Regional types of English pronunciation. Major differences between regional variants of English pronunciation and Received Pronunciation

Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect. M Sokolova subdivides English into: English English, Welsh English, Scotish English, Northern Ireland English. V Vassilyev subdivides types of English into: Southern Type (London’s accent), Scotish Accent, Northern Accent. English Eng (Southern and Northern) Southern (S East Anglia and SWest) Northern (Northern, Yorkshire, North west, West Midland). Welsh E, ScotishE (Educated and Regional Varieties), Northern E.We group regional accents of England 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. Thus we would like to point out here the main differ­ences between southern and northern accents.One of the main differences between these groups of accents is in the phoneme inventory - the presence or absence of particular phonemes. Typically, the vowel [a] does not occur in the accents of the north; e.g.blood, one, but.We can also note that many northern speakers while they do not have [a] have [u:] rather than [u] in words such as hook, book, look. They therefore distinguish pairs like book and buck, which in the south sound [buk] and [bAk], in the North as [bu:k] and [buk]:

South North

book [buk] [bu:k]

buck [bAk] [buk]

Many non-RP speakers use [n] in the suffix "-ing" instead ">f [rj]; sitting fsitin]. In an area of western central England which includes Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool they pronounce [rjg]: singer fsigga], wing [wirjg].

Now about [j]-dropping. In most accents [j] is dropped after [t, s]: student fstu:dant], suit [su:t]. In parts of the north the change has pro­gressed a good deal further, it has been lost after [0]: enthusiasm [ariBiraazm],

In large areas of eastern England [j] is lost after every consonant. In London [j] is lost after [n, t, d): news [nu:z], tune [tu:n]. Southern English AccentsWe now turn to an examination of regional non-RP accents of England and we shall first give a brief outline of the group of South­ern accents.As was stated above, educated Southern speech is very much near- RP accent whereas non-standard accents are very much near Cockney. Therefore we shall focus our attention on the rather detailed descrip­tion of uneducated London accent - Cockney. Cockney accent. It has been long established that Cockney is a so­cial accent - the speech of working-class areas of the Greater London. Here are some pronunciation peculiarities of it.• Geographic and linguistic associations: geographically and culturally - working class Londoners, living in the East End Linguistically - the form of English spoken by this group. Features of Cockney English: 1. Monophthongization: the diphthong al becomes monophthongized e.g.: right, time, and like are pronounced with a low vowel monophthong2. MOUTH vowe: month = mauf rather than mouth3. Glottal stop:it can be manifested in different ways such as "t" glottalling in final position, or /p,t,k/ "almost invariably globalized" in final position. E.g.: Cat. up, sock 4. Dropped "h' at beginning of words (Voiceless glottal fricative):-'h' dropping at the beginning of certain words - house = 'ouse, hammer = "ammer5. TH fronting: the replacement of the dental fricatives by labiodentals [f] and [v] respectively- thifi = fin, brother = bruvver, three = free, bath = bar 6. Vowel lowering: dinner = dinna. marrow— marra7. Prosody: The voice quality has been described as typically involving "chest tone" rather than "head tone" and being equated with "rough and harsh" sounds versus the velvety smoothness of the Kensington or Mayfair accents spoken by those in other more upscale areas of London. Cockney Rhyming Slang 1).Cockney English is also characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage in the form of "cockney rhyming slang"2) Many of expressions have passed into common language, and creation of new ones is no longer restricted to Cockneys3) Cockney rhyming slang is a form of English slang which originated in the East End of London4.)it has the effect of obscuring the meaning of what is said from outsiders5.)It is not clear whether it is intentional, to hide one's meaning from the law, or to exclude outsiders, or whether it is just a form of group bonding.6. The way rhyming slang works does tend to exclude those not 'in the know', as the substitution of one word for another often relies on reference to a key phrase, which, for the slang to be understood, must be known jointly by those communicating.7) You take a pair of associated words where the second word rhymes with the word you intend to say, then use the first word of the associated pair to indicate the word you originally intended to say8)It uses substitute words, usually two, as a coded alternative for another word9)The final word of the substitute phrase rhymes with the word it replaces (e.g. the cockney rhyming slang for the word 'look' is 'butcher's hook, Welsh English 1)Some of the features of Welsh English are:2 )A rising intonation at the end of statements - sometimes characterised as 'sing-song'3) lengthening of all vowels4)The vowel /A/ in English words such as "bus" is pronounced [swa] 5) thus, in Welsh English, the vowei sounds in "bus" and "the" are identical.6) In some areas, pronouncing [i] as [Ј] e.g. "edit" and "benefit" as if spelt "edet" and "benefet". Midland accents, Yorkshire, for example, West Midland and North- West accents have very much in common with Northern ones. There­fore they are combined in this book into one group; peculiar realization of vowels and consonants will be marked, of course, when each sub­group is described separately. Northern accentsThe counties of northern Engjand are not far from the Scottish border, 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. It differs from RP in the following: In vowels

1RP I a ] is realized as [u]: love [ I av ] - [luv];

2RP final [i] sounds like [i:]: cityfsiti ] - [siti:];

Scottish English

We must first make clear that the status of Scottish English is still debated. Some linguists say that it is a national variant. Others say that it is a dialect.

English has been spoken in Scotland for as long as it has been spoken in England. In the Highlands and Islands of northern and western Scotland, however, Gaelic is still the native language of thou­sands of speakers from these regions. A standardized form of this lan­guage, known as Scots, was used at the court and in literature until the Reformation. Then it was gradually replaced by English. Incidentally a number of writers and poets of the likes of R. Burns retained their native language.

Nowadays educated Scottish people speak a form of Scottish Stan­dard English which grammatically and lexically is not different from English used elsewhere, although with an obvious Scottish accent. We must admit, however, that non-standard dialects of Scotland still resem­ble Scots and in many respects are radically different from most other varieties of English. It is very difficult to understand them for students who learn RP.

At the moment there is currently a strong movement in Scotland for the revival of Scots. Nevertheless Scottish Standard English is still more prestigeous and in this book we concentrate on Scottish English as used and spoken by educated urban Scots.

As for the status of Scottish English, in this book it will be treated as a dialect though it is fair to say that there is much in favour of calling it a national variant of English.

1. Sc. Eng. consistently preserves a distinction between [a^] and [w]: which [MitJ] - witch [wit/].

2. Initial [p, t, k] are usually non-aspirated.

3. [r] is most usually a flap.

4. Non-initial [t] is often realized as glottal stop [⁹],

5. [fl is dark in all positions.

6. The velar fricative [x] occurs in a number of words: loch [l»x].

7. -ing is [in].

8. [h] is present.

9. A specific Scottish feature is the pronunciation of [0r] as [Jr]: through [Jru:].

Northern Ireland EnglishIt should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Eire are different. The ex­planation lies in history.In the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking. Nowadays, however, native speakers of Irish are few in number and are confined to rural areas even though Irish is the official language of Ireland and is taught in schools. The English language in Southern Ire­land was originally introduced from the West and West Midlands of England and still shows signs of this today. This kind of English has spread to cover most of the Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains features of western parts of England.The English of northern parts of the island with its centre in Belfast has its roots in Scotland, as large numbers of settlers came tothis part from the south-west of Scotland from the seventeenth century onwards. Now speaking about Northern Ireland, it is true to say that English here is not homogeneous. Areas of the far north are heavily Scots-influenced. Other parts are marked by less heavily Scots- influenced varieties of English. It is, of course, obvious that the lan­guage distinction is not coterminous with the political division of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, some areas of the Republic, Donegal, for instance, speak N. Ir. Eng. (Northern Ireland English), while some of the northern provinces speak S. Ir. Eng. (Southern Ire­land English).In this chapter we shall deal with Northern Ireland English pronunciation.The vowel system is similar to that of Scottish accents, post-vocalic retroflex frictionless sonorant [r] being used as in Scotland. Vowels.[i]: pit [pit], fir [fir], bird [bird], cityfsiti ], fern [firn], fur [fir]; i:]: bee [bi:j, beer [bi:r], seedy [ si:di:], meet [mi:t], meat [mi:t]; e: pet [pet], bed [bed];Consonants [I] is mainly clear;intervocalic [t] is often a voiced flap [d]: cityfsidi:];

Дата добавления: 2015-05-31