This chapter explores the history and identity of 'Received Pronunciation' or RP, spanning the 18th century, when comment on a non-localized British accent first appears, to contemporary discussion in terms of both usage and attitudes. Charting early attempts to disseminate and foster a reference model for spoken English, and the social meanings which could also thereby be cultivated, it also uses archive material to examine particular case-histories of its adoption and use. New archive material is also used to explore its role (and explicit fostering) in institutions such as the early BBC. Changes in modern RP (and attendant crises of definition and identity) are given careful consideration in order to evaluate the question of its continued validity, either as label or linguistic reality.
