RP Signature Sounds

RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION
Signature Sounds:
1. |t|. This is pronounced as an unvoiced, aspirated, released plosive in all positions –
beginning, medial and final word positions. Many dialects pronounce |t| as |d| or |r|
in medial and final positions. RP speakers treat this consonant more sharply and
explosively than any other accent.
Examples: better, lots of, shatter, motive, eating, sit down, writer
2. |j|. Adding the semi vowel of |j| following alveolar consonant, |t|, |d|, |n|, |l| and
|s| and preceding |u| an RP speaker often intrudes the semi vowel |j|.
Examples are duel, during, news, nude, suit, tune, lurid, intuition.
3. Bath set – |a:|. This is integral to the accent. Generally the older the character the tighter
the vowel. For example: matter of fact would use |e|.
Examples are pass, past, dance, chance, ask, laughter, bath, can’t, master, half.
4. The thought lexical set is |ɔː|. It is open and rounded back vowel. RP speakers
pronounce it very long, as much as twice as long as North Americans. It is almost
impossible to make this vowel too long or too lip rounded.
Examples: awful, daughter, awkward, call, chalk, small.
5. Nurse set, in signature sounds #6, #7, #8, the words are all pronounced without r-
colouration. Non-rhotic. During the pronunciation of words in which an |r| follows the
vowel, the tongue tip stays low in the mouth during the |r|, effectively silencing it. It is
also important that the lips be neutral during this vowel, or even slightly spread, in
contracts with Welsh of American pronunciation in which there is some lip-rounding, or
in some Northern British dialects, in which the lips are spread much wider than in RP.
Examples: bird, her, earn, curdle, worm, first, purr, journey, tournament, colonel,
berserk.
(The exception to this silencing is signature sound #14).
6. The second r-less vowel is |ɔ|, as found in the north and force sets, sounded identically in
this dialect. (also the same as #4, thought)
Examples: warm, court, sport, morning, sword, quarter, sure, fork, forum.
7. Start set |ɑ|. This set is important when silencing the |r| is not sufficient & you need to
actually produce a different vowel sound. (Often for American Midwest, Missouri accent
speakers)
Examples: harm, card, far, park, army, heart, sergeant, clerk, garden party
8. The schwa is the fourth r-less vowel |ə|. It occurs as a weakly stressed, single stage
vowel but also as part of two and three stage vowels (diphthongs and triphthongs).
Examples: letter, mother, perhaps, pester, rare, inquire, rower, our, hour, lawyer,
layer, spare, fire.
Taken in part from Accents & Dialects for Stage and Screen – Paul Meier 2012
9. The Goat Lexical set, the vowel is pronounced |əʊ| it is used as a diphthong or a glide.
Starts from lip neutral central sound |ə| to lip-rounded back vowel of |ʊ|.
Examples: bolt, bold, comb, so, owned, tow, though, lonely, moaning, slow.
10. The Lot and Cloth lexical sets in RP are open, rounded back vowel of |ɒ|. This vowel is
short and pure.
Examples: dog, obvious, knowledge, collar, along, want, fox, laurel, moral,
Austria, Gloucester, cough.
11. The diphthong |aʊ| of the mouth set may not be a change for you. However, if you are
from Northern Ireland or Australia, this will likely be a change.
Examples: now, round, south, doubt, owl, mountain, bough, Paolo, Faust
12. In may dialects of English, the |r| in the following list colours the vowel and seems to
be part of it. In RP, however, the |r| is treated as a consonant that starts the following
syllable. Thus, a word like hurry is a definite two-syllable word in RP |hʌɹɪ|, as opposed
to |hɝi|, arguably a one-syllable pronunciation. You must use the open-mid back unrounded
vowel |ʌ| for these words.
Examples: hurry, worry, courage, Durham, borough, furrow, burrow, burro
13. In a similar vein, the |r| in the words of this list also seems to initiate the following
syllable rather than colouring the vowel that precedes it. Most American actors will also
have to open the vowel to |æ| and avoid the |ɛ|, which is the dominant pronunciation
in North America.
Examples: Harry, marry, Paris, carriage, arrow, Marilyn, Carolyn, parapet
14. The linking |r|. In this one signature sound, we lump together both the treatement of
|r| when it terminates one word, then followed by a vowel (as in her eyes and here are) and
the so-called intrusive |r|, in which may RP speakers intrude an |r| even when none is
present in the spelling.
Examples: here is, there are, her eyes, fear of death, idea of it, Shah of Persia,
Spanish Armada only, Maria adores.
15. May RP speakers, on works like party will use a short || in the last position.
Examples: party, lovely, crazy, pretty, ugly, city, silly, forty; and in unstressed
positions, we laugh, he came, she heard.
RP Signature Sound Practise Phrases:
1. A lot of better writers print a lot of little words.
2. The tumultuous news assumed the duke fought a duel in the nude.
3. He laughed as he danced to the bath past his aunt in pyjamas.
4. Paul’s daughter Laura is awfully awkward when she talks and walks.
5. The first early bird murdered thirty turning worms.
6. An enormous tornado tore up the store this morning.
7. A star called Marx stole our hearts with his harp.
8. Our brother and sister met a lawyer from Denver.
9. Oak Road is zoned for mobile homes only.
10. They stopped a lot of nonsense at a college in Watford.
11. A crowd was shouting loudly down in the town by the fountain.
12. Courage is needed for curry in the borough of Durham.
13. In Paris Harry shot a sparrow from his carriage with an arrow.
14. The Shah of Persia insists that Maria is to never abandon her uncle.
15. We had a lovely, silly party when Billy was fifty.

RP Signature Sounds

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RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION

1. A lot of better writers print a lot of little words.

3. He laughed as he danced to the bath past his aunt in pyjamas.

5. The first early bird murdered thirty turning worms.

6. An enormous tornado tore up the store this morning.

7. A star called Marx stole our hearts with his harp.

8. Our brother and sister met a lawyer from Denver.

9. Oak Road is zoned for mobile homes only.

10. They stopped a lot of nonsense at a college in Watford.

12. Courage is needed for curry in the borough of Durham.

15. We had a lovely, silly party when Billy was fifty.

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