Wikipedia
Received Pronunciation (; RP) is the accent of Standard English in the United Kingdom, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms. RP is defined in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as "the standard accent of English as spoken in the south of England", although it can be heard from native speakers throughout England and Wales. Peter Trudgill estimated in 1974 that 3% of people in Britain were RP speakers.
RP enjoys high social prestige in Britain. It has thus been seen as the accent of those with power, money, and influence, though it has in recent times been perceived negatively by some as associated with undeserved privilege. Since the 1960s, a greater permissiveness towards regional English varieties has taken hold in education.
The study of RP is concerned exclusively with pronunciation, whereas "Standard English", "the Queen's English", "Oxford English", and "BBC English" are also concerned with matters such as grammar, vocabulary and style. An individual using RP will typically speak Standard English, although the reverse is not necessarily true (e.g. the standard language may be pronounced with a regional accent, such as a Yorkshire accent; but it is very unlikely that someone speaking RP would use it to speak the Yorkshire dialect).