Pronunciation of English in different countries

Introduction

 

    The modern English language is an international language nowadays. It is also the first spoken language of such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa.

    But in the very United Kingdom there are some varieties of it, called dialects, and accents.

    The purpose of the present work is to study the characteristic features of the present day varieties of the English language of the United Kingdom and beyond the bounds of it.

    To achieve this purpose it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1. To give the definition to the notion “dialect”.

2. To determine the history and geography of dialects spread.

3. To find out the difference between the dialects and the standard language.

    Structurally the paper consists of two parts focused on the information about “the dialect” in general and the ways it differs from the standard language.

The status of the English language in the XXth century has undergone certain changes. Modern English has become a domineering international language of nowadays.

    No two persons speak exactly alike, and within the area of all but the smallest speech communities (groups of people speaking the same language) there are subdivisions of recognizably different types of language, called dialects, that do not, however, render intercommunication impossible nor markedly difficult. Because intercomprehensibility lies along a scale, the degree required for two or more forms of speech to qualify as dialects of a single language, instead of being regarded as separate languages, is not easy to quantify or to lay down in advance, and the actual cutoff point must in the last resort be arbitrary. In practice, however, the terms dialect and language can be used with reasonable agreement. One speaks of different dialects of English (Southern British English, Northern British English, Scottish English, Midwest American English, New England American English, Australian English, and so on, with, of course, many more delicately distinguished subdialects within these very general categories), but no one would speak of Welsh and English or of Irish and English as dialects of a single language, although they are spoken within the same areas and often by people living in the same villages as each other.

 

Chapter 1. Functional stylistics and dialectology

 

    It is quite clear of course that dialectology is inseparably connected with sociolinguistics, the latter deals with language variation caused by social difference and differing social needs; it studies the ways language interacts with social reality.

Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics which studies different aspects of language - phonetics, lexics and grammar with reference to their social functions in the society.

    It is evident that language is indissolubly linked with the society; in it we can see a faithful reflection of the society in which people live.

The varieties of the language are conditioned by language communities ranging from small groups to nations. Now speaking about the nations we refer to the national variants of the language. National language is a historical category evolving from conditions of economic and political concentration which characterizes the formation of a nation [1]. In other words national language is the language of a nation, the standard of its form, the language of a nation's literature.

It is common knowledge that language exists in two forms: written and spoken. Any manifestation of language by means of speech is the result of a highly complicated series of events. The literary spoken form has its national pronunciation standard. A "standard" may be defined as "a socially accepted variety of a language established by a codified norm of correctness".

Today all the English-speaking nations have their own national variants of pronunciation and each of them has peculiar features that distinguish it from other varieties of English.

    It is generally accepted that for the "English English" it is "Received Pronunciation" or RP; for 'The American English" - "General American pronunciation"; for the Australian English - "Educated Australian".

Standard national pronunciation is sometimes called an "orthoepic norm"'. Some phoneticians, however, prefer the term "literary pronunciation".

Though every national variant of English has considerable differences in pronunciation, lexics and grammar, they all have much in common which gives us ground to speak of one and the same language - the English language [2].

It would not be true to say that national standards are fixed and immutable. They undergo constant changes due to various internal and external factors. Pronunciation, above all, is subject to all kinds of innovations. Therefore the national variants of English differ primarily in sound, stress, and intonation.

Every national variety of the language falls into territorial or regional dialects. Dialects are distinguished from each other by differences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. We must make clear that, when we refer to varieties in pronunciation only, we use the word "accent". So local accents may have many features of pronunciation in common and consequently are grouped into territorial or area accents. In Britain, for example, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire accents form the group of "Northern accent".

    It has been estimated that the standard pronunciation of a country is not homogeneous. It changes in relation to other languages, and also to geographical, psychological, social and political influences. In England, for example, we distinguish "conservative, general and advanced RP".

    As a result of certain social factors in the post-war period -- the growing urbanization, spread of education and the impact of mass media, Standard English is exerting an increasing powerful influence on the regional dialects of Great Britain. Recent surveys of British English dialects have revealed that the pressure of Standard English is so strong that many people are bilingual in a sense that they use an imitation of RP with their teachers and lapse into their native local accent when speaking among themselves. In this occasion the term diglossia should be introduced to denote a state of linguistic duality in which the standard literary form of a language and one of its regional dialects are used by the same individual in different social situations.

    Language, and especially its oral aspect varies with respect to the social context in which it is used. The social differentiation of language is closely connected with the social differentiation of society. Nevertheless, linguistic facts cannot be attributed directly to class structure. According to "the impact of social factors on language is not confined to linguistic reflexes of class structure and should be examined with due regard for the meditating role of all class-derived elements -social groups, strata, occupational, cultural and other groups including primary units (small groups)".

     Western sociolinguists such as A.Hughes, P.Trudgill [3], [4] and others, are oriented towards small groups, viewing them as "microcosms" of the entire society. Soviet sociolinguists recognize the influence of society upon language by means of both micro- and macro-sociological factors.

    Every language community, ranging from a small group to a nation has its own social dialect, and consequently, its own social accent.

British sociolinguists divide the society into the following classes: upper class, upper middle class, middle middle class, lower middle class, upper working class, middle working class, lower working class [5].

    The serious study of social dialects must be proceeded, or at least accompanied by significant advances in sociology and especially in the more precise definition of the notions, such as class, nation, nationality, society, language community, occupation, social group, social setting, occupational group, and so on.

It is well worth to understand that classes are split into different major and minor social groups (professional, educational, cultural, age, sex and so on). Correspondingly every social community has its own social dialect and social accent. D.A. Shakhbagova [6] defines social dialects as "varieties spoken by a socially limited number of people".

    So in the light of social criteria languages are "characterized by two plans of socially conditioned variability - stratificational, linked with societal structure, and situational, linked with the social context of language use".

    Having had our main terms straightened we may speak now of the "language situation" in terms of the horizontal and vertical differentiations of the language, the first in accordance with the spheres of social activity, the second - with its situational variability.

    It is evident that the language means are chosen consciously or subconsciously by a speaker according to his perception of the situation, in which he finds himself. Hence situational varieties of the language are called functional dialects or functional styles and situational pronunciation varieties - situational accents or phonostyles [7].

    It has also to be remembered that the language of its users varies according to their individualities, range of intelligibility, cultural habits, sex and age differences. Individual speech of members of the same language community is known as idiolect. Language in serving personal and social needs becomes part of the ceaseless flux of human life and activity. Human communication cannot be comprehended without recognizing mutual dependence of language and context. The mystery of language lies, if nowhere, in its endless ability to adapt both to the strategies of the individual and to the needs of the community, serving each without imprisoning either. We shall focus our attention on territorial modifications of English pronunciation viewing them as an object of sociolinguistic study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2. Territorial varieties of English pronunciation

 

2.1 English based pronunciation standards

 

    Standard English - the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated people may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood. Its vocabulary is contrasted to dialect words or dialectisms. Local dialects are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form. Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. In Great Britain there are two variants, Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of dialects: Northern, Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern. Every group contains several (up to ten) dialects [8].

    The study of dialects has been made on the basis of information obtained with the help of special techniques: interviews, questionnaires, recording by phonograph and tape-recorder, etc. Data collected in this way show the territorial distribution of certain key words and pronunciations which vary from region to region.

    Dialects are now chiefly preserved in rural communities, in the speech of elderly people. Their boundaries have become less stable than they used to be; the distinctive features are tending to disappear with the shifting of population due to the migration of working-class families in search of employment and the growing influence of urban life over the countryside. Dialects are said to undergo rapid changes under the pressure of Standard English taught at schools and the speech habits cultivated by radio, television and cinema [9].

    The dialect vocabulary is remarkable for its conservatism: many words that have become obsolete in standard English are still kept in dialects, e. g. to and 'envy'<OE andian; barge 'pig'<OE berg; bysen 'blind'<OE bisene and others.

As was mentioned before, BEPS (British English Pronunciation Standards and Accents) comprise English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Ireland English (the corresponding abbreviations are EE, WE, ScE, NIE).

    ENGLISH ENGLISH

Roughly speaking the non-RP accents of England may be grouped like this:

1. Southern accents.

1) Southern accents (Greater London, Cockney, Surray, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire);

2) East Anglia accents (Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire;

3) South-West accents (Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Wiltshire).

2. Northern and Midland accents.

1) Northern accents (Northumberland, Durham, Cleveland);

2) Yorkshire accents;

3) North-West accents (Lancashire, Cheshire);

4) West Midland (Birmingham, Wolverhampton).

RP (Received Pronunciation)

    It has long been believed that RP is a social marker, a prestige accent of an Englishman. In the nineteenth century "received" was understood in the sense of "accepted in the best society". The speech of aristocracy and the court phonetically was that of the London area. Then it lost its local characteristics and was finally fixed as a ruling-class accent, often referred to as "King's 'English". It was also the accent taught at public schools. With the spread of education cultured people not belonging to the upper classes were eager to modify their accent in the direction of social standards.

    We may definitely state now that RP is a genuinely regionless accent within Britain; i.e. if speakers have it you cannot tell which area of Britain they come from; which is not the case for any other type of British accents.

It is fair to mention, however, that only 3 - 5 per cent of the population of England speak RP. British phoneticians (Ch.Barber, A.C.Gimson, A.Hughes and P.Trudgill) [2], [3], [4], estimate that nowadays RP is not homogeneous. A.C.Gimson [2] suggests that it is convenient to distinguish three main types within it: "the conservative RP forms, used by the older generation, and, traditionally, by certain profession or social groups; the general RP forms, most commonly in use and typified by the pronunciation adopted by the BBC, and the advanced RP forms, mainly used by young people of exclusive social groups - mostly of the upper classes, but also for prestige value, in certain professional circles". [10]

    This last type of RP reflects the tendencies typical of changes in pronunciation. It is the most "effected and exaggerated variety" of the accent. Some of its features may be results of temporary fashion, some are adopted as a norm and described in the latest textbooks. Therefore, it is very important for a teacher and learner of English to distinguish between the two. RP speakers make up a very small percentage of the English population. Many native speakers, especially teachers of English and professors of colleges and universities (particularly from the South and South-East of England) have accents closely resembling RP but not identical to it. P.Trudgill and J.Hannah [3] call it Near-RP southern. So various types of standard English pronunciation may be summarized as follows: Conservative RP; General RP; Advanced RP; Near-RP southern. [11]

Regional Non-RP Accents of England

    As was stated above, we grouped regional accents of England into southern and northern ones. This division is very approximate of course, because there are western and eastern accents but their main accent variations correspond either with southern or northern accentual characteristics. Thus we would like to point out here the main differences between southern and northern accents.

In vowels

    One of the main differences between these groups of accents is in the phoneme inventory - the presence or absence of particular phonemes. Typically, the vowel [a] does not occur in the accents of the north; e.g.

 

South North

blood [blu:d] [blud]

one [wun] [won]

but [but] [bәt]

We can also note that many northern speakers while they do not have [л] have [u:] rather than [u] in words such as hook, book, look. They therefore distinguish pairs like book and buck, which in the south sound [buk] and [bu:k], in the North as [bu:k] and [buk]:

South North

book [buk] [bu:k]

buck [bu:k] [buk]

    Another well-known feature which distinguishes northern and southern accents concerns the vowels [ a ] and [a:].

    Before the voiceless fricatives [f, с, s] and certain consonant clusters containing initial [n] or [m], [a] is pronounced in the north instead of [a:].

South North

path [pa:ð] [pas]

dance [da:ns] [dans]

    Note: Speakers with more strongly regional southern substandard accents may not have the contrast or, at most, have a contrast that is variable.

In the south, however, [a] is often pronounced as [a:]:

RP South

bad [bad] [ba:d]

    One more major north - south differentiating feature involves the final [i:] like in words city, money, etc. In the north of England they have [э]. In the south of England these words are pronounced with [i:], e.g.

South North

city ['sэti:] [sэtэ]

money ['mаni:] ['monэ]

In consonants

    It has been mentioned above that some English accents are "rhotic" or "r-full" and other are non-rhotic or "r-less". Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r], corresponding to orthographic "r" in words like bar and farm. This [r] sound is post-vocalic and is most often heard in Scotland, Ireland and in the southwest of England.

    In most regional accents the glottal stop is more widely used than in RP. In some areas, especially the north-east of England, East Anglia and Northern Ireland, the glottal stop may also be pronounced simultaneously with the voiceless [p, t, k], most strikingly between vowels: pity ['piti:].

    Many non-RP speakers use [n] in the suffix "-ing" instead of [en]; sitting ['sэtэn]. In an area of western central England which includes Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool they pronounce [ng]: singer ['sэnge], wing [wing].

    In most accents [j] is dropped after [t, s]: student ['stu:dәnt], suit [su:t]. In parts of the north the change has progressed a good deal further, it has been lost after [и]: enthusiasm [in'tu:zэizm].

    In large areas of eastern England [j] is lost after every consonant. In London [j] is lost after [n, t, d]: news [nu:z], tune [tu:n].

Southern English Accents

    We now turn to an examination of regional non-RP accents of England and we shall first give a brief outline of the group of Southern accents.

    As was stated above, educated Southern speech is very much near-RP accent whereas non-standard accents are very much near Cockney. Therefore we shall focus our attention on the rather detailed description of uneducated London accent - Cockney.

    Cockney accent. It has been long established that Cockney is a social accent - the speech of working-class areas of the Greater London. Here are some pronunciation peculiarities of it.

In vowels

1. [u] is realized as [uэ]: blood [blud] - [bluэd];

2. [a] is realized as [е] or [еэ]: bag [bag] - [bеg], [baэg];

3. [э] in word-final position sounds as [i:]: city ['sэtэ] - ['sэti:];

4. when [o:] is non-final, its realization is much closer, it sounds like [o:]: pause [po:z] - [po:z]; when it is final, it is pronounced as [o:]: paw [po:] - [po:u];

5. the diphthong [eэ] is realized as [aэ] or [aэ]: lady ['leэdi:] - ['laэdi:], ['laэdi:]

6. RP [з] sounds as [u]: soaked [sзukt] - [soukt];

7. RP [au] may be [au:]: now [nau] - [nau:].

In consonants

1. [h] in unstressed position is almost invariably absent;

2. [ә] is widely spread in Cockney speech: paper ['pei:pә], butterfly [`butәflaэ];

3. The contrast between [θ] and [f] is completely lost: thin [fin], booth [bu:f];

4. The contrast between [р] and [v] is occasionally lost: weather ['weve];

5. When [р] occurs initially it is either dropped or replaced by [d]: this [dis], them [(d)em];

6. [1] is realized as a vowel when it precedes a consonant and follows a vowel, or when it is syllabic: milk [mэvk], table [teэbv]; when the preceding vowel is [o:], [1] may disappear completely;

7. [a] is replaced by [n] in word-final position: dancing ['da:nsэn] or it may be pronounced as [эs] in something, anything, nothing: ['nәsэnkJ;

8. [p, t, k] are heavily aspirated, more so than in RP;