<P> The study of RP is concerned exclusively with pronunciation, whereas Standard English, the Queen's English, Oxford English, and BBC English are also concerned with matters such as grammar, vocabulary and style . An individual using RP will typically speak Standard English, although the converse or inverse is not necessarily true . The standard language may be pronounced with a regional accent and the contrapositive is usually correct . It is very unlikely that someone speaking RP would use it to speak a regional dialect . </P> <P> The introduction of the term Received Pronunciation is usually credited to Daniel Jones . In the first edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917), he named the accent "Public School Pronunciation", but for the second edition in 1926, he wrote, "In what follows I call it Received Pronunciation, for want of a better term ." However, the term had actually been used much earlier by Alexander Ellis in 1869 and P.S. Du Ponceau in 1818 (the term used by Henry C.K. Wyld in 1927 was "received standard".) According to Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965), the correct term is "' the Received Pronunciation' . The word' received' conveys its original meaning of' accepted' or' approved', as in' received wisdom' ." </P> <P> RP is often believed to be based on the accents of southern England, but it actually has most in common with the Early Modern English dialects of the East Midlands . This was the most populated and most prosperous area of England during the 14th and 15th centuries . By the end of the 15th century, "Standard English" was established in the City of London . </P> <P> Some linguists have used the term "RP" while expressing reservations about its suitability . The Cambridge - published English Pronouncing Dictionary (aimed at those learning English as a foreign language) uses the phrase "BBC Pronunciation" on the basis that the name "Received Pronunciation" is "archaic" and that BBC news presenters no longer suggest high social class and privilege to their listeners . Other writers have also used the name "BBC Pronunciation". The phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis frequently criticises the name "Received Pronunciation" in his blog: he has called it "invidious", a "ridiculously archaic, parochial and question - begging term" and noted that American scholars find the term "quite curious". He used the term "General British" (to parallel "General American") in his 1970s publication of A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of American and British English and in subsequent publications . Beverley Collins and Inger Mees use the term "Non-Regional Pronunciation" for what is often otherwise called RP, and reserve the term "Received Pronunciation" for the "upper - class speech of the twentieth century". Received Pronunciation has sometimes been called "Oxford English", as it used to be the accent of most members of the University of Oxford . The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association uses the name "Standard Southern British". Page 4 reads: </P>

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