The system of american english vowels

' The articulatory and distributional differences between GA and RP are the following.

Front Vowels

/■/

This phoneme does not differ greatly in GA and RP. It is diphthongized in the final position in GA- and RP, as in see /sii/, Diphthongization is less noticeable before voiceless stops as in beat /bit/, meat /rait/.

N

This phoneme is a little more open in GA than in RP. In GA it is ■■often obscured, when followed or preceded by Ix. h v/ orM as^in will, fill, river, bear,

/•/

It is lower than the RP /e/ and resembles /ге/. GÄ /б/ may"be diphthongized before /p_t t, k/, e. g. get /gs't/, bet /bi^at/.

- /*/

In j3A /e/ is long, tense and nasalized before /d, m, n/, e,g> 5^ДвеМ/, answer/iffi:ns3/. The GA W differs from the RP /as/ distnbulionally: (l)it is used in words in which the letter a is foltpwed by a consonant other than r, as in answer /i«ns>/, каЩШ1\ aurU /ant/; (3) 'in GA /e/ is used instead of /a/ in Ще words like, cc/T£i /iken/, marry /imen/, parrot /iperat/.

^:' ^ ^{The Кгопцад1вШп} of American,.'Engt)*.,

Central Vowels

/A/

It is stressed, unrounded, mid-open, produced with the middle of the tongue slightly raised. The position of the tongue is close to low back /и, э/. When unstressed /л/ may be replaced by [э] or p], as in subscribe [sabiskraib], [stb.. .J-

Speakers of New York City and some in Eastern New England use [4i3ri] instead of /1плп/. In colloquial speech [waz], [av], Цй-лт] can be used instead of [wdz], [t>v], [from].

N

/3/ and its variant [з^г] are tense, stressed and usually long vowels. [з^г] variant is the more common of the two. It results from a retroflexion of .the tongue-tip toward the hard palate, a greater retraction of the tongue or a combination of both, e.g. bird /ba^rd/, fir №/.

[9^r] is the sound of suns tressed syllabic /r/ in such words as father, doer, better. The r-coloured, lax, central vowel is heard throughout the JJSA, except in the r-less areas, such as the South, Eastern New England, New York City. [э^г] and its variant [9] vary as do the /з/, /з^г/.

[з, з^г] are used to represent stressed er, ur, ear, or, as in fern, burn, learn, worst.

[э^г, э] * are used to represent unstressed er, or, oar, ax, ir, ur, lire» yr, re, as in better, actor, cupboard, wizard, tapir, pressure, hmrmur, satyr, sceptre.

N

The unstressed, central, lax vowel that can occur in any position of a word. It is the most commonly used vowel because of the exten­sive use'of uastressed syllables, /э/ is used in definite and indefinite articles, monosyllabic prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and auxil­iary and modal verbs, as in a, an, the, but, or, for, from, of, her, them, shall, was, can.

,N

High, central, unrounded. The lips are in the neutral position. The central part of the tongue is high, the bulk of the tongue retract­ed] from .the_cposition for [i], [1], It is known as the "barred V and used in .the words like sister, thing, fist, fish, chips. This sound is rarely heard in GA, but in colloquial speech it is found in all dialects of Amer­ican English. It is used in both syllables of the word children. It varies withVi/ in the words'me, 'see. The unstressed hi is common in words like parted, horses, in the words can and just in the phrases:

,*te,,я'], [эг, з] are considered to be allophones of the hi phoneme, see •Br<ms№itb*A'. J, The Pronunciation of American English.— Prentice Hall,' 1960 (^central vowels").

/ can do it, Just a moment /km/, /eiset/. Many American scientists are convinced that the three high vowels /i, i, u/ "are as phonemically distinct from each other as the three mid vowels /s, л, о/."

Emphasized w, Ate, trift, »fe, i/, ftfe are pronounced with pj. Most people do not hear this sound because it has*no special form which can be associated with it.

N

The GA /a/ is more front than the [RP /a/. It is central, or mixed and low, broad variation. In contrast to the RP N the GA /a/ has a different distribution. It is used a) in words like hop, rob, not, lock; dolt, solve, on; b) in words before velar /rj/, /g/ both /a/ and /o/ can be used as in log /lag/—/log/, frog /frag/—/frog/, etc.

Back Vowels

N

It is a back, low, lax vowel. It is used as a variant of N in hot, stop, and of /d/ in rfog^, cough. For those who distinguish between (bam, bum, fn>0, frod, hug, hok[ /«/ is а separate^pho­neme, different from /a/ or /o/ in ca/m, Ыт, law, fall.

м

The GA /o/ is intermediate in quality between theJRP /o;/ and /«/■ In the production of the GA /a/ the lips are considerably less rounded than in artjculating^/o:/. This sound is commonly spelled with an a or o. Other spellings are ail, aw, al, oa, ou, as in a», border, fault, fawn, halt, broad, brought*

/«/

It is a high, back, tense vowel. The lips are rounded and may> be slightly protruded, as in boot. It is diphthongal in character, especially when stressed and lengthened — [uu]. Slightly fronted [м] may be heard in tune, new, duty, suit. The forms with [ju]_t f» are also possible.

N

It is a slightly lower and fronted sound when compared with /u/. The lip rounding is less than for /u/. It is spelled oo, u, o, ou, as in book, full, wolf, could. The GA /u/ sounds like RP /«/• As a variant it can occur finally in the word into.

GA Diphthongs

Soviet phoneticians distinguish five diphthongs in GA: /ei, ai, oi, au, ou/.¹

* Shakhbagova D, A. Varieties of English Pronunciation,—M., 1982.-» P. 27.

/ei/

■ It differs from the RP /ei/ in diphthongization. It mostly occurs in word final position, or before voiced consonants, as in holiday /'hahdei/, game /geim/, grade /greid/. A monophthongal variant of /ei/ may occur before voiceless consonants as in gate /get/, date /det/. It may be reduced to /e/ in unstressed syllables, as in va­cation /veikei£n/, chaotic /keiatik/. In American books on phonetics and in dictionaries it is transcribed as /e/.

/ai/, /3i/

These diphthongs are practically identical in RP and GA.

In GA the nucleus of the diphthong is aback mid-open vowel, in RP it starts from the tongue position for the RP /a:/. It is, therefore, transcribed by some British phoneticians as /эй/. In GA the glide of the diphthong may be reduced to /o/ before voiceless Consonants and in unstressed syllables, as in boat /bot/, radio /'reidio/. It is transcribed as /of by American phoneticians.

/аи/

This diphthong may be realized as /au/ and /аи/, the first va­riant usually predominates. In RP the starting point is the posi­tion of the tongue for /a/.

/at/, /о:/, /ю/, /еэ/, /ээ/, /иэ/

In GA these monophthongs and centring diphthongs are pro­nounced respectively as: /ar/, /or/, jit/, /er/,/^ur/.

Principal Peculiarities of GA Vowels

1. No opposition between historically long and historically short.

2. /i/ may be obscured as in fill, river.

3. /e/—lower than the RP /e/.

4. /ge/—long, mostly nasalized, may turn into /e/ as in marry,
carry, /a/ may be used instead of /a/ as in ask, past, dance.

5. /3/—retroflex in medial and terminal position as in bird,
better.

6. M—"barred" /i/ in sister, parted, horses, in emphasized in,
his, with.

7. /a/ instead of /d/ as in dolt, hop, rob.

8. /o/ instead of /э:/ as in law, quality.

9. In GA the distinction between monophthongs and diphthongs
is not very consistent.

10. Within the orthoepic system the pronunciation of words in
GA is close to the reading rules and is therefore different from that of
RP.

Ш

THE ACCENTUAL STRUCTURE OP WORDSJN AMERICAN ENGLISH

The major differences in the accentual structure between RP and GA are mainly with the use of the tertiary stress (the primary stress isjonic, the secondary stress is pre-tonic, the tertiary stress is post-tonic, unstressed syllables are weak).

The tertiary, or post-tonic stress in GA falls on the suffixes -ary, -ery, -ory_f -mony, -arily, -ative, -on, e. g.

GA RP

'dictionary /en/ 'dictionary /эп/

I territory /эп/ 'territory /эп/

I monastery /en/ 'monastery /эп/

¹ testijmony /mouni/ \testimony /тэт/

'ordinarily /enh/ 'ordinarily /arili/

ad'minisjtrative /eitiv/ administrative

The suffix -ile is an exception, e. g. GA \agik /il/, /э1/, Л/, RP agile /ail/.

Other differences between British and American word-stress com­prise a) two, b) three, c) four, d) five syllable words:

GA HP

a) Mbrate viibrate

b) confiscate (confiscate

c) primarily 'primarily

d) 'custoimarily 'customarily

In five syllable words the American secondary stress may fall earli­er than the British:

GA RP

igesticu'lation gesticulation

There are exceptions:

GA RP

a'ristojcratic (aristocratic

The major differences in the accentual types of compound words in GA and RP are the following:

i) In RP compounds with two primary stresses are more common than in GA:

GA RP

New I York iNew 'York¹

¹ Exceptions are RP: \rainproof, Westminster, \midsummer.

2) Tertiary stress differences comprise compound place names end­ing in -borough, -burgh, -bury, -ehester, -gate, -ham, -moor, -shire₄ -stead, -heath, -land, -mouth, -wood, -worth, e.g.

GA RP

iBirraing|ham 'Birmingham

Tertiary stress^differences also comprise words with the second component -berry,"**-body, -land, -penny, e.g.

GA RP

lanyibody 'anybody 'Sunday 'Sunday

INTONATION IN AMERICAN ENGLISH

American English intonation differs from British English intona­tion mainly in tmemphatJc, or emotionally neutral speech. Pretenni-nal pitch contour in RP is gradually descending stepping, in GA it is mid-level or mid-wavy-level. The unstressed syllables in GA fall' to a lower pitch, inRP unstressed syllables gradually descend. Ameri­can English intonation produces an impression of level or monotonous melody. The GA and RP differences in the direction of the voice pitch may lead to functional or attitudinal differences. For example, "low head" in RP conveys detached, reserved, dispassionate, unsympathet­ic, unemotional, sometimes cold or dull attitude oti the part of the speaker. In GA sentences like: Go out, Sit down, etc. pronounced with a low head and lowfall would sound quite normal. - The GA general questions take a falling tone, in RP they are pronounced with the rising tone. The rising tone'in'GA general ques­tions is used to show politeness, e. g.

usual form Ars you | Veady? polite form

The monotony of GA intonation is explained by the following fac­tors: 1) pitch characteristics, 2) narrow range of the utterance, 3) slow tempo, 4) more complicated than RP rhythmical structure of intona­tion (RP unstressed vowels are characterized by qualitative reduction,, in GA sounds in unstressed syllables are lengthened).

The differences between GA and RP sound, accentual structure-■and intonation do not affect the main language structures, therefore-GA is only a variety of the English language and cannot be considered. "American language" as some of the American linguists claim,

Given below are the diagrams in which vowel phonemes in Cana­dian English, General American and RP are summarized.¹

The norms of GA and RP pronunciation are^highly variable. The-Variability of standard pronunciation should be taken into consider­ation when teaching spoken language.

¹ For details see: Shakhbagova D. A. Op. eit. 222

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