35. Pronunciation standards of English

American pronunciation - regional standards, regional differences. three major types is followed: the Eastern American (EA), the Southern American (SA), General American (GA). AE consonants of the three major types. The differences mainly concern the pronunciation of the individual consonant phonemes:

- the RP allophonic differentiation of [l] does not exist in GA

- intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. In words like little, winter it may even drop out

- GA [r] is articulated differently from RP

few differences in the system of vowel phonemes in GA and RP

- no strict division of vowels into long and short

- some dipthongs in GA are treated as biphonemic combinations. Shakhbagova distinguishes five diphtongs in GA: [eɪ], [aɪ], [ɔɪ], [aʊ], [oʊ]

- [e] is more open, it also may be diphthongized

the distribution of stress. The incidence of primary stress in British English and American English is guided by two main tendencies:

1. a tendency for a primary stress to fall later in the word in AE than in BE (ga’rage AE – ‘garage BE, con’fiscate AE – ‘confiscate BE);

2. a tendency for the primary stress in verbs of two syllables, ending in –ate, to tall on the root in AE and on the suffix in BE.(‘dictate AE- dic’tate BE).

GA intonation on the whole is similar to that of RP. British English has a greater pitch range with a Marked rise, then a gradual fall with a final glide down on the last syllable. GA intonation begins with a much smaller rise-fall. GA clearly makes more use of high rise rather than of low rise in yes-or-no question.

Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English. distinguished primarily by its vowel phonology

Australian English vowels are divided into two categories: long, which includes long monophthongs and diphthongs, and short, all of which are monophthongs. A number of vowels differ only by the length. /ɔ/ - for example thought, north, sure, board, hoard, poor. (M.-D. /ɔ/.) Many cases of RP /ʊə/ correspond to this phoneme in Australian English.

Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of English. In comparison to other varieties, it has a flapped variant of /t/ and /d/ in similar environments as in American English. Many speakers have also coalesced /tj/ and /dj/ into /tʃ/ and /dʒ/, with pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/ being standard. /sj/, /zj/ and /lj/ merged with /s/, /z/ and /l/word initially; other cases of /sj/ and /zj/ are often pronounced [ʃ] and [ʒ].

Word structure in GAus and RP is marked by very few differences. There are three main tendencies in the incidence of stress:

1. to keep the primary stress on the first syllable in two syllable words (‘defect GAus – de’fect RP)

2. to shift the primary stress in the compound words (green’grocer GAus – ‘greengrocer RP; ‘highroad GAus – ‘high’road RP; ‘head,master GAus – ‘headmaster RP)

3. to place the primary stress on the root syllable in polysyllabic words (hos’pitable GAus – ‘hospitable RP)

Sentence stress. In AusE sentence stress there is a tendency to avoid long series of unstressed syllables. The number of stressed syllables that occur in the given utterance is larger in Australian than in RP (‘A’’ the ‘way ‘home AusE – ‘All the way ‘home RP). Pitch contour. In RP the pitch starts at a high level and gradually “steps down” on stressed syllables. In AusE the distribution of stresses is different and the pitch starts at a medium level and keeps even till it reaches the terminal tone. (‘Why don’t you ‘look ‘where you’re \going? AusE – ‘Why don’t you ‘look ‘where you’re \going?).

Canadian pronunciation should share many characteristics of both British English and American. English-speaking Canada was largely colonized from Great Britain and United States

The chart given below indicates that Canadian English consonants, as a system, do not differ much from those of RP and GA.

1) The phoneme [t]. Unlike the RP [t], the CE (Canadian English) [t] is a highly variable consonant like its counterpart [t] in AE. It has practically the same features as the GA [t].

2) The phoneme [h]. The pattern of pronouncing [h] is somewhat inconsistent in Canada. In common with RP and GA speakers, Canadians do not sound the [h] in heir, honest, honor, honorable, hour. Canadian English vowels, as a system, follow largely the pattern of General American vowel phonemes. The most marked differences, however, comprise the pronunciation of the individual phonemes.

A notable aspect of Canadian pre-rhotic vowels is their resistance to the emergent pattern in American English of substituting [a] for [o] before inter-vocalic [r]. In a number of highly frequent words, such as sorry, tomorrow, borrow, sorrow, and Laura, this pattern has become obligatory in American English.

The comparative analysis of the accentual structure of words in Canadian English almost consists of the same patterns as in RP and General American. Canadian English speakers did not show any considerable consistence lowing either American or RP intonation patterns. A narrower pitch range of the Canadian and American male speakers is in contrast with that of the Canadian female speaker, whose normal range approximates the normal pitch range of RP female speakers. Canadian English pronunciation is certainly closer to General American than to RP.