accents and dialects most often discussed on this site and elsewhere.
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation is the closest to a “standard accent” that has
ever existed in the UK. Although it originally derives from London English,
it is non-regional. You’ve probably heard this accent countless times in Jane
Austen adaptations, Merchant Ivory films, and Oscar Wilde plays. It emerged
from the 18th- and 19th-Century aristocracy, and has remained the “gold
standard” ever since.
Features:
Non-rhoticity, meaning the r at the ends of words isn’t prounounced
(mother sounds like “muhthuh”).
Trap-bath split,
meaning that certain a words, like bath, can’t, and
dance are pronounced with the broad-a in father. (This differs from most
American accents, in which these words are pronounced
with the short-a in
cat.
The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in
Southern England, which have undergone significant vowel shifting over the
past century.
Speech Samples:
Actress Dame Judi Dench
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher
Author Christopher Hitchens
Достарыңызбен бөлісу: