Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 5

Introduction to English pronunciation and phonetics Lecture 5

British and American English Two distinctive dialects: • Vocabulary (e. g. pavement - sidewalk) • Grammar (e. g. Have you eaten already? vs. Did you eat already? ) • Semantics (e. g. first floor, public school) • Spelling (e. g. colour - color) • Pronunciation

American English pronunciation • has its roots in English as it was spoken in Britain and Ireland in the 17 th and 18 th centuries • influenced especially by accents spoken in the southern parts of Britain Example: postvocalic /r/ as in ‘part’ Shakespearean English found in rural American accents?

• Noticeable historical traces in some parts of the US Example: New England lack of postvocalic /r/ as in ‘car’ and /j/ as in ‘news’ • Relatively few regional dialects in American English • Four main dialect areas: Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western

General American (GA) • an umbrella term used for neutral and commonly used US English • spoken by a majority of Americans in the Western and Middle states • Canadian English has many pronunciation similarities with GA, but is considered a separate variety

RP – GA different vowel sounds • GA vowels often slightly longer (e. g. ’cat’) • GA often has less vowel reduction and more noticeable pronunciation of schwa /ə/ (e. g. ’candle’) • RP /ɑ: / — GA /æ/ especially before /s, f, θ/ ‘glass, laugh, bath’ and –nce, -nt: ‘dance, can’t’ always /ɑ: / before /r/: ‘car, large, heart’

• Only three clear diphthongs in GA /aı/ time /ɔı/ toy /aʊ/ house (‘hair, here, hay’ = weak or monophthongs) • RP /ʌ/ — GA /ɜ: / ‘worry, courage, hurry’ • RP /ɒ/ — GA /ɑ: / ; /ɔ: / ‘holiday, want, bomb ; gone, coffee’

Different consonant sounds In GA, but not in RP: • /r/ is pronounced in all positions • /l/ is more or less dark in all positions

• /t/ is voiced before unstressed syllable (called voiced flap /D/): ‘later, better, city’ (but not in e. g. ‘contain’, ‘between’) latter – ladder writer – rider metal – medal • ‘wh’ is often pronounced /hw/ in question words • only /u: / after especially /t, n, d/ where RP has /ju: /; e. g. ’student, news, due’

Different pronunciations Many individual pronunciation differences: RP GA ate /et || eıt / /eıD/ pasta /'pæstə/ /'pɑ: stə/ vitamin /'vıtəmın/ /'vaıDəmın/ tomato /tə'mɑ: təʊ/ /tə'meıDoʊ/ progress /'prəʊgres/ /'prɑ: grəs/ either/neither /'aıðə/ /'i: ðər/

Different word stress • primary stress earlier in GA than in RP in some words RP address donate research GA address donate research

Different word stress • primary stress later in GA than in RP in some French loanwords RP garage café ballet brochure GA garage café ballet brochure

Vowel reduction differences • In some words with suffixes, the vowel in the suffix is less reduced in GA than in RP Examples: cemetery category ceremony dictionary

Recap of lectures • • RP and GA The phonetic alphabet (IPA) Monophthongs (front-back; open-close) Diphthongs (closing-centring) Consonants (voiced-voiceless) Plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals Focus on sounds not existing in Swedish

Recap of lectures • • • Sounds in context Word stress Assimilation and elision Reduced unstressed syllables Strong and weak forms GA and RP – major differences

Written exam • part of the A 1/HS 1/T 1 language structure exam • 20 multiple choice questions • roughly proportioned according to the time given to the subject areas in the lectures • example exam in the language structure compendium

Written exam • Lectures and Power. Point slides • Language structure compendium • Study questions in Rönnerdal and Johansson (pp. 129 -134) • Go to the language lab!