The Recent Incorporation of EE Features into the Modernized Form of RP

Reasons, Conclusions and Suggestions

الملخص

RP is an evolutionary type of pronunciation that requires coping with
by its learners. It is obvious that it has witnessed many changes, and one
needs only compare the so called "conservative" type of the 40s and 50s of
the last century with the more "modernized" one.
The mass media and the great improvement of communication
during the last score rendered many forms of pronunciation available, and
this includes the RP accent. Through these media it has been easy for a
keen listener to perceive radical changes in some phoneme realizations and
vowel qualities in the speech of many native speakers of the accent. For
instance, an Iraqi learner of the RP type of pronunciation, who expects to
hear /nju:z/ for news; /pleɪ/ for play; /gәʊt/ for goat, will be surprised to
hear the following pronunciations, instead: /nu:z/, /plΛɪ/, /gΛʊt/. Such
pronunciations, which were typical of certain regional accents, have
recently found their way into the speech of many native speakers of RP.
Since pronunciation is one of the most fleeting aspects of linguistic
development, any recent changes in that aspect should not be overlooked
by an EFL teacher or learner, for they may pave the way for a more
modernized version of the accent adopted as a standard.