Summary. Accent variation may be geographical, socialand situational.Geographically native English accents are divided into British-oriented (U.K

Accent variation may be geographical, social and situational. Geographically native English accents are divided into British-oriented (U.K., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) and North-America-oriented (U.S.A., Canada). Within each country national standards, regional standards and local accents reflect both geographical and social diversity. National standards: RP, GA, Gen Aus, Gen Can. Regional standards in U.K.: Southern, Northern, Scottish, Northern Irish. Regional standards in U.S.A.: Northern, Northern Midland, Southern Midland, Southern, Western. National standards are associated with radio and TV newsreaders, certain profes­sional groups and public figures. Regional standards are spoken by most educated people and they show regional deviation from the standard. In U.K. people in the South-East of the country are closest to RP, in the U.S.A. it is people from the North, North Midland and the West who show the least differences from the unofficial standard of American Network. Local accents are numerous, they can be urban and rural. Urban centres are leading in accent diversity today.

The major accent-classifying feature is the presence of r in 'rhotic' (/•-full) accents and its vocalization in post-vocalic position in 'non-rhotic' (/•-less) accents. Most of the American accents (except southern and eastern) are rhotic, most of the British accents are non-rhotic (except northern, Scottish, Irish).

Comparing the sound systems of RP and GA we note differences in vowel systems (20 vs. 15), in consonant systems (/--vocalization, f-voicing, etc.), in accent placement, rhythm and intonation. The major differences in vowels are: [rj/a:/o:] in dog, stop, long, orange, [ae]-distribution in ask, dance, [ou] -quality in go, home; less contrast in length between American tense and lax vowels; retroflexion quality of American vowels before r, nasalization before nasals, loss of contrast in cot/caught, Merry Mary married.

In consonants, besides r-retroflexion and vocalization, there is American flap in better, letter, Nomission before n in twenty, weakened [j] in news, Tuesday, dark [1] in little, less. There are also non-systemic, lexical occurrences which create differences in pronunciation of words and their accentuation, as [<x:/ei] in tomato, vase, [J/sk] in schedule, accent patterns of Г- -/--'] in address, adult, detail, ballet, cafe, garage. Secondary (tertiary) stress occurrence, as in dictionary, ceremony, strawberry.

American rhythm is more smooth, not clipped as the British one due to an additional number of stresses and to lower contrast between accented and unaccented syllables in length and pitch (1.5 vs. 1.7). The monotony of American intonation is due to the recurrence of mid-level wavy, rise-falling and level-rise pitch patterns. On the whole American men's speech, especially, is specific for its narrow pitch range with rise-fall termination.

There are regional features which may serve as social markers of both geographical background and social status. British regional features: northern: /u/ in cut, love; Scottish: long [u:] in took, book, /a/ in bad, bath, /hw/ in where, which, [x] in loch, [c] in light, trilled [r] in murder, Irish [r] in all positions, as in river, clear [1] in people, milk. Besides, all regional types of accents are characterized by a narrow pitch range, level and rising-falling pitch patterns.

American regional features: Southern: /--vocalization, as in river; monophthongization of [ai/a] in side, tide and then light, sight, Southern drawl in that, [i] in men, ten. Other social markers are: New York open [a]: Noo Yawk Tawk, Boston vocalized r in Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd, Afro-American: dese, dose, I tink so. The Northern Cities Shift and the Southern Shift show systemic rotations of vowels in the regions set apart geographically and socially. General Canadian shares a few features with the North of the U.S.A.: raising of [ae] in cad, and cot — caught merger.

General Australian shares a few features with London popular speech: [ai] in take, day.

Recent British accent classification reflects the connection between geographical and social variation: General RP, Refined RP, Regional RP. Refined RP (U-RP) features are: [ёи] in so, go, a very open [г] and [i] in better, letter, city, very open [э::] in all positions, as in first, nurse, a diph­thongized [зга] in I don't understand Picasso.

Regional RP features may come unnoticed as vocalization of dark [1] to [u] in held, ball (a southern feature) or [a/ae] used instead of [a:] before voiceless fricatives in after, bath (a northern feature); other features may be stigmatized, such as glottalization of t between two vowels, as in waiter (Cockney), or no distinction between [л] and [u] in luck, look (northern).

Estuary English features: dark [1] replaced by [u] infield, [t] is glottalized before a consonant and before a pause in not that, eat ice; Cockney-type diphthongs [ai] in late, [oi] in light, t and d pronounced as affricates in tune, during, elision of [j] after [n] in new.

Other characteristics claimed for Estuary English may be changes in progress in General RP. Intonation features: falling tone in tag questions: The postman came knocking on the door, ^didn't he?; preposition and auxiliary verb accenting: I didn't do anything because there was nothing TO do.

There are stereotypes associated with particular areas and ethnic groups. However, the survey data proved that there is gradience in social marker distribution, a sign of continuum in the linguistic community and of language change in progress. The American data were confirmed by the British research in the use of the same linguistic variables: [g/n] in looking, [t/?] in butter, but, [h/0] in hat, ham.

The most powerful stratifying social factor is occupation; age and gender factors come next. Those are status factors, they are of permanent nature. Situational factors are more changeable: sphere of communication, setting, media, social role, topic and aim of the talk. Among the situational factors social roles of authority/non-authority, or of equal status, are most relevant for phonetic features.

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