17. Regional accents in the uk

British regional features:

• Scottish [u] in cut, much, love;

• Scottish [a] in bad, bath;

• Scottish [hw] in which, where;

• Scottish [h] in Loch Ness, Loch Lomond;

• Scottish trilled [r] in murder;

• Irish [r] in all positions: river;

• Irish clear [1] in people, milk.

All the regional types of British accents are characterized by a narrower (compared with RP) pitch range. The most common pitch patterns are level and rising-falling. RP is unique in having a very wide pitch range and smoothly, gradually descending pitch pattern, at least in reading and formal speech. By contrast, regional speech is described as monotone because of its narrow pitch range.

18. Regional accents in the usa

American regional features:

• Southern r-vocalization after a vowel, as in river (Americans say that the second r is gone with the wind);

• Monophthongization of the diphthong [aı] which is unmarked before a

voiced consonant as in side, tide [sɑ:d, tɑ:d] but is socially marked before a voiceless:

light, sight [lat, sat];

• Southern drawl in that [ржət];

• [ı] in men, ten [mın, tın).

Other regional features are stereotyped in American spelling by their citizens:

• New York open [a]: Noo Yawk Tawk;

• Boston vocalised r in Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd;

• Afro-American dental plosives instead of dental fricatives: dese, dose, I tink so.

• Western cot – caught merger (70 % of the lexicon as compared to 21 % in

Pennsylvania, for instance).

7. Language change in progress.

Current changes in RP are grouped according to the degree of process

completion:

a) processes almost complete,

b) changes well-established,

c) recent innovations,

d) innovations on the verge of RP (Cruttenden 2003, "The Introduction into the

Pronunciation of English").

Processes almost complete:

a) [tj, dj] in unaccented positions are regularly changed to affricates as in

culture, soldier,

b) the distinction between [ou] and [o:] is lost, both are now [o:] in paw, pour.

c) [j] is lost following [1, s, z], e.g. luminous ['lumınəs], suit [su:t], exhume

[ıg'zu:m].

d) the diphthong [εə] is realized as a monophthong, e.g. fare [fə:],

e) [r] is pronounced as a post-alveolar approximant in all positions and not, as

formerly, as a tap in intervocalic positions following an accented syllable, e.g.

very, error.

Changes well-established:

1. [ı] in many (but not all!) unaccented syllables replaced by [ə], e.g. quality

['kwɔlətı] but palace ['pжlıs];

2. [o] used in place of [uə] in some, particularly monosyllabic, words, e.g. in

sure, poor, cure, moor, tour but less likely in pure and impossible in doer, fewer, newer,

viewer;

3. final [ı] replaced by [ı:] in words like city, pretty, dirty;

4. the quality of [ae] becomes more open, i.e. close to [a], e.g. mad, rat, cap;

5. pre-consonantal [t] becomes a glottal stop, e.g. not very but glottalization is

not acceptable before /1/, e.g. little [liʔl] is considered substandard;

6. [j] is lost after [n], e.g. news [nu:z];

7. accented [tj, dj] become [tj, d], e.g. tune, endure. 21

Recent innovations are not yet typical of a majority of speakers:

1. [ıə] and [uə] are realized as [i:] and [u:], e.g. beer [bi:], sure [∫u:], the latter

competing with [∫o:].

2. Unrounding as well as fronting of [u] and [u:] as [ı] and [i:], e.g. good [gıd], soon

[si:n].

3. The realization of [r] without a tongue tip contact (like American retroflexed

[r]) has been described as one of the features of Estuary English but may be a general

tendency within RP.

4. Intonation feature: the over-frequent use of a "checking" high rise on

declarative sentences like, for example, I was at Heath'row yesterday. They've got a new

duty-free shop.

5. Word stress placement: in the word hospitable in British 1988 survey 81 %

prefer the [həs'pıtəbl] with the stress on the second syllable and 19 % on the initial one

['hɔspıtəbl]. A similar case of stress shift: in applicable British 84 % preference is on the

side of [əp'lıkəbl]; and 16 % on the side of ['жplıkəbl]; the American selection is just the

opposite: 64 % for ['жplık-] and 36 % [əp'lık-].

Innovations on the verge of RP:

a) vocalization of dark [l],

b) and glottalization of [t] before an accented vowel and before a pause.