The Latest Developments Of The RP Vowel System

RP (Received Pronunciation), the standard accent in British English, has been the most fully described English pronunciation model up till now. It has been introduced into EFL in China for more than eighty years and served as the standard model adopted in the compiling of dictionaries and textbooks. Due to the changing situation of RP in Britain and the spread of American English, there has arisen a discussion about whether or not RP is suitable to continue to be the standard pronunciation model in EFL. We believe that further discussions are necessary.In this thesis we single out the evolution of the RP vowel system to illustrate the developing nature of the RP system. A diachronical survey of the successive editions of An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, the classic left by A.C.Gimson, and a comparative analysis of the pronunciation by BBC television announcers in different periods reveal that under the broadening trend of the RP system, the General RP vowel system has undergone dramatic changes since the end of last century.With the development of British society, RP has found itself in a new situation. On the one hand, with the rigid social strata breaking down in Britain, RP is no longer regarded as an accent with high social prestige. Its status as a standard model has been challenged. On the other hand, during the exposure to regional accents through the BBC, RP has also been modified by adopting some regional features. In the new situation with changed social structure and the extensive spread of RP among regional accents, the traditional definition based on social sections has become obsolete and the original concept has been "diluted".