individual words, or small groups of words, have taken place. The word Mass (referring to the religious ritual) was often pronounced /mɑːs/ in older versions of RP, but the word is now almost always /mæs/. The indefinite article an was traditionally used before a sounded /h/ if immediately followed by an unstressed vowel, as in 'an hyaena.' This is now uncommon, especially in speech, and may be confined only to some of the more frequently used words, such as 'horrific' and 'historical.' Comparison with other varieties of English Like most other varieties of English outside Northern England, RP has undergone the foot–strut split (pairs nut/put differ). RP is a non-rhotic accent, so does not occur unless followed immediately by a vowel (pairs such as caught/court and formally/formerly are homophones, save that formerly may be said with a hint of /r/ to help to differentiate it, particularly where stressed for reasons of emphasising past status e.g. "He was FORMERLY in charge here."). Unlike a number of North American accents of English, RP has not undergone the Mary–marry–merry, nearer–mirror, or hurry–furry mergers: all these words are distinct from each other. Unlike many North American accents, RP has not undergone the father–bother or cot–caught mergers. RP does not have yod-dropping after , , , and , but most speakers of RP variably or consistently yod-drop after and — new, tune, dune, resume and enthusiasm are pronounced , , , and rather than , , , and . This contrasts with many East Anglian and East Midland varieties of English language in England and with many forms of American English, including General American. Hence also pursuit is commonly heard with and revolutionary less so but more commonly than evolution. For a subset of these, a yod has been lost over time: for example, in all of the words beginning suit, however the yod is sometimes deliberately reinserted in historical or stressed contexts such as "a suit in chancery" or "suitable for an aristocrat". The flapped variant of and (as in much of the West Country, Ulster, most North American varieties including General American, Australian English, and the Cape Coloured dialect of South Africa) is not used very often. RP has undergone wine–whine merger (so the sequence is not present except among those who have acquired this distinction as the result of speech training). The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, based in London, still teaches