The decline of weak /ı/, 2) glottalling, 3) l-vocalization, 4) intrusive /r/, 5) yod coalescence,and 6) assorted lexical changes.

1) The DECLINE OF WEAK [ı]. The vowel [ı] is becoming less frequent in weak syllables. Traditional RP [ı] is changing:

a) on the one hand, to [i] in final and prevocalic positions: ['hæpi] happy (final), and prevocalically in ['vεəriəs] various. Some phoneticians term [i] in word final positions as the result of [ı ] tensing as a happY vowel'.

b) on the other hand, in preconsonantal positions to [ə] - the trend towards preconsonantal schwa/[ə]. The development of preconsonantal [ə] for traditional [ı], is found particularly in the endings -less, -ness, -ily, -ity and adjectival -ate, and to some extent also in -ed, -es, -et, -ace.

Although happY-tensing might be attributed to the influence of Cockney, the same cannot be said of the trend towards preconsonantal schwa/[ə]. This trend may be explained by the process of centralization of unstressed vowels. According to J. C. Wells, the source of this process should be looked for in the regional accents of England, particularly the north and east (including Essex, just outside London), and perhaps in Australia, and Ireland.

The trend towards schwa in weak syllables is now so firmly established among middle and young generations of RP speakers that the following changes in the ordering of pronunciation variants have been made in EPD-1997: -ity: /ətı/ is generally more common than /ıtı/, e.g. quality, capacity; -ate (in nouns and adjectives): /ət/ is more common than /ıt/, e.g. deliberate, delicate, chocolate, fortunate; - ess: /əs/ gains grounds and is introduced as the main variant, e.g. hopeless, goodness; - et: /ıt/ gains grounds and is introduced as the main variant, e.g. sonnet, carpet, bonnet; /ıt/ is generally used after /k/, /g/, /t∫/, /G/, e.g. pocket, target, hatchet, budget; However, in the endings -let, -ret, e.g. bracelet, scarlet, toilet, claret, garret /ət/ is either a dominant or a common variant. -ily, e.g. easily, happily, worthily: / ə/ gains ground especially after/r/: angrily, primarily, extraordinarily, when it is a dominant form, and in certain words as, foreign; -ace, e.g. palace, necklace, populace: /ı/ and /ə/ are alternatives with the increasing tendency to /ə/. In the terminations -es, -ed, e.g. horses, waited: /ız/, /ıd/ forms remain dominant in RP even among the young, despite the influence of the alternatives /əz/, /əd/ characteristic of American and Australian English;

/ı/is replaced by /ə/ in weak syllables of a number of assorted words as: cin e ma, maj e sty, rel e vance, satir i cal, in which /ə/ has become the dominant variant.

Thus, Ukrainian learners of English should be referred to the CEPD-2003 or the LPD-2000 for update pronunciation variants.

2) GLOTTALLING is the switch from an alveolar to a glottal articulation of /t/, whereby [t] is pronounced as [?] in a range of syllable-final environments. This is by now very firmly established in casual RP:

• before obstruents, e.g. football ['fu¶bo::l], it's quite good [ı¶s kwaı¶ gυd] and

• is increasingly heard before other consonants, e.g. atmosphere ['æ¶məsfıə], partly ['pα:¶lı].

Among younger RP-speakers it can even be heard finally before vowels (pick it up [рık ı¶ Aр]) or in absolute final position (Let's start! [le¶s stα:¶]). Intervocalically within a word, it remains firmly excluded from RP (cf. Cockney city ['sı¶ı]). Nevertheless, the increased use of glottal stops within RP may reasonably be attributed to influence from Cockney and other working-class urban speech.

3) L VOCALIZATION is the development whereby the 'dark' allophone of /1/ loses its alveolar lateral nature and becomes a vowel of the [o] or [U] type. L vocalization is restricted to the preconsonantal and word-final environments (except where the following word begins with a vowel). Examples are [mıok] milk, ['mıdo] middle. There are plenty of RP speakers who use it in labial environments, as [maı'seof] myself, ['teıboz] tables.

4) INTRUSIVE R is very prevalent in RP. It involves the insertion of an r-sound at the end of a word ending in a non-high vowel (usually one of ə, ıə, α:, o:) where the next word begins with a vowel, as in put a comma[r] in, the idea[r] of it, I saw[r] it happen. Rather than the earlier rule deleting [r] except before vowels, both RP and Cockney now have a rule inserting [r] across a hiatus involving a mid or open vowel in the left-hand environment. R-intrusion can also operate within a word before a suffix, as withdraw[r]al, saw[r]ing.

5) There is an increased tendency towards the COALESCENCE OF YOD (the semivowel /j/)with a preceding alveolar plosive, so that:

t+j → C, d+j → G = the process of affricatization;

s+j → S, z+j → Z = the process of assibilation

The words actual, mutual, education, educate, gradual, graduate (noun, verb), during, virtue, statue, issue, hosier, etc., have common alternative forms with affricates or sibilants, the latter gaining ground as the dominant form.

A number of distinct environments for yod coalescence can be distinguished:

1) yod coalescence (coalescent assimilation) is well-established in casual RP, involving the clitic you or your, as ['wot∫u 'wont] what you want, ['pυt∫o:], ['wυGu 'maınd] would you mind. It is avoided in careful style, and is sometimes looked on as a Cockneyism. Where /t/ is involved, it faces a rival in glottalling, as ["wP¶jq] what you...;

2) within a word, involving an unstressed vowel in the right-hand environment, RP is drifting towards categorical coalescence. In some words it has long been the norm (picture, soldier), while in others its use in RP is more recent and subject to stylistic variation. D.Jones [EPD 12th edition, 1963] recognizes both possibilities in actual and gradual, but only /tj/ in perpetual, only /dj/ in graduate; these are now careful pronunciations, with everyday RP variants involving /t∫, G/. In statue and virtue he admits only /tj/, but in LPD J.C. Wells gives /t∫/ as the main variant;

3) within a stressed syllable, e.g. tune, duke, coalescence is still on the whole perceived as non-RP. Nevertheless, traditional RP [tju:n, dju:k] face strong popular competition in [t∫u:n, Gu:k]; in near-RP, the first syllable of Tuesday may well be like choose and the last syllable of reduce just like juice. It seems likely that here, too, coalescence may penetrate RP within a few decades. Cockney usage is divided between yod coalescence and yod dropping [tu:n, du:k].

6) LEXICAL CHANGES are those that affect specific items of vocabulary rather than all (or most) words meeting a particular phonetic structural description. The opinion poll findings reported in LPD for British English often reveal pronunciation preferences differing from those of earlier generations:

• con'troversy is taking over from initial-stressed 'controversy,

• contribute, 27% of the panel claimed to prefer initial stress,

• suit, the poll showed, /su:t/ is now preferred over /sju:t/ by a margin of 72% to 28%,

• nephew /'nefju:/ now beats the traditional /'nevju:/ by 79% to 21%.

In addition to the above-given changes in current RP which J. C. Wells predominantly attributes to the influence from Cockney, a few more processes are worth mentioning.

There is a tendency towards the so-called SMOOTHING (tightening, reduction) of the sequences /aıə/, /аυə/ ("thripthongs"), the medial element of which may be elided. They are sometimes reduced to a long open vowel, e.g. power /pa:/, tower /а:/, fire /fa:/, our /a:/.Though the full forms have been retained in the latest edition of the LPD as the main variants, their reduced counterparts are very common in casual RP.

There is a tendency, though not a very consistent one, to make the diphthong /υə/ a positional allophone of /o:/.It is increasingly replaced by /o:/, e.g. the most common form of sure has /o:/ with a similar drift being true for poor, mour, tour andtheir derivatives. Words in which /υə/is preceded by a consonant plus /j/ are relatively resistant to this shift, e.g. pure, curious, fury, furious.

There is a YOD DROPPING tendency after /s/ in the words like suit, super and their derivatives, e.g. suitcase, suitable, supreme, superior, supermarket – these have the dominant form without /j/. In words, where /j/ occurs after the consonants other than /s/, it still remains the dominant form in RP, e.g. enthusiasm, news, student.

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