.1Assessment Objectives

1.1.1Assessment Objectives

1.2Lexis

1.2.1Introduction

1.2.2Common, Proper, Abstract & Concrete Nouns

1.2.3Collective Nouns

1.2.4Adjectives

1.2.5Main, Auxiliary & Copular Verbs

1.2.6Dynamic & Stative Verbs

1.2.7Transitive, Intransitive, Active & Passive Verbs

1.2.8Mood of Verbs

1.2.9Adverbs

1.2.10Personal, Possessive & Reflexive Pronouns

1.2.11Relative & Demonstrative Pronouns

1.2.12Determiners

1.2.13Conjunctions

1.2.14Synonyms, Antonyms & Phonological Features

1.2.15End of Topic Test - Lexis

1.3Grammar

1.3.1Morphology

1.3.2Clauses

1.3.3Phrases

1.3.4Present Tense

1.3.5Past Tense

1.3.6Future Tense

1.3.7End of Topic Test - Grammar

1.4Semantics & Pragmatics

1.4.1Semantics

1.4.2Pragmatics

1.5Discourse Structure, Graphology & Orthography

1.5.1Discourse Structure

1.5.2Graphology & Orthography

1.5.3End of Topic Test - Semantics, Graphology etc.

2Language, The Individual & Society

2.1Children’s Language Development

2.1.1The Exam

2.1.2Phonemes, Vocal Tract & Articulation

2.1.3Writing About Phonemes

2.1.4Phonological Simplification

2.1.5A Child's First Year & Consonant Acquisition

2.1.6Beginning Stages of Language

2.1.7Lexical Development

2.1.8Stages of Development

2.1.9End of Topic Test - Child Language Development

2.2Children's Language Development - Theories

2.2.1Behaviourism

2.2.2Interactionism

2.2.3Challenging Interactionism

2.2.4Nativism

2.2.5Nativism - Exam Answer

2.2.6Cognitivism

2.2.7Social Constructionism

2.2.8Writing About Spoken Acquisition

2.2.9End of Topic Test - Development Theories

2.3Literacy Development: Reading

2.3.1Introduction

2.3.2Phonics vs Whole Word

2.3.3Debates in Reading

2.3.4Modelling Reading Acquisition

2.3.5Other Reading Theories

2.3.6End of Topic Test - Reading

2.4Literacy Development: Writing

2.4.1Orthography

2.4.2Kroll's Theory

2.4.3Barclay's Theory

2.4.4Creativity vs Accuracy

2.4.5Other Writing Theories

2.4.6The Exam

2.4.7End of Topic Test - Writing

3Language Diversity & Change

3.1The Importance of Gendered Language

3.1.1Writing About Gender

3.1.2Dominance Theory

3.1.3Interruptions - Zimmerman & West

3.1.4Deficit Theory

3.1.5Difference Model

3.1.6Difference Model - Men

3.1.7Diversity Model

3.1.8End of Topic Test - Gendered Language

3.2Social Groups

3.2.1Writing About Social Groups

3.2.2Social Class

3.2.3Social Class 2

3.2.4Age

3.2.5Age - Teen Speak

3.2.6Milroy’s Belfast Study

3.2.7Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard Study

3.2.8End of Topic Test - Social Groups

3.3Occupational Groups

3.3.1Writing About Occupational Groups

3.3.2Jargon

3.3.3Conversations

3.3.4Hierarchy & Power

3.3.5End of Topic Test - Occupational Groups

3.4Accents & Dialects

3.4.1Writing About Accent & Dialect

3.4.2Introduction to Accents & Dialects

3.4.3Accents - Matched Guide Experiment

3.4.4Accents - Received Pronunciation & Brummie

3.4.5Dialects - Dialectal Variations

3.4.6Accent & Dialect Case Study - London

3.4.7End of Topic Test - Accents & Dialects

3.5Language Change

3.5.1Writing About Language Change

3.5.2Modelling Change

3.5.3Modelling Change 2

3.5.4Lexical Change

3.5.5Semantic Change

3.5.6End of Topic Test - Language Change

3.6History of English

3.6.1Old English

3.6.2Old English 2

3.6.3Middle English

3.6.4Middle English 2

3.6.5Early Modern English

3.6.6Late Modern English

3.6.7Present Day English

3.6.8Global English

3.6.9American English

3.6.10Modelling Global English

3.6.11End of Topic Test - History of English

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