Sociophonology of Received Pronunciation. Native and Non-Native Environments

Author(s):  
Miroslav Ježek
English Today ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia Boh Peng ◽  
Adam Brown

A consideration of whether EE could conceivably be an alternative to RP as a teaching model.Since David Rosewarne first coined the term in 1984, much has been written about Estuary English (EE). The definition usually given of Estuary English is that if we can imagine a continuum with Received Pronunciation (RP) at one end and Cockney (an urban accent of London) at the other, then Estuary English is in the middle. This definition is restated by Wells (1998-9) as ‘Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England. This highlights two chief points: that it is standard (unlike Cockney) and that it is localized in the southeast (unlike RP)’. The book English Language for Beginners (Lowe & Graham 1998) contains on p. 156 a diagram giving the actress Joanna Lumley as an example of RP, the boxer Frank Bruno for Cockney, and the comedian and writer Ben Elton for EE. This is ironic, in that Ben Elton himself denies that he is a speaker of EE (John Wells, personal communication).


1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Hickey

The two phonemes which, in Standard English and the dialects of southern English, inasmuch as the latter deviate from the standard, have shown a tendency to be lost, /h/ and /r/1, at least in certain positions, have been fully retained in all varieties of Irish English. There is no /h/-dropping (Wells 1982:23ff.) in Irish English and /r/ is maintained in all positions where it is indicated by the orthography. The orthography offers a convenient yardstick here as the two innovative occurrences of /r/ in Received Pronunciation, linking /r/ and intrusive /r/ (Gimson 1980:208f.) are not recognized orthographically and are not found in Irish English either.


Author(s):  
Ambalegin Ambalegin ◽  
Tomi Arianto

This research aimed to find out the mispronunciation of English vowels and consonants of the seventh president of Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo in his official English speeches based on the standard of British English Received Pronunciation (RP) and the factors influencing his English vowels and consonants mispronunciation. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. In collecting data, the researchers used observation method with non-participatory technique (Sudaryanto, 2015). In analyzing the data, the researchers used articulatory identity method (Sudaryanto, 2015). It was found that the consonant sounds /θ/, /ð/, /v/, /z/, /ʃ/ were pronounced incorrectly, the vowel sounds/ə/, /ɒ/, /ɛ/, /i/, /e/, /ɪ/ were pronounced inconsistently, and the diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced incorrectly. The consonant sound /l/ in the middle of the word was not pronounced. The consonant sound /j/ in the middle of the word is omitted. The consonant sounds /g/, /tʃ/, and /r/ were pronounced the same as the spelling. The consonant sounds /t/, /s/, /k/ at the end of the words were omitted. The letter y sounded /ɪ/ at the end of the word was pronounced as /e/. The diphthong sounds /ɪə/, /eɪ/, /əʊ/ and /aʊ/ were pronounced as /ɪ/, /ʌ/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /e/, and /ͻ/. The factors influencing the mispronunciation of English vowel and consonant sounds were mother tongue interference, sound system differences between Indonesian and English, the influence of spelling on pronunciation, educational background, and environmental background.


Author(s):  
Lorna Richards

This acoustic analysis of Queen Elizabeth’s speech in her Christmas broadcasts from 1995 to 1999 investigates whether her dialect becomes less Upper-Crust Received Pronunciation, and more Standard Southern British (SSB), after the Princess of Wales died in 1997; whether there is a correlation with this change in speech style; and the need to increase the popularity of the British Monarchy which declined in the aftermath. A formant analysis of the Queen’s TRAP [æ], STRUT [ʌ] and the happy-tensing [ɪː] vowels was conducted in Praat. The results are discussed on their own but also contrasted with those reported in Harrington et al. (2000), and Harrington (2006). This study concludes that although the Queen’s speech underwent variation around the time of the Princess of Wales’s death, the variation had started in the months prior to the accident.


1986 ◽  
pp. 64-85
Author(s):  
Dennis Freeborn ◽  
Peter French ◽  
David Langford

Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 547-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Ranzato

Abstract The codification of propriety – talking with a ‘proper’ accent – is recorded in audiovisual texts so that cross-cultural interaction between social groups is not left to verbal dialogue alone but to more or less accurate visual cues and to paralinguistic as well as prosodic information. This chapter will examine scenes from various audiovisual texts, which feature characters speaking with a British received pronunciation – arguably, the ‘proper’ accent – in contrast to those who speak with a variety of British accents. The main purpose of these narratives is the portrayal of a sociolinguistic divide, either to provide a realistic account of problematic or potentially inflammatory culture clashes or as stereotypical means to elicit a humorous response. The problem of transferring information related to such a linguistic and social gap in audiovisual translation has long been recognised as one of the most difficult challenges translators have to deal with. The examples quoted in this article, all related to the dubbing mode of translation, will, however, illustrate how prosodic and suprasegmental features can travel cross-culturally and could be, and sometimes are, taken into account by translators and adapters to maintain the linguistic contrast observed in the originals.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Wells

1. Dialectologists in England have concentrated on the speech of small and relatively isolated rural communities (see, for example, Orton and Dieth, 1962: Introduction, 14). Other linguists and phoneticians concerned with the English of England have almost without exception described Standard English and the form of pronunciation they call, using an established but less than happy term, ‘Received Pronunciation’ (Jones, 1967:xvii). Yet the English of most English (and English-speaking Welsh) people is neither RP Standard English nor a rural dialect. The vast mass of urban working-class and lower-middle-class speakers use a pronunciation nearer to RP, and lexical and grammatical forms much nearer to Standard English, than the archaic rural dialects recorded by the dialectologists. Yet their speech diverges in many ways from what is described as standard. The purpose of this article, which must be regarded as preliminary and tentative, is to sketch the principal phonetic variables among such local, mainly urban, forms of English.1 It is the task of anyone concerned with the description of these ‘accents’ of English to investigate whatever phonetic variables can be identified and to establish their correlation with the non-linguistic variables of age, social standing and education, and geographical provenance. (For discussion of some of the problems of urban dialectology, see particularly Wright, 1966.)


English Today ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-21
Author(s):  
Paul Rastall

PAUL RASTALL looks into the decline of [j] in Received Pronunciation


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