RP is ''received pronunciation'', the particular variety of english that for many years was a requirement of BBC speakers. it is basically educated southern british english or public school english without traces of regional varieties. it has become increasingly rare. one of the marks of true RP is the absence of glottal stops. however, because of RP's association with the ''establishment'', many young or more progressive RP speakers started adding glottal stops to their speech patterns, especially in the 80's after lady di and john major used them in public. another example of how much RP has changed over time is the pronunciation of ''girl''. in her very lively enquiry into ''aristocratic'' english [her own variety, by the way] called noblesse oblige [published in 1955], nancy mitford complained about the tendency of young people to rhyme ''girl'' with ''pearl'' rather than with ''pal''. i don't think there's one RP speaker left in the world that would meet mitford's criterion today! wally
-----Mensaje original----- De: Catherine McKay [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Enviado el: Viernes, 08 de Febrero de 2002 12:57 a.m. Para: Wally Kairuz; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Asunto: RE: accents NJC Wally, what is RP?
