2. Specialist dictionaries of English pronunciation.

The most authoritative specialist dictionaries of English pronunciation which cover both of the two of the most prestigious accents of English - contemporary RP/BBC English and GenAM - are The English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) and The Longman English Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD).

The EPD has been in use for about 90 years. It was originally compiled by Prof. Daniel Jones and first published in 1917. The first 14 editions of the EPD covered only British English. The 15^th edition (1997) introduced American pronunciation.

The most recent edition of the EPD is the 17^th which was first published in 2006 under the title The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (CEPD) CEPD provides information on the current pronunciation of approximately 80,000 English words and phrases.

The LPD is compiled by John C. Wells and was first published in1995. The author, Professor John Wells, holds the Chair of Phonetics in the University of London, a position previously occupied by A.C. Gimson and, before him, Daniel Jones.

The third (currently the latest) impression of the LPD is of 2008. It includes 135,000 pronunciations, giving full coverage of both British and American English.

Both The CEPD (2003) and The LPD (2000) are the most up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative sources of reference for the pronunciation of contemporary English which EFL teachers and learners can rely on.

Phonological and phonetic features of rp

Outline

1. Socio-historical survey of RP / BBC English.

2. Phonological and phonetic dimensions of RP / BBC English.

2.1. Phoneme inventory.

2.2. Phonotactic specification.

2.3. Phoneme lexical distribution.

1. Rp / bbc English as the British national standard of pronunciation

   0. Socio-historical survey of RP / BBC English.

The historical origins of RP go back to the 16^th-17^th century recommendations that the speech model should be that provided by the educated pronunciation of the court and the capital. Thus, the roots of RP are in London, more particularly the pronunciation of the London region and the Home Counties lying around London within 60 miles: Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Surrey.

By the 19^th century London English had increasingly acquired social prestige losing some of its local characteristics. It was finally fixed as the pronunciation of the ruling class.

In the mid 19^th century there was an increase in education, in particular, there occurred the rise of public schools (since 1864 Public School Act). Since that time London English or Southern English was termed as Classroom English, Public School English or Educated English.

By 1930 the term “Standard Pronunciation” was replaced by “Received Pronunciation” (RP), which had been introduced for Southern Educated English by phonetician Ida Ward who defined it as pronunciation whish had lost all easily noticeable local differences.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) adopted RP for the use by its news-readers since 1920s. For that reason RP was often called BBC English.

According to Prof. J.C. Wells contemporary RP does not constitute a single variety but a set of varieties correlating with the speaker’s education, social status and other social factors.

Estuary English (EE) received great media attention in 1993 as the new standard English. It resembles RP and Cockney but is not equal to any of them.

Major linguistic sources for RP. The first description and codification of RP was made by professor Daniel Jones in his books The Pronunciation of English (1909) and Outline of English Phonetics (1917). Professor Alfred Charles Gimson gave an explicit description of RP in the middle of the 20^th century in his book An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. One of the most authoritative and detailed descriptions of all major accents of English was made by professor John C. Wells in his three-volume Accents of English.