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differences in the pronunciation of individual words in the lexicon (i.e. phoneme distribution). In this article, transcriptions use Received Pronunciation (RP) to represent BrE and General American (GAm) to represent AmE. In the following discussion: superscript A2 after a word indicates that the BrE pronunciation of the word is a common ...
Received Pronunciation has been the subject of many academic studies, [2] and is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. [ 3 ] [ page needed ] The widely repeated claim that only about two percent of Britons speak RP [ 2 ] is no more than a rough estimate and has been questioned by several writers, most notably by ...
The desire to speak eloquently and, in particular, to have correct received pronunciation was common in Britain and America during the 19th century, with the study of English orthoepy at its zenith. One feature of phonetic orthographies was that they converted written words into a single consistent form of pronunciation, which would often ...
In the vowels chart, a separate phonetic value is given for each major dialect, alongside the words used to name their corresponding lexical sets. The diaphonemes for the lexical sets given here are based on RP and General American; they are not sufficient to express all of the distinctions found in other dialects, such as Australian English.
One phenomenon apparently unique to North American U.S. accents is the irregular behavior of words that in the British English standard, Received Pronunciation, have /ɒrV/ (where V stands for any vowel). Words of this class include, among others: origin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, borrow, tomorrow, sorry, and sorrow.
Some linguists have used the term "RP" while expressing reservations about its suitability. [16] [17] [18] The Cambridge-published English Pronouncing Dictionary (aimed at those learning English as a foreign language) uses the phrase "BBC Pronunciation", on the basis that the name "Received Pronunciation" is "archaic" and that BBC News presenters no longer suggest high social class and ...
A vowel pronounced /ɑː/ in General American (GA) and /ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation (RP) when preceded by /w/ and not followed by the velar consonants /k/, /ɡ/ or /ŋ/, as in swan, wash, wallow, etc. (General American is the standard pronunciation in the U.S. and Received Pronunciation is the most prestigious pronunciation in Britain. In ...
Words that had Middle English [au] had a regular development to [ɒː] (for example, paw). However, before a nasal, such words sometimes instead developed to [aː] (e.g. palm). The [aː] of the late 17th century has generally backed to [ɑː] in several varieties of contemporary English, for example in Received Pronunciation.