English After RP: Standard British Pronunciation Today

This book concisely describes ways in which today's standard British English speech differs from the upper-class accent of the last century, Received Pronunciation, which many now find old-fashioned or even comic. In doing so it provides a much-needed update to the existing RP-based descriptions by which the sound system of British English is still known to many around the world.

The book opens with an account of the rise and fall of RP, before turning to a systematic analysis of the phoneti...