Changes in the Received Pronunciation

           Changes in the vowel quality:

           I. According to the stability of articulation.

           1. It is generally acknowledged that two historically long vowels [i:], [u:] have become diphthongized and are often called diphthongoids; the organs of speech slightly change their articulation by the very end of pronunciation, becoming more fronted. Charles Barber tries to draw a parallel with the Great Vowel Shift which took place in Middle English, where diphthongization was just one part of a complete change of pattern in the long vowels. He claims that there is some resemblance to this process today and other phonemes may move up to fill the places left vacant.

           2. There is a tendency for some of the existing diphthongs to be smoothed out, to become shorter, so that they are more like pure vowels:

           a) this is very often the case with [ei], particularly in the word final position, where the glide is very slight: [tə'dei], [sei], [mei];

           b) diphthongs [ai], [aʊ] are subject to a smoothing process where they are followed by the neutral sound [ə]: Conservative RP: [taʊə]; [faiə]; General RP: [taə], [faə]; Advanced RP: [tɑ:], [fa:];

           c) also diphthongs [ɔə], [ʊə] tend to be leveled to [ɔ:]. Thus, the pronunciation of the words pore, poor is varied like this: older speakers: [рɔə], [рʊə]; middle-aged speakers: [рɔ:], [pʊə]; younger speakers: [рɔ:], [рɔ:].

           It should be mentioned, however, that this tendency does not concern the diphthong [iə] when it is final. The prominence and length shift to the glide, this final quality often being near to [ʌ]: dear [diə] — [diʌ].

           II. According to the horizontal and vertical movement of the tongue.

           Very striking changes occur in the vowel quality affected by the horizontal movement of the tongue. In fact, the general tendency is marked by the centering of both front and back vowels:

           a) the nuclei of [ai], [aʊ] tend to be more back, especially in the male variant of the pronunciation;

           b) the vowel [æ] is often replaced by [a] by younger speakers: [hæv] — [hav], [ænd] — [and];

           c) the nucleus of the diphthong [ɜʊ] varies considerably ranging from [oʊ] among conservative speakers to [ɜʊ] and [əʊ] among advanced ones: Conservative RP: [soʊ], [foʊn], [noʊ]; Advanced RP: [sɜʊ], [fɜʊn], [nɜʊt] - [səʊ], [fəʊn], [nəʊt].

           This tendency is so strong that the transcription symbol has been changed: [oʊ] — [ɜʊ].

           d) back-advanced vowels [ʌ], [ʊ] are considerably fronted in Advanced RP: but [bʌt] — [bət], good [gʊd] — [gəd].

           There is a tendency for all short vowels to be produced nearer the center of the mouth, that is to move towards [a], especially in unstressed position.

       Centering of short vowels:

Vertical changes may be traced in the following:

           a) final [ɛ] and [i] may be very open

                           better  ['beta] > ['betɜ]

                           city     ['siti]   > ['sitə]

           b) [e], [ɔ:] tend to be closer in Advanced RP

                           dead [ded] > [ded] as in Russian “дети”

                           bought [bɔ:t] > [bu:t]

           c) the nuclei of diphthongs [ei, ɛa, ɔa, ua] become more open when these phonemes are being leveled, particularly the diphthong [a] which is characterized by a more opening of the nucleus:

                           careful ['kɛəfʊl] > ['kɛ:fʊl]

           The first element of the diphthong [ʊə] can be lowered considerably: poor [pʊə] > [poᵊ].

           III. Combinative changes

           It is general knowledge that when sounds are in company they influence each other. These changes are called combinative. They take place only in certain phonetic contexts. In a diacritic study, however, there is no sharp boundary between isolative and combinative changes.

           1.Changes in [j + u:], [l + u:]. Words like suit, student, super maybe pronounced either [sju:t] or [su:t], ['stju:dənt] or ['stu:dənt], [’sju:pə] or ['su:pə]. The tendency is for middle-aged and younger speakers to omit the [j] after [s] before [u:]. Word-internally [j] tends to be retained, as in assume: [asju:m]. There is also fluctuation after [l]: word-initially lute [lu:t] is normal, but it is possible to pronounce [ɪ'lju:ʒn] in illusion, for example. These recent developments in Combinative RP changes bear remarkable resemblance to American Standard pronunciation.

           2.Change of [ɔ:] to [ɒ] before [f, s, θ]. Where orthographic “o” occurs before the voiceless fricatives [f, s, θ] older speakers pronounce the vowel [ɔ:]: loss [lɔ:s]. This pronunciation is currently dying out in RP and being replaced by [ɒ]: [lɒs].

           Words like salt and fault still may be pronounced with [ɔ:].            

           IV. Changes in length

           It is an accepted fact that English vowels vary in length according to the phonetic context — the consonant they are followed by (voiceless, voiced), syllabic border, the degree of stress, the types of nuclear tone and so on.

           Actually nowadays there are changes in vowel length that are influenced by other factors. There is, for example, a strong tendency for the so-called short vowels to be lengthened, and it is interesting to note that this lengthening can be heard sporadically in many words in any position.

           The lengthening of [i] is often heard in big, his, is; of [ʊ] in good; [ʌ] in come. It should also be mentioned that [i] is often lengthened in the final syllable, i. e. very, many, ['veri:], ['meni:].

       Short vowels [e, æ] are also very frequently lengthened in yes, bed, men, said, sad, bad, bag and so on. This tendency has considerably increased in the past few years.

           Changes in consonant quality:

           1. Voicing and devoicing. As is well known, there is no opposition of final RP consonants according to the work of the vocal cords. They are all partially devoiced, particularly stops. Such devoiced sounds are clearly heard after long vowels and diphthongs as in deed: [di:d]. However, these partly devoiced consonants are never identical with their voiceless counterparts, because the latter are pronounced with strong breath-force.

           This tendency for devoicing now seems to be on the increase. As soon as the opposition of voiced — voiceless is neutralized in the final position, the fortis/lenis character of pronunciation has become the relevant feature of consonants.

           The voiced/voiceless distinction of the minimal pairs [sed] — [set], [dɒg] — [dɒk] may seem to be lost. Actually, it does not take place. The weak consonants are never replaced by their voiceless counterparts, they never become strong, the stops [b, d, g], though devoiced, never acquire aspiration. More than that, the interrelation of final consonants and the preceding stressed vowels is very close.

He saw his cap. — He saw his cab.

           Describing the positional allophones of the English stops A. C. Gimson characterizes the initial lenis [b, d, g] as partially devoiced, final lenis [b, d, g] as voiceless.

           The sound [t] in the intervocalic position is made voiced:

                           better ['betə] — ['bedə]

                           letter [‘letə] - ['ledə]

           2. Loss of [h]. In rapid speech initial [h] is lost in form words and tends to die out from the language. Even most highly educated people subconsciously drop it completely. So instead of: She wants her to come [ʃi: wɒnts hз tə ,кʌm] one hears: [i: wɒnts з tə ,кʌm]. It is evident, of course, that the loss of [h] in stressed syllables sounds wrong.

           3. Initial “hw”. Some Conservative RP speakers pronounce words like why, when, which with an initial weak breath-like sound [h] - [ʍ]. The general tendency is, however, to pronounce [w],

           4. Loss of final [ŋ]. The pronunciation of [in] for the termination [iŋ] has been restrained as an archaic form of the RP: siftin’, lookin’.

           These occasional usages are not likely to become general.

           5. Spread of “dark” [ł]. This tendency is evidently influenced by the American pronunciation and some Advanced RP speakers are often heard saying [ł] instead of [l], as in believe, for example. There is no threat in spreading it widely yet, but it is quite common for pop singers now. It should also be mentioned that sometimes final [ł] tends to be vocalized, as in people. But it is not likely to become a norm.

           6. Glottal stop. In RP the glottal stop [ʔ] can appear only in the following two environments: a) as a realization of syllable-final [t] before a following consonant, as in batman: ['bætman] — ['bæʔmn] or not quite: [‘nɒt ‘kwait] — [’nɒʔ 'kwait]; b) in certain consonant clusters, as in box, simply:[bɒʔks], ['siʔmpli], where it is known as “glottal reinforcements”. The use of glottal stop by Advanced RP speakers produces a “clipped” effect on a foreigner.

           7. Palatalized final [k'] is often heard in words week, quick, etc.: [wi:k'], [kwik'].

           8. Linking and intrusive [r]. It has been estimated that all English accents are divided into rhotic, or r-full, and non-rhotic, or r-less. Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r] corresponding to orthographic “r”. RP is a non-rhotic accent, but most speakers of it do pronounce orthographic “r” word-finally before a vowel: It is a faraway country. It is known as linking “r”. Failure by students to pronounce it does not usually affect comprehension, but may result in their sounding foreign.

           As a further development and by analogy with linking “r”, “r” is inserted before a following vowel even though there is no “r” in spelling. This “r” is known as intrusive “r”. The actual situation is that younger RP speakers do have it after [s], as in idea of,China and.

           It is said that nowadays in colloquial fluent speech there is a strong tendency towards elision, reduction and assimilation. This tendency is reflected in the pronunciation of the young generation: tutor ['tʃu:tə], second year ['sekəndʒiə], perhaps you [pə'hæpʃu:], gives you ['givʒu:], as you know [aʒju: 'nɜʊ]; in the transcribed texts of British textbooks: him [im], he [i:], her [ɜ], his [iz], can [kn], from [frm], than [ðn], them [ðm], some [sm], suppose [speuz], have to ['həftə], usually ['ju:ʒəli], last time ['la:staim], and there was no one [an ðər wz 'nɜʊ wʌn]; even in the traditional spelling: C’m on, baby, Sorry ’bout that. Oh, le’mme see. Oh, I dunno. Must’ve put’em all together. Why d’you ask? What dja think? Alright!

           9. Combinative changes. Sound combinations [tj, dj, sj] are pronounced as [tʃ, dʒ, ʃ] respectively, e. g. actual ['æktjʊəl] — ['æktʃʊəl], graduate ['grædjʊəit] — ['grædʒʊəit], issue ['isju:] — ['iʃu:].

           In the clusters of two stops, where the loss of plosion is usually observed, each sound is pronounced with audible release, e. g. active ['æktiv] — ['æktiv], sit down ['sitdaʊn] — ['sit 'daʊn].

           [j] is lost following [l, s, z]: suit [su:t] and after [n]: news [nu:z].