Northern and Midland accent

1. Northern accents (Durham, Cleveland)

2. Yorkshire accent

3. North-West accents (Cheshire, Lancashire)

4. West Midland (Birmingham, Wolerhampton).

Considerable changes are observed in the sound system of the present-day English, which are most remarkable since the well-known Great Vowel Shift in the Middle English period of the language development. It is a well-established fact than no linguistic modification can occur all of a sudden. The appearance of a new shade in pronunciation of a sound results in the coexistence of free variants in the realization of a phoneme.

The regional accents of England grouped into southern and northern ones. This division is very approximate of course, because there are western and eastern accents but their main accent variations correspond either with southern or northern accentual characteristics.

One of the main differences between these groups is in the phoneme inventory – the presence or absence of particular phonemes. Another well-known feature which distinguishes northern and southern accents concern the vowels [ae] and [a:]. Before the voiceless fricatives [f, O, s] and certain consonant clusters containing initial [n] or [m], [ae] is pronounced in the northern instead of [a:]. Dance = [da: ns] – south; [daens] – north. In the south, however, [ae] is often pronounced as [a:]. One more major north-south differentiating feature involves the final [i:] like in words city, money etc. In the north of England they have [i]. In the south of England these words are pronounced with [i:].

In consonants.

Some English accents are ‘rhotic’ or ‘r-ful’ and other are non-rhotic or ‘r-less’. Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r], corresponding to orthographic ‘r’ in words like bar, farm.

In most regional accents the glottal stop is more widely used than in RP. In some areas, especially the north-east of England, East Anglia and Northern Ireland, the glottal stop may also pronounced simultaneously with voiceless [p, t, k] most strikingly between vowels. Many non-RP speakers use [n] int eh suffix ‘-ing’ instead of [ ].

Southern English Accents. Educated Southern speech is very much near-RP accent whereas non-standard accents are very much near Cockney. It has been long established that Cockney is a social accent – the speech of working-class areas of the great London.

In vowels

1. [ ] is realized as [ae]

2. [ae] is realized as [ ] or [ ]

4. [i] in word-final position sounds as [I:]

5. the diphthong [ei] is realized as [aei] or [ai]

6. RP [ ] sounds as [ ]

7. RP [ ] sounds as [ ]

In consonants

1. [h] in unstressed position is almost invariably absent

2. the contrast between [O] and [f] is completely lost.

3. the contrast between [ ] and [v] is occasionally lost.

4. when [ ] occurs initially it is either dropped or replaced by [d].

5. [p, t, k,] are heavily aspirated.

6. [t] is affricated, [s] is heard before the vowel.

Northern accents

The countries of northern England are not far from the Scottish bored, so the influence of Scotch accent is noticeable, though there are of course many features of pronunciation characteristic only of northern English regions. The most typical representative of the speech of this area is Newcastle accent.

In vowels

1. rp [ ] is realized as [ ]

2. rp final [i] sound like [I:]

3. words like dance which in RP have [a:] are pronounced with [ae:]

4. [ei], [ ] are either monophthongs or much narrow diphthongs than the ones in the south of England.

5. words that have ‘al’ in spelling – talk, call are pronounced with [a:]

6. Rp words with [ ] are pronounced with [ ] in a broad Tyneside accent

7. [ai] is [ ]

8. words which in RP have [au] may have [u:]

In consonants

1. [l] is clear in all environments

2. [h] is usually present in all position

3. -ing is [in]

4. in parts of Northumberland and Durham [r] may be uvular.

33. American-based pronunciation standards of English. Major differences between General American and received pronunciation on the segmental and supersegmental levels.

The formation of American standard underwent the influence of minorities’ language, but its starting point was the English language in early 17 century. American English has drifted considerably from English English though as yet not enough to give us ground to speak of 2 different languages. In the USA 3 main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type (is spoken in New England, New York city); the Southern type (is used in the South and South-East of the USA. It possesses a striking distinctive feature – vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even a triphthongization of some pure vowels and monophthongization of some diphthongs at the expense of prolonging their nuclei and dropping the glides); General American. GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. GA is the form of speech used by the radio and television, mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse.

Vowels

1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA.

2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is the most controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated in GA as biphonemic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from 3 to 12 phonemes.

3. Causes different interpretations of diphthongs and vowel length in GA is the pronunciation of [r] sound between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: turn, bird, star.

4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant. Nasalization is often called an American twang. It is incidental and need not be marked in phonetic transcription.

5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. Vowels [i:], [i] are distributed differently in GA and RP. In words like very, pity GA has [i:] rather than [i]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized. Vowel [e] is more open in GA.

6. There are 4 mixed or central vowels in GA [ ], [ ], [ ], [a]. They differ markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.

7. The 3 RP vowels [ ], [ ], [a:] correspond to only 2 vowels in GA – [a] and [ae]. This combined with the articulatory differences between RP [ ] and GA [ ] and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets of words makes it very complicated.

Consonants.

1. The RP allophonic differentiation of [l] does not exist in GA. In all positions [l] is fairly dark.

2. Intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. The result is neutralization of the distribution between [t] and [d] in this position.

3. GA [r] is articulated differently from RP one. The impression is 1 of greater retroflexion (the tip of the tongue is curled back further than in RP).

4. The “wh” spelling is represented in GA by [ ] sound.

5. The sonorant [j] is usually weakened or omitted altogether in GA between a consonant and [u:] as in the words: news, student, suit.

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