Активные процессы в системе вокализма и консонантизма британской орфоэпической нормы RP

Abstract

The aim of the study is conditioned by significant changes in British Received Pronunciation (RP) and the need to determine its modern norms. The paper presents an attempt to define new permissible norms in the vowel and consonant systems based on data from the authoritative British learner’s dictionaries “Cambridge Dictionaries Online”, “Collins Dictionary”, “Macmillan Dictionary”, “Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries”, “Longman Pronunciation Dictionary”, “The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English”. A coherent analysis of these norms together with the norms of the so-called Conservative or Traditional RP is also carried out. Scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying new orthoepic norms, as well as the phenomena that were not previously characteristic of the vowel and consonant systems of British English (the use of the neutral vowel /ə/ in an unstressed syllable). The obtained results have demonstrated that in Modern RP, there is an active process of gradual replacement of the Conservative RP norms by the norms of the so-called Advanced RP, which was typical only for the representatives of the younger generation until the early 2000s. As the study shows, the former orthoepic norms are often completely replaced by the new ones when teaching English Received Pronunciation to foreigners.