RP: Received or Reference Pronunciation?

The paper deals with the issue of Received Pronunciation. Though still widely regarded as the Standard British English accent especially by the ELT world, this accent is gradually being rejected by contemporary phonologists. In the first part of this paper a brief description of RP is given. In addition, a historical perspective is offered in order to show how it came to be the accepted standard accent, in the period from the end of the nineteenth century until the first few decades of the twentieth century. A brief description of the different viewpoints among phonologists then follows. Finally, attention is focused on the issues related to some recognised and recognisable changes which concern RP, even if the latter is still treated as an ‘unvaried and unvariable’ accent by most phonology coursebooks both for teachers and learners of English.

L’articolo prende in esame la Received Pronunciation. Sebbene sia ancora considerato l’accento standard dell’inglese britannico, soprattutto dal mondo dell’English Language Teaching, tale posizione è stata gradualmente rifiutata dai fonologi contemporanei. Nella prima parte dell’articolo si offre una breve descrizione dell’RP e si traccia un quadro storico per spiegare come essa sia effettivamente diventata la forma ‘accettata’ dell’inglese standard a partire dalla fine del diciannovesimo secolo fino ai primi decenni del secolo scorso. Nell’ultima parte vengono analizzati alcuni cambiamenti – riconosciuti e riconoscibili – che riguardano la Received Pronunciation, anche se non registrati dai testi di fonologia della lingua inglese per insegnanti e studenti.