Cover not available
Part of
Late Modern English: Novel encounters
Edited by Merja Kytö and Erik Smitterberg
[Studies in Language Companion Series 214] 2020
► pp. 21–41

“A received pronunciation”

Eighteenth-century pronouncing dictionaries and the precursors of RP

 | University of Sheffield
This chapter examines the codification of English pronunciation prior to the emergence and recognition of RP. I analyse early citations of “received pronunciation” and contrast these with later uses of “Received Pronunciation”. Drawing on Haugen (1966) and Milroy & Milroy (1999), I identify the processes of standardisation and distinguish standardisation from levelling before outlining the history of standardisation in English. I then discuss why the need for a standard pronunciation arose in the eighteenth century and the criteria used to select and codify pronunciations. I conclude that authors such as Walker and Sheridan did not succeed in implementing a standard pronunciation, but their attempts at codification laid the ground for the emergence of RP in the nineteenth century.
Article outline
  • 1.“Received pronunciation” or “a received pronunciation”?
  • 2.Standardisation: Theoretical issues
  • 3.Standardisation in the history of English: An overview
  • 4.Standardisation and the pronunciation of English
  • 5.Defining a standard pronunciation
  • 6.Codification in action: Choosing between variants
  • 7.Eighteenth-century codification: RP or not RP?
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Electronic resources
Published online: 18 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.214.01bea
References (61)
References
Abercrombie, David. 1965. Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics. London: OUP.Google Scholar
Agha, Asif. 2003. The social life of cultural value. Language and Communication 23(3–4): 231–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. 1999. English Pronunciation in the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. 2004. English in Modern Times. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. 2007. Three hundred years of prescriptivism (and counting). In Current Issues in Late Modern English, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade & Wim van der Wurff (eds), 35–55. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Boswell, James. 1934. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, edited by George Birkbeck Hill, revised and enlarged edition by Laurence Fitzroy Powell. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James. 1757. Linguae Britannicae Vera Pronuntiatio. London: A. Millar.Google Scholar
. 1762. The British Grammar. London: A. Millar.Google Scholar
. 1766. An Essay Towards Establishing a Standard for an Elegant and Uniform Pronunciation of the English Language, Throughout the British Dominions. London: A. Millar.Google Scholar
Bullokar, William. 1586. Pamphlet for Grammar. London: E. Bollifant.Google Scholar
Burn, John. 1786. A Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. Glasgow: Alex. Adam for the Author and James Duncan.Google Scholar
Cawdrey, Robert. 1604. A Table Alphabetical. London: I.R. For E. Weaver.Google Scholar
Collins, Beverly & Mees, Inger. 2001. Daniel Jones Prescriptivist R(I)P. English Studies 82(1): 66–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Christopher. 1687. The English Teacher. London: The Author.Google Scholar
Crowley, Tony. 2003. Standard English and the Politics of Language, 2nd edn. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Alexander J. 1869. On Early English Pronunciation. London: Asher and Trübner and Co.Google Scholar
Fisher, John H. 1996. The Emergence of Standard English. Lexington KY: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Gimson, Alan C. 1970. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, 2nd edn. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Gneuss, Helmut. 1972. The origin of standard Old English and Æthelwold’s school at Winchester. Anglo-Saxon England 1: 63–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Görlach, Manfred. 1991. Introduction to Early Modern English. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hart, John. 1569. An Orthographie. London.Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. 1966. Dialect, language, nation. American Anthropologist 68: 922–935. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickey, Raymond. 2007. Irish English. Its History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. ‘Telling people how to speak’: Rhetorical grammars and pronouncing dictionaries. In Current Issues in Late Modern English, Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade & Wim van der Wurff (eds), 89–116. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
. 2012a. Standard English and standards of English. In Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World, Raymond Hickey (ed.), 1–33. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
(ed.). 2012b. Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hogg, Richard. 2002. An Introduction to Old English. Edinburgh: EUP.Google Scholar
Holmberg, Börje. 1964. On the Concept of Standard English and the History of Modern English Pronunciation. Lund: Gleerup.Google Scholar
Honey, John. 1988. ‘Talking Proper’: Schooling and the establishment of English ‘Received Pronunciation’. In An Historic Tongue: Studies in English Linguistics in Memory of Barbara Strang, Graham Nixon & John Honey (eds), 209–227. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Johnson, Samuel. 1747. The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language. London: J. and P. Knapton, T. Logman and T. Shewell, C. Hitch, A. Millar and R. Dodsley.Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel. 1917. An English Pronouncing Dictionary. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Kenrick, William. 1773. A New Dictionary of the English Language. London: John and Frances Rivington, William Johnston et al.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1974. On the use of the present to explain the past. In Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Linguists, 825–851. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger. 1999. Phonology and morphology. In The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. III: 1476–1776, Roger Lass (ed.), 56–186. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Lenker, Ursula. 2000. The monasteries of the Benedictine Reform and the ‘Winchester School’: Model cases of social networks in Anglo-Saxon England? European Journal of English Studies 4(3): 225–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macaulay, Ronald K. S. 1997. Standards and Variation in Urban Speech. [Varieties of English around the World G20]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James. 2001. Language ideologies and the consequences of standardization. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5(4): 530–555. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, James & Milroy, Lesley. 1999. Authority in Language, 3rd edn. London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. 2004. Language ideologies and linguistic change. In Critical Reflections on Sociolinguistic Variation, Carmen Fought (ed.), 161–177. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, Lynda. 1997. John Walker and Alexander Ellis: Antedating RP. Notes and Queries March, 103–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. ‘Talking Proper’: The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol, 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu & Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Ingrid. 2006. Standardisation. In A History of the English Language, Richard Hogg & David Denison (eds), 271–311. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perry, William. 1775. The Royal Standard English Dictionary. Edinburgh: D. Willison.Google Scholar
Puttenham, George. 1589. The Art of English Poesie. London.Google Scholar
Rosewarne, David. 1994. Estuary English: Tomorrow’s RP? English Today 37: 3–8.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar. 2007. Postcolonial English: Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwyter, Jürg R. 2016. Dictating to the Mob: The History of the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sheridan, Thomas. 1762. A Dissertation on the Causes of the Difficulties, which Occur, in Learning the English Tongue. London: R. and J. Dodsley.Google Scholar
. 1780. A General Dictionary of the English Language. London: J. Dodsley, C. Dilly and J. Wilkie.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Shifters, linguistic categories and cultural description. In Meaning in Anthropology, Keith H. Basso & Henry A. Selby (eds), 11–55. Albuquerque NM: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Spence, Thomas. 1775. The Grand Repository of the English Language. Newcastle: Thomas Saint.Google Scholar
Trapateau, Nicolas. 2016. ‘Pedantick’, ‘polite’, or ‘vulgar’? A systematic analysis of eighteenth-century normative discourse on pronunciation in John Walker’s Dictionary (1791). Language and History 59(1): 25–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walker, John. 1774. A General Idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language on a Plan Entirely New. London: T. Becket, J. Dodsley, J. Robson, T. Davies and T. Lewis, E. and C. Dilly, G. Robinson and G. Kearsley.Google Scholar
. 1791. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary. London: G., G.J. and J. Robinson and T. Cadell.Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J. 2011. Language Myths and the History of English. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wells, John C. 1982. Accents of English. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wyld, Henry C. 1920. A History of Modern Colloquial English. London: Fisher Unwin.Google Scholar
Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria, Beal, Joan C., Sen, Ranjan & Wallis, Christine. 2018. ‘Proper’ pro-nun-ʃha-ʃhun in eighteenth-century English: ECEP as a new tool for the study of historical phonology and dialectology. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 33(1): 203–227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Electronic resources
ECEP:Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. Sheffield: Digital Humanities Institute. <[URL]>
OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2018. <[URL]>
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria
2022. Methodological approaches to the study of codification, prescription, and prescriptivism. Studia Neophilologica 94:3 ► pp. 334 ff. DOI logo
BEAL, JOAN C., RANJAN SEN, NURIA YÁÑEZ-BOUZA & CHRISTINE WALLIS
2020. En[dj]uring [ʧ]unes or ma[tj]ure [ʤ]ukes? Yod-coalescence and yod-dropping in theEighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. English Language and Linguistics 24:3 ► pp. 493 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.