GENERAL AMERICAN PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC DESCRIPTION Shevchenko Tanya

GENERAL AMERICAN PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC DESCRIPTION Shevchenko Tanya 4 -B

Segmental differences SYSTEMIC In the consonant system there are no differences between GA and RP except of the phoneme /hw/. It appears in what, where, why, when. In the system of vowels there are two differences:

a) in the group of low back vowels: short low-back rounded RP /þ/ is unrounded GA /a/, e. g. boddy RP /'bþd. I/ = GA /'bad. I/ long low-back rounded RP /o: / is unrounded GA /a/, e. g. law RP /lo: / = GA /la/ b) in the group of diphthongs: in GA the following diphthongs are found /e. I/, /a. I/, /o. I/, /a. U/, /o. U/. RP diphthongs /Iə/, /eə/, /Uə/ correspond to GA ‘a vowel plus /r/’, i. e. /Ir/, /er/, /Ur/.

STRUCTURAL Unlike RP, GA is a rhotic accent, where /r/ can occur before consonants and before pauses.

SELECTIONAL 3) SELECTIONAL differences. a) RP /α: / is pronounced as GA /æ/ before nasal /n/ or voiceless fricative /s/, /f/, /θ/, e. g. ask /æsk/, can’t /kænt/, path /pæθ/, etc. b) -er is pronounced as /3: r/ in GA unlike /α: / in RP, e. g. clerk /k 3: rl/, derby /'d 3: rb. I/. c) -ile is pronounced as /əl/ or /l/ in GA unlike /a. Il/ in RP, e. g. hostile /'hþst/, fertile /f 3: rtl/.

d) phoneme /h/ in the word herb isn’t pronounced in GA /3: rb/ (17 th century pronunciation) while in RP the newer form is used, e. g. /h 3: b/. e) yod dropping after sounds /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/ before a sound spelled u, ew, eu, e. g. tune /tu: n/, suit /su: t/, news /nu: z/. f) -sion, -sia are pronounced as /ჳn/, /ჳə/ in GA in contrast to RP / n/, / ə/, e. g. Asia /'e. Iჳ ə/, version /'v 3: rჳ n/. There are very many individual words in common use in both accents with the same spelling but different phoneme incidence (see Supplement C).

3) REALIZATIONAL differences 3) REALIZATIONAL Distinctions in vowel and consonant allophonic production between GA and RP are much more extensive than the differences in their phonemic inventories. Only the most prominent will be mentioned here.

GA consonants: a) the retroflex pronunciation of /r/ is one of the most characteristic features of GA. Its main features are: • having the tongue in the central position, as for /ə/; • the tongue tip is curled high toward the back of the mouth, but not touching anywhere; • having the back of the tongue low and the sides of the tongue slide along the back part of the tooth ridge as along two rails; • the movement of the tongue always begins by a motion toward the back of the mouth. More than any other factor, it is this retroflex (toward the back) motion that gives the GA /r/ its typical sounding. RP /r/ is produced farther forward in the mouth than GA /r/.

b) the pronunciation of /t/ is highly variable in GA and there also some major allophonic variations in its pronunciation. • intervocalically – before a weakly stressed vowel or after a vowel + /r/ and before a weakly stressed vowel a voiced alveolar tap/flap. In the dictionaries it is shown by the symbol [ṱ]. It sounds like a quick English /d/, and also like the /r/ of some languages, e. g. city, better, latest, forty, party. • after /n/ GA [t] can optionally be elided/omitted (in the dictionaries it is shown in italics, as [t]. Accordingly, GA winter ['w. Intər] can sound identical to winner.

c) the pronunciation of /l/: GA speakers, like Scottish English, Northern English and Australian English speakers, tend to produce a darker, more velarized allophone [ł] in all positions. RP speakers produce a very distinct clear or light allophone in prevocalic position, and [ł] in postvocalic position – especially after back vowels. d) the pronunciation of /j/: Yod Dropping: /j/ is not pronounced in the combination of /j/ + /u: / after t, s, d, e. g. tube /tu: b/, suit /su: t/. Yod Coalescence (coalescent assimilation): /t/ + /j/, /d/ + /j/ before a weak vowel /U/, /ə/ are assimilated into /t /, /dჳ/, e. g. educate ['edჳ Uke. It], factual ['fækt Uəl].

e) / / vocalization: in GA / / is vocalized in final weak syllables ending with -ion, -ia, e. g. Asia /'e. Iჳ ə/, version /'v 3: rჳ n/. f) nasal twang: nasality is limited to vowels adjacent to /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ where the preceding vowel is made nasal, e. g. manner ['mænər], candy ['kænd. I]. Nasal twang is treated by some American phoneticians as a ‘defect of American speech’.

GA vowels: 1) Vowel length in GA is generally considered to be conditioned by phonological environment, so the long/short distinction described for RP/BBC English is not usually present. 2) Retroflection / r-colouring is the distinguishing feature of the vowels occurring before /r/ within a syllable. Such vowels become 'r-coloured' to some extent. There are two retroflexed GA vowels /3: r/ (/3: r/) and /ər/ (/ər/), stressed and unstressed, as in the word further /'f 3 rðər/.

3) vowels [ ] and [ə] can be generally regarded as allophones of the same phoneme in GA, e. g. some speakers pronounce cup [kəp], above [ə'bəv]. When RP has / r/ + a vowel most Americans use rcolored, mid-central /3: r/, e. g. courage ['k 3: r. Idჳ], hurry ['h 3: r. I]. 4) the realization of the RP diphthong /e. I/ differs in GA by its degree of diphthongization. The GA diphthongal variant is most likely to occur in word final position, e. g. holiday /-de. I/, birthday /-de. I/, or before voiced consonants, e. g. game, grade. Its monophthongal variant [3: ] occurs before voiceless consonants, e. g. late, date. 5) the dipthong /o. U/: in GA its nucleus is a more back vowel, such as [o], that's why it is transcribed as [o. U]. In unstressed syllables, such as in radio /'re. Id. Io. U/, and before voiceless consonants, as in boat, coat, the glide of the diphthong is weakened and sometimes reduced to a monophthongal [þ]. E. g. /bo. Ut/ > /bþt/.

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