Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation 1

Comparison of General American and ReceivedPronunciation

Comparison ofAmerican andBritish English

•• American English•• British English

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Speech

•• Accent•• Pronunciation

Vocabulary

• List of American words not widelyused in the United Kingdom

• List of British words not widelyused in the United States

• Lists of words having differentmeanings

in American and British English:• (A–L• M–Z)

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One aspect of American and British English pronunciation differences is differences in accent. The GeneralAmerican (GAm) and the British Received Pronunciation (RP) accents have some significant points of difference,described in this article. However, other regional accents in each country may show greater still differences, forwhich see regional accents of English speakers.Although the Received Pronunciation dialect is the subject of many academic studies,[] and is frequently used as amodel for teaching English to foreign learners,[1] only about two percent of Britons speak RP,[] because there aremany other dialects spoken in Britain (see British English).

Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation 2

HistorySee also: Phonological history of the English language, sections After American–British split, up to the 20thcentury (c. AD 1725–1900) and After 1900.

Phonological differences• GAm is rhotic while RP is non-rhotic; that is, the phoneme /r/, or what was historically a phoneme /r/, is only

pronounced in RP when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound. Where GAm pronounces /r/ before aconsonant and at the end of an utterance, RP either has nothing (if the preceding vowel is /ɔː/ or /ɑː/, as in boreand bar) or has a schwa instead (the resulting sequences are diphthongs or triphthongs). Similarly, where GAmhas r-coloured vowels (/ɚ/ or /ɝ/, as in cupboard or bird), RP has plain vowels /ə/ or /ɜː/. However many Britishaccents, especially in Scotland and the West Country, are rhotic, and there are a few non-rhotic accents in theUnited States, especially in urban working-class areas like New York, Boston, and a few conservative dialects ofSouthern American English (especially among older-speakers). Non-rhoticity is also very common amongspeakers of African-American Vernacular English, which is a dialect that influences a great portion ofAfrican-American speakers to varying degrees.

• The "intrusive R" of many RP speakers (in such sequences as "the idea-r-of it") is absent in GAm; this is aconsequence of the rhotic/non-rhotic distinction.

• For some RP speakers (upper class), unlike in GAm, some or all of tire, tower, and tar are homophones; thisreflects the merger of the relevant vowels; similarly the pour–poor merger is common in RP but not in GAm.

• RP has three open back vowels, where GAm has only two or even one. Most GAm speakers use the same vowelfor RP "short O" /ɒ/ as for RP "broad A" /ɑː/ (the father–bother merger); many also use the same vowel for theseas for RP /ɔː/ (the cot–caught merger).

• For Americans without the cot–caught merger, the lot–cloth split results in /ɔː/ in some words which now have/ɒ/ in RP; as reflected in the eye dialect spelling "dawg" for dog.

• The trap–bath split has resulted in RP having "broad A" /ɑː/ where GAm has "short A" /æ/, in most words whereA is followed by either /n/ followed by another consonant, or /v/, /ð/, /z/, /s/, /f/, or /θ/ (e.g. plant, pass, laugh,path).

• RP has a marked degree of contrast of length between "short" and "long" vowels (The long vowels being thediphthongs, and /iː/, /uː/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, /ɑː/). In GAm this contrast is much less evident, and the IPA length symbol (ː)is often omitted.

• The "long O" vowel (as in boat) is realised differently: GAm pure [oː] or diphthongized [oʊ]; RP central firstelement [əʊ]. However there is considerable variation in this vowel on both sides of the Atlantic.

• The distinction between unstressed /ɪ/ and /ə/ (e.g. roses vs Rosa's) is sometimes lost in GAm. In RP it is retained,in part because[citation needed] it helps avoid non-rhotic homophones; e.g. batted vs battered as /ˈbætɪd/ vs /ˈbætəd/.It is, however, lost in Australian English (which is also non-rhotic) meaning both words are pronounced the same,unlike American or British English.

• Where GAm has /iː/ in an unstressed syllable at the end of a morpheme, conservative RP has /ɪ/, not havingundergone happy-tensing. This distinction is retained in inflected forms (e.g. candied and candid are homophonesin RP, but not in GAm).

• In GAm, flapping is common: when either a /t/ or a /d/ occurs between a sonorant phoneme and an unstressed vowel phoneme, it is realized as an alveolar-flap allophone [ɾ]. This sounds like a /d/ to RP speakers, although many GAm speakers distinguish the two phonemes by aspirating /t/ in this environment, especially after /ɪ/ or /eɪ/ (thus bitter and rated are distinguishable from bidder and raided), or by lengthening the vowel preceding an underlying /d/. [ɾ] is an allophone of /r/ in conservative RP, which is hence caricatured in America as a "veddy British" accent. The degree of flapping varies considerably among speakers, and is often reduced in more formal settings. It does occur to an extent in nearly all speakers of American English, with better pronounced with a flap

Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation 3

almost ubiquitously regardless of background. Pronouncing the t would be considered overly formal. This doesnot mean it always completely merges with bedder, as many speakers enunciate the d so as to distinguish itslightly from the flapped t.

• Yod-dropping occurs in GAm after all alveolar consonants, including /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/; i.e. historic /juː/(from spellings u, ue, eu, ew), is pronounced /uː/ in a stressed syllable. In contrast, RP speakers:• always retain /j/ after /n/: e.g. new is RP /njuː/, GAm /nuː/;• retain or coalesce it after /t/, /d/: e.g. due is RP /djuː/ or /dʒuː/, GAm /duː/;• retain or drop it after /θ/, /l/: e.g. allude is RP /əˈljuːd/ or (as GAm) /əˈluːd/.• retain, coalesce or drop it after /s/, /z/: e.g. assume is RP /əˈsjuːm/ or /əˈʃuːm/, or (as GAm) /əˈsuːm/;

• In some words where /j/ has been coalesced in GAm, it may be retained in RP: e.g. issue is RP /ˈɪsjuː/ or (asGAm) /ˈɪʃuː/

References

Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsComparison of General American and Received Pronunciation  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=517021112  Contributors: Aeusoes1, Coin945, Fête, Iammickjagger,Interchangeable, Jnestorius, Kwamikagami, Malinaccier, Mathpianist93, PBS, Ruakh, Thegryseone, Yngvadottir, 3 anonymous edits

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