"Dave Swindell" <dswindell.ger
...@tcp.co.uk> wrote in message
...
> In article <aak3od$43
...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk>, Phil C.
> <nob
...@nowhere.co.uk> writes
> >"Richard Ashton" <'{
...@semolina.org> wrote in message
> >
news:ttjqcug069cdd4b4m5bkustr7q3l3esvci@4ax.com...
> >> On 29 Apr 2002 02:50:06 -0700, cobo
...@hotmail.com (SuperSlonik)
> >wrote:
> >> }I have an easy question - who "invented" Received Pronunciation
and
> >when?
> <SNIP>
> >RP was never formally created or enforced (unlike France or Italy).
It
> >grew out of the middle class version of the London/South Eastern
> >dialect, no doubt aided by the increasing social mobility of the
C19th
> >which led people to be concerned about talking and writing
"correctly".
> Could we clarify what we mean by RP?
> In my perception the most visible speaker of RP is the art critic and
> personality Brian Sewel. It would be impossible to attempt to give an
> accurate text rendering of those wonderfully strangled tones, but
> imagine somebody talking way down in the back of their throat, without
> moving their upper lip, and with marbles in their mouth.
> I have only met three people who use this accent/dialect, in nearly 60
> years of mixing in wide social circles. Elsewhere it was suggested
that
> only 2% of the population use this dialect. The modern "eminently
> acceptable" English, perhaps the best description of "accentless" BBC
> against "estuary" English, is far more widely heard. Is that what
*you*
> mean by RP?
My linguistics dictionary gives "Pronunciation of standard British
English based on the speech of educated speakers of southern British
English.... the type of pronunciation often recommended as a model for
foreign learners."
MW gives - "Received Standard, the dialect of British English spoken by
the upper classes, esp. by graduates of the public schools and of Oxford
and Cambridge."
Collins gives "Received Pronunciation, the accent of standard Southern
British English"
I'm using the top definition but there are more questions than answers.
"Educated" would once have been seen as "privately educated". RP and
Public School pronunciation would once have been seen as identical.
Graduates of Oxbridge would once nearly all have been from public
schools. A public school accent, however strangled and artificial, would
once have been deemed correct by definition. But no longer. The old
public school accent could not be called RP these days if the term is to
have any meaning - it is certainly not the standard for teaching English
to foreign learners. MW gives "re-ceived (re sevd) adj. accepted;
considered as standard". I have a strong impression that it is no longer
encouraged in public schools, though others may know more. It may indeed
be better to use a more neutral term with a more clearly agreed,
flexible definition.
I'd be surprised if the dulcet tones of Brian Sewell are considered
anything but bizarre - a British version of Loyd Grossman. I have come
across a number of similar extreme accents but they were rarified -
music students at prestigious locations - and gave a strong impression
of being unsocialised or eccentric.
--
Phil C.
_______________________________
philandwoody"at"meem"dot"freeserve"dot"co"dot"uk
