1

Chase Wagner
Intro to Linguistics
Dr. Gustavo Freire
10 December 2014
The British Accent
When looking back on American history, we know that the British occupied America
until the revolutionary war. Nowadays, we associate British people with a posh and fancy accent.
One might wonder: if America was once occupied by Great Britain, why did the British accent
not carry over to the American people? How did this accent come to exist, and how has it
changed since the British left America? The British accent is perhaps one of the most studied and
described accent of English and is the basis for British pronunciation dictionaries and phonetics
textbooks. It is also standard pronunciation for foreign learners of English in many parts of the
world (Hannisdal 2006).
At the time of the revolutionary war, Brits and Americans sounded pretty alike. At the
time, there wasnt a British Accent. The non-rhotic accent only developed after the war, after
Britain had withdrawn from America. We cant say exactly when the English began to sound
different than Americans, but we know that the first American colony was settled in 1607; we
sounded just like our countrymen from across the pond. By the time we had the first recordings
of British and English voices three decades later, Old World and New World English sounded
very different. It began in southern England, where non-rhotic speech was perceived as a
signifier of class and status and became standardized as Received Pronunciation, RP for short
(Soniak 2011). As stated in Language Files, people seek association with a desirable
socioeconomic group. Language is one way of portraying ones self in a higher class or

2
distancing ones self from a lower class. The posh accent, easily understood by those across
England, spread throughout the rest of the country. Accompanying it was a sense of high
education and status.
So how can we be sure that the British spoke without an accent at all? Well, there are a
few indicators that imply rhotic pronunciations. First, why would we spell words with rs if
they were consistently not pronounced? Additionally, we can see a great deal of spelling
variation in less formal texts, such as letters and notes dating back to the 18th century and older.
In these artifacts, we can examine the spelling changes of certain words to determine when the
British people began to speak differently. For example, if a word is found to have been written as
pak instead of park, we can reasonably assume that the writer speaks non-rhotically. If we
dont see these spelling variations until 1775 or so, its logical to think that people didnt
pronounce park as pak until then. (McCulloch 2014).
America was not completely unaffected by the British accent. There were those who
adopted Received Pronunciation for the same reasons as their former countrymen across the
pond in Britain. They wanted to sound dignified and be known for their status. RP was
especially prominent in port cities, which traded a great deal with England. The accent also
spread into the south and grew popular among plantation owners, again as a signifier of wealth
and status. Over time, economic power shifted from the port cities into the manufacturing cities
of the Industrial Era. These cities were not nearly as influenced by the British, and Received
Pronunciation gradually faded away. (Soniak 2011).
Although RP had fizzled out in the United States, it was certainly taking hold in England.
As radio and television broadcasting became popular in the 1920s and 30s, people tuned in and
listened to presenters and announcers who only spoke using Received Pronunciation. It was

3
decided by the British Broadcasting Company that RP would be the most neutral accent, easily
understood by the greatest amount of people in the country. This furthered the importance and
cultural dominance of the accent and gave it a new medium to carry it into the furthest reaches of
Great Britain (Hannisdal 2006).
So, what exactly is Received Pronunciation? The accent is very detailed and
encompasses a large amount of lexical and phonological variation, but The British
Library defines RP as the following:
Received Pronunciation, or RP for short, is the instantly recognizable accent
often described as typically British. Popular terms for this accent, such as The
Queens English, Oxford English or BBC English are all a little misleading.
The Queen, for instance, speaks an almost unique form of English, while the
English we hear at Oxford University or on the BBC is no longer restricted to one
type of accent. RP is an accent, not a dialect, since all RP speakers speak
Standard English... RP is also regionally non-specific, that is it does not contain
any clues about a speakers geographic background. But it does reveal a great deal
about their social and/or educational background.
Received Pronunciation is most popularly classified by the dropping of the /r/ sound in
words, thus it is a non-rhotic accent. Many words in RP are have different stresses on the
syllables, particularly those borrowed from French. For example, rather than saying garage, as
we would in the General American accent (GA), speakers of RP would pronounce the word with
emphasis on the first syllable, garage. (Collins, Mees 2003). Another trait of Received
Pronunciation is known as smoothing. Smoothing is defined by Wells, (1997).
This is the process whereby a diphthong may lose its second element when
followed by another vowel. Thus for example fire /fa/ may be smoothed to
[fa]. Similarly, science /sans/ may be realized as [sans]."
Today, Received Pronunciation has developed into several different categories, 3 of
which are defined by the British Library. Conservative Received Pronunciation is generally
associated with older speakers and aristocracy. It maintains the traditional sounds of RP but is

4
very particular and is not widely spoken. Mainstream Received Pronunciation is regarded as
the most general version of RP, as it is mostly neutral in regards to signifiers of occupation, age,
and lifestyle. Contemporary Received Pronunciation is usually associated with younger
speakers of RP and the features of their speech. Contemporary RP may also include any new
trends or slang that could or could not become permanent in Received Pronunciation (Hannisdal
2006). Despite the different styles of Received Pronunciation, they are all unified in the fact that
they do not reveal the geographical background of the speaker. There is another variety of RP
called Regional RP, which does contain a few characteristics that are particular to geographical
location. However, these characteristics are usually not prominent enough to be detectable by
other speakers of RP (Hannisdal 2006). Another variety is called Adoptive RP, which is a variety
of RP learned by adults who did not speak with RP when they were children (Wells 1982). If an
adult speaking Adoptive RP learns to speak like a native would, their speech may become
indistinguishable from Mainstream Received Pronunciation and would not be recognized as
Adoptive Received Pronunciation. However, as an adoptive speaker of RP, an adult will maintain
certain elements of their native accent or only use RP in particular social situations (Hannisdal
2006).
Today, Received Pronunciation doesnt carry as much social connotation as it
once did. It has become somewhat associated with snobbishness and arrogance. Since the
general accent has been reduced in status and is no longer observed as being associated
with success and wealth, there are some social situations in which speaking the
conservative variety of Received Pronunciation can be a sociolinguistic disadvantage.
One example of this is when Michael Martin, speaker of Parliament, reportedly fired his
secretary for sounding too posh (Hannisdal 2006). For reasons such as these, speakers of

5
RP now have an almost negative view of the accent. This social discrimination is
responsible for the falling status of Received Pronunciation. Those who speak with
Received Pronunciation have downgraded the accent in order to sound more down-toearth (Hannisdal 2006). Phonologically speaking, Received Pronunciation does not
sound like it did in the late 18th century. In our time, RP sounds closer to General
American than the RP of the past.
Although it may be changing, Received Pronunciation is still important to the
identity of the British people. A relatively young accent linguistically speaking, Received
Pronunciation still maintains great historical value and provides a glimpse into the past of
Great Britain. Additionally, when speaking to someone using RP, most people will
immediately recognize that they are from Great Britain. Received Pronunciation is
perhaps one of the most recognized accents in the world. As it continues to change, it
reflects a change in the attitude of its speakers as well. As RP was once an accent
associated with status, wealth, and class, it is now more associated with where a person is
from as most of England speaks with Received Pronunciation. As one of the most studied
accents of English in existence, it is important that linguists continue to document its
changing varieties and sociological context.

6
Works Cited
Collins, Beverly, and Inger M. Mees. The Phonetics of English and Dutch 5 (2003): n.
pag. Npu.edu. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
Hannisdal, Bente R. "Variability and Change in Received Pronunciation." Diss. U of
Bergen, 2006. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
Knowles, Gerry. "J. C. Wells, Accents of English. Cambridge University Press, 1982. 3
Vols. Pp. Xx 673; Cassette." Journal of Linguistics 19.02 (1983): 502. University College
London. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
McCulloch, Gretchen. "A Linguist Explains British Accents." The Toast. N.p., 19 Mar.
2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
Mihalicc ek, Vedrana, and Christin Wilson. "Socioeconomic Variation." Language Files:
Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. 11th ed. Columbus: Ohio State UP,
2011. N. pag. Print.
Soniak, Matt. "When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?" Mental Floss. N.p., 17
Jan. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Wells, J.C. "Whatever Happened to Received Pronunciation?" II Jornadas De
Estudios Ingleses (1997): 19-28. University College London. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.