首页
登录
职称英语
【L1】 [br] 【L4】 [originaltext] People in Britain speak English with different
【L1】 [br] 【L4】 [originaltext] People in Britain speak English with different
游客
2025-01-11
16
管理
问题
【L1】 [br] 【L4】
People in Britain speak English with different accents according to where they come from and what kind of social status they have or what kind of education they received, etc. Among the various accents, there is one that has achieved a certain eminence. It’s called Received Pronunciation, RP. And this accent is also generally preferred for teaching English as a foreign language and for reading BBC news bulletins. Why is it so? Let’s take a look at how it evolved over the years, its features, its present status and so forth.
Received pronunciation, RP, had its historical origin in the dialect of English spoken particularly in the region stretching southeast from the midland which is in the central part of England down towards London, the capital city. The two historical university cities of Cambridge and Oxford, though outside this region, are also considered as the place of origin for the dialect. The dialect survived because of its association with centers of power and influence. It was spoken by the merchant classes of London in the 14th century, for example, and would have been familiar to students attending the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the Middle Ages. Its status as an important dialect was enhanced by its use in government and official documents from about 1430 onwards. More recently, its association since the 19th century with public schools helped to achieve special preeminence for its distinctive patterns of pronunciation. So we can see, in the United Kingdom at least, this accent is usually associated with a higher social or educational background, with the BBC and certain professions, and it’s most commonly taught to students learning English as a foreign language. For many such students, it is the only accent they are prepared to learn and the teacher who does not use it may have difficulty in finding a position as a teacher of English in certain non-English speaking countries. Other names for this accent are the Queen’s English, Oxford English, and BBC English. As the accent has lost its former regional affiliations, it is now the most widely understood and spoken of all the accents within the British Isles.
So what are the most interesting characteristics of RP? Firstly, the relatively very small number of speakers who use it do not identify themselves as coming from any particular geographical region. Secondly, RP is largely confined to England and there it is a non-localized accent. Thirdly, RP is a class accent. In England the higher the social class of the speaker, the less the regional accent and also the use of local words and grammatical forms. As we have seen, RP, a non-regional accent based on the speech of the great public schools, has been accepted as a standard inside England for well over a century. Increasingly, however, there has Been a tendency for the accent of educated people in Southeastern England to replace strict RP as the standard. RP has lost some of its prestige as people educated at public schools have lost their monopoly of power in education. A considerable part has been played by the great post-war expansion of higher education.
Today the majority of university students are not speakers of RP. Most school teachers, too, do not use RP but an educated regional accent. This is not to say that RP has lost all its magic. It still has a prestige, for example, in the financial and banking sectors, among senior government officials and officers of the Armed Forces. Moreover, since it has been so fully described, it is the accent usually taught to foreigners learning British English. But the public schools are no longer felt to have a monopoly of correct speech and the prestige of educated regional speech has risen enormously during the past half century. Since an educated southeastern accent is fairly similar to RP, there is a tendency nowadays for this to be regarded as a standard. It is the accent used, for example, by many radio and television announcers and presenters. On the other hand, there has been a rise in the prestige of all regional accents in Britain. And it is probable that we are moving towards the American position in which it is normal and acceptable for a speaker to use an educated regional accent, and there is no supra-regional class accent.
选项
答案
distinctive
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3907854.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]Dyslexiaisatermusedtodescribeamarkeddifficultyinle
[originaltext]ChinaandIndiahaveroughlythesamepopulation,butwhenit
[originaltext]ChinaandIndiahaveroughlythesamepopulation,butwhenit
[originaltext]InearlySeptember,Trinidad’sstate-ownedsugarcompanymade
[originaltext]InearlySeptember,Trinidad’sstate-ownedsugarcompanymade
[originaltext]InearlySeptember,Trinidad’sstate-ownedsugarcompanymade
Whatdoesthespeakerfeelaboutsummerpictures?[br][originaltext]Inanymov
Whatdoesthespeakerfeelaboutsummerpictures?[br][originaltext]Inanymov
Whatdoesthespeakerfeelaboutsummerpictures?[br][originaltext]Inanymov
Whatdoesthespeakerfeelaboutsummerpictures?[originaltext]Inanymoviethe
随机试题
Urbanlifehasalwaysinvolvedabalancingofopportunitiesandrewardsagai
伦敦国际石油交易所主要交易()。A、石油和天然气的期货和期权B、天然气和电力的期货和期权C、石油和电力的期货和期权D、石油的期货和期权A伦敦国
一切有利于生产力发展的方针政策都是符合人民根本利益的,改革开放有利于生产力的发展
建设项目管理计划的主要内容,不包括( )。A.进度计划和主要控制点 B.项目
防眩板主要结构尺寸有()。A.高度H B.宽度W C.厚度t D.固
社区卫生服务是指以谁为主体的卫生组织或机构所从事的一种社区定向的卫生服务A.专科
PC构件图纸深化设计由非原设计单位设计出图的,应在( )指导协助下由有拆分设计
基槽验槽的主要内容包括()。A.天然地基验槽应检查核实分析钎探资料,对存在的
防水工程冬期施工混凝土养护宜采用()等方法。A.蓄热法 B.综合蓄热法 C
常见的烷化剂有A.N-亚硝基化合物 B.氮芥 C.硫芥 D.烷基硫酸酯
最新回复
(
0
)