American-based Pronunciation Standards of English

           The American variant of English has been very thoroughly described by many prominent scholars both in this country and in the USA. In this lecture, however, we shall try to follow the conception introduced by A. D. Shweitzer in his sociolinguistic approach to the treatment of contemporary speech situation in America.

           The sociolinguistic situation in the United States is very complicated. It is molded by certain linguistic, cultural, historic, demographic, geographic, political and other factors.

           Generally speaking, the situation in the USA may be characterized as exoglossic, i. e. having several languages on the same territory, the balance being in favor of American English.

           It is true, of course, that the formation of the American Standard underwent the influence of minorities' languages, but its starting point was the English language of the early 17th century. However, time has passed; American English has drifted considerably from English English though as yet not enough to give us ground to speak of two different languages. We speak of the national variant of English in America.

           American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British English due to some historical factors: the existence of Standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities and so on. As regards pronunciation, however, it is not at all homogeneous. There are certain varieties of educated American speech. In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western, or General American.

           1. The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in New York City. It bears a remarkable resemblance to Southern English, though there are, of course, some slight differences.

           2. The Southern type is used in the South and South-East of the USA. It possesses a striking distinctive feature - vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even triphthongization of some pure vowels and monophthongization of some diphthongs at the expense of prolonging (“drawling”) their nuclei and dropping the glides.

           3. The third type of educated American speech is General American (GA), also known as Northern American or Western American spoken in central Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and others. GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. There are some reasons for it. GAis the form of speech used by the radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse. Also in two important business centers - New York and St. Louis - GA is the prevailing form of speech and pronunciation, though New York is situated within the territory where Eastern American is spoken, and St. Louis is within the region of Southern American. In this lecture we shall give an outline of GAaccent. We will then point to differences between this accent and RP.

General American

           Vowels

           1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA, though some American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense and likely to be accompanied by relative length: [i:] in seat, [u:] in pool.

           They also admit that a slight rise in tongue position during the pronunciation of tense vowels leads to a diphthongal quality of tense vowels which contrasts to a monophthongal quality of lax vowels.

           2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is a very controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated as biphonernic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from three to twelve phonemes. Following D. Shakhbagova we distinguish here five diphthongs in GA: [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ], [aʊ], [oʊ].

           3. Another important feature that causes different interpretations of diphthongs and vowel length in GA is the pronunciation of [r] between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: turn [tɜʳn], bird [bɜ:ʳd],star [sta:ʳ].

           It has been estimated that 2/3 of American population pronounce and 1/3 omit it. Thus GA is rhotic. In words like far, core, when [r] follows the vowels and ends the word this sound is consonantal and non-syllabic. It involves the characteristic hindering of the free flow of breath which we associate with consonants. The sound [r] in far closes the syllable more definitely than in British Received Pronunciation of the word [fa:]. On the other hand, there is a vocalic or vowel-like and syllabic [r] that occurs in words like bird, murmur, after a vowel and before a consonant.

           4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant (in such words as take, small, name, etc.). Nasalization is often called an American twang. It is incidental and need not be marked in phonemic transcription.

           5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. In words like very, pity GA has [i:] rather than [ɪ]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized. The vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before [p], [t], [k]: let [lɛᵊt].

           6. There are four mixed or central vowels in GA: [ɜ], [ə], [ʌ], [ɑ]. They differ markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.

       7. The three RP vowels [ɒ], [æ], [ɑ:] correspond to only two vowels in GA - [ɑ] and [æ]. This combined with the articulatory differences between RP [æ] and GA [a] and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets of words makes it very complicated. The following chart vividly shows it:

           Besides word distribution of [ɔ:], [ɒ] in RP and GA is completely different. GA [ɔ] is intermediate in quality between the RP [ɔ:] and [ɒ]. In its production the lips are considerably less rounded.

           8. Now to the qualities of GA diphthongs:

           a) the diphthong [eɪ] is closer in GA as opposed to RP;

           b) the nucleus of [ɜʊ] tends to be more advanced in GA;

           c) since GA is a rhotic accent with non-prevocalic [r], it has the consequence that the following RP vowels (derived historically from vowel +[r]) do not occur in GA: [ɪə] in dear - GA [dɪr], [ɛə] in dare - GA [deɪr], [ʊə] in tour - GA [tur].

           Consonants.

           1. The RP allophonic differentiation of [l] does not exist in GA. In all positions [l] is fairly dark.

           2. Intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. The result is neutralization ofthe distribution between [t] and [d] in this position, i. e. latter, ladder. The original distinction is preserved through vowel length with the vowel before [t] being shorter. In words like twenty, little [t] may even drop out. Thus winner and winter, for example, may sound identical.

           3. GA [r] is articulated differently from the RP one. The impression is one of greater retroflexion (the tip of the tongue is curled back further than inRP).

           4. The “wh” spelling is represented in GA by [ʍ] sound (or sometimes as [hʍ]). So most American speakers make a clear distinction between “wh” and “w” words: where - ware, which - witch.

           5. The sonorant [j] is usually weakened or omitted altogether in GA between a consonant (especially a forelingual one) and [tt] as in the words: news [nu:z], Tuesday [ꞌtu:zdɪ],suit [su:t], tube [tu:b], stupid ['stu:pɪd], during [ꞌdu:rɪŋ].

           Non-systematic differences between General American and Received Pronunciation

       1. Many differences involve the pronunciation of individual words or groups ofwords. Here are some of these:

       2. Words apparatus, data, status can be pronounced both with [ӕ] or [eɪ] in GA, but only with [eɪ] in RP.

       3. Words like hostile, missile, reptile, have final [aɪl] in RP. In GA they may have [əl].

       Stress differences.

       1. In words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable, while RP has it on the initial one:

2. Some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be elsewhere:

3. Some compound words have stress on the first element in GA and in RP they retain it on the second element: weekend, ice cream, hot dog, New Year.

4. Polysyllabic words ending in –ory, -ary, -mony have secondary stress in GA, often called “tertiary”: laboratory [ꞌlӕbrə,tɔrɪ], dictionary [ꞌdɪkʃə,nerɪ], secretary [ꞌsekrə,terɪ], testimony [ꞌtestɪ,mounɪ].

Intonation differences.

GA intonation on the whole is similar to that of the RP. But there are, of course, some differences that should be mentioned here.

1. In sentences where the most common pre-nuclear contour in RP is a gradually descending sequence, the counterpart GA contour is a medium Level Head:

    Its emphatic variant in Mid-wavy-level Head:

       2. The usual Medium or Low Fall in RP has its rising-falling counterpart in GA:

       3. The rising terminal tone in RP in GA has a mid-rising contour:

       Or it may have a level tone in GA:

       4. The Fall-Rise nuclear tone is different in RP and GA:

These comparisons show that the main differences in intonation concern the direction of the voice pitch and the realization of the terminal tones. In GA the voice doesn’t fall to the bottom mostly. This explains the fact that the English speech for Americans sounds “affected” and “pretentious” or “sophisticated”. And for the English, Americans sound “dull”, “monotonous”, “indifferent”.

It should also be mentioned that the distribution of terminal tones in sentences types is also different in both variants of English.

       1. GA “Yes, No” questions commonly have a falling terminal tone, the counterpart RP tone would be a rising one:

       2. Requests in RP are usually pronounced with a Rise, whereas in GA they may take a Fall-Rise:

       3. Leave-takings are often pronounced with a high-pitched Fall-Rise in GA:

       In conclusion we would like to say that American phoneticians use a pitch contour system to mark intonation in the text:

It is certain that we have not covered here all the cases of different intonation structures used in RP and GA. Recently there have appeared in this country several papers and books on the subject, so for further information see those books.

Australian English

       Sometimes Australian English is called strain.

There are variations of Australian English. There can be broad Australian. It resembles the British dialect Cockney. The general Australian is spoken by most people. Cultivated Australian looks like educated and follows the RP standard.

The particular feature of vowels is lengthening in the nucleus if it’s a diphthong. Reduction to the glide is observed here.

Consonants in Australian English are pronounced like those in RP in general, but there may be differences:

1) the loss of opposition of voiceless-voiced consonants with [t] in intervocalic position;

2) in clusters of sounds [d+j], [t+d], [s+j], [z+j] they may sound, for example, as [dʒ]: educate [ꞌedʒukeɪt]. This process is called calescence.

Australian English has a lot of colloquial words and expressions. A very typical process is shortening of the word. This shortening even influences the spelling.

Variations in pronunciation can be accounted for with reference both to geographical and social factors. In contemporary dialectology phonetic diversity is explained on the basis of the analysis of regional variants alongside with such indicators as age, gender, education, occupation.

To describe territorial varieties we refer to the national variants and national pronunciation standards (RP in Great Britain, GA in the USA). National pronunciation standards are not fixed, they undergo changes under the influence of various internal and external factors.

National variants fall into territorial or regional dialects. Dialects are distinguished from each other by differences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. When we refer to varieties in pronunciation, we use the word “accent”.

RP as the pronunciation standard of Great Britain is not homogeneous. Three types of RP are distinguished: conservative (the language of the royal family and aristocracy), general (spoken by educated people) and advanced (used by the younger generation). Advanced RP is believed to reflect the new tendencies in pronunciation. There is another classification: general RP, refined RP (upper-class accent) and regional RP (representing regional standards). One of regional types of RP is Estuary English which is very popular with the younger speakers.

Regional accents of Great Britain can be grouped into Southern English accents, Northern and Midland accents, Welsh English, Scottish English, Northern Ireland English.

General American is viewed as the pronunciation standard of the USA. The comparison of RP and GA shows considerable differences in vowel and consonant systems, placement of stress and intonation.