Received Pronunciation

A pronunciation of British English, originally based on the speech of the upper class of southeastern England and characteristic of the English spoken at private boarding schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Until the late 1900s, it was the standard form of English used in British broadcasting. Also called Received Standard.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Received Pronunciation

(Phonetics & Phonology) the accent of standard Southern British English. Abbreviation: RP

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Received′ Pronuncia′tion

a pronunciation of British English derived from the educated speech of S England, traditionally used in the public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge universities and widely used in broadcasting. Abbr.: RP

[1865–70]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Received Pronunciation - the approved pronunciation of British English; originally based on the King's English as spoken at public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities (and widely accepted elsewhere in Britain); until recently it was the pronunciation of English used in British broadcasting

English, English language - an Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the commonwealth countries

orthoepy, pronunciation - the way a word or a language is customarily spoken; "the pronunciation of Chinese is difficult for foreigners"; "that is the correct pronunciation"

Translations

received pronunciation

n → hochsprachliche Aussprache

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Received Pronunciation

n → pronuncia standard (dell'inglese)

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

The naivete, excited and regal soundtrack and patriotic narrative, with its received pronunciation narration, of the Pathe newsreels of that time are not as bygone as we might think.

How US-style politics could be damaging British democracy -- Alastair Stewart

He is for our generation one of the best representatives of what we know as Received Pronunciation (RP).

Pronouncing a stern warning to world and learning a harsh lesson from a teenage girl

A Recognised pronunciation B Real pronunciation C Received pronunciation D Rich pronunciation 12.

General Knowledge Quiz

Dr Alexander Baratta, an expert on the subject at Manchester University, reckons accentism - the pressure on people with regional accents to assume a mode of speaking closer to received pronunciation - is the last taboo.

It's time we all spoke up in defence of our irreplaceable native accents

Dr Alexander Baratta, an expert on the subject at Manchester University, reckons accentism -- the pressure on people with regional accents to assume a mode of speaking closer to received pronunciation -- is the last taboo.

Why prejudice towards accents remains rife across the UK; Carolyn Hitt says 'accentism' is one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination

At the time, and for years afterwards, characters and presenters on the BBC tended to speak in standard, Received Pronunciation. Tyne Tees would help change that.

A North East institution for 60 years; TYNE TEES TELEVISION

His Yorkshire accent was a novelty when most people on TV spoke in received pronunciation and he was like a cheeky older brother, full of enthusiasm.

welcome

The sound files are searchable, which makes precise queries easy to pin down, although many insights arise just by browsing--such as the clarification that in the name of Titus Andronicus's Tamora, the stress falls on the first syllable, not the penultimate one (551); the rhyming of juice with voice or boy (304); or the prevalence of the post-vocalic /r/ that an accent such as the Shakespeare-on-stage 'standard' Received Pronunciation (RP) has little trace of today (unlike accents such as General American or Hiberno-English which still retain the rhoticity).

The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation

Received pronunciation - the standard form of British English pronunciation, based on educated speech in southern England and widely accepted as a standard elsewhere - (74 per cent), Northern Irish (70 per cent) and Southern Irish (70 per cent) rounded off the top four.

Brummie accent named least recognisable in UK

Clive Upton's chapter on British English first addresses the model English accent called Received Pronunciation (RP).

The handbook of English pronunciation