7. Territorial varieties of eng pronunciation

It is common knowledge that over 300 million people now speak English as first language. It is the national language of Great Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (part of it).

English was originally spoken in England and south-eastern Scotland. Then it was introduced into the greater part of Scotland and southern Ireland. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was brought to North America (mainly from the West of England). The English language was also at different times enforced as a state language on the peoples who fell under British rule or USA domination in Asia, Africa, Central and South America. A flow of emigrants who went to invade, explore and inhabit those lands came mostly from the south-eastern parts of England.

English became wide-spread in Wales at about the same time. Welsh English is very similar to southern English, although the influence of Welsh has played a role in its formation.

The population thus imposed upon still spoke their mother tongue or had control of both languages. After World War II as a result of the national liberation movement throughout Asia and Africa many former colonies have gained independence and in some of them English as the state language has been or is being replaced by the national language of the people inhabiting these countries (by Hindi in India, Urdu in Pakistan, Burmanese in Burma, etc.), though by tradition it retains there the position of an important means of communication.

Nowadays two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world: British English and American English.

According to British dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others), the following variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English English, Welsh English, Australian English, New Zealand English; to the American-based group: United States English, Canadian English. Scottish English and Ireland English fall somewhere between the two, being somewhat by themselves.

According to M. Sokolova and others, English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Irish English should be better combined into the British English subgroup, on the ground of political, geographical, cultural unity which brought more similarities - then differences for those variants of pronunciation. In the nineteenth century Received Pronunciation (RP) was a social marker, a prestige accent of an Englishman. "Received" was understood in the sense of "accepted in the best society". The speech of aristocracy and the court phonetically was that of the London area. Then it lost its local characteristics and was finally fixed as a ruling-class accent, often referred to as "King's English". It was also the accent taught at public schools. With the spread of education cultured people not belonging to upper classes were eager to modify their accent in the direction of social standards.

The orthoepic norm of the English language is considered to be Received Pronunciation (RP). It is mainly based on the southern region type of pronunciation, but it has developed its own features which have given it a non-regional character. The main changes that have recently take place in RP are as follows:

1) the diphthongization of the RP [i:] and [u:] which in final position are often pronounced with a glide;

2) monophthongization of [ai] and [au] when followed by [ə];

3) the centering of former [ou] to [зu];

4) the assimilation of the following sounds:

[sj] > [∫]

[zj] > [ʒ]

[tj] > [t∫]

[dj] > [dʒ]

5) the use of the intrusive [r] which some 30 – 40 years ago was carefully avoided by RP speakers.

RP is accepted as the teaching standard in many countries, in Russia as well.

There are many educated people in Britain who do not speak RP, though their English is good and correct. They speak Standard English with a regional type of pronunciation. The types of pronunciation that are widely used by educated people in Britain, besides RP, are the Northern type and the Scottish type of English pronunciation.

The Northern region type of English pronunciation is characterized by the following features:

• [æ] is more open and more retracted back;

• [a:] is fronted as compared to the RP [a:] and it approximates to [æ] in words which do not contain the letter “r”;

• [u] is used instead of [٨];

• [ou] is pronounced as monophthongal [o:].

The Scottish type of English pronunciation is characterized by the following features:

• the sequences [ir], [er], [٨r] are used instead of RP [з:];

• [u] is used instead of [au];

• all vowels are short;

• [r] is an alveolar flap not only between and before vowels, but also after vowels;

• a voiceless labiovelar fricative is used to distinguish, for example between “whine” and “wine”;

•a backlingual fricative [x] is used.