the RP accent(uk people)

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uk people with accent,can you do
an RP or a neutral english accent.

my RP accent is very terrible.

what is "RP" accent?

"Received Pronunciation" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_pronunciation

aha, so that is david Cameron's manner of speech then. the Beeb accent, sorta like England's equivalent of standard American broadcast English.

This might be a touchy subject for them.

Why should it be?

I can do pretty much any accent. I think the trick is to change the tone of your own voice you hear in your head, and then you will eventually speak in this way. I think this explains why some people move somewhere, and they'll still keep their own accent, while others will change within weeks.

Practice some phrases, and it'll just happen.

Spotty dog, hey!

I've always been able to do different accents. I think it's just a matter of concentrating in detail on how each different word is pronounced,
rather than thinking about speaking in a different accent - look after the words and the accent will take care of itself.

No, I can't do RP. The weird thing about RP is that it is not from any particular region. It is not indicative of your geographical location, but of your social class.

can people in England do as eliza Doolittle did [in "Pygmalion"] and learn step by step to ape RP, with or without the guidance of a henry Higgins-type?

You'd think.

I took a fun little dialects class taught by an actress here in the USA.

There are zillions of regional british accents, but for basic american showbiz purposes you have to know two kinds: 'upperclass', and 'cockney'.

"Upperclass" is what the brits themselves call "RP". Cockney is the blue collar dialect of London's East End.

Both are easy for an american to do with minimal coaching. So I dont see why the brits themselves cant learn to do RP as well as I can. I can 'do' David Attenboro and sound "veddy British inDEED".



Lol!

Last edited by naturalplastic on 09 Oct 2013, 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

unfortunately, I seem to lack the genes to sound like anybody other than bill gates with a chest cold.

The way I understand RP, it means people that speak like those that do the BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnQ2Lk20n3U[/youtube]

If so, that's the way I speak.

Last edited by StarCity on 09 Oct 2013, 4:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No it's isn't. Upperclass means aristocratic. Received Pronunciation is different to speaking like an aristocrat. Aristocratic and RP are two different accents, but you could say the former is an exaggerated version of the latter.

The man in this video shows us how to speak with an RP accent in order to do a brilliant piss-take of an upperclass accent. He refers to the upperclass accent as "posh."


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDTAz4wWz5g[/youtube]


Note: saying "Air Hair Lair" will only produced the desired effect if you say the three specified words in a neutral RP English accent. It will be no use saying "Air Hair Lair" in an American accent or a Scottish or Irish one, because those kind of accents drawl the letter R at the end of words. RP does not drawl (or even pronounce) Rs at the end of words. It omits them.

Even though I don't speak RP, my own particular accent (neutral Northern English) also omits Rs at the end of words, so his little trick works for me, too.

Notice the man demonstrating the difference between aristocratic and RP: "Air Hair Lair" in upperclass vs "Oh Hello" (pronounced "Ow Hellow") in RP.

Come on, let's say "Air Hair Lair," everybody. "Air Hair Lair."

Or rather, since this post is now ending, I suppose at this point I ought to be saying "Toodle-Oo."

Maybe an accent more like this?:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tekXxB6dosQ[/youtube]

@ LogicalMolly.

I'll have to wait until I can get to the newer computer in the house to see the video, but I was thinking about R's, and how that might be the problem for brits to do RP.

In RP you sound 'uppah clahss' and drop your r's.

While in other British dialects you ROLL your r's.

While in midwestern and in western USA talk you just pronounce your R's (maybe with drawl) without rolling them.

So americans can do RP easier than say Scotsmen.

In some american dialects they are also starting to drop R's in an independent evolution.

Which is irritating as hell because you cant tell if a New Yorker is telling you he is going to a soiree, or going to releave himself, when he announces he is going to "a potty"( pahyty? Party? wif?).

Last edited by naturalplastic on 09 Oct 2013, 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not from the UK (I'm Swedish), but I can talk perfect received pronunciation, if I concentrate myself. I decided that I had to learn it after playing a medieval fantasy game which had it. That game, along with reading translated manga, also was what made me decide to get excellent with English.... school was useless, but luckily, I could teach it to myself, by myself.

...I have always been great with pronunciation, though... regardless of the language..... sorry, I do not mean to brag. -.-