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Неплохая статья по теме: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/rphappened.htm
RP is an accent that doesn’t tell anything about geographical background of the speaker, but certainly tells a lot about his/her cultural and educational background.
Celtic languages → Anglo-Saxon → 1066 – English relegated to the masses.
The middle of the 14th century was the time when Norman kings began using English officially. Then, in the middle of the 15th century (in 1450) the printing press was invented by Johann Gutenberg. In England the first person to introduce printing press was William Caxton. He was not only the first printer, but also the first English retailer of printed books. The English language was changing rapidly in Caxton's time and the works he was given to print were in a variety of styles and dialects. Caxton was a technician rather than a writer and he often faced dilemmas concerning language standardization in the books he printed. He wondered what dialect to choose as an ideal one. He chose London being the centre of everything: country, culture and so on. Since that time London dialect began to evolve in a kind of standard.
In England there was a clear cut connection between standard and educatedness. However, those who spoke with a regional accent were not despised. For example, Sir Walter Raleigh, a Shakespeare’s contemporary, spoke with a Devonshire accent.
In XVI – XVII appeared the idea that teaching a child some kind of standard you should send it to a boarding-school. Famous boarding-schools: Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester.
However, even some famous and educated people spoke with regional accents. Sir Robert Warpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, used Norfolk accent. William Gladstone used the Lancashire accent. Dr. Samuel Johnson (XVIII), the author of the first English dictionary in 1755, spoke with a marked Staffordshire accent. Later he had to modify his way of pronouncing in English.
The beginning – the middle of the XIX century was the time when a proper pronunciation became a must. At the end of the century a centralized education became a condition sine qua non. Especially the officers in the army had to speak standard English without any regional accent.
RP. Daniel Jones invented a term “PSP” in the 19th century, which stands for “public school pronunciation”. Later on, by 1920s, he abandoned this term in favour of “RP”. In the 1st edition of his dictionary he wrote: “It’s the pronunciation most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of southeast persons whose menfolk were educated at the great public boarding schools”. RP is sometimes called BBC English.
In 1920s – 1930s broadcasters had higher education and they even wore dinner jackets while sitting invisible at the studio microphone. But alas, RP is now R.I.P. Today a heavy regional accent is a passport to public fame. Nowadays only 3% (out of 15 mln people) of British population use RP.
Varieties of RP:
Conservative RP belongs to people of older generation, general is used by the best BBC announcers, advanced is used by younger generation.
Another classification was introduced be John Wells:
Next comes a dichotomy introduced by John Honey:
The features of marked RP:
Marked RP has got a very distinctive articulatory set, in which a stiff upper lip is a prominent feature.
Estuary English (the estuary of Thames) now spreads further north and south because of the commuters (people who travel to work long distances) who disseminate the Estuary English to further areas of the country.
The characteristics of Estuary English:
It is believed that Estuary English can later replace RP.