- •The semantic function of the nucleus. Emphatic and unemphatic speech
- •It is interesting to trace how the implication in the following sentences is changing with the change of the nuclear tone:
- •1) Widening or narrowing of the voice range:
- •Vowels and consonants. Languages vary a great deal with respect to how many vowel and consonant phonemes they have, but all languages seem to have more consonants than vowel phonemes.
- •4.2 The classification of English consonants
- •11.1 Estuary English (ee)
- •A. On the segmental level:
- •1) Nasality;
- •3) Extensive use of tags in questions:
- •A. Vocalic system
- •B. Consonantal system
- •9) Strong tendency towards devoicing;
A. Vocalic system
1) a tendency towards centralization:
æ, e, ʌ, ı, u, α: → ə e.g. honest /'ɔ:nıst/ → /'ɔ:nəst/
2) monophthongization (smoothing of some diphthongs before vowels):
/ɔə/, /uə/ → /ɔ:/ e.g. player /ple:ə/, going /gɜ:ıŋ/, science /sα:əns/, coward /kα:əd/
Thus, sure, shore, shaw become homophones → /∫ɔ:/
(/uə/ is being progressively eliminated from the RP phoneme inventory)
3) triphthongs aıə, auə → diphthongs → monophthongs: e.g. fire /fα:/, tower /tα:/ (homophones may also appear: tire, tower, tar → /tα:/, fire, far /fα:/)
4) short vowels are lengthened and become more tense (especially in disyllabic words in word final position): e.g. big /bıg/, come /kʌm/, man /mæn/, many /meni/, happy /hæpi/, valley /væli/
5) the fronting of /u:/ (nearer to /i:/) with very little lip-rounding: e.g. food /fu:d/, loose /lu:s/
(the word ‘used’ in ‘I used to’ thus sounds almost like the word ‘yeast’)
B. Consonantal system
1) voicing of /t/ in intervocalic position: e.g. latter, ladder → /'lædə/; British /brıdı∫/
2) /ŋ/ → /n/: e.g. skating /skeıtın/;
3) /l/ → /ł/: e.g. will you /'wıł ju:/;
4) glottalization (the growth in the use of glottal stop /ʔ/ either as a replacement for /t/ in word medial position and at word junction or before /p, t, k, t∫/ or even vowels – it produces a “clipped” effect on the foreigner): e.g. seatbelt /'si:ʔ'belt/, Gathwick /'gæʔwık/ Airport, not quite /nɔʔ 'kwaıt/; quite nice /kwaıʔ 'naıs/, hats /hæʔs/, accent /æʔksənt/, butcher /buʔt∫ə/, not only /nɔʔ 'əunlı/, but also /bʌʔ 'ɔ:lsəu/
5) palatalization of final /k/: e.g. quick /kwık’/
6) the use of “intrusive” /r/: e.g. Asia(r) and America;
7) the plosion between occlusive stops (“loss” of loss of plosion): e.g. sit down /sıth down/;
8) /h/-elision in word initial position: e.g. Let (h)im do this;
9) Strong tendency towards devoicing;
10) vocalization of /ł/ into /o/ in some positions: e.g. milk /mıok/, theatricals /θi:ætrıkəoz/
11) merging /j/ with the preceding consonant /t/ or /d/, turning them into affricates (t+j → /t∫/; d+j → /dƷ/): e.g. actual /t∫/; reduce /dƷ/.
To this list P. Trudgill also adds
- the fronting of /əu/: e.g. goat;
- the lowering of /æ/: e.g. trap;
- the use of intrusive /r/: e.g. the idea(r) of it.
All these changes make people believe that a new standard accent has established itself.