What Are The Standardization Of English Pronunciation?

Prior to the Norman Invasion of England, the language of England was West Saxon. Later, after the Norman Conquest; French became the National language of England. However, Latin was the language still used in official correspondence and documentation in both English and French territories, because of its prestigious status. By 14th and 15th century; there was a rise in the use of English in all context and; as English successfully challenged French and Latin for primacy in England, there commenced to be seen the necessity of a more standardized and unified form of the language (Thomas, 2010). We often associate specific items or events with standardization, for example translations of the Bible into English, Caxton’s printing press in England, Chancery English in government documents, Establishment of BBC, and Dr Johnsons’s dictionary of English,

BBC Manging Dirctor reconginzed the power of radio with respect to language standardization issues and insisted; announcer should only speak correct english without any affectioin; which means “Public School Pronunciation” – eventually relabeled “Recived Pronunciation” . In 1926, Reith’s Advisory Committee on Spoken English; to recommend to broadcasters a standard pronunciation for uncommon words or words with alternative pronunciations, was important step in the standardization of RP: Implementation. Later they published Broadcast English I and BBC Handbook which elaborate the function of RP (Bergs, 1996). Lloyd James mentioned in the BBC Handbook (1929) that implementing certain pronunciations to announcers does not mean that other pronunciation are low prestige; the norm is to achieve the uniformity. However, many people accepted RP as more prestigious one as it associates with power, money and influence (Mcarthur,