Received Pronunciation: To ‘R’ is human

Received Pronunciation: To ‘R’ is human

As a second-hand viewer of Downton Abbey, I have had lots of time to think about Received Pronunciation (RP) also known as BBC English or Queen’s English. In a nutshell, it abhors ‘r’ (rhotic) sounds and exaggerates vowels so ‘dark’ is pronounced as ‘daak’, with the slightest hint of a ‘w’ sound before the ‘k’ sound.