Status
Traditionally, Received Pronunciation was the "everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk been educated at the great public boarding-schools" and which conveyed no information about that speaker's region of origin prior to attending the school.
- It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed.
- A. Burrell, Recitation. A Handbook for Teachers in Public Elementary School, 1891.
In the 19th century, there were still British prime ministers who spoke with some regional features, such as William Ewart Gladstone. From the 1970s onwards, attitudes towards Received Pronunciation have been changing slowly. The BBC's use of announcers with strong regional accents, such as Yorkshire-born Wilfred Pickles, during the Second World War (in order to distinguish BBC broadcasts from German propaganda) is an earlier example of the use of non-RP accents.
Although admired in some circles, RP is disliked in others. It is common in parts of Britain to regard it as a south-eastern English accent rather than a non-regional one and as a symbol of the south-east's political power in Britain. A 2007 survey found that residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland tend to dislike RP. It is shunned by some with left-wing political views, who may be proud of having an accent more typical of the working-classes. The left-wing British band Chumbawamba recorded a song entitled "R.I.P. RP", which is part of their album The Boy Bands Have Won.
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