Editing Received Pronunciation (section)

====BATH vowel====
{{see also|Trap–bath split{{!}}''Trap–bath'' split}}
There are differing opinions as to whether {{IPA|/æ/}} in the <small>BATH</small> [[lexical set]] can be considered RP. The pronunciations with {{IPA|/ɑː/}} are invariably accepted as RP.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=203''ff''}} The ''English Pronouncing Dictionary'' does not admit {{IPA|/æ/}} in <small>BATH</small> words and the ''[[Longman Pronunciation Dictionary]]'' lists them with a § marker of non-RP status.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.yek.me.uk/lpdeltj.html |title=Review of Longman Pronunciation Dictionary |author=Jack Windsor Lewis |newspaper=The Times |year=1990}}</ref> John Wells wrote in a blog entry on 16 March 2012 that when growing up in the north of England he used {{IPA|/ɑː/}} in "bath" and "glass", and considers this the only acceptable phoneme in RP.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wells |first=John |url=http://www.phonetic-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/english-places.html |title=English places |website=John Wells's phonetic blog |date=16 March 2012}}</ref> Others have argued that {{IPA|/æ/}} is too categorical in the north of England to be excluded. Clive Upton believes that {{IPA|/æ/}} in these words must be considered within RP and has called the opposing view "south-centric".{{sfnp|Upton|2004|pp=222–223}} Upton's ''Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English'' gives both variants for <small>BATH</small> words. A. F. Gupta's survey of mostly middle-class students found that {{IPA|/æ/}} was used by almost everyone who was from clearly north of the [[isogloss]] for <small>BATH</small> words. She wrote, "There is no justification for the claims by Wells and Mugglestone that this is a sociolinguistic variable in the north, though it is a sociolinguistic variable on the areas on the border [the isogloss between north and south]".{{sfnp|Gupta|2005|p=25}} In a study of speech in West Yorkshire, [[KM Petyt|K. M. Petyt]] wrote that "the amount of {{IPA|/ɑː/}} usage is too low to correlate meaningfully with the usual factors", having found only two speakers (both having attended boarding schools in the south) who consistently used {{IPA|/ɑː/}}.{{sfnp|Petyt|1985|pp=166–167}}

Jack Windsor Lewis has noted that the Oxford Dictionary's position has changed several times on whether to include short {{IPA|/æ/}} within its prescribed pronunciation.<ref>Point 18 in {{cite web |url=http://www.yek.me.uk/centnthpn.html |title=The General Central Northern Non-Dialectal Pronunciation of England |author=Jack Windsor Lewis |access-date=4 July 2011}}</ref> The ''BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names'' uses only {{IPA|/ɑː/}}, but its author, Graham Pointon, has stated on his blog that he finds both variants to be acceptable in place names.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pointon |first=Graham |url=http://www.linguism.co.uk/language/olivia-oleary |title=Olivia O'Leary |website=Linguism: Language in a word |date=20 April 2010}}</ref>

Some research has concluded that many people in the [[Northern England|North of England]] have a dislike of the {{IPA|/ɑː/}} vowel in <small>BATH</small> words. A. F. Gupta wrote, "Many of the northerners were noticeably hostile to {{IPA|/ɡrɑːs/}}, describing it as 'comical', 'snobbish', 'pompous' or even 'for morons'."{{sfnp|Gupta|2005|p=25}} On the subject, K. M. Petyt wrote that several respondents "positively said that they did not prefer the long-vowel form or that they really detested it or even that it was incorrect".{{sfnp|Petyt|1985|p=286}} Mark Newbrook has assigned this phenomenon the name "conscious rejection", and has cited the {{sc2|BATH}} vowel as "the main instance of conscious rejection of RP" in his research in West [[Wirral Peninsula|Wirral]].{{sfnp|Newbrook|1999|p=101}}