Timothy Lakaseru

Grade 12 Faithfulness

THE LAST DAYS OF THE RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION: THE DWINDLING

UTILIZATION OF ENGLISH’S MOTHER VARIANT

The history of Modern English is one which shall render a significant portion to the
development and utilization of the Received Pronunciation. The Received Pronunciation,
which is the standard accent in which British English, and thus all the accepted prestigious
variants are derived, thus it is of accuracy should Received Pronunciation be rendered the title
“The mother variant of the English Language”. The RP, which is the accepted prestigious
variant in the United Kingdom, in particular Great Britain, has been considered as the
“accurate” variant of the English Language, thus causing the RP to be associated with those
from higher social classes, which is evident via its utilization by members of the Royal
Family, Nobles, celebrities, and prominent politicians. Numerous individuals have undergone
elocution sessions to achieve the permanent presence of the RP, as the presence of this accent
would induce a prestigious effect towards the image maintained by there individuals. Until
the 1970s, the RP was the monopolizing accent utilized in media broadcast, in particular
BBC’S radio and television service. In addition to this, the RP was the standard variant of
“International English’, and this is observable in the utilization of the RP by non-native
speakers of English who have attained appreciable degrees of proficiency in the English
Language.

Even so, the RP’s monopoly is not one that is permanent in nature, as the second half of the
20th century had witnessed the advent of new variants of the English language, which is
recognized by the prominent instance Multicultural London English (MCLE), which is a
potpourri dialect which contains lexical, grammatical, and phonological elements form South
Asian, Caribbean, and African dialects. The birth of this currently dominant dialect was
catalyzed by the post-wry large-scale immigration, thus paving way for interaction to be
observed between these ethnic communities. American English has replaced the RP’s status
as “International English”, due to the exponential surge of popularity American media has
experienced, which has paved way for the increased utilization of the American English, thus
causing prestige to experience a transfer. The BBC, which has retained the RP since its
formation in 1922, has increasingly accepted regional variations and non-native accents since
the 1970s, which is observed in politics as well. These render the conduction of elocution
useless, as it is not required as a form of training for personnel. Needless to say, the decreased
utilization of elocution, and the adoption of MCLE and newer variants of English has brought
forth the last days of the Received Pronunciation.

The Received Pronunciation was born in 1869, in which British linguist A. J Ellis coined the
terminology “Received Pronunciation”, in which the prefix “received” is an indication of its
status as the standard English accent, which once again fulfilled English’s function as the
Untied Kingdom’s unifying dialect, and the global community’s Lingua Franca, which is
today superseded by American English. The developed accent was utilized as an evidence of
professionalism, thus causing the requirement of elocution. Education institutions enforced
the usage of Received Pronunciation constantly, and the birth of modern media, which was
marked by 1922’s formation of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The personnel’s
persistence towards the retention of the RP, which was even maintained when the BBC
commenced television broadcasts in 1936. The dwindle began to take place in the 1970s.
The dwindle of the utilization of RP is primarily observed in the family which society
considers as the most staunch of all RP speakers, the Royal Family. For the past 5-6 centuries,
the Royal Family has utilized prestige forms of English, which is the Early Modern prototype
of the Received Pronunciation. Initially, Latin has been appreciated as a court language, in
which royal activities were conducted in Latin, and members of the Royal Family proper and
those who were of nobility spoke fluent Latin, and grasped the English Language at weaker
capabilities. English was deliberately developed as a Lingua Franca for those who conduct
encounters at regular intervals for the purpose of trade, thus needless to say, the initial
speakers of the English Language were those of middle and lower classes, as the interactions
between royals within Continental Europe was conducted in the Latin Language.
Nevertheless, the Protestant Reformation paved way for the encouragement of the utilization
of English, and the increased roil acknowledgment of national affairs and external
interactions.

Received Pronunciation has enjoyed its frequent utilization in the royal atmosphere, as
members of the Royal Family interact with individuals who have received the elocution
necessary for entry to the Royal Household, which is supported by the wide deployment of
the Received Pronunciation by educated citizens across the peninsula. The trend of alteration
occurring has caused noticeable alterations in royal idiolects as well. The Queen’s most recent
Christmas Broadcast, which was recorded on December 2015, possesses significant contrasts
from the first televised message, which was taped on December 1957. The careful
scrutinization and contrasting of the two video excerpts has produced evidences regarding the
decrease of an RP-influenced idiolect, albeit RP itself has not experienced relinquishment by
the Queen herself. Studies conducted by Macquarie University’s Professor Jonathan
Harrington has produced evidence of the evolution observed within the monarch’s idiolect
and accent. The prestigious RP accent is slowly being superseded by the standard SSB
(Standard Southern British) accent, which is currently observed in contemporary native BBC
broadcasters.

For instance, in the earliest televised Christmas broadcasts, the lexical item “had” was
pronounced in a manner which causes resemblance to observed with the lexical item “bed”.
However, the most recent broadcasts have feature the lexical item being pronounced in a
manner which causes a similar sound to “bad” to be observed. This affirms the presence of
idiolect alteration. In addition to this, earlier broadcasts would produce segments in which the
Queen would pronounce lexical items such as “home” and “dome” with a manner of
pronunciation which causes the presence of similarity with “tame”, which is observed in
aristocratic contemporaries such as former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, Dame Vera
Lynn, and the Pathe newsreel commentators.

This decline in the utilization of Conservative RP is confirmed Reading University’s Peter

Roach, who attributes natural factors and initiate within the Royal Family itself. The Royal
Family’s archaic, conservative idiolect has been a target of satire and criticism for the past
decades, which is perhaps manifested in the 12 years’ running of the British satirical series
Spitting Image (1984-1996), which featured not only segments where the Royal Family
utilizes exaggerated variants of the Conservative RP, featuring segments which serve as an
envisioning of Royals speaking in non-prestige accents as well, with a running gag which
features the Queen Mother speaking with a Northern Yorkshire dialect. The decline is
affirmed by Oxford University’s JS Coleman, who interprets this alteration as evidence that
even royals are not immune form the alteration of the English language.
The decline of the RP is not observed in the Royal Family alone, as this degradation is
observed mainly in the common populace . The principal reason of the degradation and
decrease of RP’s utilization is its abandonment by a majority of United Kingdom’s
population, which is conducted in tandem with the increased introduction of regional variants
in both formal and non-formal contexts. Aside from this, the increased utilization of
American English introduced by California-designed computers, and the increased popularity
of American media (television, film, and music), has been predicted to lead to the extinction
of the Received Pronunciation by 2066. University of York’s Bernard Gunn predicts that
those residing in London shall completely omit the “the” sound from their idiolects due to the
increased interaction with immigrants. This shall be supplanted by MCLE’s “f” or” sounds,
which is needless to say a prominent feature of East London’s Cockney dialect, which has
commenced the process of RP’s decreased utilization, albeit significantly affecting only those
from the middle and lower classes.

In

The non-aristocratic degradation of RP utilization is observed in BBC’s long-running radio

soap opera The Archers, which commenced broadcasting in 1950, with a majority of
characters speaking with a prominent RP-influenced accent. The decrease in RP utilization
with the series was observed in Shula Archer’s alteration of pronunciation. In 1975, Archer
pronounced happy as “happy”, yet contemporary analysis from 2015 indicated that the lexical
item is nowadays pronounced in manner that is true to its spelling, thus featuring the lowering
of the “trap” vowel. This is confirmed by linguist Dr. William Barras as an evidence of the
continuous alteration of the English Language. Barras also concluded that accents of
individuals do experience alterations in direct proportionality with age, which is attributed
with increased interaction with non-RP speakers and non-native speakers of the English
Language. This has increased in the post-war years, and is expected to increase with the
contemporary humanitarian crises.

As the studies have proven, the death of Rip’s one that is inevitable should no effort of
revival is present, as the increased recognition of regional and non-native variants of English
has increased in an international scale, and this recognition is observed even in areas which
were initially staunch upholders of the Received Pronunciation, with the United Kingdom as
a tangible instance. The presence of RP, however, shall be retained, for the 4-5 coming
decades in formal situations such as parliament openings, royal coronations, and royal
ceremonies, as the presence of RP is guaranteed in those who dwell and interact with the
Royal Family, which is expected to occur within the Queen’s lifetime, and Prince Charles’
future reign. However, this does not remove the jeopardy status etched upon the RP, as the
increase of X generation individuals in satet offices, and the flexibility of language third-
generation royals display, remains a strong indication of the imminence of the last days of the
RP. The cessation of RP utilization marks the end of an era which has revolutionized the
English language, as it has served as the “mother variant” of English, whose formality and
conservatism has instead catalyzed the exponential revolution the English language, has
experienced, is currently experiencing, and shall ceaselessly experience in the near and distant
future.
LIST OF REFERENCES

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81877&page=1
http://www.stgeorges.co.uk/blog/often-in-received-pronunciation-queens-xmas-message
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/find-out-more/received-pronunciation/
http://www.mo4ch.com/queens-english-will-be-unrecognizable-by-2066-thanks-to-tv-and-
immigration-experts/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1876518/th-sound-vanishing-from-english-language-with-
cockney-and-other-dialects-set-to-die-out-by-2066-because-of-immigration/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160202-has-the-queen-become-frightfully-common
http://www.peterroach.net/blog/conservative-rp
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/12150410/Older-people-abandon-Received-
Pronunciation-in-favour-of-flatter-vowels-according-to-Archers-study.html