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English After RP (17th September) - Coggle Diagram
English After RP
(17th September)
Received Pronunciation
Speakers
Modelled on speech patterns of the London-area upper class
Included fashions that had only recently arisen in the South
after
Broad
a
No final
r
Adopted pronunciation of the upper class throughout Britain
A majority of Britons never spoke RP
Origins
An early 19th-century phenomenon
A byproduct of social stratification during Britain's imperial era
Described by Alexander Ellis in 1869
America
Adopted the pronunciation of the majority as a standard
A similar phenomenon was never observed
Decline
Fading of Victorian notions of social hierarchy
Rise of pop culture and celebration of diversity
Standard Southern British (SSB)
Has a lot in common with RP but without its baggage
Sometimes called General British
Predominantly middle class accents of London and the South
Reference
Affricate
Perfective
Have
Broadening
Lax vowel
Ejectives
Language use
planetary empire
London court
demonstrate the contrary
public life
Closer towards the spelling
Many words have pronunciations that are closer to the spelling than did RP
Some words have however shifted in the opposite direction
Some parts of compound words have pronunciations closer to their individual components
Influence of American English
Many contemporary features of British pronunciation leans towards American pronunciation
Weak vowel merger
Yod coalescence in unstressed syllables
Strengthening of some endings
Leftward stress shifts
Voicing of the fricative in
-rsion
Uptalk
Vocal fry
Chief non-American characteristics are retained
Distinct LOT vowel
Relatively little /t/-voicing
Non-rhoticity
Fall-Rise tone
TH-fronting
Non-phonetic influences
Words
Awesome
Cool
Movie
Idioms
Get your act together
It’s not rocket science
Do the math
Dumbing down
Usage
Multiple
in place of
numerous
or
many
So
in place of
well
at the beginnings of answers
Grammar
Plain past tense instead of past perfect
Strengthenings
Some of the more recent pronunciation changes are strengthenings
Pronunciation of individual words
Tense vowels where lax vowels used to be
Pronunciation of syllabic consonants more fully
Stronger aspiration in general
Final aspirants are now ejectives
Stress shift in sequences of weak syllables
Glottal stops before initial vowels
Use of high pitch
Fall-Rise on yes-no questions
High rise on statements