Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language which has traditionally been the prestige British accent. RP is a form of English English (English English is a term that has been applied to the English language as spoken in England.), sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern England." It is often taught to non-native speakers; used as the standard for English in most books on general phonology and phonetics; and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries.

Full vowels:

Full vowels are those that appear in stressed syllables.

Monophthongs	Front	Back		Front	Central	Back
Monophthongs	Short			Long
Close
Mid
Open

//: bid
//: good
//: bed (sometimes transcribed /e/)
//: bud
//: bat (sometimes transcribed /a/)
//: pot

//: bead
//: booed
//: bird (sometimes transcribed //)
//: bought, board
//: father, bard

Diphthongs	to //	to //		Centring
Diphthongs	Closing			Centring
Starting close
Starting mid
Starting open

//: bay
//: boy
//: toe
//: buy (sometimes transcribed /ʌɪ/)
//: cow

//: beer
//: boor (falling out of use in British English; often replaced by /ɔː/)
//: bear (sometimes transcribed /ɛː/)

Reduced vowels:

Reduced vowels occur in unstressed syllables.

//: roses
//: Rosa’s, runner
/l/: bottle
/n/: button
/m/: rhythm

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English Pronunciation

English Language