Vowels Diphthongs and Tripthongs Consonants
A dialect is not merely a series of phonetic sound changes, but the vocal expression of all aspects of a culture. This is certainly true of R.P. (Received Pronunciation) or Standard British English. R.P. is spoken by middle and upper class educated people both in the southern part of England sometimes referred to as the “Home Counties” as well as other parts of the British Isles. It is used in British plays that are not written in a regional dialect. It was a bit more “plummy” (which refers to speaking as though you had a plum in your mouth) twenty-five years ago and has become more relaxed and influenced by Cockney in contemporary speech, but the following principals will work for most plays.
The differences between American Standard English and R.P. can be found principally in:
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vocal range and the melody pattern which tends to rise at the ends of phrases
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the lack of lateral lip spread in the front vowels
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the dropped R before another consonant
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the use of (“ah” as in father) for “a” vowel as in “last”
Vocal Range
Extensive. The lip opening is never spread laterally and the lips play very little part in vowel formation for R.P. The soft palate is high. An old fashioned way of getting the right tone is to imagine a pear in your mouth right under the soft palate at the back of the tongue. Imagine that the stem protrudes from your lips and that you speak around the stem of the pair. This helps keep the soft palate high and rounded. British speech tends to be formed forward in the mouth with the focus on the front of the mouth, just behind the upper front teeth.
In the sentence “Are you going out?”, the pitch will often begin much higher than in American English with the pitch highest on the last word, with a rising tone.
Articulation
The tip of the tongue is very agile. The upper lip is rather rigid – hence the term “stiff upper lip” often applied to the British. In general British speech is much quicker that American speech.