One of the main
difficulties a foreigner student may face when learning English pronunciation
is the remarkable variety of accents. Like many other languages spoken in such
a vast territory and by so many people, spoken English presents wide variation
in pronunciation. In spite of that wide variation, three standard
pronunciations are distinguished: (1) The Received Pronunciation, also called
Oxford English or BBC English, is the standard pronunciation of British
English; (2) The General American is the accent considered as standard in North
America, and as such it is the pronunciation heard in most of American films,
TV series, and national news; (3) The General Australian is the English spoken
in Australia. However, this three main accents should be interpreted as broad
categories, for the English language has a great and rich diversity of
varieties
Many students are confused as to appreciate the difference between
accents, and they often speak with a mixed of accents perplexing somewhat a
native speaker. The purpose of this article is to study the main differences
between British English, as represented by Received Pronunciation (RP), and
American English, as represented by General American (GA). This study should
help students to correct their pronunciation, be consistent with their accent,
and acquire a new pronunciation with fewer traces of their native
language.
DIFFERENCES IN
VOWEL PRONUNCIATION
Change of Diphthong [ƏU] to [OU]
The shift from the British diphthong [ƏU]
to [OU] is also very distinguishing. The shift consisted in
the change of the mid central unrounded vowel [Ə] to the close-mid back rounded vowel [O] in the
first vowel of the diphthong. This shift is considered to be systematic. In
Table 1 several examples of this shift are shown.
Change of Vowel [ɒ]
Letter o is
pronounced in many different ways in English. Here we have a few illustrative
examples of such diversity: Hot/hɒt/
in RP, but /hɑːt/ in GA; love[lʌv ]; corn /kɔːn/ in RP, but /kɔːrn/ in GA; continue /kənˈtɪn.juː/; moon/mu:n/;
coast /kəʊst/ in
RP, but /koʊst/ in GA; house/haʊs/. The so-called “short o”, which often appears in
a stressed syllable with one letter o such as in dog or model,
underwent a change in American English. In British English that sound is pronounced
as an open back rounded short sound [ɒ], as in hot[hɒt],
or possible [ˈpɒs.ə.bl ̩]. In American English it is pronounced either as an
open back unrounded long sound [ɑː], as in hot[hɑːt], or as an open-mid back rounded long vowel [ɔː],
as in dog[dɔːg]. Note that British English prefers a short sound
as opposed to American English, which prefers a long sound in all cases. Table
2 shows several words in both pronunciations.
|
Word
|
British English
|
American English
|
|
Box
|
[bɒks]
|
[bɒks]
|
|
Chocolate
|
[t∫ɒklƏt]
|
[t∫ɑːklƏt] or [t∫ɔːklƏt]
|
|
Clock
|
[klɒk]
|
[klɑːk]
|
|
Cost
|
[kɒst]
|
[kɑːst]
|
|
Dog
|
[dɒg]
|
[dɔːg]
|
|
Gone
|
[gɒn]
|
[gɔːn]
|
|
Got
|
[gɒt]
|
[gɑːt]
|
|
Hot
|
[hɒt]
|
[hɑːt]
|
|
Job
|
[dʒɒb]
|
[dʒɒb]
|
|
Lot
|
[lɒt]
|
[lɑːt]
|
|
Not
|
[nɒt]
|
[nɑːt]
|
|
Off
|
[ɒf]
|
[ɑːf] or [ɔːf]
|
|
Possible
|
[ˈpɒs.ə.bl]
|
[ˈpɑːs.ə.bl]
|
|
Sorry
|
[sɒrI]
|
[sɑːrI] or [sɔːrI]
|
|
Want
|
[wɒnt]
|
[wɑːnt] or wɔːnt]
|
Table
5.2: Change of vowel [ɒ] to [ɑː] and [ɔː].
In the areas of
Eastern New England, such as the Boston accent, and New York City this change
did not take place. This is coherent with the same theory explaining why
speakers of those areas are non-rhotic.
This change is framed in the context of the many
vowel transformations that occurred during the 17th and 18th centuries. The
change of vowel [ɒ] to vowel [ɑː] and [ɔː].took place because of two phonological phenomena,
namely, the father-bother merger and the lot-cloth split. A split is
when a once identical sound happens to have a different pronunciation in some
instances; usually both sounds coexist.
A sound in AmE functions in the same way within the
system as it does in BrE. The same symbols for the same phonemes for both are
used.
The monophthongs of AmE.
/i:/ beat /u:/ boot
/ɔ:/ bought
/ɑ:/ father
Although
these vowel phonemes occur in both BrE and AmE, the words which contain these
sounds in the two varieties are not exactly the same. Also, the one that
appears to be missing, /ɜ:/, is not really missing. This sound in BrE occurs
only in word that have an r in the spelling. In AmE the r is pronounced.
A complete list of the long vowels in AmE is as
follows:
The long vowels of AmE
/i:/ beat /u:/ boot
/ɜ:/ bird /ɔ:/ bought
/ɑ:/ father
The
short vowels in BrE, the following also occurs in AmE,
/ɪ/
hit
/e/ bet /ə/ about /ʊ/ cook
/æ/ bat /ʌ/ but
In
other words, all the short vowels in of BrE also occurs in mE except for /ɒ/.
Words with the vowel /ɒ/ in BrE
have either /ɔ:/ and /ɒ:/
in AmE.
The short
vowels of AmE
/ɪ/
hit /ʊ/ cook
/e/ bet /ə/ let a /ə/ letter
/æ/ bat /ʌ/ but
The diphthong of AmE
BrE
has three kinds of diphthongs: /ɪ/ -glides, /ʊ/-glides, and
/ə/-glides.
All of the -glides also occur in AmE:
The /ɪ/ and /ʊ/-glides in AmE:
/ei/ late /ou/ boat
/ai/ light /au/ shout
/ɔi/ boy
The /ə/-glides of
AmE:
/iə/ beer /uə/ poor
/eə/ bear /ɑə/ far /oə/ pour
AmE /æ/ - BrE /ɑ:/
Fast bath dance craft ask
Class laugh enhance after mask
Last path trance daft flask
AmE /ɑ:/ - BrE /ɒ/
Not cot lock sock bond
Hot
spot knock knob mop
Lot
rot rock rob doll
AmE / ɑ:/ - BrE /ɒ/
Off soft broth log
frog
Scoff loft froth hog fog
Coffee oft moth dog
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