#The emergence of a pronunciation standard. Received Pronunciation (RP).
Present-day situation
There is a wide range of pronunciation varieties of the English language. These varieties reflect the social class the speaker belongs to, the geographical region he comes from, and they also convey stylistic connotations of speech.
Every national variant of the English language has an orthoepic norm of its own: RP or Southern English for BrE, General American for AmE, the Australian Standard Pronunciation for AustrE. It is generally considered that the orthoepic norm of BrE is RP. Received Pronunciation was accepted as a phonetic norm of English about a century ago. It is mainly based on the Southern English regional type of pronunciation, but has developed its own features which have given it a non-regional character, i.e. there is no region in Britain to which it is native. RP is spoken all over Britain by a comparatively small number of Englishmen who have had the most privileged education in the country - public school education. RP is actually a social standard pronunciation of English. It is often referred to as the prestige accent.
There is a wide range of pronunciation varieties of the English language. These varieties reflect the social class the speaker belongs to, the geographical region he comes from, and they also convey stylistic connotations of speech.
Every national variant of the English language has an orthoepic norm of its own: RP or Southern English for BrE, General American for AmE, the Australian Standard Pronunciation for AustrE. It is generally considered that the orthoepic norm of BrE is RP. Received Pronunciation was accepted as a phonetic norm of English about a century ago. It is mainly based on the Southern English regional type of pronunciation, but has developed its own features which have given it a non-regional character, i.e. there is no region in Britain to which it is native. RP is spoken all over Britain by a comparatively small number of Englishmen who have had the most privileged education in the country - public school education. RP is actually a social standard pronunciation of English. It is often referred to as the prestige accent.