Editing Received Pronunciation (section)

==Historical variation==

Like all accents, RP has changed with time. For example, sound recordings and films from the first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was usual for speakers of RP to pronounce the {{IPA|/æ/}} sound, as in ''land'', with a vowel close to {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, so that ''land'' would sound similar to a present-day pronunciation of ''lend''. RP is sometimes known as ''the Queen's English'', but recordings show that even [[Queen Elizabeth II]] shifted her pronunciation over the course of her reign, ceasing to use an {{IPA|[ɛ]}}-like vowel in words like ''land''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003859.html |title=Happy-tensing and coal in sex |author=Language Log |author-link=Language Log |date=5 December 2006}}</ref> The change in RP may be observed in the home of "''BBC English''". The BBC accent of the 1950s is distinctly different from today's: a news report from the 1950s is recognisable as such, and a mock-1950s BBC voice is used for comic effect in programmes wishing to satirise 1950s social attitudes such as the [[Harry Enfield|Harry Enfield Show]] and its "Mr. Cholmondley-Warner" sketches.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Enfield |first1=Harry |title=Mr Cholmondley-Warner on Life in 1990 |website=[[YouTube]] |date=30 July 2007 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gou1cspUfdY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/gou1cspUfdY |archive-date=30 October 2021 |access-date=14 May 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Robinson, Jonnie 2019" />
[[Image:RP vowel movement.png|thumb|upright=1.59|A comparison of the [[formant]] values of {{IPA|/iː æ ɑː ɔː ʊ uː/}} for older (black) and younger (light blue) RP speakers. From {{harvtxt|de Jong|McDougall|Hudson|Nolan|2007|p=1814}}]]

A few illustrative examples of changes in RP during the 20th century and early 21st are given below. A more comprehensive list (using the name "General British" in place of "RP") is given in ''Gimson's Pronunciation of English''.{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|pp=83–85}}

===Vowels and diphthongs===

* Words such as {{sc2|CLOTH}}, ''gone'', ''off'', ''often'', ''cross'' were formerly pronounced with {{IPA|/ɔː/}} instead of {{IPA|/ɒ/}}, so that ''often'' and ''orphan'' were [[homophone]]s (see [[Lot–cloth split|''lot''–''cloth'' split]]). The Queen continued to use the older pronunciations,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HnePKE9AAE&t=280s The Queen's speech to President Sarkozy], "often" pronounced at 4:40.</ref> but it is now rare to hear this on the BBC.
* There used to be a [[Horse–hoarse merger|distinction between ''horse'' and ''hoarse'']] with an extra diphthong {{IPA|/ɔə/}} appearing in words like ''hoarse'', {{sc2|FORCE}}, and ''pour''.{{sfnp|Wright|1905|p=5|ps=, §12}} The symbols used by Wright are slightly different: the sound in ''fall, law, saw'' is transcribed as {{IPA|/oː/}} and that in ''more, soar,'' etc. as {{IPA|/oə/}}. [[Daniel Jones (phonetician)|Daniel Jones]] gives an account of the /ɔə/ diphthong, but notes "many speakers of Received English (''sic''), myself among them, do not use the diphthong at all, but replace it always by /ɔː/".{{sfnp|Jones|1967|p=115, para 458}} This distinction had become obsolete in RP by the late 20th century.<ref name="Wells">{{cite web |last=Wells |first=John |title=Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation? |url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/rphappened.htm |date=27 January 1994 |access-date=24 August 2011}}</ref>
* The vowel in words such as ''tour'', ''moor'', ''sure'' used to be {{IPA|/ʊə/}}, but this has merged with {{IPA|/ɔː/}} for many contemporary speakers. The effect of these two mergers (horse-hoarse and moor-more) is to bring about a number of three-way mergers of items which were hitherto distinct, such as ''poor'', ''paw'' and ''pore'' ({{IPA|/pʊə/}}, {{IPA|/pɔː/}}, {{IPA|/pɔə/}}) all becoming {{IPA|/pɔː/}}.
* The {{sc2|DRESS}} vowel and the starting point of the {{sc2|FACE}} diphthong has become lowered from mid {{IPA|[e̞]}} to open-mid {{IPA|[ɛ]}}.<ref>{{cite web |first=Geoff |last=Lindsey |url=http://englishspeechservices.com/blog/funny-old-vowels/ |title=Funny old vowels |date=3 June 2012 |access-date=2 October 2016}}</ref>
* The starting point of the {{sc2|choice}} diphthong has raised from {{IPA|[ɔɪ]}} to {{IPA|[oɪ]}}.<ref>{{cite web |first=Geoff |last=Lindsey |url=https://www.englishspeechservices.com/blog/british-vowels/ |title=The British English vowel system |date=8 March 2012 |access-date=22 December 2024}}</ref>
* Before the Second World War, the vowel of ''cup'' was a back vowel close to [[Cardinal vowel|cardinal]] {{IPA|[ʌ]}}. It then shifted forward to {{IPAblink|ɐ}}, but {{IPAblink|ʌ}} is increasingly used in modern RP to avoid the clash with the lowered variety of {{IPA|/æ/}} in the {{IPAblink|a}} region (the [[trap-strut merger]]).{{sfnp|Roca|Johnson|1999|pp=135, 186}}{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|p=122}}{{sfnp|Lindsey|2019|p=22}}
* There has been a change in the pronunciation of the unstressed final vowel of ''happy'' as a result of a process known as [[Phonological history of English close front vowels#Happy-tensing|happY-tensing]]: an older pronunciation of ''happy'' would have had the vowel /ɪ/ whereas a more modern pronunciation has a vowel nearer to /iː/.{{sfnp|Trudgill|1999|p=62}} In pronunciation handbooks and dictionaries it is now common to use the symbol /i/ to cover both possibilities. 
* In a number of words where contemporary RP has an unstressed syllable with schwa {{IPA|/ə/}}, older pronunciations had {{IPA|/ɪ/}}, for instance, the final vowel in the following: ''kindness'', ''doubtless'', ''witness'', ''witless'', ''toilet'', ''fortunate''.<ref name="Robinson, Jonnie 2019">Robinson, Jonnie (24 April 2019). "Received Pronunciation". The British Library. Retrieved 16 December 2019.</ref>
* The {{IPA|/ɛː/}} phoneme (as in ''fair'', ''care'', ''there'') was realised as a centring diphthong {{IPA|[ɛə]}} in the past, whereas most present-day speakers of RP pronounce it as a long monophthong {{IPAblink|ɛː}}.<ref name="Robinson, Jonnie 2019"/>
* The {{IPA|/ɪə/}} (as in ''near'', ''serious'') and {{IPA|/ʊə/}} (as in ''cure'', ''rural''; when not merged with {{IPA|/ɔː/}}) phonemes are also becoming monophthongised to {{IPA|[ɪː]}} and {{IPA|[ʊː~ɵː]}}, though this is not yet as widespread as for {{IPA|/ɛː/}}.{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|p=85}}{{sfnp|Lindsey|2019|p=60-62}}
* A change in the symbolisation of the GOAT diphthong reflects a change in the pronunciation of the starting point: older accounts of this diphthong describe it as starting with [ö̞], moving towards [u].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Daniel |title=An outline of English phonetics |date=1957 |publisher=Heffer |isbn=978-0521210980 |page=101, para 394 |edition=9th}}</ref> This was often symbolised as /ou/ or /oʊ/. In modern RP the starting point is unrounded and central, and is symbolised /əʊ/.<ref name="Wells"/>
* The vowels in {{sc2|LOT}} and {{sc2|THOUGHT-NORTH-FORCE}}, traditionally transcribed as {{IPA|/ɒ/}} and {{IPA|/ɔː/}}, have shifted upwards, and are now close to {{IPAblink|ɔ}} and  {{IPAblink|oː}}, respectively, in quality.{{sfnp|Wikström|2013|p=45|ps=. "It seems to be the case that younger RP or near-RP speakers typically use a closer quality, possibly approaching Cardinal 6 considering that the quality appears to be roughly intermediate between that used by older speakers for the LOT vowel and that used for the THOUGHT vowel, while older speakers use a more open quality, between Cardinal Vowels 13 and 6."}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.englishspeechservices.com/blog/morgen-a-suitable-case-for-treatment/ |title=Morgen – a suitable case for treatment |last=Lindsey |first=Geoff |date=15 July 2012}}</ref>{{sfnp|Roach|2004|p=242}}{{sfnp|Cruttenden|2014|pp=126, 133}}
* The vowels in {{sc2|FOOT}} and {{sc2|GOOSE}}, traditionally transcribed as {{IPA|/ʊ/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}}, have undergone fronting and reduction in the amount of lip-rounding{{sfnp|Collins|Mees|2013|p=207}} (phonetically, these can be transcribed {{IPAblink|ʊ̈|ʊ̜̈}} and {{IPAblink|ʉː|ʉ̜ː}}, respectively). 
* As noted above, the {{sc2|TRAP}} vowel {{IPA|/æ/}} has become more open, near to cardinal {{IPAblink|a}}.{{sfnp|de Jong|McDougall|Hudson|Nolan|2007|pp=1814–1815}}{{sfnp|Roach|2011}}<ref name="Wells"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Keyword
!Older RP
!Traditional

RP
!Modern

RP
|-
!commA
| colspan="3" rowspan="2" |ə
|-
!lettER
|-
!TRAP
| colspan="2" |æ
|a
|-
!BATH
| colspan="3" rowspan="3" |ɑ̟ː
|-
!PALM
|-
!START
|-
!LOT
| colspan="2" |ɒ
| rowspan="2" |ɔ
|-
!CLOTH
| rowspan="3" |ɔː
| rowspan="4" |o̞ː
|-
!THOUGHT
| rowspan="3" |o̞ː
|-
!NORTH
|-
!FORCE
|(ɔə~)ɔː
|-
!STRUT
|ʌ̈
|ɐ
|ɐ~ʌ̈~ɑ̈
|-
!FOOT
| colspan="2" |ʊ
|ɵ
|-
!GOOSE
|uː
|ʊu̟
|ʊ̈ʉ~ɪ̈ɨ
|-
!CURE
| colspan="2" |ʊə
|o̞ː
|-
!DRESS
| colspan="2" |e̞
|ɛ
|-
!KIT
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |ɪ
|ɪ̞
|-
!happY
| rowspan="2" |ɪi
|-
!FLEECE
|iː
|ɪi
|-
!NEAR
| colspan="2" |ɪə
|ɪə~ɪː
|-
!NURSE
| colspan="3" |əː~ɜː
|-
!FACE
| colspan="2" |e̞ɪ
|ɛɪ
|-
!SQUARE
| colspan="2" |ɛə
|ɛː
|-
!GOAT
|ö̞ʊ
|əʊ
|əʉ
|-
!PRICE
|aɪ
|äɪ
|ɑ̟ɪ
|-
!MOUTH
|äʊ
|ɑ̟ʊ
|aʊ
|-
!CHOICE
|ɔɪ
|ɔ̝ɪ
|oɪ
|}

===Consonants===

* For speakers of Received Pronunciation in the late 19th century, it was common for the consonant combination {{angbr|wh}} (as in ''which'', ''whistle'', ''whether'') to be realised as a [[voiceless labio-velar fricative]] {{IPA|/ʍ/}} (also transcribed {{IPA|/hw/}}), as can still be heard in the 21st century in the speech of many speakers in Ireland, Scotland and parts of the US. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the {{IPA|/ʍ/}} phoneme has ceased to be a feature of RP, except in an exaggeratedly precise style of speaking ([[Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩#Wine–whine merger|the wine-whine merger]]).{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=228–229}}
* There has been considerable growth in [[glottalisation]] in RP, most commonly in the form of [[Glottalization#Glottal reinforcement|glottal reinforcement]]. This has been noted by writers on RP since quite early in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Ida |title=The Phonetics of English |date=1939 |pages=135–136, para 250 |edition=3rd}}</ref> Ward notes pronunciations such as [njuːʔtrəl] for ''neutral'' and [reʔkləs] for ''reckless''. Glottalization of /tʃ/ is widespread in present-day RP when at the end of a stressed syllable, as in ''butcher'' [bʊʔtʃə].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Beverley |last2=Mees |first2=Inger |title=Practical English Phonetics and Phonology |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-59150-9 |page=67 |edition=4th}}</ref>
* The realisation of /r/ as a [[Tap and flap consonants|tap or flap]] [ɾ] has largely disappeared from RP, though it can be heard in films and broadcasts from the first half of the 20th century. The word ''very'' was frequently pronounced [veɾɪ]. The same sound, however, is sometimes pronounced as an allophone of /t/ when it occurs intervocalically after a stressed syllable – the [[Flapping|"flapped /t/"]] that is familiar in American English. Phonetically, this sounds more like /d/, and this pronunciation is sometimes known as /t/-voicing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Beverley |last2=Mees |first2=Inger |title=Practical English Phonetics and Phonology |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-59150-9 |page=69 |edition=4th}}</ref>

===Word-specific changes===

A number of cases can be identified where changes in the pronunciation of individual words, or small groups of words, have taken place.

* The word ''Mass'' (referring to the religious ritual) was often pronounced /mɑːs/ in older versions of RP, but the word is now almost always /mæs/.
* The indefinite article ''an'' was traditionally used before a sounded /h/ if immediately followed by an unstressed vowel, as in 'an hyaena.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OsIAAAAQAAJ&q=%22An+must+be+used+before+all+words+beginning%22 |title=A critical pronouncing dictionary |date=1824 |page=25}}</ref> This is now uncommon, especially in speech, and may be confined only to some of the more frequently used words, such as 'horrific' and 'historical.'<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Chambers Dictionary |publisher=Chambers |year=2003 |isbn=0-550-10105-5 |edition=9th |chapter=an}}</ref><ref name="simpson">Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (1989). [[Oxford English Dictionary]] (Second ed.). New York: [[Oxford University Press]].</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wordsworth |first=Dot |title=An historic |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-historic |access-date=17 February 2022 |website=The Spectator |url-access=subscription |date=8 April 2017 |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217145646/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-historic |archive-date=17 February 2022}}</ref>