An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British / American English.

Jos Ribamar de Castro

There are,of course,many different regional accents in both British and America.The most important differences between standard British speech (RP) and standard American speech (GA) are as follows: 1. Stressed vowels are often lengthened more in American English than in British (so that British people think Americvans drawl and Americans think British speech is clipped).

2. Vowels are often nasalized in American English;thats to say,air comes out through the nose and mouth at the same time. Vowels are not nasalized in most British pronunciations,so it makes the two accents sound very different.
3. In standard British English (RP), r is only pronounced before a vowel.In American English, r is pronounced in all positions in a word,and it changes the quality of a vowel that comes before it.So words like car,turn,offer

sound very different in British and American speech. 4. Most vowels are pronounced a little differently in British and American English. Three vowels are very different: I The diphthong as in home,no in British English;in American English it is closer to being a monophthong or /ou/,and it sounds very different.

2 The vowel /o/ as in pot is pronounced in American words without lip-rounding,and sounds like the vowel /a:/ as in palm. 3 Many British people pronounce /a:/ in some words where Americans pronounce / /. Examples: cant , castle, fast, glass, staff, after , pass, example. 5. In American English, t and d both have a very light voiced pronunciation /d/ between vowels so writer and rider sound the same (flap r).

In British English ,t remains unvoiced between vowels. writer / rider.

6. Before u and -ew , British people pronounce n- ,d- and t- like /nju:/ ,/dju: /, /tju:/. Americans pronounce them as they are written: /nu: /, /du:/, /tu:/. Examples: new,dew,tune.
7. Words ending in tile are pronounced with /-tail / in British English, and /tl/ in American.

Examples: fertile,reptile. 8. Borough and thorough are pronounced differently in British and American English. GB / b^ra/ US /b^rau/ There is a very useful British-American dictionary called Whats the difference? by Norman Moss (Hutchison)

Varieties of British English a Differences within RP paw pore poor older speakers o: oa ua middle-aged speakers o: o: ua younger speakers o: o: o:

A very well known feature which distinguishes nothern from southern English accents concerns the vowels / /(n.) from /a:/(s.) RP pat,bad,cap RP path,laugh,grass RP dance,grant,demand RP part,bar,cart RP half,palm,banana,cant

Another change is rather more complex and less complete.We can note the following phonological contexts,and typical southern English pronunciations: -nt plant pant -ns dance romance -nd demand band -mp example camp

Scottish speakers mane no distinction between pairs of words such as the following Pam : palm pull : pool cot : caught

/h/ Unlike RP,most urban regional accents in England do not have /h/,or are at least variable in its usage.For these speakers,therefore,art and heart,arm and harm, are pronounced the same.Speakers in the northeast of England,including Newcastle,do however retain /h/,as do Scottish

and Irish speakers. /?/ In some areas,especially the northeast of England,E$ast Anglia,and Northern Ireland,the glottal stop may also be pronounced simultaneously with the voiceless stop /p/,/t/,/k/ in certtain positions,most strikingly between vowels:

flipper /flip? / city / sit?i:/ flicker / flik? / Most non-speakers of English,particularly in informal styles,do not have /n/ in the suffix -ing. In forms of this type they have /n/ instead: walking /wo:kin/

In an area of western central England which includes Birmingham,Manchester and Liverpool,words which elsewhere have /n/ (velar nasal) and are spelt -ng are pronounced with /ng/: singer / thing

Cockney is,of course,a southern accent. A. The contrast between /o/- /f/ is variably lost: iniatially thin /fin/ medially Cathy /k fi/ finally both /bouf/

B. Initially, /d or zero is more likely to be heard for / / the /d / they /dei/ or /ei/ In Bristol speech,/h/ is variably absent.Thus it is present in succession: Hed had his fixed,he said.

In south Wales the distribution of / / and /a:/ is generally as in the north of England.The contrast between the vowels,however,is usually one of length only. Thus cat /kat/ and cart /ka:t/ There is no post-vocalic /r/, except in the speech of some native speakers of Welsh.

The accent of Bradford,and of Yorkshire generally,is northern in that: a. There is no distinction between pairs of words like put and putt, both having /u/ b. make and take are pronounced /mek/ and /tek/.

The accent of Liverpool is limited to the city itself,to urban areas adjoining it,and to towns facing it acrossthe River Mersey (although its influence may be detected in other neighbouring accents). A. Words like book and cook are pronounced /bu:k/- /ku:k/

B. / / occurs in words like hat and dance; whi ch in RP have /a:/

In Newcastle speec h the final vowel in words like city and seedy is /i:/ l is clear in all environments. The words pat,dance have / /, farm has /a:/,all is pronounced /a:l/.

Edinburgh speech has the vowel system radically different from that of England. Pairs of words such as cot/caught pull/pool are not distinguished. Length is not generally a distinctive feature of Scottish vowels.

Belfast speech is quite silmilar to that of Scotland. Vowels are short before /p,t,k,t // and long before other consonants or when final. /o:/ and /o/ contrast only before /p,t,k/,as in caught and cot.

Finally,Id like to mention that the study of accent and dialect is of interest not only to the advanced learner of English as a foreign language,who will often encounter varieties of English differing considerably from the one he has learned,but also to those studying and teaching sociolinguistics and language varieties.