Territorial and social differences in the pronunciation of English in different countries (1)

A number of geographical-historical and socio-cultural factors caused English to become a global language

spoken by approximately 1, 500 million speakers.

In geographical variation we have to distinguish two basic concepts:

1 dialect – is distinguished for its vocabulary, grammar and pronounciation.

2 In this sense the two major varieties of English, the British English and American English may be treated as “dialects”.

3 Accent – is a type of pronunciation or a feature of one which can be found in speech of any individual or the whole speech community.

4 Thus, phonetics is mainly concerned with accents of English, as spoken on different territories, in diverse social groups, by particular individuals.

Accents of English worldwide are grouped into:

1 Accents in the countries where English is the mother tongue of the majority of the population (“ the inner circle ”):

2 the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the white population of the Republic of South Africa;

3 Accents in the new developing states, former British colonies,

4 where English is one of the official languages (“ the outer circle ”): India and Singapore.

5 Accents in the countries where English is the most widely used

6 foreign language taught at schools (“ the expanding circle ”), like Russia and China.

Historical-geographical division of native English accents may be based on the division into:

Ø British-oriented (the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa);

Ø North-America-oriented (the USA, Canada).

Most of the countries possess their national pronunciation standards, regional standards and local accents.

National standards

1 RP (Received Pronunciation), or BBC English, in the UK;

2 GA (General American), or American Network English, in the USA;

3 GenCan (General Canadian) in Canada;

4 GenAus (General Australian) in Australia.

National pronunciation standards are associated with radio and television newsreaders

and presenters of serious channels. There are also professional groups and public figures whose speech is symbolic of certain types of accents.

Smaller geographical divisions are regional standards which are accents of educated population in a certain area.

1 Southern, Northern, Scottish and Northern Irish on the British Isles,

2 Northern, Northern Midland, Southern Midland, Southern, Western in the USA.

In the US, geographically, the situation is quite the reverse:

it is the South and South Midland which stand out for their marked difference from the standard pronunciation.

Less educated people use numerous local accents which can be:

a) urban (characteristic of a city like Liverpool or New York);

b) rural (spoken in the countryside).

THE NOTION OF INTERFERENCE. PREREQUISITES FOR PHONETIC INTERFERENCE (SEGMENTAL LEVEL) (12)

The problem of interference was introduced in 1943 by Jacobson and Gavrinek.

Interference has long been interested in a long before (B. de Courtene, Scherba, Брызгунова, Кулешов).

Interference is super-imposing of one language system on another one language system =>

certain changes in the structure of one language (Russian) under the influence of another (English) and visa versa => interaction of 2 lang-s.

Interference may take place in every aspect of the language (different levels):

1 phonetic

2 grammatical

3 lexical

Interference is most prominent at phonetic level. This is explained by thу fact that

audio-pronouncing skills are considered to be the least controlled in speech production & speech perception.

Prerequisites:

1) The differences in the phonological systems of the l-ges that are in contact (in English – system of diphtongs;

2) in Russian – no. In English the nuclear is made stronger, but in Russian – visa versa.

3) The differences in the phonetic laws (English voiced cons-s are not devoiced; in Russian – absolutely devoiced [cæt];

4) The differences in phonetic basis (тут можно начать плести про phonetic basis)

Билет 8

Types of syllable. The specific character of syllable in English and Russian. Mistakes which occur

as a result of the differences in the articulatory bases of E and R in terms of syllable formation and syll division (18).

When a syllable ends in a vowel, with no final consonant, it is said to be an open syllable:

be is an open syllable of CV (consonant+vowel) structure. When the syllable is terminated by a consonant,

it is said to be closed: it is a closed syllable of VC (vowel+consonant) structure.

We can also distinguish covered (CV) (we) from uncovered (V or VC) (ant) syllables, depending on whether they have a consonant in the onset.

If there is a long vowel or a diphthong, or more than one consonant in the rhyme (nucleus+coda), the syllable is called long or heavy.

Heavy syllables attract stress in E. The syllables with just a short vowel without a consonant [i, ɘ, ʊ] are called light or short,

and they are normally unstressed. All the four types of syllable can be found in E and in R.

The basic difference between E and R consists in the dominance of an open syllable in R (CV) and a closed syll in E (CVC).

Another specific E feature is that approximants [l, m, n, r] may become syllabic

after a consonant, which can be accounted for by sonority rule: rhyth-m.

It is important for Russians not to make English syllables open (city – [sit-i], [си-ти]).

Wrong S division on the articulatory level leads to inadequate perception of phrases and consequently to misunderstanding.

The specific character of syll division in E and in R

The basic dif-ce consists in the dominance of an open syllable in R (CV), and a closed syll in E (CVC).

(78% of R syllables are open). Another important feature concerns the dynamics of syllable articulation. T

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