Analyzing the differences between and GA and British English Jos Ribamar de Castro

There are a number of noticeable differences between standard Southern British and standard GAE pronunciation. These differences are summarized here in terms of the (1) phonemic inventories;(2) allophonic variation; (3)pronunciation of common words;(4)word stress; (5) sentence stress;(6)intonation ;and(7) overall sound of voice quality.All useful sources of information on this topic here presented are from Ladefoged (1993) , and Catford (1988).

1. Differences in Phonemic Inventories Differences in the consonant inventories One minor difference in the consonant inventories of GA and British English is that some dialects of GAE still have the voiceless /hw/ sound distinct from the voiced approximant /w/(e.g.; in words such what,which and when).(This /hw/ is also still common in Scottish standard.)Such speakers have the contrast witch/which.

Differences in the vowel inventories The phonemic differences between GA and British English vowel inventories are considerably greater than the differences in their consonant inventories,particularly in the area of the low back vowels.For example,both dialects use unrounded /a/ in words like spa and car; however,British English has a low-back lax vowel /o/;which is slightly rounded and occurs in words such as spot,not,rock,whereas GA has unrounded /a/ in these words.

Also,whereas virtually all British speakers have rounded /o:/ as a distinct low back vowel (slighly higher and tenser than /o/ in words such as law,taught,walk,awe many speakers of GAE no longer have a distinct /o/ phoneme and have merged this sound with /a/. Thus British English has three low back vowels,whereas GAE has two or (in many dialects) only one: spa BE /a:/ Midwestern AE /a/ Western AE /a/ stop BE /o/ Midwestern AE /a/ Western AE /a/ straw BE /o:/ Midwestern AE /o/ Western AE /a/

2. Differences in Allophonic Variation Differences in vowel production The differences in allophonic variation between BE and GAE are much more extensive than the differences in their inventories.Because most British vowels tend to be less glided than GAE vowels,a different notation (Jones 1991)is used for tense vowels and diphthongs: bite GAE /bayt/ BE /bait/ boot GAE /buwt/ Be /bu:t/

Also GAE /^/ is often slightly higher than BE /^/ in words such as hut,son,rust. Differences in consonant production Southern BE speakers omit the /r/ completely in medial or final position and produce instead a lengthen or centralized vowel sound. heart / car /ha:t/ /ka:/ (GA) /ha:rt/ /k:ar/ 3. Different pronunciations of common words Words spelled with A Many words spelled with A are pronounced with the

vowel /a:/ in British English but with the vowel / / in GAE: ask,answer,cant,branch,dance,half,grass,cast, laugh. Such words tend to have an alveolar nasal /n/ or a voiceless fricative /s,f,0/ after the vowel. Words with syllable-initial alveolar consonants Many words with a syllable-initial alveolar consonant( /t,d,n/ and now less frequently /l,s,z/ before na /u:/ sound spelled u,ew,eu have a more distinct /j/ glide

between the consonant and the vowel in Britisdh and Canadian English than in other varieties of GE,which have lost the /u:/ vs /ju:/ distinction even after /t,d,n/: tune /tu:n/ (GAE) /tju:n/ (British/Canadian) duke /du:k/ dju:k/ new /nu:/ /nju:/ Words with U spellings following alveolar consonants Some students of BE have a tendency to

pronounce /y/ in certain words with U spellings (i.e.,those following alveolar consonants)whereas GAE speakers generally palatalize the consonant following this U spelling instead: issue / /(GAE) /sj/(BRE) virtue /t /(GAE) /tj/ (BRE) Words spelled with er are pronounced /a:/ in BRE but /3:r/ in GAE. clerk, derby,Kerr.

Words ending in ile Words ending in ile tend to be pronounced /ail/ in BRE and /al/ or /l/ in GAE: hostile,fertile,docile,fragile,missile. Other words There are many individual words in common use in both dialects with the same spelling that are routinely pronounced differently:

ate /et/ /eit/ vase /va:z/ /veis/ either /ai / /i: ar/ schedule tomato leisure process /prouses/ /prases/

4. Differences in word stress

There are also numerous words in BRE and GAE in which the primary difference in pronunciation can be traced to differences in word stress. Verbs ending in ate In many two-syllable verbs ending in ate,GAE tends to stress the root syllable and BRE the suffix: DICtate dicTATE Vibrate viBATE

Words of French origin In words of French origin,GAE tends to mirror the French syllable-final stress pattern,whereas BRE anglicizes these words with stress on the first syllable. garAGE GARage baLLET BALlet fronTIER FRONtier cabaRET CABaret

Stress in three- or four-syllable words There are also several types of three- or foursyllable words in which stress falls on the second syllable in GAE but on the first syllable in BRE. priMARily PRImarily arIStocrat ARistocrat

Secondary stress differences in words ending in ily There are many five-syllable words ending in ily for which BE gives primary stress to the first syllable whereas GAE gives primary stress to the third syllable.In these same words,BRE speakers also tend to reduce or drop the third syllable,thus pronouncing them with four rather five syllables: necessarily necessarily

Words ending in ary,-ery,-ory,and mony. There is also a tendency for GAE to give some stress to penultimate syllables that tend to drop out in BRE;this gives many words ending in ary,-ery,-ory,and mony rather different rhythmic patterns in the two dialects: dictionary/ category/cemetery/testimony. Words ending in day In days of the week,the day syllable is unstressed and has reduced vowel in BRE variety;thus ,it has a full vowel in GAE:

Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/ Thursday/ Friday/Saturday. Place names ending in aster / -ester. Place names ending in aster/ -ester have a different stress pttern in GAE and BRE,since the latter variety gives stress gives less stress to the penultimate syllable: Lancaster Lancaster Rochester Rochester There is also a tendency to place names ending in -ham or wood,which receive some

Stress on the final syllable in GAE but are stressed only on the first syllable in BRE,with resulting loss of the /h/ in ham: Birmingham Birmingham Buckingham Burckingham Hollywood /u/ Hollywood /a/ Other word stress differences In some cases,words in GAE and BRE have the same number of syllables but simply take different stress patterns,with concomitant differences in pronunciation:

advertisement / advertisement laboratory / laboratory 5. Differences in Sentence Stress There is very little empirical research available on differences in sentence stress between GAE and BRE.One area in which differences have been noticed is yes/no questions; BRE sometimes gives light stress tothe fronted auxiliary verb whereas GAE does not:

British GAE

is it NICE ? is it NICE ?

6. Differences in Intonation Differences in neutral and unemotional British and GA English intonation are marked enough such that speakers of both varieties seem to develop stereotyped perceptioins of the other group.GAE speakers tend to perceive British speakers as pretentious and mannered,and British speakers tend to perceive Americans as monotonous and negative. Consider this example:

British Its not quite the right shade of blue.

GAE: Its not quite the right shade of blue. In yes/no questions that are not responses the British low rise is polite whereas a high rise signals incredulity.In GHAE,however,the high rise is polite and not incredulous.(Cruttenden: 1986). Did he pass the exam? He certainly did!

6. Differences in Overall Sound and Voice Quality With the exception of certain regional varieties of British English (such Norfolk and the Home Counties,from which many of the Nwe Englanders and other settlers emigrated during the 7th century),GAE has a more nasal quality than BRE. BRE is more clipped and precise quality whereas GAE is more drawn out or drawled quality(glided and lengthened vowels).

As it is suggested in the title,this workshop has no other ambitious purpose than the practical one of helping teachers/students of English to be acquainted with the most important differences between British and American English. If this workshop is somewhat helpful, we will have fulfilled our purposes.