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Standard Pronunciation

The document discusses differences between standard pronunciation in British English and American English. It notes that Received Pronunciation (RP) is the standard accent of southeast England, while General American (GA) is the standard in the United States. There are systemic, fricative, lexical, realizational, and distributional differences between the two standards. For example, RP has diphthongs like /ɪə/ that GA pronounces as vowel + /r/ sequences, and RP pronounces /t/ as a tap in some contexts while GA uses a voiced tap. The geographical spread of English has led to many regional variations in pronunciation.

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Irina-Oana Stanciu
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49 views11 pages

Standard Pronunciation

The document discusses differences between standard pronunciation in British English and American English. It notes that Received Pronunciation (RP) is the standard accent of southeast England, while General American (GA) is the standard in the United States. There are systemic, fricative, lexical, realizational, and distributional differences between the two standards. For example, RP has diphthongs like /ɪə/ that GA pronounces as vowel + /r/ sequences, and RP pronounces /t/ as a tap in some contexts while GA uses a voiced tap. The geographical spread of English has led to many regional variations in pronunciation.

Uploaded by

Irina-Oana Stanciu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Types of standard

pronunciation
 Being spoken on all continents, English is the most
widely spread language on earth.
 The immense geographical spread of English
makes it very different in various places.
 There are differences, as those between standard
British English and the English dialects spoken in
the United Kingdom and Ireland (e.g. Scottish
English, Irish English, etc.), but there are also
differences due to the separate evolution of the
language in various parts of the world (e.g. in the
United States of America or Canada), or to the
contact between English and the language of a
colonised territory (e.g. in Hong Kong or South
Africa).
 Received pronunciation is a form of pronunciation
of the English language, sometimes defined as the
"educated spoken English of southeastern
England". RP is close to BBC English (the kind
spoken by British newscasters) and it is
represented in the pronunciation schemes of most
British dictionaries. RP is rather a social accent
than regional, associated with the educated upper
classes (and/or people who have attended public
schools) in Britain.
 In the United States a corresponding standard
variety is called General American (GA).
Differences between RP and GA
 systemic differences
- lack of RP monophthong /ɒ/ and
diphthongs /ɪə, eə, ʊə/
- /ɒ/ > GA /ɑ:/ (‘cod, spot, pocket’, loss of
distinction btw ‘bomb x ‘balm’) or /ɔ:/
before a voiceless
 Fricative differences
(‘across, gone, often’)
- /ɪə, eə, ʊə/ > GA sequences of vowel + /r/
(‘beard’ /bɪrd/, ‘fare’ /fer/, ‘dour’ /dʊr/)
 lexical differences.
- RP /ɑ/ > GA /æ / before a voiceless fricative
(‘past, after’)
- RP /ɔ:/ > GA /ɔ/ (loss of distinction btw ‘cot’
x ‘caught’)
 realisational differences.
- RP diphthongs /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ > GA
monophthongs [e:] and [o:] (‘late’ [le:t],
‘load’ lo:d])
- RP /r/ > GA [ɻ] = the tip of the tongue curled
further backwards
- RP /t/ > GA [ɾ] = voiced tap, in unaccented
intervocalic positions (‘better’ ['beɾ],
‘butter, latter’)
- RP /l/ > GA [ł], i.e. dark (in all positions)
 distributional differences.
- RP /ɑ:/ > GA / ・ + /r/ in words spelled with
the vowel letter + <r> (‘car, card, large’)
- RP /з:/ > GA r-coloured vowel [ɝ] in words
spelled with vowel letter + <r> (‘bird, farm,
lord’)
- RP /ə/ > GA r-coloured vowel [ɚ] in words
spelled with vowel letter + <r>
- RP /ɔ:/ > GA /ɔ/ + /r/ in words spelled with
vowel letter + <r> (‘horse, cord, war’)
- RP [aɪ] + [ł] > GA [aɪ] + syllabic [ł̩ ] (‘fertile,
futile, missile, reptile’)
- RP /ɹ/ > GA syllabic [ɹ̩] when word final
after a consonant (‘razor’ ['reɪzɹ̩ ],
‘hammer’ ['hæmɹ̩], ‘tailor’ ['teɪlɹ̩])
- RP /j/ + /u:/ after /t, d/ > GA /u:/ (‘tune,
dune, duty’)
by Irina-Oana Sandu

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