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CHAPTER 8 Varieties of English Pronunciation 8.1. The Orthoepic Norm. 8.2. National Variants of English Pronunciation. 8.3. Regional Types of Pronunciation in Great Britain. 8.4. Regional Types of Pronunciation in the USA. 8.5. The Main Points of Difference between RP and GA. 8.6. Styles of Pronunc...

CHAPTER 8 Varieties of English Pronunciation 8.1. The Orthoepic Norm. 8.2. National Variants of English Pronunciation. 8.3. Regional Types of Pronunciation in Great Britain. 8.4. Regional Types of Pronunciation in the USA. 8.5. The Main Points of Difference between RP and GA. 8.6. Styles of Pronunciation. 8.7. The Choice of the Teaching Norm. 8.1. THE ORTHOEPIC NORM There are two forms of a national language (the language of a nation and its literature): written (the literary language) and spoken (the speech of the nation). The written form of a national language is usually a generally accepted standard and it is the same throughout the country. Spoken language may vary from locality to locality. Such distinct forms of a language are called dialects. Dialects are distinguished from each other by differences in pronunciation, grammar 111 and vocabulary (when only the varieties in pronunciation are referred to, the word "accent" is used). In fact, any language exists as a collection of forms coexisting side by side. These forms are known as varieties of the language. They can be observed and described. Among all the existing variants of pronunciation there is one which is considered to be literary pronunciation or orthoepic norm. Some phoneticians prefer the term standard pronunciation. Literary pronunciation is a higher form as compared with other local variants of pronunciation. It can be defined as the elaborated variety of the national language in its spoken form which obeys definite norms recognized as standard and therefore acceptable in all kinds of discourse. The orthoepic norm is the regulator which determines the inventory of the variants, the borders of variation and also acceptable and nonacceptable variants of pronunciation. Literary pronunciation is the pronunciation used by educated people. It is maintained and extended by educational institutions, the radio and by television. It is recorded in pronunciation dictionaries. The existence of such literary norm is very important because it is the universal norm, i.e. understandable to all the population of the country and to all the native speakers of the language. Within the literary pronunciation of the language there may be variants too. They are considered to be equally correct and acceptable (direct [dɪ'rekt], [daɪ'rekt]; Sunday ['sʌndeɪ], ['sʌndɪ]). 112 Natural changes in a language is normally a very slow process and many people are not aware that it is taking place. The orthoepic norm is also not fixed. It changes due to the normal evolution of the language, i.e. due to the linguistic factors and it changes as a result of the extra-linguistic factors (the movement of the population, for example). But the rate of these changes in not rapid. 8.2. NATIONAL VARIANTS OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION A language which is the mother tongue of more than one nation has national variants (types) of pronunciation. One of such languages is English. It is the national language of several countries (Great Britain, the United States of America, New Zealand and the greater part of Canada and South Africa). Today all the English-speaking nations have their own national variants. The pronunciation of every national variant has peculiar features that distinguish this variety from other varieties of English. These differences are determined by the new conditions of the development of the variant after the separation from British English. Though every national variant of English has considerable differences in pronunciation, lexis and grammar, they all have much in common because they are of common origin and they do not exist separately, they influence each other. Within the varieties of English pronunciation English-based pronunciation standards (British English, Irish English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South Africa English) and American-based 113 pronunciation standards (American English, Canadian English) can be distinguished. 8.3. REGIONAL TYPES OF PRONUNCIATION IN GREAT BRITAIN Each national variety may fall into several regional standards. On the British Isles there are three standard regional types of pronunciation: (1) Southern English Pronunciation, (2) Northern English Pronunciation, (3) Standard Scottish Pronunciation. Welsh English and Northern Ireland English are also distinguished. The term “Southern English” indicates the birth place of this variant and it does not mean that it is only used in the South of England. Southern English was basically the London form of the south-east dialect. Due to some political reasons, commerce and the presence of the court, the pronunciation of the south-east of England, and particularly that of the London region began to acquire an exceptional social prestige. In time it lost its local characteristics and in the 19 th century was fixed as the speech of the educated people. After a while this type of pronunciation began to be recognized not so much as the pronunciation of some particular region but as a social standard. All the dialect-speaking people who were eager for social advancement had to modify their accent and acquire standard pronunciation, which became a marker of position in society. 114 Southern English Pronunciation is also known as Received English Pronunciation – RP (this term was introduced by D. Jones), Public School Pronunciation, or Standard English Pronunciation. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) adopted RP for its announcers and news readers on series of national and international BBC channels. RP is the form of pronunciation which is widely understood and described in textbooks on the phonetics of British English. It is traditionally used for teaching foreign learners. The majority of dictionaries in Great Britain represent Received Pronunciation but it would be wrong to think that RP is used by the entire population of Britain. RP speakers form a very small part of the British population (only about 3−5 %). Northern English is the speech of people who were born and brought up in the region between Birmingham and the border of Scotland. This variant cannot be sharply separated from the South English type, because it contains some features of the latter, modified by the local speech habits. But it has certain distinctive feature, such as the use of vowels other than in RP in the same words: − [a] for RP [æ] in words like bad [bad], man [man]; − [æ] for [ɑ:] in words like glass [ɡlæs], ask [æsk]; − [ʊ] for [ʌ] in words like cup [kʊp], love [lʊv]; − [e] for [ei] in words like take [tek], may [me]. Northern English represents the earlier type of London English that was the standard speech in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. It was 115 carried to America. That is why there are many features in common between American and Northern English types of pronunciation. Some features of Standard Scottish Pronunciation go back to the dialect of the Anglo-Saxon tongue. It differs from RP both in the inventory of phonemes and in the distribution of the phonemes common to both types. The most important differences are as follows: − [æ] is used instead of [ɑ] – glass [ɡlæs], ask [æsk]; − [a] is used instead of [æ] – bad [bad], man [man]; − monophthongs followed by [r] are pronounced instead of diphthongs – here [hɪr], sure [ʃu:r], poor [pu:r], there [ðe:r]; − the cluster [hw] is used in words with the initial digraph hw – which [whiʧ]; − rolled [r] (of the Russian type) is used instead of constrictive RP [r] in all positions – born [born], more [mor]. Scottish intonation also differs considerably from RP intonation. 8.4. REGIONAL TYPES OF PRONUNCIATION IN THE USA In the United States there may be distinguished three main types of pronunciation: (1) the General American type (GA), (2) the Eastern type, (3) the Southern type. General American is the most widespread type of educated American speech. Besides, it is the least regional in character like RP in Great Britain. It is also used by the radio and television, in scientific, cultural and business 116 discourse. This type of pronunciation is also known as Northern American or Western American. It is spoken in the central American States. The Eastern type is spoken along the east coast on New England and largely in New York City. This type resembles the Southern English variant. It is explained by the fact that New England and Britain were in close contact during the colonization of America. But there are some slight differences between the Eastern American type and RP. The Southern type is used in the south and south-east of the United States. Its most striking distinctive feature is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even triphthongization of some simple vowels and monophthongization of some diphthongs at the expense of prolonging their nuclei and dropping the glides (that may be pronounced as [ðæɪət], fine may be pronounced as [fɑ:n]). 8.5. THE MAIN POINTS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RP AND GA Since RP and GA are the most widely accepted types of pronunciation the learners of English should know the principal differences between them. Within the consonant system. 1. The sound [r] is one of the most characteristic of GA pronunciation. In its articulation the tip and the blade of the tongue occupy a retroflex position (they are turned upwards, towards the hard palate). Its pronunciation is accompanied by some slight protrusion of the lips. RP [r] is a cacuminal sonorant, GA [r] is a retroflex sonorant. GA [r] is pronounced 117 not only initially but also before a consonant and in the word final position: form [fɔːrm], bird [bɜːrd], sister ['sɪstər]. In RP [r] never occurs between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and silence. 2. The phoneme [l] exists in GA only in the form of its dark variant [ł] and occurs both before vowels and [j] (in which positions clear variants are used in RP) and after a vowel or between a vowel and a consonant (as in RP): GA: look [łʊk], till [tɪł] RP: look [lʊk], till [tɪł]. 3. The phoneme [t] in GA is extremely short and voiced. It is intermediate in character between a brief [d] and one-tap alveolar [r]. It can be represented by the phonetic symbol [ţ]. It occurs between a strongly stressed vowel and a weakly stressed one or a sonorant: GA: city ['sɪţɪ], better ['bɛţə] RP: city ['sɪtɪ], better ['betə]. 4. When orthographic nt occurs in a similar positions the sound [ţ] is so brief that the impression is that it is omitted: plenty ['płɛn(t)ɪ]. 5. Some Americans use the glottal stop [ʔ] instead of [t] before [m, n, r, l, j, w]: certainly ['sɜːʔnłɪ], that one [ðæʔ wən]. 6. In GA the optional phoneme [ʍ] (voiceless [w]) or the cluster [hw] are used in words with the initial digraph wh: GA: witch [ʍɪʧ] [whɪʧ] RP: witch [wɪʧ]. 7. The phoneme [j] is usually weakened or omitted altogether in GA between a consonant and [u:] as in the word news [nuːz]. 118 Within the vowel system. 1. The GA vowel [ɪ] is a little more open than RP vowel phoneme [ɪ]. 2. The GA vowel [e] is a lower front vowel, it almost coincides with [æ]. 3. The GA [æ] is longer than in RP and its distribution is different. In GA [æ] is used, in addition to words in which RP uses [æ], also in place of the RP vowel [ɑ:] in most words in which the latter is spelt by the letter ɑ followed by a consonant letter other than r: GA: glass [ɡłæ·s], last [łæ·st] RP: glass [ɡlɑːs], last [lɑːst]. The exception is the stressed vowel in father [ɑː]. 4. The GA counterpart of the RP vowel [ɒ] is its unrounded variety [ɑ] (similar to the RP [ɑ:], but short and checked): GA: box [bɑks], clock [kłɑk] RP: box [bɒks], clock [klɒk]. 5. The phoneme [ʌ] in GA is pronounced as the central vowel [ə] but stressed. Other linguists say that GA [ʌ] is a little closer than the RP vowel [ʌ]. 6. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA. Within the accentual structure. 1. In words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable, while RP has it on the initial: GA: beret [be'reɪ], ballet [bæ'leɪ] RP: beret ['bereɪ], ballet ['bæleɪ]. 2. Some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be elsewhere: 119 GA: address ['ædres], magazine ['mæɡəzɪn] RP: address [ə'dres], magazine [ˌmæɡə'ziːn]. 3. Polysyllabic words ending in -ory, -ary, -ery, -ative, -mony have secondary stress in GA, often called “tertiary”: dictionary ['dɪkʃəˎnərɪ], secretary ['sekrəˎtərɪ]. Within the intonational system. American English intonation in comparison with British English intonation is unemphatic, or emotionally neutral speech. In sentences where the most common pre-nuclear contour in RP is gradually descending, in GA it is mid-level. The unstressed syllables in GA fall to a lower pitch, in RP unstressed syllables gradually descend. GA intonation produces an impression of level or monotonous melody. The GA general questions take a falling tone whereas in RP they are pronounced with the rising tone. The rising tone in GA general questions is used to show politeness. The monotony of GA intonation is explained by the following factors: − pitch characteristics; − narrow range of the utterance; − slow tempo; − more complicated than RP rhythmical structure of intonation. 8.6. STYLES OF PRONUNCIATION The pronunciation of one and the same person may be different on different occasions, for instance, when delivering a lecture, speaking on the 120 radio, when talking to officials or chatting with close friends. These differences concern not only the choice of words, but also the way we pronounce and join them. These different ways of pronouncing words and joining them in the flow of speech are called styles of pronunciation. There is no generally accepted classification of styles of pronunciation. D. Jones classifies them in the following manner: − the rapid familiar style; − the slower colloquial style; − the natural style used in addressing a fair-sized audience; − the acquired style of the stage; − acquired style used in singing. The distinctive principle according to professor L.V. Shcherba is the degree of carefulness with which words are pronounced. He differentiates the full style from the colloquial style. The full style is characterized by a moderately slow tempo and a careful pronunciation. the words are pronounced in their full form, without vowel reduction or loss of consonants and without unnecessary assimilation. The colloquial style differs from the full style both in tempo and in clearness. It is useful to distinguish two main types of colloquial style: the careful colloquial style (which may have subdivision in tempo) and the careless colloquial style (which differs from the careful colloquial style in the free use of non-obligatory assimilations). 121