24
Plan
Introduction
Chapter 1. RP/BBC English as the British national standard of
pronunciation
1.1 Socio-historical survey of RP/BBC English
1.2 Phonological and phonetic dimensions of RP/BBC English
Chapter 2. British English as a standard of pronunciation in Great
Britain
2.1 History
2.2 Dialects and accents
2.3 Regional
2.4 Standardization
Chapter 3. Cockney as an example of a broad accent of British English
Chapter 4. Black British as one of the most widespread dialects in Great
Britain
Chapter 5. Differences in pronunciation between British and American
English
Chapter 6. Estuary English as one of the dialects of British English
Chapter 7. Chief differences between RP and regional accents of British
English
Conclusions
Резюме
References
Introduction
All the sounds in all languages are always in process of change. During
those times when people from different regions communicated with each
other not often, it was natural that the speech of all communities did
not develop in one direction or at the same rate. Moreover, different
parts of the country were subjected to different extreme influences,
which were the reasons for different phonetic structures of the
language. Especially, for the last five centuries, in Great Britain has
existed the notion that one kind of pronunciation of English is
preferable socially to others. One regional accent began to acquire
social prestige. For reasons of politics, commerce and the presence of
the Court, it was the pronunciation of the south-east of England and
more particularly to that of the London Region, that this prestige was
attached. This pronunciation is called Received Pronunciation which is
regarded as a model for correct pronunciation, particularly for educated
formal speech.
It is to be noticed that the role of RP in the English-speaking world
has changed very considerably in the last century. Over 300 million
people now speak English as their first language and of this number
native RP speakers form only a minute proportion. George Bernard Shaw
said that the United States and United Kingdom are “two countries
divided by a common language” [14].
Many scientists, such as D. Jones, J.C. Wells, J. Gimson, S. Johnson, S.
Jeffries, J. Maidment, D considered RP/BBC to be an important issue to
pay their attention to. The object of this research is RP as a norm of
pronunciation of British English and its accents and dialects. The
subject of the research is devoted to the peculiarities of the
development of RP from D. Jones to Wells.
The practical value of the research consists in providing different
approaches to the problem of RP in Modern English. The material which
was used to supply this research with examples is the following: George
Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (film “My fair lady”), Linton Kwesi Johnson’s
poem “Sonny’s Lettah” and the BBC news. This turn paper consists of the
introductory, seven chapters, conclusion, summary and the list of used
literature.
Seven chapters are:
1. RP/BBC English as the British national standard of pronunciation
2. British English as a standard of pronunciation in Great Britain
3. Cockney as an example of a broad accent of British English
4. Black British as one of the most widespread dialects in Great Britain
5. Differences in pronunciation between British and American English
6. Estuary English as one of the dialects of British English
7. Chief differences between RP and regional accents of British English
Chapter 1. RP/BBC English as the British national standard of
pronunciation
1.1 Socio-historical survey of RP/BBC English
Gimson claims that the historical origins of RP go back to the 16th-17th
century recommendations that the speech model should be that provided by
the educated pronunciation of the court and the capital [Gimson 1980].
Thus, the roots of RP in London, more particularly the pronunciation of
the London region and the Home countries lying around London within 60
miles: Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Surrey. By the 18th century a prestigious
pronunciation model was characterized as the speech ” received by the
polite circles of society ” [Gimson: 1977].
By the 19th century London English had increasingly acquired social
prestige losing be of its local characteristics. It was finally fixed as
the pronunciation of the ruling class. According to Leither, in the mid
19th century there was an increase in education, in particular, there
occurred the rise of public schools (since 1864 Public School Act).
These schools became important agencies in the transmission of Southern
English as the form with highest prestige. Since that time London
English or Southern English was termed as Classroom English, Public
School English or Educated English [Liether: 1982]. That was a forceful
normalization movement towards the establishment of Educated Southern
English as the standard accent. The major reasons for this were:
1) The need for a clearly defined and recognized norm for public and
other purposes;
2) The desire to provide adequate descriptions for teaching English both
as the mother tongue and a foreign language.
Professor Daniel Jones described this variety as a hoped-for standard
pronunciation in the first editions of his books “The Pronunciation of
English” [1909] and “Outline of English Phonetics” [1917]. By 1930,
however, any intention of setting up a standard of Spoken English was
disclaimed by many phoneticians. The term “Standard Pronunciation” was
replaced by “Received Pronunciation”, which had been introduced for
Southern Educated English by phonetician Ida Ward who defined it as
pronunciation which ” had lost all easily noticeable local differences”
[Leitner: 1982]. According to Wells the British Broadcasting Corporation
(the BBC) adopted RP for the use by its news-readers since 1920s. The
country’s population, for more than half a century, had been exposed
through broadcasting to RP. Until the early 70s of the last century it
was the only accent demanded in the BBC’s announcers. For that reason RP
often became identified in the public mind with BBC English. Only over
the last 30 years, both the BBC and other British national radio and TV
channels have been increasingly tolerant of the accent of their
broadcasters. [Wells: 1982].
1.2 Phonological and phonetic dimensions of RP/BBC English
Now we will outline main segmental features of RP/BBC English.
As for its phoneme inventory, Gimson states, that this accent has 20
vowels and 24 consonants. The system of vowels embraces 12 pure vowels
or monophthongs: i:, i, ж, ?, a:, o, o:, х, u:, з:, ? and 8 diphthongs:
ei, ai, oi, ?х, aх, i?, e?, х?. The system of RP consonants consists of
the following two wide categories of sounds:
1) those typically associated with a noise component: p, b, t, d, k, g,
f, v, и, р, s, z, ?,з, h, t?,dз;
2) those without a noise component which may share many phonetic
characteristics with vowels – 7 sonorants : m, n, ?, 1, r, j, w.
Measurements of text frequency of occurrence of RP vowels and consonants
display the following picture: [Gimson: 2001]
According to the phonotactic specification of /r/ occurrence, RP is a
non-rhotic or r-less accent, i.e. /r/ does not occur after a vowel or at
the end of the words. It may be claimed that /r/ in RP has a limited
distribution, being restricted in its occurrence to pre-vocalic
positions.
Prof. J C. Wells in his article “Cockneyfication of RP” discusses
several of recent and current sound changes in RP. He considers in turn:
1) the decline of weak /I/,
2) glottalling,
A lot of bright examples of glottalling we can find in George Bernard
Shaw’s “Pygmalion” ( film “My Fair Lady”):
e.g. So cheer up, Captain; and buy a flower off a poor girl. / e.g.
What’s that? That ain’t proper writing. /e.g. Buy a flower, kind
gentleman. /
3) 1-vocalization,
4) intrusive /r/,
5) yod coalescence,
e.g. Then what did you take my words for? / e.g. Now you know, don’t
you? I’m come to have lessons, I am. / e.g. Would you mind if I take a
seat? /
6) assorted lexical changes.
V. Parashchuk claims that there is a tendency towards the so-called
smoothing (tightening, reduction) of the sequences / ai? /, /aх?/
(“thripthongs”), the medial element of which may be elided. They are
sometimes reduced to a long open vowel, e.g. power /pa:/, tower /ta:/,
fire /fa:/, our /a:/. Though the full forms have been retained in the
latest edition of the LPD as the main variants, their reduced
counterparts are very common in casual RP: /aх? – a? – a:/.
There is a tendency, though not a very consistent one, to make the
diphthong /х?/ a positional allophone of /o:/ . It is increasingly
replaced by /o:/ , e.g. the most common form of sure has /o:/ with a
similar drift being true for poor, mour, tour and their derivatives.
Rare words, such as gourd, dour tend to retain /х?/without a common /o:/
variant. Words in which /х?/ is preceded by a consonant plus /j/ are
relatively resistant to this shift, e.g. pure, curious, fury, furious.
There is a yod-dropping tendency after /s/ in the words like suit, super
and their derivatives, e.g. suitcase, suitable, supreme, superior,
supermarket – these have the dominant form without /j/. In words, where
/j/ occurs after the consonants other than /s/, it still remains the
dominant form in RP, e.g. enthusiasm, news, student. [Parashchuk: 2005]
Chapter 2. British English as a standard of pronunciation in Great
Britain
British English or UK English or English English (BrE, BE), is the broad
term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the
United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. There is confusion whether the
term refers to English as spoken in the British Isles or to English as
spoken in Great Britain, though in the case of Ireland, there are
further distinctions peculiar to Hiberno-English. There are slight
regional variations in formal written English in the United Kingdom.
Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written
English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described as
“British English”. According to Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to
World English (p. 45), “for many people…especially in England [the
phrase British English] is tautologous,” and it shares “all the
ambiguities and tensions in the word British, and as a result can be
used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within
a range of blurring and ambiguity” [11]. English is a West Germanic
language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to
England by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest
Germany and the northern Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a
diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon,
eventually came to dominate. Thus, English developed into a “borrowing”
language of great flexibility and with a huge vocabulary. Professor
Sally Johnson admits that dialects and accents vary between the four
countries of the United Kingdom, and also within the countries
themselves. There are also differences in the English spoken by
different socio-economic groups in any particular region. The major
divisions are normally classified as English English (or English as
spoken in England, which comprises Southern English dialects, Midlands
English dialects and Northern English dialects), Welsh English, Scottish
English and the closely related dialects of the Scots language. The
various British dialects also differ in the words that they have
borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern English
dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse and a few
borrowed from Gaelic. There is no singular British accent, just as there
is no singular American accent; in fact, the United Kingdom is home to a
wide variety of regional accents and dialects, to a greater extent than
the United States. Stuart Jeffries claims that the form of English most
commonly associated with educated speakers in the southern counties of
England is called the “Received Standard”, and its accent is called
Received Pronunciation (RP). It derives from a mixture of the Midland
and Southern dialects which were spoken in London during the Middle Ages
and is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign
learners. Although educated speakers from elsewhere within the UK may
not speak with an RP accent it is now a class-dialect more than a local
dialect. The best speakers of Standard English are those whose
pronunciation, and language generally, least betray their locality. It
may also be referred to as “the Queen’s (or King’s) English”, “Public
School English”, or “BBC English” as this was originally the form of
English used on radio and television, although a wider variety of
accents can be heard these days. Only approximately two percent of
Britons speak RP, and it has evolved quite markedly over the last 40
years [11]. Even in the South East there are significantly different
accents; the London Cockney accent is strikingly different from RP and
its rhyming slang can be difficult for outsiders to understand. Since
the mass immigration to Northamptonshire in the 1940s and its close
accent borders, it has become a source of various accent developments.
There, nowadays, one finds an accent known locally as the Kettering
accent, which is a mixture of many different local accents, including
East Midlands, East Anglian, Scottish, and Cockney. In addition, in the
town of Corby, five miles (8 km) north, one can find Corbyite, which
unlike the Kettering accent, is largely based on Scottish. This is due
to the influx of Scottish steelworkers. As with English around the
world, the English language as used in the United Kingdom and the
Republic of Ireland is governed by convention rather than formal code:
there is no equivalent body to the Acadйmie franзaise or the Real
Academia Espaсola, and the authoritative dictionaries (for example,
Oxford English Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English,
Chambers Dictionary, Collins Dictionary) record usage rather than
prescribe it. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time; words
are freely borrowed from other languages and other strains of English,
and neologisms are frequent [11].
Chapter 3. Cockney as an example of a broad accent of British English
According to V. Parashchuk, an example of an accent representing
much-localized, non-standard English is Cockney, the broadest London
working-class speech. Historically, Cockney has been the major influence
in the phonetic development of RP, and many of its current changes can
be related to Cockney pronunciation. Let us summarize the most essential
information on the origin of Cockney, the revealing features of its
grammar, vocabulary, and major phonetic distinctions. Cockney is
distinguished by its special usage of vocabulary – rhyming slang. Many
of its expressions have passed into common language. It developed as a
way of obscuring the meaning of sentences to those who did not
understand the slang. It remains a matter of speculation whether this
was a linguistic accident, or whether it was developed intentionally to
assist criminals or to maintain a particular community
[http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/cockneyrhyming slang]. Rhyming
slang works by replacing the word to be obscured with the first word of
a phrase that rhymes with that word. For instance, “face” would be
replaced by “boat”, because face rhymes with “boat race”
[http//www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/cockneyrhymingslang].
Similarly “feel” becomes “plates” (“plates of meat”), and “money” is
“bread” (a very common usage, from “bread and honey”). Sometimes the
full phrase is used, for example “Currant Bun” to mean The Sun (often
referring to the British tabloid newspaper of that name). Some
substitutions have become relatively widespread in England, for example,
to “have a butcher’s” means to have a look, from the rhyming slang
“butcher’s hook”.[Parashchuk: 2005]
J. Gimson states that there are no differences in the inventory of vowel
and consonant phonemes between RP and Cockney [Gimson: 2001:87] and
there are relatively few differences of phoneme lexical distribution.
There are, however, a large number of differences in realization of
phonemes. Most striking realizational differences can be summarized as
follows [Gimson: 2001:86-87].
In consonants:
1. H dropping. /h/ is not pronounced in initial positions in words which
have this phoneme in RP, e.g. have, hat, horse = /av/, /жt/, /ho:s/. /h/
is used, however, in initial positions in words which in RP begin with a
vowel. Thus the words air, atmosphere, honesty are pronounced in Cockney
as /he?/, /hжtmжsfi?/, /?hon?sti/.
The following examples are taken from film “My fair lady”
e.g. You ain’t heard what I come for yet. /e.g. I’m come to have
lessons, I am. /e.g. I won’t stay here if I don’t like. / e.g. He ain’t
above giving lessons, not him: I heard him say so. /
2. TH fronting/stopping. The contrast between /и/ and /f/ is completely
lost and between / р / and /v/ is occasionally lost, e.g. think, father
– /fink/, /Чfa: v? /. When / р/ occurs initially, it is either dropped
or replaced by /d/, e.g. this and that = /’disn’dжt/. e.g. I ain’t got
no mother.(FL) /
3. L vocalization. Dark [?] (i.e. in positions not immediately before
vowels) becomes vocalic [х], e.g. milk, table = /miхk/, /teibх/. When
the preceding vowel is /o:/, /l/ may disappear completely, e.g. called =
/kho:d/.
4. T glottalling is widely spread in Cockney accent. /t/ is realized as
a glottal stop following vowels, laterals, and nasals, e.g. butterfly =
/’bЛ?t?flai/. /t/ between vowels is not aspirated, and is often replaced
by /d/ or /r/ or the glottal stop /?/ ,e.g. get away, better = /’ged
?’wei/, /Чger?’wei/, /’ge??’wei/; /’bed?/, /’ber?/, /’be??/.
There may be similar replacement of /p/. /k/ before a following
consonant, e.g. soapbox /’sжх?boks/, technical /’te?ni?u/ [Gimson
2001:88].
e.g. What that you say? /
5. yod-coalescence. There is coalescence of /t/, /d/ before /j/ into /
t? /, and / d?/ , e.g. tube [t?u:b], during [‘ d?х?ri?], but elision of
/j/ following by/n/, e.g. news [nu:z].
e.g. I won’t let you wallop me!
/
Main distinctions in the realization of cockney vowels include [Gimson:
2001:87-88]:
1. The short front vowels /e/, /ж/ tend to be closer than in RP so much,
that Cockney sat may sound as set and set like sit to the speakers of
other accents.
2. Among the long vowels, most noticeable is the diphthongization of
/i:/?/?i/, /u:/?/?u/, thus bead =/b?id/, boot =/b?ut/. When /o:/ is
final, it is pronounced as /ow?/, sore, saw = /sow?/; when it is not
final, its realization is closer/oх/.
3. Diphthong shift. Cockney uses distinctive pronunciation of RP
diphthongs:
/ei/ is realized as /ai/ e.g. lady = /’laidi/;
/ai/ sounds as /oi/~/ai/, e.g. price= /prois/;
/?х/ sounds as /жх/ e.g. load /lжхd/;
/aх/ sounds as /a:/, e g loud /la:d/;
4. /i/ lengthening, /i/ in word final positions sound’, as /i:/.e .g.
city /’siti:/
5. Weakening. RP diphthong /?х/ in window, pillow is weakened to schwa
/?/. You, to are pronounced as /j?/, /t?/, especially finally, e.g. see
you, try to [Gimson:2001].
Chapter 4. Black British as one of the most widespread dialects in Great
Britain
Black British is a term which has had different meanings and uses as a
racial and political label. Historically it has been used to refer to
any non-white British national. The term was first used at the end of
the British Empire, when several major colonies formally gained
independence and thereby created a new form of national identity. The
term was at that time (1950s) used mainly to describe those from the
former colonies of Africa, and the Caribbean, i.e. the New Commonwealth.
In some circumstances the word “Black” still signifies all ethnic
minority populations [12]. Historically, the term has most commonly been
used to refer to those of New Commonwealth origin. For example, Southall
Black Sisters was established in 1979 “to meet the needs of black (Asian
and Afro-Caribbean) women”. (Note that “Asian” in the British context
means from South Asia only.) “Black” was used in this inclusive
political sense to mean “not white British” – the main groups in the
1970s were from the British West Indies and the Indian subcontinent, but
solidarity against racism extended the term to the Irish population of
Britain as well. Several organizations continue to use the term
inclusively, such as the Black Arts Alliance, who extend their use of
the term to Latin America and all refugees, and the National Black
Police Association.
Jatinder Verma claims that Black British was also an identity of Black
people in Sierra Leone (known as the Krio) who considered themselves
British. They are generally the descendants of black people who lived in
England in the 18th century and freed Black American slaves who fought
for the Crown in the American Revolutionary War (see also Black
Loyalists). In 1787, hundreds of London’s Black poor (a category which
included the East Indian) agreed to go to this West African country on
the condition that they would retain the status of British subjects, to
live in freedom under the protection of the British Crown and be
defended by the Royal Navy [12].
During this era there was a rise of black settlements in London. Britain
was involved with the tri-continental slave trade between Europe, Africa
and the Americas. Black slaves were attendants to sea captains and
ex-colonial officials as well as traders, plantation owners and military
personnel. Many of these people were forced into beggary due to the lack
of jobs and racial discrimination. The involvement of merchants from the
British Isles in the transatlantic slave trade was the most important
factor in the development of the Black British community. These
communities flourished in port cities strongly involved in the slave
trade, such as Liverpool (from 1730) and Bristol Around the 1750s London
became the home of many of Blacks, Jews, Irish, Germans, and Huguenots.
The late 19th century effectively ended the first period of large scale
black immigration to London and Britain. This decline in immigration
gave way to the gradual incorporation of blacks and their descendents
into this predominantly white society. It was in the period after the
Second World War, however, that the largest influx of Black people
occurred, mostly from the British West Indies. This migration event is
often labeled “Windrush”, a reference to the Empire Windrush, the ship
that carried the first major group of Caribbean migrants to the United
Kingdom in 1948. “Caribbean” is itself not one ethnic or political
identity; for example, some of this wave of immigrants were
Indo-Caribbean. The most widely used term then used was “West Indian”
(or sometimes “coloured”). Today the black population of London is
1,001,000 or 13% of the population of London. 5% of Londoners are
Caribbean, 7% of Londoners are African and a further 1% are from other
black backgrounds including American and Latin American. There are also
113,800 people who are mixed black and white [12]. Linton Kwesi Johnson
is probably the best known poet in Britain who is currently using Creole
( Black English) . The poem “Sonny’s Lettah”, appeared in print in his
anthology “Inglan’ is a Bitch” (1980) and was recorded on his album
Forces of Victory. I have read through “Sonny’s Lettah” while listening
to the tape and marked differences between Standard English and the
English used in the poem. Here is the snatch of this song:
“Dear Ma Maa,
Good Day
I hope that when these few lines reach you
they may find you in the best of health
Ma Maa I really don’ know how to tell yu dis
’cause , I did meck a solemn promise
to teck care a likkle Jim and try
mi best fi look out fi ‘im
Ma Maa a really did try mi best
but none de less
mi sorry fi tell yu sey
poor likkle Jim get aress’
it was de middle a de rush ‘our
when everybody jus’ a hustle an a bustle
fi go ‘ome fi dem evenin’ shower…”
I have noticed that where odd or unusual spelling has been used, this
reflected a difference in pronunciation.
So, the following examples are:
1. BrEn these /рi:z/ corresponds to Black BrEn deze /dis/.
2. BrEn best /best/ corresponds to Black BrEn bes’ /bes/.
3. BrEn health /hжlи/ corresponds to Black BrEn helt’ /helt/.
4. BrEn they /рei/ corresponds to Black BrEn dem /dem/.
At the level of sounds, Creole has some characteristics which are
associated with regional and working-class varieties of English, and
some others which are found only in Caribbean Creole. Some of the most
important differences:
1. The vowel of Black BrEn in the word cup is like the vowel of BrEN
cop/kЛp/
2. The vowel of Black BrEn in the word all is like the vowel of BrEn are
/a:l/
3. The vowels of Rlack BrEn in the words day and home are diphthongs
/dai/ and /hoхm/ unlike BrEn /dei/ and /heхm/.
4. The first consonant of thump in Black BrEn is pronounced /tЛmp/
unlike BrEn /иЛmp/ [13].
Chapter 5. Differences in pronunciation between British and American
English
According to Edward Finegan, written forms of American and British
English as found in newspapers and textbooks vary little in their
essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences in
comparable media (comparing American newspapers to British newspapers,
for example). This kind of formal English, particularly written English,
is often called ‘standard English’. An unofficial standard for spoken
American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and
geographic and social mobility. It is typically referred to as ‘standard
spoken American English’ (SSAE) or ‘General American English’ (GenAm or
GAE), and broadly describes the English typically heard from network
newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although
local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech. Despite
this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have
not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist
William Labov [14].
Crystal Claims that regional dialects in the United States typically
reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any
particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation
and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major
regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern,
Midland, and Western. The spoken forms of British English vary
considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid
isolated populations. Dialects and accents vary not only between the
countries in the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and
Wales, but also within these individual countries. British and American
English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and
taught in the rest of the world. For instance, the English-speaking
members of the Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms
while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of
the United States. Although the dialects of English used in the former
British Empire are often, to various extents, based on British English,
most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique
dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation, idioms, and
vocabulary; chief among them are Canadian English and Australian
English, which rank third and fourth in number of native speakers. The
English language was first introduced to the Americas by British
colonization, beginning in the early 17th century. Similarly, the
language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of
British trade and colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former
British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of about
470–570 million people: approximately a quarter of the world’s
population at that time[14]. Over the past 400 years, the form of the
language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that
used in the British Isles have diverged in many ways, leading to the
dialects now commonly referred to as American English and British
English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, formatting of dates
and numbers, and so on, although the differences in written and most
spoken grammar structure tend to be much more minor than those of other
aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small
number of words have completely different meanings between the two
dialects or are even unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One
particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from
Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828)
with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a
different dialect from Britain. This divergence between American English
and British English once caused George Bernard Shaw to say that the
United States and United Kingdom are “two countries divided by a common
language”; a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Likewise,
Oscar Wilde wrote, “We have really everything in common with America
nowadays, except, of course, the language” (The Canterville Ghost,
1888). Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American
English, Australian English and British English would be mutually
unintelligible. There are enough differences to cause occasional
misunderstandings or at times embarrassment – for example, some words
that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the
other.
We can observe some differences in pronunciation in the past forms of
such words as:
AmE learnt /l?nt/ – BrE learned /lз:nd/,
AmE spoilt – BrE spoiled,
AmE spellt – BrE spelled,
AmE dreamed – BrE dreamt,
AmE smelt – BrE smelled, spill,
In BrE, both irregular and regular forms are current, but for some words
(such as smelt and leapt) there is a strong tendency towards the
irregular forms, especially by users of Received Pronunciation. In AmE,
the irregular forms are never or rarely used (except for burnt and
leapt).
The t endings may be encountered frequently in older American texts
[14].
There are some examples of differences between British and American
pronunciation:
1. RP orange / ‘?r?nd?/ – AmE /’?r?nd?/.
2. RP origin /’?r?d??n/ – AmE /’?r?d??n/.
3. RP Florida /’fl??r?d?/ – AmE /’fl?r?d?/.
4. RP horrible /’h?r?bl/ – AmE /’h?r?bl/.
5. RP quarrel /’kw?r?l/ – AmE /’kw?r?l/.
6. RP warren /’ w?r?n/ – AmE /’ w?r?n/.
7. RP borrow /’ b?r?? – AmE /’ b?ro?/.
8. RP tomorrow /t?’m?r??/ – AmE /t?’m?ro?/.
9. RP sorry /’s?ri/ – AmE /’s?ri/.
10. RP sorrow/’s?r??/ – AmE /’s?ro?/[15].
Chapter 6. Estuary English as one of the dialects of British English
Maidment says that one of the British accents (or dialects) that has
received a lot of publicity since mid 80s of the last century is Estuary
English (EE) named so after the banks of the river Thames and its
estuary. Some researches predict that EE is due to take over as the new
standard of English, others are more cautious in their assessment of its
status. They claim that EE is an accent which incorporates a mixture of
south-eastern, RP and Cockney features and which has been gaining
popularity with educated speakers not only in London and in the estuary
of the Thames, but in other areas due to high mobility of the
population. This situation is clearly reflected in the title of J.
Maidment’s paper “Estuary English: Hybrid or Hype?” [Maidment: 1994].
The term Estuary English was coined in 1984 by David Rosewarne, who at
that time was a post-graduate student of Applied Linguistics. He defines
EE as follows “Estuary English is a variety of modified regional speech.
It is a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern pronunciation
and intonation. If one imagines a continuum Received Pronunciation and
London speech (Cockney) at either end, EE speak are to be found grouped
in the middle ground” [Rosewarne: 1984]. Here we will summarize major
phonetic characteristics of EE based on the findings of the above
mentioned scholars. According to J.C. Wells, many of the features that
distinguish EE from RP are features it shares with Cockney. Unlike
Cockney, EE is associated with standard grammar and usage. But EE agrees
with Cockney, and differs from RP, in having (perhaps variably):
1) happY-tensing- tense vowel ‘i’ at the end of happy, coffee, valley
etc.
2) T glottalling finally, e.g. take i?off, qui?e nice etc.
e.g. As the climate change summit starts that position of countries like
India, Brazil, Russia and, of course, China will be crucial (BBC news).
/
3) L vocalization – pronouncing the ‘1’ sound in preconsonantal and
final positions almost like/w/, e.g. milk, bottle, etc.;
4) Yod coalescence in stressed syllables, e.g. Tuesday, tune etc. that
makes the first part of Tues- sound identical to choose or duke, reduce
etc. making the second part of reduce identical to juice.
5) diphthong shift: the diphthongal vowels of face, price, goat in EE
are those that would be used by Cockney speakers [Wells: 1997].
EE differs from Cockney in that it lacks:
1) H dropping/omitting (in content words), so that Cockney hand on heart
becomes ‘and on ‘eart.
2) TH fronting, using labio-dental fricatives /f /and /f/ instead of
/и/, / р/. This turns I think into /ai fi?k/, and mother into /mЛv?/.
e.g. Nadia’s mother hasn’t seen her daughter since 2007(BBC news). /
3) T glottalling within a word before a vowel, e.g. water, mattress,
twenty. Cockney speakers use ? for /t/ in all environments where it is
not syllable initial. Also sometimes they extend glottal replacement to
affect /p/ and /k/ as well as /t/.
J. C. Wells claims that ” …EE is a new name but not a new phenomenon,
being the continuation of a trend that has been going on for five
hundred years or more – the tendency for features of popular London
speech to spread out geographically (to other parts of the country) and
socially (to higher classes). The erosion of the English class system
and the greater social mobility in Britain today means that this trend
is more noticeable today than was once the case …” [Wells: 1997].
Chapter 7. Chief differences between RP and Regional accents of British
English
V. Parashchuk summarizes the chief differences between regional accents
of British English (BrE) as distinct from RP:
Within the vocalic systems:
1. No /Л/ – /х/ contrast. Typically /Л/ does not occur in the accents of
the north e.g. but =/bЛt/ (South), and /bхt/(North); blood=/blЛd/
(South) and /blхd/ (North); one =/wЛn/ (South) and /won/(North).
2. Different distribution of /ж/ and /a:/: before the voiceless
fricatives/f/, /и/, /s/ and certain consonant clusters containing
initial /n/ or /m/, /ж/ is pronounced in the North instead of /a:/ in
the South.
3. /i/ – tensing is one of the salient north-south differentiating
features in England. Word final /i/ like in words city /’siti/, money
/’mЛni/ is typical of the northern accents, while in the South they have
/i:/ in similar positions. In RP happY vowel /i/ is used in such cases.
4. Vowel length contrast is absent in Scottish English and Northern
Ireland [Parashchuk: 2005].
Within the consonantal systems:
1. Rhoticism, i.e. retaining post-vocalic /r/, is spread in Scotland,
Ireland, and South-west in words like bar, farm etc. which have
orthographic ‘r’. Non-rhoticism, i.e. absens of post-vocalic /r/, is
typical of RP and Welsh English. Thus, some British English accents are
“rhotic” or “r-ful” and others are non-rhotic or ‘r-less’.
2. /t/ glottaling .In most regional accents the glottal stop is widely
used, especially in the north-east of England, East Anglia and Northern
Ireland. It may also be pronounced simultaneously with the voiceless
/p/, /t/, /k/ most strikingly between the vowels, e.g. pity =/‘pit?i:/ .
3. /j/ (Yod) dropping: in most accents/ j/ is dropped after /t/ or /s/.
e.g. student = /’stu:dnt/, suit=/su:t/, in the North it has been lost
after /и/, e.g. enthusiasm/?n’иu:zi?zm/; In eastern England /j/ is lost
after every consonant, in London – after /n/, /t/, /d/, e.g. news =
/nu:z/, tune =/tu:n/.
4. Many non-RP speakers use /n/ in the suffix -ing instead of /?/:
speaking/’spi:kin/. In areas of western central England including
Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool they pronounce /ng/: singer
/‘sing?/, wing /wing/ [Parashchuk: 2005].
Conclusions
According to Leither, in the 18th century there was a forceful
normalization movement towards the establishment of Educated English. In
teaching as well as in politics and commerce, it was obligatory to have
an adequate description for English [Leither: 1982].
A lot of scientists, such as Professor D. Jones, J.C. Wells, J.Gimson,
S. Johnson, S. Jefrries, D. Rosewarne and others considered this problem
to be worthy to discuss. Having prepared this term paper we can make
following conclusions:
1. Professor Sally Johnson divides English English into Southern English
dialect, Midlands English dialect and Northern English dialect [11].
2. There existed different approaches to the problem of RP in Middle
English and exists in Modern English. As the result of it RP/BBC English
has become the British national standard of pronunciation [Parashchuk:
2005].
3. Professor J.C. Wells in his research discussed sound changes in RP.
They are:
1. The decline of weak /l/;
2. Glottalling;
3. L-vocalization;
4. Intrusive /r/ ;
5. Yod-coalescence;
6. Assorted lexical changes [Wells: 1982].
4. Sound changes given above can be met in different accents and
dialects in British English, Estuary English and Black British.
References
1. Паращук В.Ю. Теоретична фонетика англійської мови: Навчальний
посібник для студентів факультетів іноземних мов. – Тема “Ukrainian
Accent of English” написана В.Ю. Кочубей – Вінниця, НОВА КНИГА, 2005. –
240 с.
2. Gimson, A.C. Jones and Standards of English Pronunciation// English
Studies. – Vol.58. – №2. – 1997. – P.152 – 157.
3. Gimson, A. C. Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. Sixth Edition. /
Revised by Alan Gruttenden. London, New York: Edward Arnold, 2001. – 339
p.
4. Coggle, Paul. Do you speak Estuary? – London: Bloomsbury, 1993.
5. Leitner G. The Consolidation of “Educated Southern English” as a
Model in the Early 20th Century // IRAL. Vol.20. – 1982. – P. 94-95.
6. Maidment, J.A. Estuary English: Hybrid or Hype? //Paper Presented at
the 4th New Zealand Conference on Language and Society. – Cristchurch:
Linkoln University, 1994.
7. Rosewarne, David. Estuary English. //Times Educational Supplement, 19
October 1984.
8. Wells, John C.Accents of English. – Cambradge, London, New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1982. Books 1, 2,3. – 685p.
9. Wells, J.C. Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation //II Jornadas
de Estudios Ingleses. – Univesidad de Jaen, 1997. – P. 19-28.
10. Wells, John C. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. – Harlow: Pearson
Education Limited, 2000. – 1827p.
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_British
13. http://lister.ultrakohl.com/homepage/Lkj/sonny.htm
14.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American
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