Tendencies of the contemporary Received pronunciation

The pronunciation model we traditionally adopt for learners of English as a foreign language is called Received Pronunciation. RP is considered geographically non-regional and socially upper-class but these qualities modern demographic and social changes in Britain have made no longer desirable.

How to define RP?

Sociolinguistic criterion - If RP is associated with the upper end of the social scale, we can observe what kind of pronunciation the upper class actually use. The royal family, aristocracy and upper-middle class furnish the most easily observed samples of speech often available on television but the actual proportion of the population regarded as upper-class is extremely small. In former times the label educated people might have been used to identify RP-speakers but demographic changes show that it is no longer the case that all educated people speak RP as traditionally described. Nowadays 70% of teenagers go to university, whereas it was only 7% fifty  years ago. Naturally, those 70% come from various social and regional backgrounds and do not adopt RP anymore. Therefore, this criterion can no longer be applied.

Ideal criterion - We ask what pronunciation is correct, admired and imitated? The selected accent should be widely accepted or widely understood. However, there is no way of determining what pronunciation is correct other than by asking what people regard as correct but judgements of beauty are subjective. It would be difficult to demonstrate that RP is truly more understood in modern Britain than educated Scottish, Irish, London-flavoured or others.

EFL teaching criterion - What form of pronunciation do we teach our learners? What model do we set before them for imitation? Of course, we should expose learners to variety of accents but on the other hand it would be weird to imitate specific regional accents when we are not from there. A great achievement of Daniel Jones was his codification of RP for teaching purposes. However, Jones was born in 1881 so Jonesian RP is unquestionably obsolete. If we are to continue to prescribe RP as the model for EFL, we clearly have to reflect the changes.

Three points on which there are different views according to which criterion we adopt:

Smoothing (vyhlazení) - a process where a diphthong may lose its second element when followed by another vowel. For example fire /ˈfaɪə/ may be smoothed to [faə]. science /ˈsaɪəns/ -> [saəns], power /paʊə/ as [paə], Howard /ˈhaʊəd/ -> [haəd]. Sociolinguistically this is clearly part of RP, since it is frequently observed in the speech of native speakers located towards the upper end of the social scale. From the ideal point of view, on the other hand, it is not part of RP: one cannot imagine a teacher correcting a child who failed to apply smoothing in his pronunciation. For EFL, it is in our view something that the learner should be aware of so that he knows that [saəns] is to be interpreted as science; but it is not something that needs to be imitated.

R intrusion - ordinary linking /r/ is the final consonant sound that comes and goes, appearing when a word is followed by a vowel sound in the next word. For example better /ˈbetə/, but better off /ˈbetər ˈɒf/. Speakers of all social classes add an /r/-sound even where there is no letter r in the spelling to make pronouncing easier, as for example comma /ˈkɒmə/, but put a comma in /ˈpʊt ə ˈkɒmər ɪn/. Just as fear /fɪə/ gives fear of /ˈfɪər əv/. Objectively intrusive /r/ is part of RP. Subjectively, the speech-conscious often disapprove of pronouncing a letter that isn't there so they would exclude it from ideal model. For EFL the learner should be aware of it receptively, but can ignore it in production.

Words spelt WH - In words spelt with WH all English people normally pronounce plain /w/, as why /waɪ/, when /wen/, which /wɪtʃ/, somewhere /ˈsʌmweə/. The words whine and wine are homophones. However, a few speech-conscious people make the effort to pronounce /hw/ in these words, thus /hwaɪ, hwen, hwɪtʃ, ˈsʌmhweə/, and to make a distinction between /hwaɪn/ and /waɪn/. (In Scotland, Ireland, and much of the United States matters are different as their native local accent retains /hw/.) Sociolinguistically, /hw/ is uncommon. Ideally, it should perhaps be regarded as part of RP but for EFL Jones rightly judged that it was an unnecessary complication.

Let us turn now to the time dimension and consider the changes that have affected RP. We can group them in three chronological categories: those of the early twentieth century, the mid-century and those of the late twentieth century.

Changes in the early twentieth century

Transfer of the CLOTH set - In Jones's time and until WW2, words belonging to the standard lexical set CLOTH were usually pronounced with the vowel /ɔː/ as in thought but nowadays they are pronounced with /ɒ/ as in lot. Examples include cough, soft, cross, lost — words in which the vowel is followed by a voiceless fricative.

Merger of /ɔə/ and /ɔː/ - There used to be a distinction in pronunciation in pairs such as floor /flɔə/ vs flaw /flɔː/ but now the distinction is obsolete. In contemporary RP floor and flaw are homophones, as are four and for, cores and cause, shore and Shaw.

Change in the quality of the GOAT vowel - Professor Gimson's decision (1962) to change the transcription of this diphthong from /oʊ/ to /əʊ/ reflected the change in pronunciation. In over the road /ˈəʊvə ðə ˈrəʊd/, I don’t know /aɪ ˈdəʊnt ˈnəʊ/ we now use a diphthong with a mid-central, usually unrounded starting point. A century ago the starting point was back and rounded. A side effect of this change is that the corresponding weakened vowel, written by Jones as [o], thus November /noˈvembə/, has now become an ordinary /ə/, thus /nəˈvembə/. If we keep the first vowel strong in profound we have /prəʊˈfaʊnd/ but more usual is weakened /prəˈfaʊnd/.

Opening of /æ/ - Listening to old recordings we are often struck by the quality of the vowel /æ/ previously to be heard, as in that bad man /ˈðæt ˈbæd ˈmæn/. It was not only considerably less open than is now customary but was tenser. Currently this vowel is more relaxed and may be quite similar to cardinal [a].

Loss of tapped /r/ - the loss of the alveolar tap [ɾ] as a usual realization of /r/ between vowels in very sorry, better off. It has been replaced by the ordinary approximant [ɹ].

Changes in the mid twentieth century

Decline and disappearance of /ʊə/ - words formerly containing the diphthong /ʊə/ have come increasingly to be pronounced with /ɔː/ instead. Thus your is no longer /jʊə/ but /jɔː/. Poor, sure, moor, cure, tourist are often /pɔː, ʃɔː, mɔː, kjɔː, ˈtɔːrɪst/. Our survey figures for poor showed that when we look at different age-groups separately /pɔː/ was preferred by only 27% of the oldest respondents as against a massive 81% of the youngest. Words such as jury, rural seem generally to be resistant to this change, and do not rhyme with story, choral. Rather, they seem now to be pronounced with a monophthong of the [ʊː], perhaps to be interpreted as a variant of /uː/.

Drift from weak /ɪ/ to /ə/ - In various categories of weak syllables /ə/ is increasingly used where /ɪ/ formerly was. Thus possible is now usually /ˈpɒsəbl/ rather than previously, /ˈpɒsɪbl/. For private and carelessness the older generation said /ˈpraɪvɪt, ˈkeəlɪsnɪs/, but now we say /ˈpraɪvət, ˈkeələsnəs/. While both variants are still to be heard in these endings -ible, -ate, -less, -ness, -ity, -ily, the balance of preference has swung from /ɪ/ to /ə/. Where weak /ɪ/ was word-final, as in visibility, once /ˌvɪzɪˈbɪlɪtɪ/, now /ˌvɪzəˈbɪləti/, a different change is taking place.

Plosive epenthesis - Between a nasal and a voiceless fricative, in words such as fence /fens/, answer /ˈɑːnsə/, speakers increasingly now insert a plosive, thus /fents, ˈɑːntsə/. This development appears to have a physiological origin in a slight adjustment in the relative timing of the movements of the soft palate and the tongue tip. The result is that pairs such as mince and mints have become homophonous, /mɪnts/. Other examples, emphasis /ˈempfəsɪs/, instance /ˈɪntstənts/ and conscience /ˈkɒntʃənts/.

Yod coalescence - English has long had a tendency to convert /tj/ into /tʃ/, /dj/ into /dʒ/. We see this in the history of words such as nature, where the earlier /t/ plus /j/ has long ago been replaced by an affricate /ˈneɪtʃə/. During the twentieth century this process continued. Jones pronounced actual as /ˈæktjuəl/, now obsolete as we say /ˈæktʃuəl, ˈæktʃl/. Words perpetual and to graduate have formal extremely careful forms /pəˈpetjuəl, ˈgrædjueɪt/ but everyday forms are /pəˈpetʃuəl, ˈgrædʒueɪt/. These are all words in which the new affricate is followed by a weak vowel.

T glottalling - In various environments the consonant /t/ tends to be pronounced as a glottal plosive, [ʔ], rather than as the traditional alveolar [t]. This is by now normal before a following obstruent consonant in words such as in football [ˈfʊʔbɔːl], quite good [ˌkwaɪʔ ˈgʊd]. It is also frequent before a sonorant consonant as in witness [ˈwɪʔnəs], atlas [ˈæʔləs], network [ˈneʔwɜːk], quite wrong [ˌkwaɪʔ ˈrɒŋ]. London's airport, Gatwick, has a careful variant [ˈgætwɪk] and a casual variant [ˈgæʔwɪk].

Changes in the late twentieth century

The development in the last two decades are associated also with the rise of Estuary English, a term coined by Rosewarne (1984), after the Thames estuary, and implying influence of the south-eastern part of England centred on London. Estuary English is supposed to comprise traditional RP and Cockney (London working-class speech). It is best seen as a variety of Standard English spoken with a regional accent just as Standard English may be expressed in a Scottish or Irish accent but since London is the main source of new fashions, many of the characteristics of Estuary English are beinggradually incorporated into RP. Estuary English is well described in the popular book Do you speak Estuary? The New Standard English by Paul Coggle.

Tensing of final and prevocalic /ɪ/ - The final vowel in words such happy, coffee, valley was traditionally identified with the /ɪ/ but many speakers nowadays identify it with the /iː/. In many recent works the phonetic symbol /i/ is used, thus /ˈhæpi, ˈkɒfi, ˈvæli/ which reflects the fact that there is no actual opposition between /ɪ/ and /iː/ since happy does not become a different word by switching from one vowel to the other) but what happened is a change in the preferred phonetic quality of the weak vowel. If phonological theory recognizes a distinction between a strong vowel system (used typically in stressed syllables) and a weak vowel system (used in unstressed syllables), then we can place /i/ in the weak system. It is used not only word-finally, but also before a vowel as in happier /ˈhæpiə/, various /ˈveəriəs/, radiate /ˈreɪdieɪt/.

Rise of the diphthong [ɒʊ] - Increasingly in RP words such as fold, goal are said with a back rounded diphthong with a starting point comparable to the [ɒ] of lot. This diphthong is found only before dark /l/, [ɫ] or the vowel that develops from it. Speakers who do this are often quite conscious of the difference between their [ɒʊ] and ordinary [əʊ]. Through a process of morphological regularization, they may extend this to words where /l/ is morpheme-final but followed by a vowel, such as wholly /ˈhɒʊli/ vs holy /ˈhəʊli/.

Change in the quality of /uː, ʊ/ - Traditionally classified as back and rounded, these vowels are not only losing their lip-rounding but also ceasing to be very back. Thus spoon, conservatively [spuːn], may now range to a loosely rounded [spʊʉn] or even [spɪɨn], while good /gʊd/ is often pronounced with a schwa-like quality.

T glottalling - environments for the glottal stop replacing [t] now extend to word-final position even when the next word does not begin with a vowel, as in quite easy [ˌkwaɪʔ ˈiːzi], take it off [ˌteɪk ɪʔ ˈɒf], not only [ˌnɒʔ ˈəʊnli], or absolute-final right. [raɪʔ]. Intervocalically within a word as in city, water, glottal stops are still regarded as Cockney [ˈsɪʔi, ˈwɔːʔə] and do not belong to EE nor RP.

L vocalization - RP is traditionally described as having two main allophones of /l/, clear [l] used before a vowel and dark [ɫ] used elsewhere. It is the dark allophone that is now undergoing a process of vocalization (becoming a vowel): ɫ → o. Thus in a word such as milk, traditionally [mɪɫk], the tongue tip may nowadays make no contact at all with the alveolar ridge: instead we have a new kind of diphthong [mɪok]. Similarly, shelf becomes [ʃeof], tables [ˈteɪboz], apple [ˈæpo]. The position where this development is most favoured is labial but no longer restricted only to this position. When it applies to cases such as middle, little, a natural consequence is that the lateral release found in conservative speech [ˈmɪdɫ, ˈlɪtɫ) is replaced by an ordinary median release [ˈmɪdo, ˈlɪto].

Yod coalescence - continues to widen its scope, extending now to stressed syllables. This makes Tuesday, conservatively /ˈtjuːz-/, begin /ˈtʃuːz-/, identical with choose /tʃuːz/. Tune and duke become /tʃuːn, dʒuːk/ and reduce has a second syllable identical with juice. EE accepts it, RP does not.

Uptalk/upspeak - one further development that deserves mention is the use of a rising nuclear tone on a statement where a fall might be expected. This presumably unintended effect may be one of reluctance to commit oneself or of shyness. This use of the rise may have started in Australia or California but is spreading to Britain.