Does RP stop being popular among native speakers?

Fernandes   Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:55 pm GMT
RP is said to be high-sounding and affected among native speakers. But anyway it is the accent adopted by the BBC news readers. The question is: Does it stop being popular among native speakers?
M56   Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:29 pm GMT
It's never been popular. It's use has always been minimal.
12IR   Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:56 pm GMT
"RP is said to be high-sounding and affected among native speakers. But anyway it is the accent adopted by the BBC news readers."

Hmm...

I'd have to agree with M56 on this. "RP" has never been "popular." And it was never meant to be. It was always touted as a sort of highly enunciated accent with class overtones.

In terms of the BBC, the principal benefit of RP in its heyday was that it was the "respected" accent and it was perceived as a standard (that is to say, non-regional) accent. Most importantly, it had a deliberately stilted, formal and over-enunciated style to it (listen to the "voice-over" in just about any old British newsreel or radio segment from the Sixties or further back - particularly those covering the Royal Family).

In the days when broadcasting sound quality was less than perfect, RP did fulfil a useful role: it provided a clear, if rather exaggerated, form of English enunciation. The "cut glass" accent was no accident: British actors of 1930-50 vintage (e.g., Leslie Howard) sounded that way for a reason: their enunciation assisted them in overcoming the sound limitations of the stage and screen of their day and "projecting" to their audience.

My sense is that most BBC commentators today tend to use the "Tony-Blair-metrosexual" accent.

These days, anyone speaking in RP is more likely to make UK radio listeners or television viewers cringe.

But, this is just an opinion.
Llorenna   Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:33 pm GMT
My sense is that most BBC commentators today tend to use the "Tony-Blair-metrosexual" accent.


Tony Blair accent sound very homosexual to me...
D. Backham accent as well.
Chris   Sat Jan 13, 2007 9:30 am GMT
Llorena are you a guy or a girl? If you're a guy with a girl's name I'm interested xxx
I speak perfect modified RP.
Either you're very young or very naive and quite homophobic from what I can gather.

It's clear you're not a native speaker of English ("accent sounds" and not "accent sound" and that "Llorenna" Folies Bergères name from somewhere more to the east.)

What do "macho" men sound like in your native language? Do they have really low, deep voices? Which is your native language?
Clarie   Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:38 am GMT
I will have to agree with M56 on this one.

However, if you're into theatre, accent coaches usually teaches RP/Standard British accent as 'The British accent', because it is what the world recognises as the 'usual' (eventhough it's not).

Clarie <3
Rick Johnson   Thu Jan 18, 2007 11:39 pm GMT
I think there are some subtle differences between RP and a RADA (theatre) accent. For instance, many actors will pronounce "r"s at the end of words, but not stress them as in rhotic accents. RP, however, tends to leave "er" sounds open making them sound close to an "a" sound.