We don’t hear the expression ‘RP’ so much nowdays, but with the Royal Wedding happening at the
end of this month I was wondering how many voices we’d be hearing that might be described as ‘RP’. Just in case you’re a little mystified by the expression…
RP stands for ‘Received Pronunciation’. It became widely used in the 1920’s. ‘Received’ meaning ‘accepted’. 
The Queen’s English
It’s often assumed that the RP accent refers to the way the Queen speaks, but really it was the description given for the way a certain social elite living in the South East of England spoke, often reflecting their public school education. It soon became referred to as the ‘Queen’s English’. Eventually it was asociated with ‘ BBC English’ and through the first half of the 20th century anyone who wanted to sound ‘educated’ was encouraged,and expected to speak with an RP accent. It is still the common accent of the English upper and middle class.
Evolving speech
Until about twenty years ago we judged people by how ‘well’ they spoke, assuming that well-spoken people were in some way better, cleverer or more educated. A strong Northern, West Country or foreign sounding accent was a barrier to many professions. Today that’s not so true. The average BBC voice is much more relaxed with plenty of regional variety. It’s not unusual for a solicitor or teacher to speak with a regional or immigrant influenced accent. In fact I’d say in some circles there’s almost an ‘inverted’ snobbery to the way we speak. RP is out and ‘street’ or ‘authentic’ is in.
The New Influencers
I hear variations of ‘Estuary’ English (South East influenced talk with glottal stops and softened consonants) working with young professionals throughout the UK. Posh talk is definitely deemed to be uncool.
Speech evolves, it changes with the influences in our society and it’s moving fast!
** After the election of our new Tory led coalition government with its dominance of public school /private sector educated Cabinet Members, I notice that ‘posh talk’ has been given a significant boost in confidence. This happens – the influencers of society very definitely influence the way we talk.
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