http://bbcenglish.cqnews.net/2009version/qa_of_the_week/assets_3043238/100125183718_queen_getty_226b.jpgPronunciation 标准发音" /> Listen to the Queen speaking RP in this programme

 

Received Pronunciation 标准发音

 

Insert

Happy Christmas. 25 years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas

messages. Today is another landmark, because television has made it possible for many

of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day.

 

Feifei: 以上是英国伊丽莎白女王在祝贺大家圣诞快乐。

Finn: A voice familiar to all British people. That broadcast comes from 1957.

Feifei: 欢迎收听《你问我答》，我是冯菲菲。

Finn: And I’m Finn. Today we’ll be hearing more from the Queen as we talk about a

topic that is very popular with our audience: Received Pronunciation.

Feifei: 标准发音Received Pronunciation, 也就是我们常说的RP. 对于学习英语的朋友们来

说，有一个标准的发音来模仿，像标准的汉语普通话一样，在学习的时候相对就会容易

些。赵雨帆听友给我们发来了这样一个问题。

 

Insert

Hello everyone, my name is Neil. I prefer the British accent and I am an English learner

in China. Someone told me something about standard Received Pronunciation. I visited

the podcast page of the BBC and downloaded some programmes but I’m still confused

about which one is standard Received Pronunciation. And could you tell me something

about which presenter should I copy in BBC programmes.

 

Feifei: Whose accent should we be copying; yours, Will’s, mine, Helen’s, Yang Li’s,

Diarmuid’s?

Finn: Well I would say mine of course! No, seriously I think all of our presenters

have beautiful, clear English voices and all of them are a good model. But do

we speak RP? And what exactly does RP sound like?

Feifei: 正如赵雨帆说的那样，BBC的广播员们现在不都是像40，50年代时播音员那样操有一口

标准发音。

Finn: Yes, in the old days all BBC announcers spoke RP.

 

Insert

This is London. You will now hear a statement by the Prime Minister.

 

Finn: In fact because they all spoke this way, another common name for RP

appeared: BBC English.

Feifei: 下面请听1940年BBC 一位播音员的录音。清晰的语音，短促的元音，使得标准发音非常

容易被识别。

 

Insert

This is the BBC Home Service. Hello children everywhere. This is one of the most

important days in the history of Children’s Hour. Some time ago we were honoured by

the visit to the studio of the King and Queen.

 

Feifei: Sounds great!

Finn: Yes, though you can tell immediately that it’s from another era.

Feifei: 来自另一个时代from another era.

Finn: To many British people today, voices like these sound incredibly old-fashioned

and even a bit funny.

Feifei: 过时的old-fashioned.

Finn: Almost no one speaks like that today. So, has RP disappeared from Britain, or

has it changed?

Feifei: 我们再来听一段伊丽莎白女王的讲话，因为一说起标准发音，女王是我们想到的第一个

人。

Finn: We’re going to listen to two clips. One from 1957, and one from 2009. Now,

most people would agree that the Queen still speaks RP. But has even her RP

changed over time? Let’s listen. First 1957.

 

Insert

It’s inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you. A successor to

the Kings and Queens of history. Someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers

and films but who never really touches your personal lives. But now, at least for a few

minutes, I welcome you to the peace of my own home.

 

Finn: That was the Queen in 1957. And now let’s listen to her again in 2009. Try

and spot how her language has changed.

 

Insert

Each year that passes seems to have its own character. Some leave us with a feeling of

satisfaction. Others are best forgotten. 2009 was a difficult year for many, in particular

those facing the continuing effects of the economic downturn.

 

Finn: So Feifei, how has it changed?

Feifei: Well, I think her voice sounds older of course.

Finn: Older, yes.

Feifei: But also a bit more relaxed perhaps?

Finn: Yes, and there’s a reason for this. It’s to do with vowel change.

Feifei: 元音变化。

Finn: Ok, so let’s listen to the Queen in the 1950s here:

 

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And that is how I imagine you now…

Friends and companions…

 

Finn: Let’s listen again. There is one word in particular which sounds different from

the way it is spoken today.

 

Insert

And that is how I imagine you now…

Friends and companions…

 

Finn: Did you hear it? She said ‘and’.

 

Insert

Friends and companions…

Finn: But the way it’s pronounced today is ‘and’, or even ‘and’.

 

Insert

For ourselves and for others…

And saddened by the casualties…

 

Feifei: 这些变化就在于元音的发音，字母a 从a 变成了a. 变化就在于发这个元音时舌头位置的

变化，以前舌头会非常靠后，接近嗓子眼儿a, 现在可以不过于在意的放在嘴中间a.

 

Finn: It’s a lazier sound, if you like. From and to and. And in fact this uh sound has

become one of the most common sounds in the English language, appearing

in many short words like a, the, of, that.

Feifei: 就像Finn 说的，这个发音更多的出现在较短的词里。在很多字典里，这个发音的音标就

像一个倒过来的小写字母e. 不过这只是近年来标准发音变化的一个。So Finn, English

is changing.

Finn: Yes, as we’ve seen, even the Queen’s English is changing. So what does RP

sound like today?

Feifei: 可能最接近的就是BBC 广播和电视的新闻播报员了。

Finn: Think about how this is different from presenters from the 40s and 50s.

 

Insert

It’s six o’ clock on Thursday the 3rd of December. Good morning. This is Today with

James Naughtie and Sarah Montague…

Snow and ice hit the great Christmas getaway, some of the toughest conditions for

years…

Tonight at ten, history in the making as party leaders agree to live televised debates at

the next election…

 

Feifei: 以上这些发音可以被称为现代标准发音。不过现在很多发音都多少受到了地方口音的影

响。最后一位播报员就有一点儿威尔士口音，不过发音还是非常清晰易懂的。

Finn: That’s right, this is the point. These days as long as your accent is clear, it

doesn’t matter if you don’t sound like traditional RP.

Feifei: But Finn.

Finn: Yes?

Feifei: I think Zhao Yufan would probably still like an answer to his original question:

which presenter from our programmes should he copy?

Finn: His original question. If I was learning English and I really wanted to copy one

person’s voice I would say – choose one you like!

 

Insert

Hello this is Ask About Britain from BBC Learning English. I’m Helen.

Hello I’m Jo and you’re listening to Question and Answer of the Week from BBC Learning

English.

Hello and welcome to Ask About Britain. My name’s William Kremer.

 

Feifei: 好了，这个问题Finn 是不会回答了。不过我同意Finn的说法，发音清晰，可以和他人交

流才是最重要的。我们网站上有很多可以帮助大家练习语音的栏目内容，各位可以登陆我

们的网站收听这些节目。Finn, you know what?

Finn: What’s that?

Feifei: I think, just for Zhao Yufan, we should make an effort to speak RP for the rest

of the programme.

Finn: (in Queen’s accent) What a wonderful idea. Now, I would like to take this

opportunity to suggest to all our listeners that they visit our website.

Feifei: (in Queen’s accent) Ah yes, splendid. The address is www.bbcukchina.com.

Finn: (in Queen’s accent) And please send us an electronic mail if you have any

other questions about the English language.

Feifei: (in Queen’s accent) Oh yes, please do. Send them to

questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Finn: (in Queen’s accent) Good bye, good day to you all, until we meet again.

Feifei: (in Queen’s accent) Goodbye, listeners.

Finn: Goodbye.

 

 

RP – Received Prounciation

No two speakers of English speak the language identically. Every English-speaking country, and practically every region within those countries, has a distinctive accent. It is also true that meanings of words and grammatical forms can vary from one English-speaking country to another but this article is not about all the differences between the various forms of English. It is concerned solely with the standard pronunciation of British English. This is what linguists call Received Pronunciation (RP). RP refers exclusively to pronunciation, though it can be seen as analagous to Standard English (SE).

 

Where did it come from ?

Modern RP can be described as "the speech of educated people living in London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way." It developed from what was essentially a regional accent that acquired a unique level of prestige among the ruling and privileged classes in 19th Century Britain, particularly in London. No specific authority gave the accent that would become RP its special status. It seems to have developed as the consequence of its geographical position surrounding the capital, and thus to the weighty affairs of the rich and powerful.

It may also be said that the development of the Public School system of the 19th Century¹ (Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and so on) and the ancient universities (Oxford and Cambridge) played a part in establishing the RP accent as the 'standard' voice of the English Gentleman. The result was the marked (and today somewhat ridiculed) accent sometimes called 'ultra-RP', now most often associated with the upper classes and the Public School system. This 'marked' RP can be identified as the strictly standardised pronunciation used by the BBC radio announcers during the 1930s and 40s, becoming known as 'BBC English'.

This social aspect of the origins of RP is still nominally acknowledged when RP is called the 'prestige' accent of British English. It can be said, however, that the social distinctions and privileges formerly associated with the accent of 'The Establishment' are becoming less closely tied to 'modern' RP. In fact, RP as it is understood today is less marked than the RP of the early 19th Century.

 

The times they are a'changin'

Interestingly, in recent times the prestige associated with RP has fallen away. Today 'marked RP' is spoken only by members of the royal family and others from the upper classes. It is considered over-the-top by most people and a strong 'posh' accent will often be described as 'plummy' and attract ridicule. In order to communicate effectively and come across as 'normal', many former public school attendents retain some kind of regional accent or prefer to speak a (albeit usually mild) form of Estuary English. Will Estuary English become the new RP? That's another question.

Today RP is used by linguistists as a 'standard' pronunciation of British English for study purposes and also by teachers of English as a Foreign Language so that schools can teach a standard form of spoken British English. When learning a foreign language, it is very unsettling to think of regional variation! RP is regarded to be the form of English pronunciation most widely recognised and understood within the British national community. Very few British people speak with a strict RP accent but most would recognise and understand it. This makes it the most suitable form of the spoken language to teach to those learning English as a foreign language.

This is not to say that alternative pronunciations are to be regarded as wrong or invalid as such. Regional accents are well preserved in many parts of Britain in spite of the levelling influences of film, television, and radio. It does mean that linguists have established a convention by which a standard pronunciation of British English can be described, written², and read. Modern linguists tend to prefer to take a descriptive rather than prescriptive approach to studying language, and as a result no-one is likely to try actively to 'suppress' such regional variations.

 

So who does speak RP?

It used to be true that most politicians spoke something very close to RP, especially in the debating chamber. This can no longer be considered valid and even in the house of Lords you can hear a great deal of variation in pronunciation. Nonetheless, many politicians, especially in the Conservative party, still do speak with an accent close to RP. There are other professions where an accent very close to RP is still the norm, such as barristers or expensive retailers.

A good illustration of the drift away from strict RP is that mentioned earlier - the BBC itself! RP used to be so omnipresent on the BBC (especially in pre-TV days) that BBC English actually became an accepted synonym for RP. Perhaps the term no longer conjures up the same mental 'sound-image' as it once did so universally. "And now, here is the news at one o'clock." If nothing else, it is simply no longer the case that most of the voices that come out of our TV sets are speaking RP. Perhaps the last bastion of RP on the BBC is the news, which still requires maximum clarity and the widest possible range of comprehension.

Probably the context in which RP is most widely used is the academic world. Teachers of English as a Foreign Language were mentioned above but the great majority of school teachers within Britain, whether they have regional accents or not, will tend to speak in an accent as close as possible to RP in order to communicate effectively. This is not to say that a regional accent should be a barrier to their ability to teach, but nonetheless RP is considered appropriate in the classroom, particularly in higher education.

University lecturers want to convey new information to a large number of students simultaneously, often involving complex ideas. In such a context, we can see the value of an exceptionally clear and universally understood standard pronunciation. Students need not imitate this accent in order to assimilate the information but the fact that it is expressed in RP may well help them to undersand more easily.

Perhaps surprisingly, one group of speakers who will tend to stay close to RP are those who have learnt English as a second language and achieved a high level of fluency. It is usually quite noticeable because so few native-speakers speak so clearly. People who have learnt English . They are unlikely to adopt linguistic habits that diverge from RP, because they learnt the RP 'standard' pronunciation. Of course, a non-native speaker of English can develop a regional accent, if, for instance, they came to an area with little or no knowledge of English and learnt the language entirely in that region.

Finally, for whatever reason, some choose to maintain a relatively strict RP accent in life. For some RP may seem the only natural way to speak. This group is becoming smaller as the years go by, though, and many native-speakers may associate a strongly RP accent with negative ideas ranging from 'stuffiness' through 'pedantry' up to 'snobbishness' and 'privilege'. For all that, there is something wonderfully 'English' about certain bygone RP-speakers such as David Niven, Trevor Howard, Sir Richard Attenborough or even Terry Thomas that will always have an appeal in some quarters of the UK.

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¹ These fee-paying schools developed into an institution intended to pour forth Empire-builders

² ie phonetically transcribed