"New Zealand English phonology This article covers the phonological system of New Zealand English. While New Zealanders speak differently depending on their level of cultivation (i.e. the closeness to Received Pronunciation), unless otherwise noted, this article covers the accent as it is spoken by educated speakers. The IPA transcription is one designed by specifically to faithfully represent a New Zealand accent, which this article follows in every aspect except in the case of , which is kept distinct from as they are not yet completely merged. It transcribes some of the vowels differently from Received Pronunciation (RP), whereas the approximant"
"Estuary English. BBC English was also a synonym for RP; people seeking a career in acting or broadcasting once learnt RP as a matter of course if they did not speak it already. However, the BBC and other broadcasters are now much more willing to use – indeed desire to use – regional accents. Language and writing style have consistently been one of the most reliable indicators of class, although pronunciation did not become such an indicator until the late-nineteenth century. The variations between the language employed by the upper classes and non-upper classes has, perhaps, been best documented by"
"in reference to the association of the standard to the upper class and aristocracy). Notable speakers of Conservative RP include Queen Elizabeth II and other older members of the Royal Family, Sir Winston Churchill and commentators of Pathé News and, prior to the 1960s, the BBC. The phonological features of Conservative RP which are distinct from Contemporary RP, include: The ""Journal of the International Phonetic Association"" regularly publishes ""Illustrations of the IPA"" which present an outline of the phonetics of a particular language or accent. It is usual to base the description on a recording of the traditional story of"
"RP has become outdated and has proposed a new system as a replacement. Like all accents, RP has changed with time. For example, sound recordings and films from the first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was usual for speakers of RP to pronounce the sound, as in ""land"", with a vowel close to , so that ""land"" would sound similar to a present-day pronunciation of ""lend"". RP is sometimes known as the Queen's English, but recordings show that even Queen Elizabeth II has changed her pronunciation over the past 50 years, no longer using an -like vowel"
"of lexical attrition has led most of this variation to disappear. Nonetheless this attrition has mostly affected dialectal variation in grammar and vocabulary, and in fact, only 3 percent of the English population actually speak RP, the remainder speaking regional accents and dialects with varying degrees of RP influence. There is also variability within RP, particularly along class lines between Upper and Middle-class RP speakers and between native RP speakers and speakers who adopt RP later in life. Within Britain, there is also considerable variation along lines of social class, and some traits though exceedingly common are considered ""non-standard"" and"
"a society than other accents. This is often due to their association with the elite part of society. For example, in the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation of the English language is associated with the traditional upper class. The same can be said about the predominance of Southeastern Brazilian accents in the case of the Brazilian variant of the Portuguese language, especially considering the disparity of prestige between most ""caipira""-influenced speech, associated with rural environment and lack of formal education, together with the Portuguese spoken in some other communities of lower socioeconomic strata such as ""favela"" dwellers, and other sociocultural variants"
"the British Received Pronunciation (RP) and prestige accents of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation, and, unlike RP, does not constitute a homogeneous national standard. Starting in the 1930s, nationwide radio networks adopted non-coastal Northern U.S. rhotic pronunciations for their ""General American"" standard. The entertainment industry similarly shifted from a non-rhotic standard to a rhotic one in the late 1940s, after the triumph of the Second World War, with the patriotic incentive for a more wide-ranging and unpretentious ""heartland variety"" in television and radio. General American is thus often associated with the speech of"
"it to be a working-class accent, but it is often used by lower middle classes as well. In the debate that surrounded a 1993 article about Estuary English, a London businessman claimed that RP was perceived as unfriendly and so Estuary English was now preferred for commercial purposes. Some people adopt the accent as a means of ""blending in"" to appear to be more working class or in an attempt to appear to be ""a common man"". That affectation of the accent is sometimes derisively referred to as ""Mockney"". A move away from traditional RP accents is almost universal among"
"accents, but even then Pickles modified his speech towards RP when reading the news. Although admired in some circles, RP is disliked in others. It is common in parts of Britain to regard it as a south-eastern English accent rather than a non-regional one and as a symbol of the south-east's political power in Britain. A 2007 survey found that residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland tend to dislike RP. It is shunned by some with left-wing political views, who may be proud of having an accent more typical of the working classes. Nasals and liquids (, , , ,"
"pronounced as words are often written in title case by Commonwealth writers, but usually as upper case by Americans: for example, ""Nasa / NASA"" or ""Unicef / UNICEF"". This does not apply to abbreviations that are pronounced as individual letters (referred to by some as ""initialisms""), such as ""US"", ""IBM"", or ""PRC"" (the People's Republic of China), which are virtually always written as upper case. However, sometimes title case is still used in the UK, such as ""Pc"" (Police Constable). Contractions where the final letter is present are often written in British English without full stops/periods (""Mr"", ""Mrs"", ""Dr"", ""St"","
"most books on general phonology and phonetics, and is represented in the pronunciation schemes of most dictionaries published in the United Kingdom. Most English dictionaries published in Britain (including the ""Oxford English Dictionary"") now give phonetically transcribed RP pronunciations for all words. Pronunciation dictionaries are a special class of dictionary giving a wide range of possible pronunciations; British pronunciation dictionaries are all based on RP, though not necessarily using that name. Daniel Jones transcribed RP pronunciations of a large number of words and names in the ""English Pronouncing Dictionary"". This is still being published by Cambridge University Press, and is"
"prestigious British feature, consistently starting among the upper classes in New York City in the nineteenth century before spreading to other socioeconomic classes. After World War II, social perceptions reversed, and the ""r""-preserving (rhotic) pronunciation became the prestige norm throughout the whole United States. Thus, what was once an upper-class feature only remained strong among vernacular speakers, due to the loss of Britain's imperial status, the national embracing of non-East Coast features, and widespread postwar migrations of rhotic speakers directly to New York from other regions of the country. Today, most New York City English is variably rhotic, a remnant"
"in words like ""land"". Some changes in RP during the 20th century include: The change in RP may be observed in the home of ""BBC English"". The BBC accent of the 1950s is distinctly different from today's: a news report from the 1950s is recognisable as such, and a mock-1950s BBC voice is used for comic effect in programmes wishing to satirise 1950s social attitudes such as the Harry Enfield Show and its ""Mr. Cholmondley-Warner"" sketches. More recently, in speakers born between 1981 and 1993, the vowel shifted up approaching in quality. The vowels and have undergone fronting and reduction"
"London via social class mobility and the expansion of London. From some time during the 19th century, middle and upper middle classes began to adopt affectations, including the RP accent, associated with the upper class. In the late 20th and 21st century other social changes, such as middle class RP-speakers forming an increasing component of rural communities, have accentuated the spread of RP. The South East coast accents traditionally have several features in common with the West country; for example, rhoticity and the a: sound in words such as ""bath"", ""cast"", etc. However, the younger generation in the area is"
"of post 16th century. In British English the standard, known as Standard English (SE), is historically based on the language of the medieval English court of Chancery. The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the establishment of this standard as the norm of ""polite"" society, that is to say of the upper classes. The spoken standard has come to be seen as a mark of good education and social prestige. Although often associated with the RP accent, SE can be spoken with any accent, such as General American, General Australian, etc. The standard form of Modern Greek is based on"
"or executives. This stratum, in England, traditionally uses Received Pronunciation natively. A typical Mosaic geodemographic type for this group would be cultural leadership. It is also usually assumed that this class is most predominant in the home counties of South East England and the more affluent boroughs of London. Children of this group are often educated at a preparatory school until about 13 years old and then at one of the ""major"" or ""minor"" British public schools which will typically charge fees of at least £11,500 per year per pupil (as of 2013) followed by one of the most prestigious"
"and, originally, RP, although today words of this group almost always have short in RP. The split still exists in some older RP speakers, including Queen Elizabeth II. The lengthening and raising generally happened before the fricatives , and . In American English the raising was extended to the environment before and , and in a few words before as well, giving pronunciations like for ""long"", for ""dog"" and for ""chocolate"". In the varieties of American English that have the lot–cloth split, the ""lot"" vowel is usually symbolized as , often called the ""short o"", and the ""cloth"" vowel as"
"class speakers had more rhotic pronunciation than working class speakers did. However, lower-middle class speakers had more rhotic pronunciation than upper-middle class speakers. Labov suggested that these lower-middle class speakers were attempting to emulate the pronunciation of upper-middle class speakers, but were actually over-producing the very noticeable R-sound. A common source of hypercorrection in English speakers' use of the language's morphology and syntax happens in the use of pronouns; see the section below. Hypercorrection can also occur when learners of a new-to-them (aka second, foreign) language try to avoid applying grammatical rules from their native language to the new language"
"people are promoted they often feel the need to adapt their language so that a wider group of people will understand them more clearly. They often leave out typical regional varieties and use more widely known varieties instead. Schools realise the need for a common language variety and encourage pupils to adopt Standard English (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999). Popular media such as TV and radio stations broadcast mostly from London and the south, causing traces of southern accents to be found in the north. Nowadays however, one finds a generally positive attitude towards different language forms as Non-Received Pronunciation English"
"English pronunciations: , partially due to the substitution of final schwas with the vowel. Both the IPA and respelled pronunciations were developed by the ICAO before 1956 with advice from the governments of both the United States and United Kingdom, so the pronunciations of both General American English and British Received Pronunciation are evident, especially in the rhotic and non-rhotic accents. The respelled version is usually at least consistent with a rhotic accent ('r' pronounced), as in , , , , and , whereas the IPA version usually specifies a non-rhotic accent ('r' pronounced only before a vowel), as in"
"as RP. The English Pronouncing Dictionary does not admit in words and the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists them with a § marker of non-RP status. John Wells wrote in a blog entry on 16 March 2012 that, when growing up in the north of England, he used in ""bath"" and ""glass"", and considers this the only acceptable phoneme in RP. Others have argued that is too categorical in the north of England to be excluded. Clive Upton believes that in these words must be considered within RP and has called the opposing view ""south-centric"". Upton's ""Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for"
"has been affected by other varieties of speech. Though the standard form historically aimed towards RP, it is not a perfect imitation. The result is that RP speakers now demonstrate changes in phonetic realization in the direction of the standard. Despite these shifts, a person using an RP accent would tend to give the impression that he or she is well-educated and part of a higher socioeconomic class. This is because these traits are often associated with RP speakers; they index specific concepts that are presupposed by the community. Similarly, in general, forms of speech gain their status by their"
"rs. is a variable quantity differing from individual to individual, although all its varieties are 'received', understood and mainly unnoticed"". According to ""Fowler's Modern English Usage"" (1965), the correct term is ""'the Received Pronunciation'. The word 'received' conveys its original meaning of 'accepted' or 'approved', as in 'received wisdom'."" RP is often believed to be based on the accents of southern England, but it actually has most in common with the Early Modern English dialects of the East Midlands. This was the most populated and most prosperous area of England during the 14th and 15th centuries. By the end of"
"is almost always a form of RP; however, some areas have their ""own"" prestige dialect, distinct from both RP and the working-class dialect of the region. England has a wide variety of regional dialects for a small country, most of which have working-class or lower middle-class connotations: An English citizen with arms registered in the College of Arms, or a Scottish citizen in the Lyon Court, can be referred to as armigerous. Any British citizen can apply for arms from their respective authority but only those of sufficient social standing would be granted arms. Arms in and of themselves are"
"responsible child of the old kentish tongue [...] the dialect of London North of the Thames has been shown to be one of the many varieties of the Midland or Mercian dialect, flavoured by the East Anglian variety of the same speech"". Since then, the cockney accent has been more accepted as an alternative form of the English language rather than an inferior one. In the 1950s, the only accent to be heard on the BBC (except in entertainment programmes such as ""The Sooty Show"") was RP, whereas nowadays many different accents, including cockney or accents heavily influenced by it,"
"and BBC World News, as well as through the channels operated by BBC Worldwide, means that audiences can consume BBC productions worldwide. The term ""BBC English"" was used as an alternative name for Received Pronunciation, and the ""English Pronouncing Dictionary"" uses the term ""BBC Pronunciation"" to label its recommendations. However, the BBC itself now makes more use of regional accents in order to reflect the diversity of the UK, while continuing to expect clarity and fluency of its presenters. From its ""starchy"" beginnings, the BBC has also become more inclusive, and now attempts to accommodate the interests of all strata"
"what distinguished most and those who spoke English or were taught English were considered the elite, meaning those able to be taught English were considered upperclassmen. This conceptualized way of thinking arose in 1984. This dialect is its own category and is the standard in Hong Kong. People with higher education, past experience of living in English-speaking countries, or who constantly interact with Hong Kong's English-speaking expatriate communities, generally speak an acquired form of English. Accent and spelling preference may vary from person to person, depending on the people they have interacted with and the country they have studied in."
"various rates ""socially"" into middle-class speech and ""geographically"" into other accents of southeastern England. The scholar Alan Cruttenden uses the term London Regional General British in preference to the popular term 'Estuary English'. The names listed above may be abbreviated: Some authors use different names for EE closer to Cockney (Popular London) and EE closer to Received Pronunciation (London Regional Standard or South-Eastern Regional Standard). Note that some other authors use the name Popular London to refer to Cockney itself. The boundary between Estuary English and Cockney is far from clearcut. Several writers have argued that Estuary English is not"
"Unlike traditional working-class communities, they do not form close-knit networks and tend to keep themselves to themselves. This type of network is common with migrants everywhere. For some features, especially vowels, the levelling leans towards the Received Pronunciation norm. For other features, especially consonants, the levelling leans more towards a general, southern, non-standard norm. Strong class awareness amongst youngsters and strong prejudice against 'posh' people explain why standard English and Received Pronunciation are not fully adopted. For the working class of Milton Keynes, it is a priority to establish a distinction between them and the upper class. This indicates that"
"analysis of English often concentrates on or uses, as a reference point, one or more of the prestige or standard accents, such as Received Pronunciation for England, General American for the United States, and General Australian for Australia. Nevertheless, many other dialects of English are spoken, which have developed independently from these standardized accents, particularly regional dialects. Information about these standardized accents functions only as a ""limited"" guide to all of English phonology, which one can later expand upon once one becomes more familiar with some of the many other dialects of English that are spoken. A phoneme of a"
"pronounce them as closely as possible to their original languages. Pronunciation respelling for English A pronunciation respelling for English is a notation used to convey the pronunciation of words in the English language, which does not have a phonemic orthography (i.e. the spelling does not reliably indicate pronunciation). There are two basic types of pronunciation respelling: As an example, the pronunciation of Arkansas, transcribed in the IPA, might be respelled ""är′kən-sô′"" or in a phonemic system, and ""arken-saw"" in a non-phonemic system. Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because"
"Pronunciation respelling for English A pronunciation respelling for English is a notation used to convey the pronunciation of words in the English language, which does not have a phonemic orthography (i.e. the spelling does not reliably indicate pronunciation). There are two basic types of pronunciation respelling: As an example, the pronunciation of Arkansas, transcribed in the IPA, might be respelled ""är′kən-sô′"" or in a phonemic system, and ""arken-saw"" in a non-phonemic system. Pronunciation respelling systems for English have been developed primarily for use in dictionaries. They are used there because it is not possible to predict with certainty the sound"
"or ""grand"". In the south-west, an sound in used in these words but also in words that take in RP; there is no trap–bath split but both are pronounced with an extended fronted vowel. Bristol is an exception to the bath-broadening rule: it uses in the trap and bath sets, just as is the case in the North and the Midlands. Accents originally from the upper class speech of the London–Oxford–Cambridge triangle are particularly notable as the basis for Received Pronunciation. Southern English accents have three main historical influences: Relatively recently, the first two have increasingly influenced southern accents outside"