American English pronunciation

General American

American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British due to some historical factors: the existence of standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities.

So there are 3 types of American language –

1. the eastern type (is spoken in new England, in New York city, it bears a remarkable resemblance to southern English.)

2. The southern type (used in south and south-east of USA, it possesses a striking distinctive feature – vowel drawl.)

3. general American.(is spoken in Atlantic states: New York, new jersey y etc., it’s the pronunciation standard as its language is used by radio and TV.)

American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British due to some historical factors: the existence of standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities. So there are 3 types of amer language:

1. the eastern type (is spoken in the states along the Isles Atlantic coast. The consonant system is the same as British English. About the vowels: they pronounce not [o:] but [a:], instead short [o] -> [o:] hot dog)

2. The southern type (used in south and south-east of usa, it possesses a striking distinctive feature – vowel drawl. It is the most demaged corrupted English. It has a number of peculiarities in vowels:

[i] ->[i?]

[?] -> [??]

[e] -> [e?]

[/\] -> [?/\]

Second peculiarity:

1) instead of [a:] -> [o:] art, party

2) [au] -> [?u] sit down

3) [ai?] -> [a:] tired

4) [e] -> [i] get

5) [i] -> [e] spirit)

3. general American.(is spoken in atlantic states: new york, new jersey y etc., it’s the pronunciation standard as its language is used by radio and tv.)

America was discovered in 1492 but was populated by Europeans much later. The first immigrants came to America in the 17th century. This period can be determined to the time of Burgeous revolution in England. They settled of Atlantic coast where the first colons were founded. The immigrants brought with them the 17th century English with its pronunciation standard.

First of all it is difficult to certain the exact number and quality of the sounds of American vowels. This also concerned diphthongs. Different authors treat them differently. More over some scholars regard even the sound [r] either as a consonant or as a vowel.

The particularity is that all American vowels are long. Some monophtongs have diphthongs as their phonemic variants: [o] -> [ou] be fond of

American consonant system doesn’t differ greatly from English one. There is no dropping of consonant even in uneducated speech.

The sound [r] in American English differs from British English as it’s more vibrated. The tip of a tongue is turned too far to the mouth. This is the specific sounding of American [r].

The American accent is based mainly on the retroflex [r]. There is greater or wicker degree of speech, it’s so called “twang”. It’s also peculiarity of General Am. English.

The standard Am. Pronunciation:

Instead of [a:] -> [?] half

Instead of [o] -> [a:] hot dog

Instead of [ju] -> [u] student, new

American English

In the United States of America the regional types of the American

variant of the English language are: (1) the Eastern type, (2) the South

ern type, (3) the General American type (Northern, Midwestern,

Western). '

In the United States of America the most wide-spread type is General American.

Compared to English as spoken in England, North American English[3] is more homogeneous. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast (for example, in Eastern New England and New York City), partly because these areas were in contact with England and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes.[4][Need quotation to verify] In addition, many speech communities on the East Coast have existed in their present locations longer than others. The interior of the United States, however, was settled by people from all regions of the existing United States and therefore developed a far more generic linguistic pattern.[citation needed]

The red areas are those where non-rhotic pronunciations are found among some white people in the United States. AAVE-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among black people throughout the country.[5]

Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English, West Country English and Scottish English as well as the fact most regions of England at this time also had rhotic accents.[6] In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter r is a retroflex [?] or alveolar approximant [?] rather than a trill or a tap. The loss of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to the accents of eastern New England, New York City and surrounding areas and the coastal portions of the South, and African American Vernacular English. In rural tidewater Virginia and eastern New England, 'r' is non-rhotic in accented (such as "bird", "work", "first", "birthday") as well as unaccented syllables, although this is declining among the younger generation of speakers.[citation needed] Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, the lost r was often changed into [?] (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling diphthongs.[citation needed]Furthermore, the er sound of fur or butter, is realized in AmE as a monophthongal r-colored vowel (stressed [?] or unstressed [?] as represented in the IPA).[citation needed] This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech.[citation needed]

Some other English English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:

The shift of /?/ to /?/ (the so-called "broad A") before /f/, /s/, /?/, /?/, /z/, /v/ alone or preceded by a homorganic nasal. This is the difference between the British Received Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance.[citation needed] In the United States, only eastern New England speakers took up this modification, although even there it is becoming increasingly rare.[citation needed]

The realization of intervocalic /t/ as a glottal stop [?] (as in [b???l] for bottle). This change is not universal for British English and is not considered a feature of Received Pronunciation.[citation needed] This is not a property of most North American dialects. Newfoundland English is a notable exception.[citation needed]

On the other hand, North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in other varieties of English speech:[citation needed]

The merger of /?/ and /?/, making father and bother rhyme.[citation needed]This change is nearly universal in North American English, occurring almost everywhere except for parts of eastern New England, hence the Boston accent.[citation needed]

The merger of /?/ and /?/.[citation needed] This is the so-called cot-caught merger, where cot and caught are homophones. This change has occurred in eastern New England, in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, and from the Great Plains westward.[citation needed]

For speakers who do not merge caught and cot: The replacement of the cot vowel with

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