What is the British English RP accent?
I have seen so much activity online regarding the RP British accent. So, you may have been wondering, what is it and why does it matter? Well simply it is a good, easily understandable and universally accepted form of British English, which is often stereotypically what you imagine when you think of someone speaking from the UK.
Historically, it was associated with the upper classes and wealthy areas of the UK. Hence why sometimes it is called the “Queen’s English”, “BBC English” or “Oxford English”. For a long time almost all broadcasters on the BBC presented programs in this RP accent, which let to it becoming globally accepted as being the quintessential sound of British English. However, nowadays it forms one of the many different accents that are common in the UK, but it is still considered a very professional and desirable accent to have. I guess we could sum it up and say, it has become an accent that is universally accepted and shouts British!
Technically speaking RP stands for ‘Received Pronunciation’, and really refers to the sound of the language as recorded by the British phonetician Daniel Jones.
As with all accents there are always variations. For example, speaking for myself, when I hear recordings of the Queen speaking, I feel that her RP accent sounds very posh or upper-class. With other RP accents, they sound slightly less upper-class and more professional and business like. Personally, that is the accent that I prefer, and that is the exact accent that I teach to all of my students. Of course, everyone will have different personal opinions as to which exact RP accent they like best.
So, it you are learning English as a foreign language, and you already speak it to a good level, but would like to sound more British when you speak. Then my British Accent Course is just for you. This course focuses on the 3 key pillars of language sound, the individual sounds, the tone and the intonation. When you get these 3 aspects correct you will sound like a British RP speaker, be easily understood and sound super professional!
