ramagut wrote:That is very interesting. So they tried to get y'all in Australia (or New Zealand, in auntie's case) to speak more like the English? Did they try to do the same in Scotland or Ireland? And is that why Indians sound very English?
Yes, RP = Received pronunciation - "The Queen's English", "Oxford Voice" etc.
Children like my Manchester-born mother were taught "elocution" - speaking in nice round vowels, very much like Susan and Peter in LWW. It was the standard accent for BBC presenters, and also for actors, for a long time.
I can't speak for the development of the Australian accent, but in NZ for many years there was no local accent, as most white settlers were from England and other parts of Britain. People spoke as their parents did. The children from working class families spoke like their regional or east London parents, causing plenty of comments by school inspectors about the dreadful colonial children and their awful speech.
The NZ accent gradually developed from a number of sources, including parts of London and Ireland. Linguistics experts spoke of three NZ accents in 1970s-80s, a refined accent (closer to RP), a general middle accent that was recognisably NZ, and a broad one that tended to be heard in rural areas and was thought of as working class. In the last 10 years, even the better educated people seem to be speaking the general NZ accent, and only a minority speaking broad (children thought recordings sounded Australian) or refined (children thought it was English) NZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English I'm from a background that likes to speak more like RP, especially in some of my theatre circles and my speech and drama training.
More upper class people in Scotland and Ireland are likely to have a polished accent due to their families, and the boarding schools they went to.
Indians have their own accent, which can vary quite a bit depending on where they live or were born. In big cities some immigrant groups keep together and the accent is maintained. There is a distinct NZ Maori "accent" of English, even though English has been part of Maori culture for at least 100 years.
EDIT: Sorry this is going off on a few tangents, and has very little to do with the topic!