The System of American English Consonants

Lecture 10. Received and General American Pronunciation

The English language is spoken in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and the greater part of Canada. It is native to many who live in India, Israel, Malta and Ceylon.

All the national varieties of the English language have very much in common but they differ from standard pronunciation. 'Standard' pro­nunciation is the pronunciation governed by the orthoepic norm. It is the pronunciation of the educated circles. It is used by radio and television, and is regionally neutral. But only 5 per cent speak RP.

Nowadays English population speak various types of RP: Conserva­tive, General, Advanced, Near-RP southern.

In the British Isles the regional types of the English language are:

(1) the Southern English, (2) the Northern English and (3) the Stan­dard Scottish; Welsh and Northern Ireland 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 Southern type, (3) the General American type.

The social standard within Britain is the so-called Received Pronun­ciation or RP. It is the teaching norm at schools and higher learning es-lablishments because of (1) the degree of understandability in English-speaking countries, (2) the extent of RP investigation, (3) the number of textbooks and audio-visual aids.

In the United States of America the most wide-spread type is General American. Like RP in Great Britain GA in America is the social stan­dard: it is regionally neutral, it is used by radio and TV, in scientific and business discourse, it is spoken by educated Americans.

Since RP and GA are the most widely accepted types of pronuncia­tion the learners of English should know the principal differences be­tween them.

The total number of RP and GA consonants differ in one phoneme, it is the GA / M /. The rest of the RP and GA inventory of consonant pho­nemes coincides.

The main peculiarities in the pronunciation of GA consonants con­cern the following phonemes.

/r/

This sound is one of the most characteristic of GA pronunciation. In its articulation the tip and blade of the tongue are turned upward, toward the hard palate, the tip pointing to the area immediately behind the alve­olar ridge (it does not touch it) — a retroflex position. Its pronunciation is accompanied by some slight protrusion of the lips.

The sides of the tongue are in contact with the bicuspid and molar teeth, as for /n/ or /d/; /r/ is more sonorous in GA than in RP. When preceded by /t, d, θ, ς/, /r/ is pronounced with an audible friction.

GA /r/ is pronounced not only initially but also before a consonant and in the word final position, e.g. /fυ^rm/, /bε^rd/, /sıstə^r/.

American scientists consider that /з, з^r/ and /ə, ə^r/ are tense and lax allophones of /r/ phoneme in /fυð^ər/, /mз^rm^ər/, /fı^ər/.

/l/

There are two allophones of /l/ phoneme in GA: dark and light, but most of the GA speakers use the dark /l/l in all positions: initially, medial­ly and finally.

Clear or light allophone of /l/ is commonly used in the South Atlantic regions of the USA.

The dark /l/ is pronounced when the major portion of the tongue is raised to the velar part of the mouth cavity.

/t/

This phoneme is highly variable in GE.

(1) A voiced variety of /t/ is used in a) intervocalic position before an unstressed vowel as in butter, let him in, let another; b) preceding a syl­labic /l/ as in beetle, subtle; c) between a nonsyllabic /l/ and an un­ stressed vowel as in malted, altogether, salted; d) between /n/ and an unstressed vowel as in twenty, wanted, seventy, want to see; e) between unaccented vowels as in at another place, if it is convenient.

/t/ is not voiced initially or terminally, or when it precedes syllabic /n/ as in button.

(2) An unconsciously inserted /t/, or /d/ ("excrescent" /t, d/) is recog­nized to be standard in such words as dense, mince, prince, which be­ come homonyms of dents, mints, prints.

(3) In careless or indistinct speech /t/ and /d/ may be lost a) as in eighth, width, breadth, lists, posts; b) after /n/ and before an unstressed vowel as in want to, twenty, find another, centre, wonderful, blinding, storm, land of plenty.

(4)/t/ is dropped and a glottal plosive is inserted, when it is immediately preceding a syllabic /n/ or /l/ as in kitten /ki^?n/, mitten /mı^?n/, bottle /bυ^?l/, settle /sε^?l/.

The Glottal Stop /?/

It results from the compression and sudden release of air at the glottis. It is produced when the compressed air is pushed through the separat­ing vocal bands. This sound is known as laryngeal stop, it is voiceless and unaspirated. It is used by GA speakers before initially stressed vow­els (sometimes between vowels) when the second vowel begins a stressed syllable, and as a transition sound from a final to an initial vowel as in tri?umphant, a?orta, Indiai?office,?1 did.

/M/ and /hw/

Either of these symbols represent the pronunciation of words spelt with the initial wh as in where, when, etc. [hw] is an aspirated on-glide to the /w/ sound. /м/ is a voiceless, fricative, labiovelar or a voiceless /w/. Either of them is the norm, but /hw/ is the predominant form.

/h/

The glottal, fricative or whispered GA /h/ is similar to the RP /h/. However, the GA /h/ is frequently voiced in intervocalic position as in perhaps [ћ]. /h/ is lost when used initially in unstressed or weak forms within a phrase, as in:

has — Where has he gone?

have — I have gone to the store.

had — He had twenty of them.

his — I saw his car.

he — Did you see how he ran?

/h/ has an independent phonetic value used initially before stressed syllables as in:

he — He gave John the bag.

whose — Whose book is this?

whole — The whole group came.

/h/ is omitted in a stressed word in: Come here!

/j/

/w, j, r/ are called "glides" because the initial area of their formation is closely associated with a vowel: /w/ begins at or near [u, u]; /r/ — near [ə^r, з^r]; /j/ — at or near [i, ı] position. The glides appear only prevocally.

/j/ is the lingua-palatal glide which in GA has several modifications:

(1) The [ju] variants are pronounced in words like tune, duty, when
-u, -iew, -eau are preceded by /p, b, f, v, m, k, h/ as in pure, beauty, few,
view, music, cupid, human.

(2) A slightly fronted [u] may be heard in all other instances as in
tune, new, duty, suit, enthuse.

(3) After /r, ς, tς, dЗ/ or a consonant +/1/, [u], fronted [u] or [u] arc
used by GA speakers as in rumor, shoe, chew, June, flew, blue.

(4) In huge, human type of words /h+j/ combination is pronounced as
the German "ich laut". The words huge, human, humane, humor, hu­
morist, humoristic and humorous can be pronounced with the initial [hju]
or [ju].

(5) [tς], [dj+u] are assimilated in GA into [tς] and [dЗ] as in tune [tςun],
due [d3u], education [˛edЗə'keıςən].

This sound is vocalized in final unstressed syllables ending in -ion, -ia as in version /vз^r3n/, Asia /eı3ə/. /ς/ is not vocalized in depression, aspersion.

Nasals /m, n, ŋ/

A common characteristic of GA is the so-called "American twang", which is the nasalizing of a vowel before a nasal-consonant which re­sults from the lowering of the soft palate while the vowel is being spoken as in manner [mãenə^r], man [mãen], fine [fãeın].

/n, m/ may be omitted followed by /f, v/ as in some vines [s Λ vaınz], one fine day [f Λ wãı deı].

Sometimes syllabic [ŋ] is substituted for [n] or [ən] as in taken [teıkn], sicken [sıkn], chicken [tςıkn].

GA speakers may pronounce [beıkŋ] for bacon, [aı kŋ дəu] for / can go, [bæg ŋ bægıcdЗ] for bag and baggage, [brəukŋ glæs] for broken glass.

"English Pronouncing Dictionary" by D. Jones notes that in the words listed below Americans use /n/, while RP speakers use both /n/ and /ŋ/:

concave, conclude, conglomeration, congratulate, enclose, encompass, encourage, encrust, engraft

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