English pronunciation:

social and regional differentiation

Contents

 1. Territorial and social differentiation of

pronunciation
 2. Received Pronunciation in the UK
 3. Phonetic features of the pronunciation of
English in the USA
 4. The World Englishes
Countires with English as a first language

USA UK Canada Australia

Ireland South Africa New Zealand
17%
5% 1%
5% 1%
1%

70%
 Territorial and social differentiation of pronunciation
 The national variety is defined as the speech of a nation.
 The national variant is the language of the nation, the language
of national literature.
 The oral language of the nation is called the national
pronunciation.
 The varieties that are spoken by a socially limited number of
people and used only in certain localities are called dialects.
 Standard national pronunciation is also called the orthoepic
norm (from the Greek. Orthos 'correct' and epos 'speech') or
literary pronunciation.
 National pronunciation standards of the English-
speaking nations

 English-English pronunciation standard - Received Pronunciation

(RP or BBC English)
 American English - General American (GA)
 Australian English - General Australian (GenAus)
 Canadian - General Canadian (GenCan).
 Received Pronunciation
 The English of well-bred Londoners, especially graduates of the
public schools (e.g. Eton and Harrow) and "Oxbridge", was the
origin of "the Queen's English," also known as RP, Received
Standard, BBC English, Public school English normative English
or "posh".
 RP is a Southern English accent, but it does not have any
regional peculiarities.
 RP is close to standard English pronunciation as it is described in
textbooks for learners of English as a 2d language and is
traditionally taught to foreign learners of English.
Three main types of the Received
Pronunciation
Received
Pronunciation

 the
the conservative
conservative  the
the general
general RP
RP is
is  the
the advanced
advanced RP
RP
RP
RP used
used by
by older
older the
the most
most used
used by
by young
young
generation,
generation, certain
certain commonly
commonly used
used people
people
professions
professions and
and type
type adopted
adopted by
by
social
social groups.
groups. the
the BBC.
BBC.
 American English
Southern
Southern and and south
south midland:
midland: Northern
Northern (Massachussets,
(Massachussets,
Eastern
Eastern New New England,
England, "drawl"
"drawl" [lengthening,
[lengthening, fronting,
fronting, and
and Connecticut,
Connecticut, Vermont,
Vermont, New New
Boston
Boston area,
area, NYC
NYC areaarea raising
raising vowels]
vowels] York,
drop
drop r’s
r’s York, Michigan,
Michigan, Illinois,
Illinois, NewNew
/u:/
/u:/ >> /yu:/
/yu:/ in
in due,
due, tuesday
tuesday
insert
insert transitional
transitional r’s,
r’s, as
as in
in York
York City
City area
area etc.)
etc.) VSVS north
north
au/
au/ >> /æu/
/æu/ in in out,
out, doubt
doubt
law’r’n
law’r’n awdah
awdah midland
midland (Pennsylvania,
(Pennsylvania,
/e/
/e/ >> /ei/
/ei/ inin bed,
bed, head
head
/æ/
/æ/ frequently
frequently becomes
becomes /a/, /a/, e.g.
e.g. Ohio,
Ohio, Indiana,
Indiana, Illinois,
Illinois, Iowa,
Iowa,
/e/
/e/ >> /i/
/i/ in
in pen,
pen, ten
ten
in
in aunt,
aunt, dance,
dance, glass
glass Missouri,
Missouri, Kansas
Kansas etc.) etc.) ::
Mary-marry-merry
Mary-marry-merry help,
help, bulb,
bulb, wolf
wolf >> /hep/,
/hep/, /bœb/,
/bœb/, fog,
fog, hog:
hog: /fag/,
/fag/, /hag/
/hag/ ----
(/eir/-/ær/-/er/)
(/eir/-/ær/-/er/) distinctions
distinctions /wuf/
/wuf/ /fog/,
/fog/, /hog/
/hog/
preserved
preserved onlyonly in
in r-less
r-less areas,
areas,
rapidly
rapidly disappearing
disappearing fromfrom roof:
roof: /ruf/,
/ruf/, /huf/
/huf/ --
-- /ru:f/,
/ru:f/, /hu:f/
/hu:f/
drop
drop r’s
r’s --
-- strong,
strong, sometimes
sometimes cow,
American
American speech
speech cow, house:
house: /kau/,
/kau/, /haus/
/haus/ ----
retroflex,
retroflex, r’sr’s
loss
loss of
of voiceless
voiceless w:w: which
which >> /kæu/,
/kæu/, /hæus/
/hæus/
wash:
wash: /wa:sh/
/wa:sh/ -- -- /wosh/,
/wosh/, /worsh/
/worsh/
/wic/
/wic/ wash:
wash: /wa:sh/
/wa:sh/ --
-- /wosh/,
/wosh/,
think:
think: /thingk/
/thingk/ -- -- /theingk/
/theingk/
loss
loss of
of voiceless
voiceless y:y: human
human >> /worsh/
/worsh/
egg:
egg: /eg/
/eg/ -- -- /eig/
/eig/
/yum'n/
/yum'n/

Eastern Southern General

American American American
The most vivid phonetic differences between GA
and RP
the replacing of one phoneme in RP with
another in GA in a similar context

The elision of the General different quality of some

phonemes [j], [t], etc. American phonemes

the phoneme Diphthongs

[hw] [ɪə], [ɛə], [ʊə]
do not exist
 World Englishes
 World Englishes is a term for emerging localized or indigenized
varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in
territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States.
 The study of World Englishes consists of identifying varieties of
English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts globally and
analyzing how sociolinguistic histories, multicultural backgrounds
and contexts of function influence the use of English in different
regions of the world.
 Australian English
 Australia is linguistically unified.
 There three types of Spoken Australian English:
 Cultivated Australian is an accepted norm of standard
pronunciation. It is characterized by an attempt to preserve the
vocalic features of RP.
 General Australian is the most characteristic type of Australian
English (used by at least 75% of Australians).
 Broad Australian (or Uneducated or Popular Australian)
 Australian English
 Australian English is predominantly British English, and especially
from the London area.
 R’s are dropped after vowels, but are often inserted between two
words ending and beginning with vowels.
 The long a (/ei/) tends towards a long i (/ai/), so pay sounds like
pie. The long i (/ai/), in turn, tends towards oi, so cry sounds like
croy. Ow sounds like it starts with a short a (/æ/). Other vowels
are less dramatically shifted.
 Canadian English
 Canadian English is generally similar to northern and western
American English.  The one outstanding characteristic is called
Canadian rising: /ai/ and /au/ become /œi/ and /œu/, respectively,
before voiceless consonants causing "about" to sound somewhat
like "a boat".
 One unusual characteristic found in much Canadian casual
speech is the use of sentence final "eh?" even in declarative
sentences.
 Most Canadians retain r's after vowels.