Definitions of Received Pronunciation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation
Wikipedia defines the RP as a form of pronunciation of the English Language. It states that it is an accent, not a dialect, and through many contents, discuss its usage, how it has changed over time, the change of its status and very didactic charts of its vowels, consonants, diphthongs and triphthongs. The website also presents some characteristics, historical variation, some references and external links about the subject.

http://www.yaelf.com/rp.shtml
This website has an overview of the subject, in which it defines the RP as the prestigious accent of the well-educated people of the UK. It presents definitions by dictionaries, the etymology of the term “Received Pronunciation”, commentaries on the evolution and the speakers of the accent, on the difference between "BBC English", "The Queen's English", and "Public School English", on the distinguishing features of RP, and other useful information.

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/RPEnglish.html
This simpler website presents a brief background of RP, also discussing the origins of the term “Received Pronunciation”, the geography of RP, in which it is said that it is not an accent of one specific region of Great Britain, explains the sociolinguistics issues of RP English, and has some examples of the Intrusive R of the accent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A852798
BBC’s websites presents an explanation about the origins of the RP, in which it claims that the Public Schools Systems of the 19th Century and the Ancient Universities (Oxford and Cambridge) are the ones who established it as standard. This text also explains the difference between “ultra-RP” and “marked-RP”; states the changes of the accent and describes who, nowadays, uses the RP English.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/
The British Library defines the Received Pronunciation as a “social accent of English”. This site states that the RP is the most studied accent of English, but only 2% of the population speaks it. There is also an explanation of the name “Received Pronunciation”, an explanation of why it is the accent chosen by BBC, the difference between “Conservative RP”, “Mainstream RP” and “Contemporary RP” and a description of how is the RP today.

http://www.litnotes.co.uk/rphist.htm
This website defines RP as the accent associated with respectable social standing and a good education, presents some features of the accent and claims that it is the one used when teaching English to foreigners. The text also features the evolution of the RP, from before the 16th century until the 20th century, when broadcasting begun. It points the American influence as factor of dilution of the RP and relates that despite that, it still has status and survives in the 21st century.

Pronunciation

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/chapter3/bbcenglish.html
This is a very good link to students and teachers of English as a second language because we can listen to BBC English vowels being pronounced.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/vowel-sounds-rp/
The site follows John Well's criteria of dividing possible spelling for words in each group. You just click on the sound and can listen to a native speaker using it. Also, there are the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Since vowels are much more used than consonants when comparing regional accents, the site is very helpful because almost all comparisons are based on the RP (BBC English).

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/consonants/
From the same author of the link above, this one explores the consonants of the RP. It also has aditional sounds that are from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/connected-speech/
Another link from the British Library. This one explain the process of Connected Speach Processes in RP. Firtsly, it explains what is the process of connected speech. Then, there is a chart explaining each sound of the process, with an audio as example.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/pronguide.htm
This website provides charts with the principal sites of British pronunciation, both the International Phonetic Alphabet and texts to exemplify the sounds. There are the long vowels, short vowels, consonants, diphthongs and triphthongs.

Articles About the RP

Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation?
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/rphappened.htm
Article written by John Wells, professor of the University College London, claiming that even BBC is now thinking of abandoning the old Received Pronunciation, because nowadays it sounds old fashioned. It presents three ways of defining the RP: the sociolinguistic criteria, the ideal criteria and the third criteria is related to the teaching of EFL. It shows 15 ways in which the RP has changed over the years and 7 words that now have new shapes.

Differences in pronunciation between American English and Received Pronunciation
http://www.uta.fi/~sanni.siurua/ame1.html
This is a paper written by a student of the University of Tampere, in which it is compared the RP English with Standard American English (AE). Firstly, it states that while RP is an accent, the AE is a norm of English. It includes differences in word stress and in articulation of single phonemes within words, with many examples to illustrate the differences.

RIP RP
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1081717.stm
This is an article from BBC News that talks about the end of RP. It claims that the Queen’s pronunciation is not the same because she is being coherent with her times, becoming more informal, or even lazier. It explains that the sounds of RP are like exercises to the muscles of the tongue and mouth and that the use of it may cause some pain to those muscles. It also says that usually the RP vowels are the ones taught to the foreigners learners of English even though they are not aware that it sounds “posh”.

Examples of RP

The following are videos which explicit the RP Pronunciation. It is interesting to notice the differences between the older ones and the most recent ones, because as any variation of a language, the RP also changes through time.


This is an educative video from the fifities, about the London Bus Service.


Another video from the fifities, this one seems to be a news broadcast.


An extrat from BBC News about the poor grammar of young English people.


Video with examples of voiceover services of a British lady.


An extract from the movie "My Fair Lady", in which Audrey Hepburn's character tries to speak with RP.