150-455: Received Pronunciation ( RP ) is the British English accent regarded as the standard one, carrying the highest social prestige , since as late as the very early 20th century. Language scholars have long disagreed on topics such as: the exact definition of RP, how geographically neutral it is, how many speakers there are, the nature and classification of its sub-varieties, how appropriate
300-474: A Lord Chancellor of England and afterwards Bishop of Rochester , devised a series of regulations for college life; Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford, as well as at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–1334, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found
450-565: A West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands. The resident population at this time was generally speaking Common Brittonic —the insular variety of Continental Celtic , which was influenced by the Roman occupation. This group of languages ( Welsh , Cornish , Cumbric ) cohabited alongside English into
600-426: A syllabic nasal ( bitten [ˈbɪʔn̩] ). The glottal stop may be realised as creaky voice ; thus, an alternative phonetic transcription of attempt [əˈtʰemʔt] could be [əˈtʰemm̰t] . As in other varieties of English, voiced plosives ( /b/ , /d/ , /ɡ/ , /dʒ/ ) are partly or even fully devoiced at utterance boundaries or adjacent to voiceless consonants . The voicing distinction between voiced and voiceless sounds
750-510: A basis for description in textbooks and classroom materials. RP has been the traditional choice for teachers and learners of British English . However, the choice of pronunciation model is difficult, and the adoption of RP is in many ways problematic. Nasals and liquids ( /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , /r/ , /l/ ) may be syllabic in unstressed syllables . The consonant /r/ in RP is generally a postalveolar approximant , which would normally be expressed with
900-555: A blog entry on 16 March 2012 that when growing up in the north of England he used /ɑː/ in "bath" and "glass", and considers this the only acceptable phoneme in RP. Others have argued that /æ/ is too categorical in the north of England to be excluded. Clive Upton believes that /æ/ in these words must be considered within RP and has called the opposing view "south-centric". Upton's Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English gives both variants for BATH words. A. F. Gupta's survey of mostly middle-class students found that /æ/
1050-549: A century as Received Pronunciation (RP). However, due to language evolution and changing social trends, some linguists argue that RP is losing prestige or has been replaced by another accent, one that the linguist Geoff Lindsey for instance calls Standard Southern British English. Others suggest that more regionally-oriented standard accents are emerging in England. Even in Scotland and Northern Ireland, RP exerts little influence in
1200-651: A choice it is as a standard, how the accent has changed over time, and even its name. The study of RP is concerned only with matters of pronunciation, while other features of Standard British English , such as vocabulary , grammar , and style , are not considered. The accent has changed, or its traditional users have changed their accents, to such a degree over the last century that many of its early 20th-century traditions of transcription and analysis have become outdated or are no longer considered evidence-based by linguists . Still, these traditions continue to be commonly taught and used, for instance in language education , and
1350-513: A college and a PPH is that whereas colleges are governed by the fellows of the college, the governance of a PPH resides, at least in part, with the corresponding Christian denomination. The four current PPHs are: The PPHs and colleges join as the Conference of Colleges, which represents the common concerns of the several colleges of the university, to discuss matters of shared interest and to act collectively when necessary, such as in dealings with
1500-646: A diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central university (the Bodleian ), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members). The university's formal head is the Chancellor , currently Lord Patten of Barnes (due to retire in 2024), though as at most British universities,
1650-409: A first-year examination that was heavily focused on classical languages . Science students found this particularly burdensome and supported a separate science degree with Greek language study removed from their required courses. This concept of a Bachelor of Science had been adopted at other European universities ( London University had implemented it in 1860) but an 1880 proposal at Oxford to replace
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#17328370789561800-636: A former headmaster of Rugby School, was a key member of the Oxford Commission; he wanted Oxford to follow the German and Scottish model in which the professorship was paramount. The commission's report envisioned a centralised university run predominantly by professors and faculties, with a much stronger emphasis on research. The professional staff should be strengthened and better paid. For students, restrictions on entry should be dropped, and more opportunities given to poorer families. It called for an enlargement of
1950-501: A greater movement, normally [əʊ], [əʉ] or [əɨ]. Dropping a morphological grammatical number , in collective nouns , is stronger in British English than North American English. This is to treat them as plural when once grammatically singular, a perceived natural number prevails, especially when applying to institutional nouns and groups of people. The noun 'police', for example, undergoes this treatment: Police are investigating
2100-449: A group which evolved into the Society of Oxford Home-Students and in 1952 into St Anne's College . These first three societies for women were followed by St Hugh's (1886) and St Hilda's (1893). All of these colleges later became coeducational, starting with Lady Margaret Hall and St Anne's in 1979, and finishing with St Hilda's , which began to accept male students in 2008. In
2250-406: A lesser class or social status and often discounted or considered of a low intelligence. Another contribution to the standardisation of British English was the introduction of the printing press to England in the mid-15th century. In doing so, William Caxton enabled a common language and spelling to be dispersed among the entirety of England at a much faster rate. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of
2400-551: A major public fundraising campaign, the Campaign for Oxford . The current campaign, its second, was launched in May 2008 and is entitled "Oxford Thinking – The Campaign for the University of Oxford". This is looking to support three areas: academic posts and programmes, student support, and buildings and infrastructure; having passed its original target of £1.25 billion in March 2012, the target
2550-511: A member of the university, all students, and most academic staff, must also be a member of a college or hall. There are thirty-nine colleges of the University of Oxford and four permanent private halls (PPHs), each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Not all colleges offer all courses, but they generally cover a broad range of subjects. The colleges are: The permanent private halls were founded by different Christian denominations. One difference between
2700-419: A monosyllabic triphthong. In more casual speech the middle vowel may be considerably reduced, by a process known as smoothing , and in an extreme form of this process the triphthong may even be reduced to a single long vowel. In such a case the difference between /aʊə/ , /aɪə/ , and /ɑː/ in tower , tire , and tar may be neutralised with all three units realised as [ɑː] or [äː] . This type of smoothing
2850-509: A new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire , was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III . Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in large western European countries. The new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from
3000-415: A new system (which he calls Standard Southern British English, or SSB) as a replacement. Lindsey's system is as follows—differences between it and standard transcription are depicted with the usual transcription in brackets. Like all accents, RP has changed with time. For example, sound recordings and films from the first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was usual for speakers of RP to pronounce
3150-455: A p and m a rry , /ɒ/ in l o t and o range , /ə/ in a go and sof a . Examples of long vowels : /iː/ in fl ee ce , /uː/ in g oo se , /ɛː/ in b ear , /ɜː/ in n ur se and f ur ry , /ɔː/ in n or th , f or ce and th ou ght , /ɑː/ in f a ther and st ar t . The long mid front vowel /ɛː/ is elsewhere transcribed with the traditional symbols ⟨ ɛə, eə ⟩. The predominant realisation in contemporary RP
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#17328370789563300-474: A prestige norm there and (to varying degrees) in other parts of the British Isles and beyond. Faced with the difficulty of defining a single standard of RP, some researchers have tried to distinguish between sub-varieties: Traditionally, Received Pronunciation has been associated with high social class. It was the "everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk [had] been educated at
3450-599: A process called T-glottalisation . National media, being based in London, have seen the glottal stop spreading more widely than it once was in word endings, not being heard as "no [ʔ] " and bottle of water being heard as "bo [ʔ] le of wa [ʔ] er". It is still stigmatised when used at the beginning and central positions, such as later , while often has all but regained /t/ . Other consonants subject to this usage in Cockney English are p , as in pa [ʔ] er and k as in ba [ʔ] er. In most areas of England and Wales, outside
3600-511: A regional accent or dialect. However, about 2% of Britons speak with an accent called Received Pronunciation (also called "the King's English", "Oxford English" and " BBC English" ), that is essentially region-less. It derives from a mixture of the Midlands and Southern dialects spoken in London in the early modern period. It is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. In
3750-567: A reverence for the past, a code of honour for the present, which could not but be serviceable. He had enjoyed opportunities... of intercourse with men, some of whom were certain to rise to the highest places in the Senate, in the Church, or at the Bar. He might have mixed with them in his sports, in his studies, and perhaps in his debating society; and any associations which he had this formed had been useful to him at
3900-475: A rotating basis from any two of the colleges, are the internal ombudsmen who make sure that the university and its members adhere to its statutes. This role incorporates student discipline and complaints, as well as oversight of the university's proceedings. The university's professors are collectively referred to as the Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford . They are particularly influential in
4050-500: A special class of dictionary giving a wide range of possible pronunciations: British pronunciation dictionaries are all based on RP, though not necessarily using that name. Daniel Jones transcribed RP pronunciations of words and names in the English Pronouncing Dictionary . Cambridge University Press continues to publish this title, as of 1997 edited by Peter Roach . Two other pronunciation dictionaries are in common use:
4200-511: A symbol of the southeast's political power in Britain. Based on a 1997 survey, Jane Stuart-Smith wrote, "RP has little status in Glasgow, and is regarded with hostility in some quarters". A 2007 survey found that residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland tend to dislike RP. It is shunned by some with left-wing political views, who may be proud of having accents more typical of the working classes. Since
4350-408: A weak dental plosive ; the sequence /nð/ is often realised as [n̪n̪] (a long dental nasal ). /l/ has velarised allophone ( [ɫ] ) in the syllable rhyme . /h/ becomes voiced ( [ɦ] ) between voiced sounds. Examples of short vowels : /ɪ/ in k i t , m i rror and rabb i t , /ʊ/ in f oo t and c oo k , /e/ in dr e ss and m e rry , /ʌ/ in str u t and c u rry , /æ/ in tr
4500-660: Is monophthongal . Many conventional descriptions of the RP vowel system group the non-diphthongal vowels into the categories "long" and "short". This should not be taken to mean that RP has minimal pairs in which the only difference is vowel length. "Long" and "short" are convenient cover terms for a number of phonetic features. The long-short pairings shown above include also differences in vowel quality. The vowels called "long" high vowels in RP /iː/ and /uː/ are slightly diphthongized , and are often narrowly transcribed in phonetic literature as diphthongs [ɪi] and [ʊu] . Vowels may be phonologically long or short (i.e. belong to
4650-479: Is a self-governing institution within the university, controlling its own membership and having its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. The university does not have a main campus, but its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. Undergraduate teaching at Oxford consists of lectures, small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further tutorials provided by
Received Pronunciation - Misplaced Pages Continue
4800-529: Is a variable quantity differing from individual to individual, although all its varieties are 'received', understood and mainly unnoticed". Although a form of Standard English had been established in the City of London by the end of the 15th century, it did not begin to resemble RP until the late 19th century. RP has most in common with the dialects of what has been termed the South East Midlands, in particular
4950-401: Is adopted in the latest revision of Gimson's Pronunciation of English . 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
5100-725: Is also due to London-centric influences. Examples of R-dropping are car and sugar , where the R is not pronounced. British dialects differ on the extent of diphthongisation of long vowels, with southern varieties extensively turning them into diphthongs, and with northern dialects normally preserving many of them. As a comparison, North American varieties could be said to be in-between. Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are usually preserved, and in several areas also /oː/ and /eː/, as in go and say (unlike other varieties of English, that change them to [oʊ] and [eɪ] respectively). Some areas go as far as not diphthongising medieval /iː/ and /uː/, that give rise to modern /aɪ/ and /aʊ/; that is, for example, in
5250-476: Is based on British English, but has more influence from American English , often grouped together due to their close proximity. British English, for example, is the closest English to Indian English, but Indian English has extra vocabulary and some English words are assigned different meanings. University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford , England. There
5400-456: Is common throughout many English dialects, though the phonetic realisation of e.g. [i] rather than [ɪ] (a phenomenon called happy -tensing ) is not as universal. According to Jane Setter , the typical pronunciation of the short [u] is a weakly rounded near-close near-back rounded vowel [ ʊ̜ ] . The centring diphthongs are gradually being eliminated in RP. The vowel /ɔə/ (as in door , boar ) had largely merged with /ɔː/ by
5550-552: Is defined in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as "the standard accent of English as spoken in the South of England", and alternative names such as "Standard Southern British" have been used. Despite RP's historic high social prestige in Britain, being seen as the accent of those with power, money, and influence, it may be perceived negatively by some as being associated with undeserved, or accidental, privilege and as
5700-537: Is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation . It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris . After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge , where, in 1209, they established
5850-769: Is included in style guides issued by various publishers including The Times newspaper, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press . The Oxford University Press guidelines were originally drafted as a single broadsheet page by Horace Henry Hart, and were at the time (1893) the first guide of their type in English; they were gradually expanded and eventually published, first as Hart's Rules , and in 2002 as part of The Oxford Manual of Style . Comparable in authority and stature to The Chicago Manual of Style for published American English ,
6000-541: Is known as the tower – tire , tower – tar and tire – tar mergers . There are differing opinions as to whether /æ/ in the BATH lexical set can be considered RP. The pronunciations with /ɑː/ are invariably accepted as RP. The English Pronouncing Dictionary does not admit /æ/ in BATH words and the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary lists them with a § marker of non-RP status. John Wells wrote in
6150-404: Is pronounced by some RP speakers in a noticeably different way when it occurs before /l/ , if that consonant is syllable-final and not followed by a vowel (the context in which /l/ is pronounced as a "dark l"). The realization of /əʊ/ in this case begins with a more back, rounded and sometimes more open vowel quality; it may be transcribed as [ɔʊ] or [ɒʊ] . It is likely that the backness of
Received Pronunciation - Misplaced Pages Continue
6300-400: Is reinforced by a number of other differences, with the result that the two of consonants can clearly be distinguished even in the presence of devoicing of voiced sounds: As a result, some authors prefer to use the terms fortis and lenis in place of voiceless and voiced . However, the latter are traditional and in more frequent usage. The voiced dental fricative ( /ð/ ) is more often
6450-549: Is the home of numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship , one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes. The University of Oxford's foundation date is unknown. In the 14th century, the historian Ranulf Higden wrote that the university was founded in the 10th century by Alfred the Great , but this story is apocryphal. It is known that teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it
6600-609: Is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England , or, more broadly, to the collective dialects of English throughout the British Isles taken as a single umbrella variety, for instance additionally incorporating Scottish English , Welsh English , and Northern Irish English . Tom McArthur in
6750-635: Is too low to correlate meaningfully with the usual factors", having found only two speakers (both having attended boarding schools in the south) who consistently used /ɑː/ . Jack Windsor Lewis has noted that the Oxford Dictionary's position has changed several times on whether to include short /æ/ within its prescribed pronunciation. The BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names uses only /ɑː/ , but its author, Graham Pointon, has stated on his blog that he finds both variants to be acceptable in place names. Some research has concluded that many people in
6900-431: Is unclear when the university came into being. Scholar Theobald of Étampes lectured at Oxford in the early 1100s. It grew quickly from 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris . The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland , arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, and
7050-1166: Is usual to base the description on a recording of the traditional story of the North Wind and the Sun . There is an IPA illustration of British English (Received Pronunciation). The female speaker is described as having been born in 1953 and educated at Oxford University . To accompany the recording there are three transcriptions: orthographic, phonemic and allophonic. Phonemic ðə ˈnɔːθ ˈwɪnd ən ðə ˈsʌn wə dɪˈspjuːtɪŋ ˈwɪtʃ wəz ðə ˈstrɒŋɡə, wen ə ˈtrævl̩ə ˌkeɪm əˌlɒŋ ˈræpt ɪn ə ˈwɔːm ˈkləʊk. ðeɪ əˈɡriːd ðət ðə ˈwʌn hu ˈfɜːst səkˈsiːdɪd ɪn ˈmeɪkɪŋ ðə ˈtrævlə ˌteɪk hɪz ˈkləʊk ɒf ʃʊd bi kənˌsɪdəd ˈstrɒŋɡə ðən ði ˈʌðə. ˈðen ðə ˌnɔːθ wɪnd ˈbluː əz ˈhɑːd əz i ˈkʊd, bət ðə ˈmɔː hi ˈbluː ðə ˌmɔː ˈkləʊsli dɪd ðə ˈtrævlə ˈfəʊld hɪz ˌkləʊk əˈraʊnd hɪm, ænd ət ˈlɑːst ðə ˈnɔːθ wɪnd ˌɡeɪv ˈʌp ði əˈtempt. ˈðen ðə ˈsʌn ˌʃɒn aʊt ˈwɔːmli, ænd əˈmiːdiətli ðə ˈtrævlə ˈtʊk ɒf ɪz ˈkləʊk. n̩ ˌsəʊ ðə ˈnɔːθ ˈwɪn wəz əˈblaɪdʒd tʊ kənˈfes ðət ðə ˈsʌn wəz ðə ˈstrɒŋɡr̩ əv ðə ˈtuː. British English British English (abbreviations: BrE , en-GB , and BE )
7200-530: The Chambers Dictionary , and the Collins Dictionary record actual usage rather than attempting to prescribe it. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time; words are freely borrowed from other languages and other varieties of English, and neologisms are frequent. For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the ninth century, the form of language spoken in London and
7350-479: The /æ/ sound, as in land , with a vowel close to [ɛ] , so that land would sound similar to a present-day pronunciation of lend . RP is sometimes known as the Queen's English , but recordings show that even Queen Elizabeth II shifted her pronunciation over the course of her reign, ceasing to use an [ɛ] -like vowel in words like land . The change in RP may be observed in the home of " BBC English ". The BBC accent of
7500-587: The East Midlands became standard English within the Court, and ultimately became the basis for generally accepted use in the law, government, literature and education in Britain. The standardisation of British English is thought to be from both dialect levelling and a thought of social superiority. Speaking in the Standard dialect created class distinctions; those who did not speak the standard English would be considered of
7650-597: The Examination Schools , where examinations and some lectures take place. The University Church of St Mary the Virgin was used for university ceremonies before the construction of the Sheldonian. In 2012–2013, the university built the controversial one-hectare (400 m × 25 m) Castle Mill development of 4–5-storey blocks of student flats overlooking Cripley Meadow and the historic Port Meadow , blocking views of
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#17328370789567800-677: The Golden Triangle of universities, namely London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the public schools that fed them, such as Eton , Harrow and Rugby . In 1922, the BBC selected RP as its broadcasting standard, citing its being widely understood globally as a reason. 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'." Some linguists have used
7950-628: The High Street is the oldest botanic garden in the UK. It contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 ha ( 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact major collections of plants in the world and includes representatives of over 90% of the higher plant families. The Harcourt Arboretum is a 130-acre (53 ha) site six miles (9.7 km) south of the city that includes native woodland and 67 acres (27 hectares) of meadow. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km ) Wytham Woods are owned by
8100-496: The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary , compiled by John C. Wells (using the name "Received Pronunciation"), and Clive Upton 's Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English , (now republished as The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English ). Pronunciation forms an essential component of language learning and teaching; a model accent is necessary for learners to aim at, and to act as
8250-447: The North of England have a dislike of the /ɑː/ vowel in BATH words. A. F. Gupta wrote, "Many of the northerners were noticeably hostile to /ɡrɑːs/ , describing it as 'comical', 'snobbish', 'pompous' or even 'for morons'." On the subject, K. M. Petyt wrote that several respondents "positively said that they did not prefer the long-vowel form or that they really detested it or even that it
8400-631: The Oxford Guide to World English acknowledges that British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions [with] the word 'British' and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity". Variations exist in formal (both written and spoken) English in the United Kingdom. For example, the adjective wee is almost exclusively used in parts of Scotland, north-east England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally Yorkshire , whereas
8550-484: The Royal Spanish Academy with Spanish. Standard British English differs notably in certain vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation features from standard American English and certain other standard English varieties around the world. British and American spelling also differ in minor ways. The accent, or pronunciation system, of standard British English, based in southeastern England, has been known for over
8700-486: The Scots language or Scottish Gaelic ). Each group includes a range of dialects, some markedly different from others. The various British dialects also differ in the words that they have borrowed from other languages. Around the middle of the 15th century, there were points where within the 5 major dialects there were almost 500 ways to spell the word though . Following its last major survey of English Dialects (1949–1950),
8850-486: The University of Cambridge . The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge . The University of Oxford is made up of 43 constituent colleges, consisting of 36 semi-autonomous colleges , four permanent private halls and three societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their own royal charter ), and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions . Each college
9000-463: The University of Leeds has started work on a new project. In May 2007 the Arts and Humanities Research Council awarded a grant to Leeds to study British regional dialects. The team are sifting through a large collection of examples of regional slang words and phrases turned up by the "Voices project" run by the BBC , in which they invited the public to send in examples of English still spoken throughout
9150-476: The University of Oxford . The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association uses the name "Standard Southern British". Page 4 reads: Standard Southern British (where 'Standard' should not be taken as implying a value judgment of 'correctness') is the modern equivalent of what has been called 'Received Pronunciation' ('RP'). It is an accent of the south east of England which operates as
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#17328370789569300-556: The West Country and other near-by counties of the UK, the consonant R is not pronounced if not followed by a vowel, lengthening the preceding vowel instead. This phenomenon is known as non-rhoticity . In these same areas, a tendency exists to insert an R between a word ending in a vowel and a next word beginning with a vowel. This is called the intrusive R . It could be understood as a merger, in that words that once ended in an R and words that did not are no longer treated differently. This
9450-582: The " steamboat ladies " to receive ad eundem degrees from the University of Dublin . In June 1878, the Association for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were George Granville Bradley , T. H. Green and Edward Stuart Talbot . Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which
9600-482: The 1950s is distinctly different from today's: a news report from the 1950s is recognisable as such, and a mock-1950s BBC voice is used for comic effect in programmes wishing to satirise 1950s social attitudes such as the Harry Enfield Show and its "Mr. Cholmondley-Warner" sketches. A few illustrative examples of changes in RP during the 20th century and early 21st are given below. A more comprehensive list (using
9750-483: The 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent , and the establishment of four women's colleges. Privy Council decisions in the 20th century (e.g. the abolition of compulsory daily worship, dissociation of the Regius Professorship of Hebrew from clerical status, diversion of colleges' theological bequests to other purposes) loosened
9900-433: The 20th century, with the exception of St Antony's, which was founded as a men's college in 1950 and began to accept women only in 1962. By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at Oxford were female; in 2016, 45% of the student population, and 47% of undergraduate students, were female. In June 2017, Oxford announced that starting the following academic year, history students may choose to sit a take-home exam in some courses, with
10050-603: The 21st century. RP, while long established as the standard English accent around the globe due to the spread of the British Empire , is distinct from the standard English pronunciation in some parts of the world; most prominently, RP notably contrasts with standard North American accents. In the 21st century, dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary , the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English ,
10200-624: The Chancellor is a titular figurehead and is not involved with the day-to-day running of the university. The Chancellor is elected by the members of Convocation , a body comprising all graduates of the university, and may hold office until death. The Vice-Chancellor , currently Irene Tracey , is the de facto head of the university. Five pro-vice-chancellors have specific responsibilities for education; research; planning and resources; development and external affairs; and personnel and equal opportunities. Two university proctors , elected annually on
10350-816: The English Language (1755) was a large step in the English-language spelling reform , where the purification of language focused on standardising both speech and spelling. By the early 20th century, British authors had produced numerous books intended as guides to English grammar and usage, a few of which achieved sufficient acclaim to have remained in print for long periods and to have been reissued in new editions after some decades. These include, most notably of all, Fowler's Modern English Usage and The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers . Detailed guidance on many aspects of writing British English for publication
10500-456: The German armed forces, bearing the inscription, 'In memory of the men of this college who coming from a foreign land entered into the inheritance of this place and returning fought and died for their country in the war 1914–1918'. During the war years the university buildings became hospitals, cadet schools and military training camps. Two parliamentary commissions in 1852 issued recommendations for Oxford and Cambridge. Archibald Campbell Tait ,
10650-644: The Germanic schwein ) is the animal in the field bred by the occupied Anglo-Saxons and pork (like the French porc ) is the animal at the table eaten by the occupying Normans. Another example is the Anglo-Saxon cu meaning cow, and the French bœuf meaning beef. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English;
10800-798: The North ( northerners or Boreales , who included the English people from north of the River Trent and the Scots ) and the South ( southerners or Australes , who included English people from south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh ). In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students' affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. In addition, members of many religious orders , including Dominicans , Franciscans , Carmelites , and Augustinians , settled in Oxford in
10950-891: The Oxford Manual is a fairly exhaustive standard for published British English that writers can turn to in the absence of specific guidance from their publishing house. British English is the basis of, and very similar to, Commonwealth English . Commonwealth English is English as spoken and written in the Commonwealth countries , though often with some local variation. This includes English spoken in Australia , Malta , New Zealand , Nigeria , and South Africa . It also includes South Asian English used in South Asia, in English varieties in Southeast Asia , and in parts of Africa. Canadian English
11100-491: The Oxford Martin Principles. The total assets of the colleges of £6.3 billion also exceed total university assets of £4.1 billion. The college figure does not reflect all the assets held by the colleges as their accounts do not include the cost or value of many of their main sites or heritage assets such as works of art or libraries. The university was one of the first in the UK to raise money through
11250-519: The RP vowel system. He also argues against including other French vowels on the grounds that not many British speakers succeed in distinguishing the vowels in bon and banc , or in rue and roue . However, the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary draws a distinction between /ɒ̃/ (there rendered as /ɔ̃ː/ ) and the unrounded /ɑ̃ː/ of banc for a total of four nasal vowels. Not all reference sources use
11400-589: The Second World War RP has played a much smaller role in broadcast speech. RP remains the accent most often heard in the speech of announcers and newsreaders on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and in some TV channels, but non-RP accents are now more widely encountered. Most English dictionaries published in Britain (including the Oxford English Dictionary ) now give phonetically transcribed RP pronunciations for all words. Pronunciation dictionaries represent
11550-474: The Second World War, and increasingly since the 1960s, a wider acceptance of regional English varieties has taken hold in education and public life. Nonetheless, surveys from 1969 to 2022 consistently show that RP is perceived as the most prestigious accent of English in the United Kingdom. In 2022, 25% of British adults reported being mocked for their regional accent at work, and 46% in social situations. In
11700-481: The Second World War, and the vowel /ʊə/ (as in poor , tour ) has more recently merged with /ɔː/ as well among most speakers, although the sound /ʊə/ is still found in conservative speakers, and in less common words such as boor . See CURE – FORCE merger . More recently /ɛə/ has become a pure long vowel /ɛː/ , as explained above. /ɪə/ is increasingly pronounced as a monophthong [ɪː] , although without merging with any existing vowels. The diphthong /əʊ/
11850-701: The South East, there are significantly different accents; the Cockney accent spoken by some East Londoners is strikingly different from Received Pronunciation (RP). Cockney rhyming slang can be (and was initially intended to be) difficult for outsiders to understand, although the extent of its use is often somewhat exaggerated. Londoners speak with a mixture of accents, depending on ethnicity, neighbourhood, class, age, upbringing, and sundry other factors. Estuary English has been gaining prominence in recent decades: it has some features of RP and some of Cockney. Immigrants to
12000-537: The UK in recent decades have brought many more languages to the country and particularly to London. Surveys started in 1979 by the Inner London Education Authority discovered over 125 languages being spoken domestically by the families of the inner city's schoolchildren. Notably Multicultural London English , a sociolect that emerged in the late 20th century spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London . Since
12150-517: The United Kingdom , as well as within the countries themselves. The major divisions are normally classified as English English (or English as spoken in England (which is itself broadly grouped into Southern English , West Country , East and West Midlands English and Northern English ), Northern Irish English (in Northern Ireland), Welsh English (not to be confused with the Welsh language ), and Scottish English (not to be confused with
12300-419: The University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel laureates and more than 50 world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford. The university passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level; for a brief period in the early 1900s, this allowed
12450-458: The West Scottish accent. Phonological features characteristic of British English revolve around the pronunciation of the letter R, as well as the dental plosive T and some diphthongs specific to this dialect. Once regarded as a Cockney feature, in a number of forms of spoken British English, /t/ has become commonly realised as a glottal stop [ʔ] when it is in the intervocalic position, in
12600-410: The adjective little is predominant elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described by the term British English . The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken and so a uniform concept of British English is more difficult to apply to
12750-555: The armed forces. By 1918 virtually all fellows were in uniform, and the student population in residence was reduced to 12 per cent of the pre-war total. The University Roll of Service records that, in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716 (18.36%) killed. Not all the members of the university who served in the Great War were on the Allied side; there is a remarkable memorial to members of New College who served in
12900-481: The award of the grant in 2007, Leeds University stated: that they were "very pleased"—and indeed, "well chuffed"—at receiving their generous grant. He could, of course, have been "bostin" if he had come from the Black Country , or if he was a Scouser he would have been well "made up" over so many spondoolicks, because as a Geordie might say, £460,000 is a "canny load of chink". Most people in Britain speak with
13050-527: The central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided in a predominantly centralised fashion. Oxford operates the Ashmolean Museum , the world's oldest university museum ; Oxford University Press , the largest university press in the world; and the largest academic library system nationwide. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university had a total consolidated income of £2.92 billion, of which £789 million
13200-623: The central university. The Conference of Colleges was established as a recommendation of the Franks Commission in 1965. Teaching members of the colleges (i.e. fellows and tutors) are collectively and familiarly known as dons , although the term is rarely used by the university itself. In addition to residential and dining facilities, the colleges provide social, cultural, and recreational activities for their members. Colleges have responsibility for admitting undergraduates and organising their tuition; for graduates, this responsibility falls upon
13350-513: The church was a requirement to graduate as a Bachelor of Arts, and " dissenters " were only permitted to be promoted to Master of Arts in 1871. The university was a centre of the Royalist party during the English Civil War (1642–1649), while the town favoured the opposing Parliamentarian cause. Wadham College , founded in 1610, was the undergraduate college of Sir Christopher Wren . Wren
13500-528: The city centre. The Science Area , in which most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest resemblance to a campus. The ten-acre (4-hectare) Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the northwest of the city is currently under development. Iconic university buildings include the Radcliffe Camera , the Sheldonian Theatre used for music concerts, lectures, and university ceremonies, and
13650-516: The classical requirement with a modern language (like German or French) was unsuccessful. After considerable internal wrangling over the structure of the arts curriculum, in 1886 the "natural science preliminary" was recognised as a qualifying part of the first year examination. At the start of 1914, the university housed about 3,000 undergraduates and about 100 postgraduate students. During the First World War, many undergraduates and fellows joined
13800-460: The colleges', is managed by the university's wholly-owned endowment management office, Oxford University Endowment Management, formed in 2007. The university used to maintain substantial investments in fossil fuel companies. However, in April 2020, the university committed to divest from direct investments in fossil fuel companies and to require indirect investments in fossil fuel companies be subjected to
13950-720: The correct pronunciation and other aspects of broadcast language. The Committee proved unsuccessful and was dissolved after the Second World War . While the BBC did advise its speakers on pronunciation, there was never a formalised official BBC pronunciation standard. A notable departure from the use of RP came with the Yorkshire-born newsreader Wilfred Pickles during the Second World War; his accent allowing listeners to more clearly distinguish BBC broadcasts from German propaganda, though Pickles had modified his accent to be closer to RP. Since
14100-613: The country. The BBC Voices project also collected hundreds of news articles about how the British speak English from swearing through to items on language schools. This information will also be collated and analysed by Johnson's team both for content and for where it was reported. "Perhaps the most remarkable finding in the Voices study is that the English language is as diverse as ever, despite our increased mobility and constant exposure to other accents and dialects through TV and radio". When discussing
14250-578: The curriculum, with honours to be awarded in many new fields. Undergraduate scholarships should be open to all Britons. Graduate fellowships should be opened up to all members of the university. It recommended that fellows be released from an obligation for ordination. Students were to be allowed to save money by boarding in the city, instead of in a college. The system of separate honour schools for different subjects began in 1802, with Mathematics and Literae Humaniores . Schools of "Natural Sciences" and "Law, and Modern History" were added in 1853. By 1872,
14400-414: The departments. In 2017–18, the university had an income of £2,237m; key sources were research grants (£579.1m) and academic fees (£332.5m). The colleges had a total income of £492.9m. While the university has a larger annual income and operating budget, the colleges have a larger aggregate endowment: over £6.4bn compared to the university's £1.2bn. The central University's endowment, along with some of
14550-421: The diphthong onset is the result of allophonic variation caused by the raising of the back of the tongue for the /l/ . If the speaker has "l-vocalization" the /l/ is realized as a back rounded vowel, which again is likely to cause backing and rounding in a preceding vowel as coarticulation effects. This phenomenon has been discussed in several blogs by John C. Wells . In the recording included in this article
14700-526: The early 19th century, the curriculum at Oxford was notoriously narrow and impractical. Sir Spencer Walpole , a historian of contemporary Britain and a senior government official, had not attended any university. He said, "Few medical men, few solicitors, few persons intended for commerce or trade, ever dreamed of passing through a university career." He quoted the Oxford University Commissioners in 1852 stating: "The education imparted at Oxford
14850-421: The early 20th century, Oxford and Cambridge were widely perceived to be bastions of male privilege ; however, the integration of women into Oxford moved forward during the First World War. In 1916 women were admitted as medical students on a par with men, and in 1917 the university accepted financial responsibility for women's examinations. On 7 October 1920 women became eligible for admission as full members of
15000-521: The early days of British broadcasting speakers of English origin almost universally used RP. The first director-general of the BBC , Lord Reith , encouraged the use of a 'BBC accent' because it was a "style or quality of English which would not be laughed at in any part of the country". He distinguished the BBC accent from the 'Oxford accent', to which he was "vehemently opposed". In 1926 the BBC established an Advisory Committee on Spoken English with distinguished experts, including Daniel Jones , to advise on
15150-460: The great public boarding-schools" and which conveyed no information about that speaker's region of origin before attending the school. An 1891 teacher's handbook stated, "It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed". Nevertheless, in the 19th century some British prime ministers, such as William Ewart Gladstone , still spoke with some regional features. Opinions differ over
15300-453: The idea of two different morphemes, one that causes the double negation, and one that is used for the point or the verb. Standard English in the United Kingdom, as in other English-speaking nations, is widely enforced in schools and by social norms for formal contexts but not by any singular authority; for instance, there is no institution equivalent to the Académie française with French or
15450-623: The imperialist Cecil Rhodes in 1902. In 1996 a donation of £20 million was received from Wafic Saïd who was involved in the Al-Yammah arms deal , and taking £150 million from the US billionaire businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman in 2019. The university has defended its decisions saying it "takes legal, ethical and reputational issues into consideration". The university has also faced criticism, as noted above, over its decision to accept donations from fossil fuel companies having received £21.8 million from
15600-473: The intention that this will equalise rates of firsts awarded to women and men at Oxford. That same summer, maths and computer science tests were extended by 15 minutes, in a bid to see if female student scores would improve. The detective novel Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers , herself one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, is largely set in the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based on Sayers' own Somerville College ), and
15750-496: The issue of women's education is central to its plot. Social historian and Somerville College alumna Jane Robinson 's book Bluestockings: A Remarkable History of the First Women to Fight for an Education gives a very detailed and immersive account of this history. The university is a "city university" in that it does not have a main campus; instead, colleges, departments, accommodation, and other facilities are scattered throughout
15900-458: The last of these had split into "Jurisprudence" and "Modern History". Theology became the sixth honour school. In addition to these B.A. Honours degrees, the postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) was, and still is, offered. The mid-19th century saw the impact of the Oxford Movement (1833–1845), led among others by the future Cardinal John Henry Newman . Administrative reforms during
16050-511: The last southern Midlands accent to use the broad "a" in words like bath or grass (i.e. barth or grarss ). Conversely crass or plastic use a slender "a". A few miles northwest in Leicestershire the slender "a" becomes more widespread generally. In the town of Corby , five miles (8 km) north, one can find Corbyite which, unlike the Kettering accent, is largely influenced by
16200-568: The late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn , who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet , the noted biblical scholar . With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church , recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, settling especially at the University of Douai . The method of teaching at Oxford
16350-508: The later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core of a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance branch of the European languages. This Norman influence entered English largely through the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary . Dialects and accents vary amongst the four countries of
16500-435: The link with traditional belief and practice. Furthermore, although the university's emphasis had historically been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded during the 19th century to include scientific and medical studies. The University of Oxford began to award doctorates for research in the first third of the 20th century. The first Oxford DPhil in mathematics was awarded in 1921. The list of distinguished scholars at
16650-475: The long or the short group of vowel phonemes) but their length is influenced by their context: in particular, they are shortened if a voiceless ( fortis ) consonant follows in the syllable, so that, for example, the vowel in 'bat' [bæʔt] is shorter than the vowel in 'bad' [bæd] . The process is known as pre-fortis clipping . Thus phonologically short vowels in one context can be phonetically longer than phonologically long vowels in another context. For example,
16800-452: The mass internal migration to Northamptonshire in the 1940s and given its position between several major accent regions, it has become a source of various accent developments. In Northampton the older accent has been influenced by overspill Londoners. There is an accent known locally as the Kettering accent, which is a transitional accent between the East Midlands and East Anglian . It is
16950-433: The masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231. The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III . After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge , later forming the University of Cambridge . The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two ' nations ', representing
17100-420: The mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students. At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham , who in 1249 endowed University College , and John Balliol , father of a future King of Scots ; Balliol College bears his name. Another founder, Walter de Merton ,
17250-458: The modern period, but due to their remoteness from the Germanic languages , influence on English was notably limited . However, the degree of influence remains debated, and it has recently been argued that its grammatical influence accounts for the substantial innovations noted between English and the other West Germanic languages. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting
17400-584: The name "BBC Pronunciation". The term 'The Queen's English' has also been used by some writers. The phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis frequently criticised 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. The name "General British"
17550-523: The name "General British" in place of "RP") is given in Gimson's Pronunciation of English . RP RP A number of cases can be identified where changes in the pronunciation of individual words, or small groups of words, have taken place. The Journal of the International Phonetic Association regularly publishes "Illustrations of the IPA" which present an outline of the phonetics of a particular language or accent. It
17700-409: The opportunity of making acquaintance with one another, and full liberty to live their lives in their own way, without evolving in the best among them, some admirable qualities of loyalty, independence, and self-control. If the average undergraduate carried from University little or no learning, which was of any service to him, he carried from it a knowledge of men and respect for his fellows and himself,
17850-537: The phrase "fold his cloak" contains examples of the /əʊ/ diphthong in the two different contexts. The onset of the pre- /l/ diphthong in "fold" is slightly more back and rounded than that in "cloak". RP also possesses the triphthongs /aɪə/ as in tire , /aʊə/ as in tower , /əʊə/ as in lower , /eɪə/ as in layer and /ɔɪə/ as in loyal . There are different possible realisations of these items: in slow, careful speech they may be pronounced as two syllables with three distinct vowel qualities in succession, or as
18000-682: The plosives /t/ and /d/ often have no audible release utterance-finally, and voiced consonants are partly or completely devoiced (as in [b̥æd̥] ); thus the perceptual distinction between pairs of words such as 'bad' and 'bat', or 'seed' and 'seat' rests mostly on vowel length (though the presence or absence of glottal reinforcement provides an additional cue). Unstressed vowels are both shorter and more centralised than stressed ones. In unstressed syllables occurring before vowels and in final position, contrasts between long and short high vowels are neutralised and short [i] and [u] occur (e.g. happy [ˈhæpi] , throughout [θɹuˈaʊʔt] ). The neutralisation
18150-404: The proportion of Britons who speak RP. Trudgill estimated 3% in 1974, but that rough estimate has been questioned by J. Windsor Lewis . Upton notes higher estimates of 5% (Romaine, 2000) and 10% (Wells, 1982) but refers to these as "guesstimates" not based on robust research. The claim that RP is non-regional is disputed, since it is most commonly found in London and the southeast of England. It
18300-440: The rise of organised sport was one of the most remarkable and distinctive features of the history of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was carried over from the athleticism prevalent at the public schools such as Eton , Winchester , Shrewsbury , and Harrow . All students, regardless of their chosen area of study, were required to spend (at least) their first year preparing for
18450-594: The running of the university's graduate programmes. Examples of statutory professors are the Chichele Professorships and the Drummond Professor of Political Economy . The University of Oxford is only a "public university" in the sense that it receives some public money from the government, but it is a "private university" in the sense that it is entirely self-governing and, in theory, could choose to become entirely private by rejecting public funds. To be
18600-404: The same syllable, as in "spot" or "stop". When a sonorant /l/ , /r/ , /w/ , or /j/ follows, this aspiration is indicated by partial devoicing of the sonorant . /r/ is a fricative when devoiced. Syllable final /p/ , /t/ , /tʃ/ , and /k/ may be either preceded by a glottal stop ( glottal reinforcement ) or, in the case of /t/ , fully replaced by a glottal stop, especially before
18750-495: The same system of transcription. Clive Upton devised a modified system for the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993), changing five symbols from the traditional Gimson system, and this is now used in many other Oxford University Press dictionaries; the differences are shown in the table below. Linguist Geoff Lindsey has argued that the system of transcription for RP has become outdated and has proposed
18900-558: The sign [ɹ] in the International Phonetic Alphabet , but the sign /r/ is nonetheless traditionally used for RP in most of the literature on the topic. Voiceless plosives ( /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , /tʃ/ ) are aspirated at the beginning of a syllable, unless a completely unstressed vowel follows. (For example, the /p/ is aspirated in "impasse", with primary stress on "-passe", but not "compass", where "-pass" has no stress.) Aspiration does not occur when /s/ precedes in
19050-487: The spires in the city centre. The development has been likened to building a "skyscraper beside Stonehenge ". The University Parks are a 70-acre (28 ha) parkland area in the northeast of the city, near Keble College , Somerville College and Lady Margaret Hall . It is open to the public during daylight hours. There are also various college-owned open spaces open to the public, including Bagley Wood and most notably Christ Church Meadow . The Botanic Garden on
19200-401: The spoken language. Globally, countries that are former British colonies or members of the Commonwealth tend to follow British English, as is the case for English used by European Union institutions. In China, both British English and American English are taught. The UK government actively teaches and promotes English around the world and operates in over 200 countries . English is
19350-413: 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
19500-498: The term had been used much earlier by P. S. Du Ponceau in 1818 and the Oxford English Dictionary cites quotations back to about 1710. A similar term, received standard, was coined by Henry C. K. Wyld in 1927. The early phonetician Alexander John Ellis used both terms interchangeably, but with a much broader definition than Jones's, saying, "There is no such thing as a uniform educated pron. of English, and rp. and rs.
19650-587: The theft of work tools worth £500 from a van at the Sprucefield park and ride car park in Lisburn. A football team can be treated likewise: Arsenal have lost just one of 20 home Premier League matches against Manchester City. This tendency can be observed in texts produced already in the 19th century. For example, Jane Austen , a British author, writes in Chapter 4 of Pride and Prejudice , published in 1813: All
19800-481: The time, and might be a source of satisfaction to him in after life. Out of the students who matriculated in 1840, 65% were sons of professionals (34% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (59% as Anglican clergy). Out of the students who matriculated in 1870, 59% were sons of professionals (25% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (42% as Anglican clergy). M. C. Curthoys and H. S. Jones argue that
19950-403: The traditional accent of Newcastle upon Tyne , 'out' will sound as 'oot', and in parts of Scotland and North-West England, 'my' will be pronounced as 'me'. Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are diphthongised to [ɪi] and [ʊu] respectively (or, more technically, [ʏʉ], with a raised tongue), so that ee and oo in feed and food are pronounced with a movement. The diphthong [oʊ] is also pronounced with
20100-422: The university and used for research in zoology and climate change . Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their undergraduates, and the members of an academic department are spread around many colleges. Though certain colleges do have subject alignments (e.g., Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences), these are exceptions, and most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from
20250-407: The university and were given the right to take degrees. In 1927 the university's dons created a quota that limited the number of female students to a quarter that of men, a ruling which was not abolished until 1957. However, during this period Oxford colleges were single sex , so the number of women was also limited by the capacity of the women's colleges to admit students. It was not until 1959 that
20400-585: The university's statutes. These, to a large extent, remained its governing regulations until the mid-19th century. Laud was also responsible for the granting of a charter securing privileges for the University Press , and he made significant contributions to the Bodleian Library , the main library of the university. From the beginnings of the Church of England as the established church until 1866, membership of
20550-491: The use of RP as a convenient umbrella term remains popular. The tradition of Received Pronunciation is usually credited to the British phonetician Daniel Jones . In the first edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917), he named the accent " Public School Pronunciation"; for the second edition in 1926 he wrote: "In what follows I call it Received Pronunciation, for want of a better term." However,
20700-733: The varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon , eventually came to dominate. The original Old English was then influenced by two waves of invasion: the first was by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who settled in parts of Britain in the eighth and ninth centuries; the second was the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman . These two invasions caused English to become "mixed" to some degree (though it
20850-455: The vowel called "long" /iː/ in 'reach' /riːtʃ/ (which ends with a voiceless consonant) may be shorter than the vowel called "short" /ɪ/ in the word 'ridge' /rɪdʒ/ (which ends with a voiced consonant). Wiik, cited in ( Cruttenden 2014 ), published durations of English vowels with a mean value of 172 ms for short vowels before voiced consonants but a mean value of 165 ms for long vowels preceding voiceless consonants. In natural speech ,
21000-466: The women's colleges were given full collegiate status. In 1974, Brasenose , Jesus , Wadham , Hertford and St Catherine's became the first previously all-male colleges to admit women. The majority of men's colleges accepted their first female students in 1979, with Christ Church following in 1980, and Oriel becoming the last men's college to admit women in 1985. Most of Oxford's graduate colleges were founded as coeducational establishments in
21150-560: The world are good and agreeable in your eyes. However, in Chapter 16, the grammatical number is used. The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence. Some dialects of British English use negative concords, also known as double negatives . Rather than changing a word or using a positive, words like nobody, not, nothing, and never would be used in the same sentence. While this does not occur in Standard English, it does occur in non-standard dialects. The double negation follows
21300-446: Was from research grants and contracts. Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 31 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel Prize laureates , 4 Fields Medalists , and 6 Turing Award winners have matriculated, worked, or held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, while its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals . Oxford
21450-506: Was incorrect". Mark Newbrook has assigned this phenomenon the name "conscious rejection", and has cited the BATH vowel as "the main instance of conscious rejection of RP" in his research in West Wirral . John Wells has argued that, as educated British speakers often attempt to pronounce French names in a French way, there is a case for including /ɒ̃/ (as in bon ), and /æ̃/ and /ɜ̃ː/ (as in vingt-et-un ), as marginal members of
21600-422: Was never a truly mixed language in the strictest sense of the word; mixed languages arise from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication). The more idiomatic, concrete and descriptive English is, the more it is from Anglo-Saxon origins. The more intellectual and abstract English is, the more it contains Latin and French influences, e.g. swine (like
21750-428: Was not such as to conduce to the advancement in life of many persons, except those intended for the ministry." Nevertheless, Walpole argued: Among the many deficiencies attending a university education there was, however, one good thing about it, and that was the education which the undergraduates gave themselves. It was impossible to collect some thousand or twelve hundred of the best young men in England, to give them
21900-553: Was part of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s, the Oxford Philosophical Club , which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke . This group, which has at times been linked with Boyle's " Invisible College ", held regular meetings at Wadham under the guidance of the college's Warden, John Wilkins , and the group formed the nucleus that went on to found the Royal Society . Before reforms in
22050-405: Was raised to £3 billion. The campaign had raised a total of £2.8 billion by July 2018. The university has faced criticism for some of its sources of donations and funding. In 2017, attention was drawn to historical donations including All Souls College receiving £10,000 from slave trader Christopher Codrington in 1710, and Oriel College having receiving taken £100,000 from the will of
22200-445: Was transformed from the medieval scholastic method to Renaissance education, although institutions associated with the university suffered losses of land and revenues. As a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxford's reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment ; enrolments fell and teaching was neglected. In 1636, William Laud , the chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury , codified
22350-486: Was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group founded Lady Margaret Hall in 1878, while T. H. Green founded the non-denominational Somerville College in 1879. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened their doors to their first 21 students (12 at Somerville, 9 at Lady Margaret Hall) in 1879, who attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop. There were also 25 women students living at home or with friends in 1879,
22500-482: Was used by almost everyone who was from clearly north of the isogloss for BATH words. She wrote, "There is no justification for the claims by Wells and Mugglestone that this is a sociolinguistic variable in the north, though it is a sociolinguistic variable on the areas on the border [the isogloss between north and south]". In a study of speech in West Yorkshire, K. M. Petyt wrote that "the amount of /ɑː/ usage
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