Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation.

Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Topic 2: The English Language and Variation

Unit 5. The speech to study: The features of Received
Pronunciation (RP)

Lecture 5

The aims of Unit 5 are:

To understand and be able to explain in English the main features of

Received Pronunciation (RP) or BBC English

To introduce students to the basics of phonemic transcription

To introduce students to basic vowel sounds.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

The speech to study: The features of Received

Pronunciation (RP)

1. The speech to study

Ideally, we would like to study speech which is natural and as close to

real life as possible, but it is often very difficult to collect carefully
controlled material for scientific analysis in an everyday context. In
most of our daily life, for example, we are surrounded by a lot of
extraneous noise which can make recording difficult to study
accurately, so it is often felt preferable to record speakers in a studio
(usually within a speech laboratory). However, one of the common
complaints about laboratory studies of speech is that speech recorded
in this way does not sound natural. The use of what is often referred
to as lab speech has a number of disadvantages. Often, speakers
have to read what they say (from a written text or from a computer
screen), instead of speaking spontaneously. In a long recording,
fatigue is another problem―while some people can happily talk to
their friends for hours, recording prepared material in a recording
studio becomes very boring and tiring after 20 or 30 minutes.
Another problem is that speakers tend to be selected from the people
who can be found near the laboratory, and are thus usually students
or staff of a university; it is astonishing that experiments using such
people are almost always described as using normal speakers: in

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

relation to the population as a whole, people who teach or study in

universities and who volunteer to be recorded are not `normal´.
Finally, everyone who knows that there is a microphone near them
that is picking up what they say tends to speak more carefully than
they would if they were speaking spontaneously. The well-known
observer’s paradox is based on the fact that we want to know how
people speak when we are not there, but we (or a recorder) have to
be there in order to observe what is said. This has led some
researchers recording people secretly when they are talking naturally,
thinking that they are speaking in private. This seems to be unethical
to many phoneticians. So the question is: How can natural speech be
recorded for us to study? One possibility is to develop interviewing
skills, as the sociolinguist William Labov has done, to the point where
after some time speakers become relaxed and absorbed in what they
are saying and forget about the presence of the microphone. Another
widely used way of eliciting fairly natural speech in studio conditions
is to give two or more speakers a task to complete using only speech.
A typical example is the maps task, where two people are given maps
of the same area, but with information missing. The speakers cannot
see each other’s map, so they can only discover how to plan a
journey by discovering through verbal interaction the information that
is missing.
The most important point about this discussion is that we
should never ignore the variation that we find in different speaking
styles, and should always plan carefully in deciding how to record
data that is going to be used for the scientific study of speech.

2. The features of Received Pronunciation (RP)

The accent described here is the present-day version of the accent
that has been used as the standard in phoneticians’ description of the
pronunciation of British English for centuries. The definition of this
accent is a matter of heated debate and frequent controversy: The

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

arguments will not be rehearsed here, but the interested reader is

recommended to look at Jones (1917 and subsequent) and Wells
(2000). The most important aspects of this accent should, however,
be made clear:

a. The number of native speakers of this accent who originate in

Ireland, Scotland and Wales is very small and probably diminishing,
and it is, therefore, a misnomer to call it an accent of British English.
It is an accent spoken by some English people.

b. The great majority of native speakers of this accent are of middle-

class or upper-class origin, educated at private schools and (if of
appropriate age) university. This does not mean that the accent
cannot be acquired by others. For example, linguist Peter Roach, who
attended a state school in the Midlands, originally spoke with an
accent with noticeable regional features, but has over many years of
teaching the phonetics of English acquired an accent not far from RP.
c. The majority of speakers of this accent live in, or originate from,
the south-east of England.
d. The accent is most familiar as that used by most ‘official’ BBC
speakers of English origin (newsreaders and announcers on Radio 4
and Radio 3, and most television channels).It is also frequently heard
on the BBC World Service, though that service appears to have
adopted the policy of sometimes using newsreaders and announcers
with noticeable foreign accents. It is clear that this accent will
eventually lose its pre-eminent status in broadcasting as a result of
the wish to broaden the social base of broadcast speech, but it will
take a long time for this to happen.
The accent has been known for nearly a century as Received
Pronunciation, or by its abbreviation, RP. Early in the 20th century,
Daniel Jones, the great exponent of the description of English
pronunciation, named it Public School Pronunciation (Jones 1917),

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

but later changed the name to Received Pronunciation. Other names

have been proposed, such as General British (GB) and Educated
Southern British English. Many linguists have shown a clear
preference for the name BBC pronunciation or BBC accent (Jones, ed.
by Roach et al. 2003).

3. The status of the standard accent

The emergence of influential non-standard varieties raises important
issues concerning the ongoing status of the standard as a reference
point for speakers, the social and geographical networks which
facilitate influence and contact between varieties, and the nature of
the contact which is required for influence to take place. What is
certainly clear is that we can no longer assume that speakers of non-
standard varieties automatically orient themselves towards the
standard: variation and ongoing change may potentially be influenced
by a range of external varieties. Given the changing status of RP, we
might perhaps reassess the continuing role of RP as an educational
norm, particularly with regard to the teaching of English as a foreign
language.
The standard variety furthermore plays a prominent role in
most descriptive dialectological work. However, this too is not without
its drawbacks. When describing a regional accent or non-standard
dialect, it is usual to refer to the standard form, at least implicitly, to
enable readers unfamiliar with the variety being described to
understand its features.

References

Foulkes, P. & Docherty, G. (1999). Urban Voices. London: Edward Arnold,

pp. 11-12.
Gimson, A. C. (1962). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English.
London: Arnold. [6th edn. In 2001, edited by A. Cruttenden.]
Jones, D. (1917). English Pronouncing Dictionary. London: Dent. [14th edn.
in 1977, edited by A. C. Gimson; 16th edn. in 2003, edited by P.
Roach, J. Hartman & J. Setter (Cambridge University Press).]
Ladefoged, P. (2001). A Course in Phonetics. New York: Harcourt.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Pike, K. L. (1943). Phonetics. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Roach, P. (2004). “British English: Received Pronunciation”. Journal of the
International Phonetic Association: Illustrations of the IPA, 34/2:
239-245. United Kingdom
Roach, P. (2001). Phonetics. Series Editor H. G. Widdowson. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 63-67.
Upton, C., Kretzschmar, W. & Konopka, R. (2001). Oxford Dictionary of
Pronunciation for Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wells, J. C. (2000). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. London: Longman.

Seminar 1

Read the text above carefully and answer the

following questions:

1. Which type of speech is ideal for scientific analysis?

2. Which are the major difficulties found by phoneticians when

recording natural speech?

3. Which is the usual complaint about laboratory studies of speech?

4. Why doesn’t laboratory speech sound natural? Illustrate your

answer with three examples.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

5. What does the observer’s paradox consist of?

6. How can natural speech be recorded for us to study? Illustrate

your answer with some examples.

7. Why do you think style variation should be carefully considered

when recording speech? Support your answer with one example.

8. Which is the standard English accent that has been used in

phoneticians’ description of the pronunciation of British English for
centuries?

9. Which are the most important features of Received Pronunciation?

10. Which is the current status of Received pronunciation or BBC

English?

11. Summarize the main contents of the reading passage on the

speech to study and the features of RP in the box below (250 words).

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Seminar 2

Phonemic transcription

1. Look at the vowels sounds /eɪ /, /aɪ /,/ ɔɪ/ and /ə/, and
think what English letters, combinations of letters or positions
of letters in a word give these sounds.

Figure 2. The English phonemic chart

2. Study the phonemic transcription of the excerpt from

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

Text

This separation from his spellbooks had been a real problem for
Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday
work.
One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about Shrinking Potions,
was for Harry’s least favourite teacher, Professor Snape.
He would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for
a month.
Harry had therefore seized his chance in the first week of the
holidays.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley went out into the front
garden to admire Uncle Vernon’s new company car (in very loud voices, so
that the rest of the street would notice it too).

Adapted from "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

/ðɪs sepə'reɪʃən frəm hɪz 'spelbʊks həd bi:n ə rɪəl 'prɒbləm fə

'hærɪ/bɪ'kɒz hɪz 'ti:ʧəz æt 'hɒgwƆ:ts həd 'gɪvən hɪm ə lɒt ɒv 'hɒlɪdeɪ wɜ:k//

/wʌn ɒv ðə 'eseɪz/ ə pə'tɪkjʊləlɪ 'nɑ:stɪ wʌn ə'baʊt 'ʃrɪŋkɪŋ 'pəʊʃənz/

wəz fə 'hærɪz li:st 'feɪvərɪt 'ti:ʧə/ prə'fesə sneɪp//

/hi: wʊd bi: dɪ'laɪtɪd tə hæv ən ɪk'skju:z tə gɪv 'hærɪ dɪ'tenʃən fə ə

mʌnθ//

/'hærɪ həd 'ðeəfƆ: sizd hɪz ʧɑ:ns ɪn ðə fɜ:st wi:k ɒv ðə 'hɒlɪdeɪz//

/'ʌŋkl 'vɜ:nən/ɑ:nt pɪ'tju:nɪə ənd 'dʌdlɪ həd gʌn aʊt 'ɪntu: ðə frɒnt
'gɑ:dən tə əd'maɪə 'ʌŋkl 'vɜ:nənz nju: 'kʌmpənɪ kɑ:/ ɪn 'verɪ laʊd 'vƆɪsɪz/
səʊ ðæt ðə rest ɒv ðə stri:t wʊd 'nəʊtɪs ɪt tu://

Transcribe the following sentences from the above

reading passage without looking at the phonemic
transcription. Once you have finished, you can check it out.

1. This separation from his spellbooks had been a real problem for
Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of
holiday work.

2. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about Shrinking Potions,

was for Harry’s least favourite teacher, Professor Snape.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

3.

4.

5.

References

Hancock, M. 2003. English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th
Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Type IPA phonetic symbols
http://ipa.typeit.org/full/
Phonemic Chart English Club
https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/phonemic-chart.htm

Seminar 3
Practice reading the text from Seminar 2. When
you feel you are ready, record your oral reading
of the text from Seminar 2 and upload it to
Moodle.

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Degree in English Studies. Option: English Pronunciation. Lecturer: Ekaterina Sinyashina

References

Hancock, M. 2003. English Pronunciation in Use (Intermediate).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jones, D. 2006. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 17th
Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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