RP Accent?

When talking about the English Language you might probably have many times heard people highlighting the beauty and elegancy of the British accent. However, you may have noticed that not all of the British people have the same accent. As it happens in any other country, Great Britain has a variety of accents, too. Now, the RP (Received Pronunciation) accent is the most standard one you can hear all over the world. Experts say (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIemPxHSb6Q) that it was promulgated among middle class society at public schools around the 19th century in the south-east of England, although it not necessarily reflects the place where the speaker comes from. Rather, it is associated to educated (and somehow powerful) people around the United Kingdom as it shows great similarity to the pronunciation of the royal people, not just in the UK but throughout the world. Most of the BBC news presenters use this accent and it is the accent that the majority of text books have for British English learners everywhere.

However, some experts say that the great majority of the British people actually do not have this accent at all. They think that it is only the 3% of the UK who use it more evidently than the rest. In fact, the so called Estuary English (a sort of work-class English) seems to be taking over. Some people ask, if RP is an accent that an English learner will hardly ever come across, why then should it be taught around the world? Well, they may have a point there. However, I’d like to say that the RP accent is the only one that can help an English learner be better understood wherever they go.

All the standard accents are better preferred throughout the world, as it is the Standard American Accent. Unfortunately, while it is so good for human beings to try to break their differences and let the lower class mingle with the upper class, it is prejudicial for the language to be spoilt by the flawed features encountered in careless dialects or accents. Nowadays, I might distinguish some elements regarding the British accent. Firstly, we need to separate pronunciation from intonation in an accent. The RP accent pronunciation is quite similar to the royal family’s pronunciation, but the royalty has its own intonation, which is different from the RP’s. Secondly, the BBC English intonation is very similar to the RP’s, but the BBC pronunciation is slightly (and sometimes quite) different from the RP’s and the royalty’s. Finally, while it is true that educated, young people (or the young, modern society) seem to be friendly with some lower class accents, and incorporate some of their features into their sort of modern RP (as it seems to be the case of the Estuary English symptoms), and even Princes William and Harry seem to have a more relaxed way of speaking than their ancestors; there are many English learners who prefer to keep the genuine RP accent as their helpful tool to be better understood when using English as their second language; and, that’s why the RP accent is likely to continue alive through the years.