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| LECTURE 12.
Theme:SPREAD OF ENGLISH It is common knowledge that over 300 million people now speak English as first language. It is the national language of Great Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (part of it). English was originally spoken in England and south-eastern Scotland. Then it was introduced into the. greater part of Scotland and southern Ireland. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was brought to North America (mainly from the West of England). Later in the 18th and 19th centuries English was exported to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa owing to the colonial expansion. A flow of emigrants who went to invade, explore and inhabit those lands came mostly from the south-eastern parts of England. English became wide-spread in Wales at about the same time. Welsh English is very similar to southern English, although the influence of Welsh has played a role in its formation. Then in the 20th century American English began to spread in Canada, Latin America, on the Bermudas, and in other parts of the world. Thus nowadays two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world: English English and American English. According to British dialectologists (P.Trudgill, J.Hannah, A.Hughes and others (61, 78) the following variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English English, Welsh English, Australian English, New Zealand English; to the American-based group: United States English, Canadian English. Scottish English and Irish English fall somewhere between the two, being somewhat by themselves. On the whole this division seems rather reasonable and the "English" types of English will be treated first in this book, though it is safe to say that English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Ireland English should be better combined into the British English subgroup, on the ground of political, geographical, cultural, psychological unity which brought more similarities than differences for those variants of pronunciation. English-based pronunciation standards American-based prononcidtion standards American English 1 To our regrets, the lack of space gives us no chance to de scribe all the territorial and national variants of English pronunci ation. Canadian English ENGLISH-BASED PRONUNCIATION STANDARDS OF ENGLISH British English 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). Table I British English Accents
(44), A.C.Gimson (57), A.Hughes and P.Trudgill (61) estimate that nowadays RP is not homogeneous. A.C.Gimson suggests that it is convenient to distinguish three main types within it: "the conservative RP forms, used by the older generation, and, traditionally,l 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" {57, p. 88). 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 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. Changes in the Standard As was stated above, changes in the standard may be traced in the speech of the younger generation of native RP speakers. These changes may affect all the features of articulation of vowel and consonant phonemes and also the prosodic system of the language. Considerable changes are observed in the sound system of the present-day English, which are most remarkable since the well-known Great Vowel Shift in the Middle English period of the language development. It is a well-established fact that no linguistic modification can occur all of a sudden. The appearance of a new shade in the pronunciation of a sound results in the coexistence of free variants in the realization of a phoneme. The choice between permissible variants of [w] or [av] in wh-words isan illustration of what is meant by the process of variability and free variants. In Russian we observe free variants of the pronunciation of the words of aneprust, meMn type: non-palatalized and palatalized versions of [h] — [h'] and [t] — [t'J. The degrees of variability are different. The most perceptible and stable changes are described in the works of British linguists and have been investigated by Soviet phoneticians. The RP of recent years is characterized by a greater amount of permissible variants compared to the "classical" type of RP described by D.Jones, L.Armstrong, I.Word. The phenomenon is significant both from the theoretical and practical viewpoint. The variability concerns mainly vowels. Most of English vowels have undergone definite qualitative changes. The newly appeared variants exhibit different stability and range. The qualitative distinctions manifest new allophonic realizations of the vowel phonemes. Ch.Barber comes to the conclusion that a definite trend towards centralization is observed in the quality of English vowels at present (44). Changes of Vowel Quality I. According to the stability of articulation. 1) It is generally acknowledged that two historically long vowels [i:]F [ir] have become diphthongized and are often called diphthongoids; the organs of speech slightly change their articulation by the very end of pronunciation, becoming more fronted. Ch.Barber tries to draw a parallel with the Great Vowel Shift which took place in Middle English, where diphthongization was just one part of a complete change of pattern in the long vowels. He claims that there is some resemblance to this process today and other phonemes may move up to fill the places left vacant. 2) There is a tendency for some of the existing diphthongs to be smoothed out, to become shorter, so that they are more like pure vowels. This is very often the case with [ei], particularly in the word final position, where the glide is very slight: [ts'dei], [seij, [mei]. Diphthongs [at], [au] are subject to a smoothing process where they are followed by the neutral sound [s]: Conservative RP: [taua], [fais] General RP: [taa], [fas] Advanced RP: [to:], [fa] c) Also diphthongs [dq], [ua] tend to be levelled to [o:]. Thus the pronunciation of the words pore, poor is varied like this: older speakers: [poa], [puaj middle-aged speakers: [po;], [pua] younger speakers: [pa], [po:] It should be mentioned, however, that this tendency does not concern the diphthong [is] when it is final. The prominence and length shift to the glide, this final quality often being near to [a]: dear [dia] — [diA]. 2. According to the horizontal and vertical movements of the tongue. Very striking changes occur in the vowel quality affected by the horizontal movements of the tongue. In fact the general tendency is marked by the centering of both front and back vowels: the nuclei of [aij, [au] tend to be more back, especially in the male variant of the pronunciation; the vowel phoneme [ae] is often replaced by [a] by young er speakers: [haev] — [hav], [send] — [and]; the nucleus of the diphthong [su] varies considerably, ranging from [ou] among conservative speakers to [3u] among advanced ones: Conservative RP: [sou], [foun], [nout]; Advanced RP: [s3u], [fsun], [nsut]. This tendency is so strong that the transcription symbol has been recently changed in many British books: [ou] — [au]. d) Back-advanced vowels [a], [u] are considerably fronted in the advanced RP: but [bAt] — [bat], good [gud] — [gad]. It should be mentioned here that there is a tendency for all short vowels to be made nearer the centre of the mouth, that is to move towards [a], especially in unstressed position: honest ['onist] — ['onast]. Thus the horizontal changes in vowel quality may be listed like this: Centering of short vowels: More back pronunciation of the nuclei of diphthongs: [ai] ->[m), [aol ~> [«j]. More advanced pronunciation of the diphthong: [ov] -> [30]. More fronted pronunciation of the diphthongoids: [i:] -> [i(j)]f [u] -> [u(w)J. Vertical changes in vowels may be traced in [e] and [0:] which tend to be closer in advanced RP. It has also been stated above that the nuclei of diphthongs [ei], [»], [»], [t?s] become more open when these'phonemes are being levelled, particularly the diphthong [ea], which is characterized by a great opening of the first element: careful ['keafuij — ['ke:ful]. The first element of the diphthong [us] can be lowered considerably. Thus several words with [uaj are given a shade [a9] pronunciation by some advanced RP speakers: poor, sure [pua, Joa] — [pD», Jo3]. 3. Combinative changes. It is general knowledge that whensounds are in company they influence each other. These changes are called combinative. They take place only in certain phonetic contexts. In a diacritic study, however, there is no sharp boundary between isolative and combinative changes. Changes in [j + it], [I + urj. Words like suit, student, supermay be pronounced either [sjtut] or [suit], ['stjudsnt] or ['strcdnt],['sjurpaj or ['su:paj. The tendency is for middle-aged and youngerspeakers to omit the U] after [s] before [u:]. Word-intemally 0]tends to be retained as in assume [asju:m]. There is also fluctuation after [1]: word-initially Jute [\m] is normal, but it is possibleto pronounce [iTju^n] in illusion, for example. These recent developments in combinative RP changes bear remarkable resemblance to American Standard pronunciation. Change of [0:] to.[o] before [f, s, 6J. Where orthographic "o"occurs before the voiceless fricatives [f, s, ©] older speakers pronounce the vowel [o:]: loss [las]. This pronunciation is currentlydying out in RP and being replaced by [oj: [Ids]. Words like salt and fault still may be pronounced with [0:]. 4. Changes in length. It is an accepted fact that English vowels vary in length according to the phonetic context — the consonant they are followed by {voiceless, voiced), syllabic border,the degree of stress, the types of nuclear tone and so on. Actually nowadays there are changes in vowel length that are influenced by other factors. There is, for example, a strong tendency for the so-called short vowels to be lengthened, and it is interesting to note that this lengthening can be heard sporadically in many words in any position. The lengthening of [1] is often heard in big, his, is; of [u] in good; [a] in come. It should also be mentioned that [1] is often lengthened in the final syllable, i.e. very, many: [Veri], ['meni']. Short vowels [e, se] are also very frequently lengthened in yes, bed, men, said, sad, bad, bag and so on. This tendency has considerably increased in the past few years. Changes in Consonant Quality 1. Voicing and Devoicing, As is well known, there is no opposition of final RP consonants according to the work of the vocal cords. They are all partially devoiced, particularly stops. Such devoiced sounds are clearly heard after long vowels and diphthongs as in deed: [did]. However, these partly devoiced consonants are never identical with their voiceless counterparts, because the latter are pronounced with strong breath-force. This tendency for devoicing now seems to be on the increase. As soon as the opposition of voiced — voiceless is neutralized in the final position, the fortis/lenis character of pronunciation has become the relevant feature of consonants. The voiced/voiceless distinction of the minimal pairs [sed] — [set], [dog] — [dok] may seem to be lost. Actually it does not take place. The weak consonants are never replaced by their voiceless counterparts, they never become strong, the stops [b, d, gj, though devoiced, never acquire aspiration. More than that. The interrelation of final consonants and the preceding stressed vowels is very close. The instrumental investigation of E.G.Kurjatnikova (21) showed that the duration of the vowel before the traditionally called voiced consonant is 1,5 times larger than that before the voiceless consonant. Cf.: He saw his cap. — He saw his cab. Describing the positional allophones of the English stops A.C.Gimson characterizes the initial lenis [b, d, g] as partially de-voiced, final lenis [b, d, g) as voiceless. The sound [t] in the intervocalic position is made voiced, e.g. better ['beta] — ['beds], letter ['lets] — ['leda]. Loss of [hj. In rapid speech initial [h] is lost in form wordsand tends to die out from the language. Even most highly educated people subconsciously drop it completely. So instead of: Hewants her to come [hi- ~*WDnts ha-taJcAm] one hears: [i: ~*WDnts 3- taxkAm]. It is evident, of course, that the loss of [li] in stressed syllables sounds wrong. Initial "hw". Some conservative RP speakers pronouncewords like why, when, which with an initial weak breath-likesound [h] — [m]. The general tendency is, however, to pronounce [w]. Loss of final [n|. The pronunciation of [in] for the termination [in] has been retained as an archaic form of the RP: sittin',lookiri. These occasional usages are not likely to become general. Spread of "dark" [i]. This tendency is evidently influenced by the American pronunciation and some advanced RPspeakers are often heard saying \l] instead of [1] as in believe, forexample. There is no threat in spreading it widely yet but it isquite common for pop singers now. It should also be mentionedthat sometimes final [1] tends to be vocalized as in people, for in stance, but is not likely to become a norm. Glottal stop. In RP the glottal stop [?] can appear only inthe following two environments: a) as a realization of syllable-final [t] before a following consonant as in batman ['b<£tmanj —. ['bae?mn] or not quite ['nDt 'kwatt] — ['no? 'fcwaitj; b) in certain consonant clusters as in box, simply [bo?ks], fsrtmpli], where it is known as "glottal reinforcements". The use of glottal stop by advanced RP speakers produces a "clipped" effect on a foreigner. Palatalized final [k'j is often heard in words week, quick, etc.: [wfck*], [kwik'J. Linking and intrusive [rj. It has been estimated that allEnglish accents are divided into "rhotic" or "r-full" and "non-rhot-ic" or "r-less". Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce[r] corresponding to orthographic "r". RP is a non-rhotic accentbut most speakers of it do pronounce orthographic "r" word-fi nally before a vowel: It is a far-away country. It is known as linking "r". Failure by students to pronounce it does not usually af fect comprehension but may result in their sounding foreign. As a further development and by analogy with linking "r", "r" is inserted before a following vowel even though there is no "r" in spelling. This "r" is known as intrusive "r". The actual situation is that younger RP speakers do have it after [a] as in idea of, China and. It is said that nowadays in colloquial fluent speech there is a strong tendency towards elision, reduction and assimilation. This tendency is reflected in the pronunciation of the young generation: tutor ['tjuita], second year [lsekand3ia], perhaps you [pa'hasp/u:], gives you ['giv3u:], as you know [a^ju: 'mu]; in the transcribed texts of British textbooks: him [im], he [i:], her [3], his [iz], can [kn], from [frm], than [dn], them [dm], some [sm], suppose [sp3uz], have to ['hafta], usually ['jii^wah], last time [tataim], and there was no one [an dar wz 'nsu WAn]; even in the traditional spelling: Cm on, baby, Sorry 'bout that. Oh, le'mme see. Oh, I dunno. Musfve pufem all together. Why d'you ask? What dja think? Alright! 9. Combinative changes. Sound combinations [tj, dj, sj] are pronounced as [tf, cfe, /] respectively, e.g. actual ['aektjual] — ['acktfual], graduate ['grasdjuait] — [qrxdzven], issue ['isju:j — [■iju:]. In the clusters of two stops, where the loss of plosion is usually observed, each sound is pronounced with audible release, e.g. active ['aelcjiv] — ['asktrv], sit down ['sit/^aun] — ['sit 'daun]. Non-systematic Variations in RP Phonemes Some free phonemes have appeared under the influence of the written image of words, their spelling. Unstressed prefixes ex- and con- have gained orthographical pronunciation: excuse [iks'kjurz] — [eks'kjiiz], exam [ig'zasm] — [eg'zaem], continue [kan'tinju:] — [kon'tinju:], consent [kan'sent] — [kon'sent]. The days of the week: Sunday ['sAndi] — ['sAndei], Monday ['nundi] — ['niAndei]. Note also free variants in often: ['ofan] — ['Dft(a)n]. Other cases: economics [.ika'nomiks] — [.eka'nDmiks]. Now by way of conclusion we would like to state that not all the changes are recognized as a norm by most affected advanced RP speakers. Some of these changes are quite stable, some tend to disappear. The language is a living body and its oral aspect is most vitally changeable. But one should realize the importance of most recent developments, which, in opinion of many prominent phoneticians, may lead to radical changes in the whole inventory of vowel and consonant phonemes. B. Regional Non-HP 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. North Iblud] [won] South blood one but |bUd] [wAn| lbAt| We can also note that many northern speakers while they do not have [a] 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 [bAk], in the North as [b«k] and ftuk]: North book buck South [bukl (bok| Another well-known feature which distinguishes northern and southern accents concerns the vowels [«] and [ path [pctG] [paeQ] dance [dans] [daens] 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, [»] is often pronounced as [*]: RP South bad [basd| [ba-dj A - | South North city f'siti:] f'siti J money ('niAni:] [lmDni] 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. The map on p. 264 shows the spread of post-vocalic [r] (A = post-vocalic [r] present, B = post-vocalic [r] absent). 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 [*pit?c]. Many non-RP speakers use |nj in the suffix "-ing" instead of fo]; sitting ['sitinj. In an area of western central England which includes Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool they pronounce fog]: singer ['singa], wing [wing]. Now about 01-dropping. In most accents [j] is dropped after [t, s]: student ['stu:dant], suit [suit]. In parts of the north the change has progressed a good deal further, it has been lost after [0]: enthusiasm [9n'9u:zi3Zm]. In large areas of eastern England 01 is lost after every consonant. In London [)] is lost after [n, t, d]: news [nu:z], rune [tu:n]. 1. 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 [a] is realized as [si]: blood [bUd] — [blacid]; [se] is realized as [e] or [eij: bag fbasg} — [begj, [bag]; [i] in word-final position sounds as [i:]: city I'siti] — ['sitt]; 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 pro nounced as [qcoj: paw [po:] — [po:»]; the diphthong [ei] is realized as [asi] or [ai]: lady ['leidi] — ['laeidi:], ['laidi:]; RP [3u] sounds as [aeu]: soaked [s3ukt] — [saeukt]; RP [au] may be [aeo]: now [nay] — [naed]. [h]in [?] is position is almost invariably absent; spread in Cockney speech: paper ['pac The contrast between [0] and [f] is completely lost: thin[fin], booth pncf]; The contrast between [6] and [v] is occasionally lost:weather ['weva]; when [d] occurs initially it is either dropped or replaced by[d]: this [dis], them [(d)amj; [1] is realized as a vowel when it precedes a consonant andfollows a vowel, or when it is syllabic: milk [mrvk], table [teibv];when the preceding vowel is [o:], [I] may disappear completely; [rj] is replaced by [n] in word-final position: dancing[!da:nsm] or it may be pronounced as [irjk] in something, any-thing, nothing: fnAfink]; [p, t, k] are heavily aspirated, more so than in RP; [t] is affricated, [s] is heard before the vowel: top Midland accents, Yorkshire, for example, West Midland and North-West accents have very much in common with Northern ones. Therefore they are combined in this book into one group; peculiar realization of vowels and consonants will be marked, of course, when each subgroup is described separately. The counties of northern England are not far from the Scottish border, so the influence of Scotch accent is noticeable, though there are of course many features of pronunciation characteristic only of northern English regions. The most typical representative of the speech of this area is Newcastle accent. It differs from RP in the following: In vowels RP [a] is realized as [oj: love [UvJ — [JuvJ; RP final [i] sounds like [fcj: city fsiti] — ['sitfcj; words like dance, chance which in RP have [a] are pro nounced with [aej: [dans], [tfaens]; [ei], [3u] are either monophthongs, or much narrower diph thongs than the ones in the south of England, or they may even sound as opening diphthongs [ie], [vo]: bay [be:], [bic], plate [plertj, [pUetJ, boat [bo:tj, (buot); words that have "al" in spelling — talk, call, all, are pro nounced with [a']: [takj, [kail], [a:l]; RP words with [3:] are pronounced with [0:] in a broad Ty- neside accent: first [fast], shirt [fo:tj; so first, forced; shirt, short are homonyms; [ai] is [«]: right [rcit]; 8. words which in RP have [au] may have [it], e.g. about t] In consonants [1] is clear in all environments; [h] is usually present in all positions; -ing is [inj: shilling ['film]; [p, t, k] between vowels are accompanied by glottal stop piry['pit?i:]; 5. in parts of Northumberland and Durham [r] may be uvular (in its production the tongue and the uvular, not the tongue and the alveolar ridge take part). Yorkshire and Bradford accents are identical with northern vowel features in points 1, 3, 4 (only many speakers pronounce words which have "ow", "ou" in spelling with [so): know [nauj); with northern consonant features in point 3. Now having accomplished the description of regional non-RP accents of England we would like to say that we didn't attempt to give a detailed account of all the regional differences in accents of remote rural areas. Rather we concentrated on urban accents which can be heard when one travels throughout the country and which are most likely to be encountered by foreign tourists. Intonational features were not dealt with. As everyone probably knows Wales is a bilingual area. This speech situation in linguistics is known as exoglossic. In Wales English dominates over Welsh in urban areas, in the west and north-west of the country the balance being in favour of Welsh, where English is learnt at schools as a second language. At the. moment nationalistic feelings are rather strong in Wales and we are witnessing a movement in favour of the revival of the Welsh language and its spread in all areas of Wales. However, Welsh English at the level of educated speech and writing is not much different from that of English English. Most differences are found at the level of more localized dialects. In this chapter we shall give a brief outline of Welsh English pronunciation standard. As everyone probably knows Wales is a bilingual area. This speech situation in linguistics is known as exoglossic. In Wales English dominates over Welsh in urban areas, in the west and north-west of the country the balance being in favour of Welsh, where English is learnt at schools as a second language. At the. moment nationalistic feelings are rather strong in Wales and we are witnessing a movement in favour of the revival of the Welsh language and its spread in all areas of Wales. However, Welsh English at the level of educated speech and writing is not much different from that of English English. Most differences are found at the level of more localized dialects. In this chapter we shall give a brief outline of Welsh English pronunciation standard. The principal phonological differences between WE and RP are the following: In vowels The distribution of [x] and [a:] is as in the north of England. Last, dance, chance, etc. tend to have [x] rather than [a;j. unstressed orthographic "a" tends to be [as] rather than [a],e.g.: sofa fsoifas]; there is no contrast between [a] and [a]: rubber ['roba]; [i] at the end is a long vowel: city [sitt]; in words like tune, few, used we find [iu] rather than [ju:]:tune [tiun]; [ei], [au] may become monophthongs: bake {be:k]t boat[bo:tj; the vowel [3:] as in girl is produced with rounded lips approaching [o:]; the vowels [13], [us] do not occur in many variants of Welsh English: fear is [Tup], poor is [' In consonants W. E. is non-rhotic, [r] is a tap, or it is also called aflapped [r]. Intrusive and linking [r) do occur. Consonants in intervocalic position, particularly when thepreceding vowel is short are doubled: dry ['sitti:]. Voiceless plosives tend to be strongly aspirated: in wordfinal position they are generally released and without glottalization, e.g. pit [phit*1]. [1] is clear in all positions. Intonation in Welsh English is very much influenced by the Welsh language. III. Scottish English We must first make clear that the status of Scottish English is still debated. Some linguists say that it is a national variant. Others say that it is a dialect. English has been spoken in Scotland for as long as it has been spoken in England. In the Highlands and Islands of northern and western Scotland, however, Gaelic is still the native lan- guage of thousands of speakers from these regions. A standardized form of this language, known as Scots, was used at the court and in literature until the Reformation. Then it was gradually replaced by English. Incidentally a number of writers and poets of the likes of R. Burns retained their native language. Nowadays educated Scottish people speak a form of Scottish Standard English which grammatically and lexically is not different from English used elsewhere, although with an obvious Scottish accent. We must admit, however, that non-standard dialects of Scotland still resemble Scots and in many respects are radically different from most other varieties of English. It is very difficult to understand them for students who learn RP. At the moment there is currently a strong movement in Scotland for the revival of Scots. Nevertheless Scottish Standard English is still more prestigeous and in this book we concentrate on Scottish English as used and spoken by educated urban Scots. As for the status of Scottish English, in this book it will be treated as a dialect though it is fair to say that there is much in favour of calling it a national variant of English. Length is not a distinctive feature of Scottish vowels. Sopairs like pool—pull, cot — caught are not distinguished. It shouldbe noted, however, that vowels are longer in final stressed opensyllables than elsewhere. Monophthongs are pure, there is no trace of diphthongization with the exceptions of [ai — a], [au — eu] and (aij. The RP [a: — cc{a)] distinction doesn't exist: hat [hat],dance {darns]. [i], [v], [a], [3] may be central. In non-standard Sc. Eng. accent [u:] often occurs when RPhas [au]: house [haus — huis] It is interesting to mention that [d] and [30J may be notcontrasted: not |not| note s ocks [ soks] In very, many regional accents do, to are pronounced as[da], (taj. In some accents words such as aim, after, grass may have [s] rather than [a:]: after ['eftsj. Consonants Sc. Eng. consistently preserves a distinction between [m] and [wf: which [Mitfl — witch [wit/]. Initial [p, t, k] are usually non-aspirated. [r] is most usually a flap. Non-initial [t] is often realized as glottal stop [?]. [i] is dark in all positions. The velar fricative [x] occurs in a number of words: loch [lux]. -m.qr is [in]. [hj is present. A specific Scottish feature is the pronunciation of [©r] as It should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Eire are different. The explanation lies in history. In the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking. Nowadays, however, native speakers of Irish are few in number and are confined to rural areas even though Irish is the official language of Ireland and is taught in schools. The English language in Southern Ireland was originally introduced from the West and West Midlands of England and still shows signs of this today. This kind of English has spread to cover most of the Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains features of western parts of England. The English of northern parts of the island with its centre in Belfast has its roots in Scotland, as larqe numbers of settlers came to this part from the south-west of Scotland from the seventeenth century onwards. Now speaking about Northern Ireland, it is true to say that English here is not homogeneous. Areas of the far north are heavily Scots-influenced. Other parts are marked by less heavily Scots-influenced varieties of English. It is, of course, obvious that the language distinction is not coterminous with the political division of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, some areas of the Republic, Donegal, for instance, speak N. Ir. Eng. (Northern Ireland English), while some of the northern provinces speak S. Ir. Eng. (Southern Ireland English). In this chapter we shall'deal with Northern Ireland English pronunciation. Vowels The vowel system is similar to that of Scottish accents, post-vocalic retroflex frictionless sonorant [r] being used as in Scotland. [t] [ej [e] [a] [i]: pit [pit], fir [fir], bird [bird], city ['sitjj, fern [firn], fur [fir]; bee [bv], beer [birr], seedy ['si:di:j, meet [mi:t], meat [mi:t]; pet [pet], bed [bed]; bay [be], bear [her], plate [ptet], weight [wet]; but [bAt]; [a]:pat [pat], bard [bard], hat [hat], dance [dans], half [hafj; [v]:put [put], boot [but], pull [pvl], pool [pvl], poor [pur]; [o]: boot [bot], board [bord], pole [pol], knows [noz], nose [noz], pour [por], pore [porj; [] paw [pa:], doll [do.-l], pause [po;z]; cot [kot]; [asj: bay [bai], tide [taidj; [aw]: bout [bam]; jwj: boy [boij. жүктеу/скачать 221,88 Kb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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