Two National Varieties American American vs British English British ...

Two National Varieties American vs British English

Course Structure 1.

National Standard & Dialects 

Nigel Musk

2.

English 3 & Teachers’ Programme 61 61--90 hp D Department off Culture C l &C Communication i i Linköping University

Two National Varieties 

3.

Caribbean English

English as a Second Language 

General American versus RP

Welsh English & Welsh

Pidgins & Creoles 

5 5.

American vs British English

Bilingualism g & Language g g Contact 

4.

British English

Indian English

Invariant Merger of [ɑ [ɑ] and [ɔ [ɔ]

Vowels General American

Received Pronunciation

[ɔ/ɑ]

brought, talk

[ɔː]

[ɑ]

pot, cot

[ɒ]

[ɑ]

father calm father,

[ɑː]

[æ]

fast, path

[ɑː]

[æ]

bad, sat

[æ]

2 or 3 vowels in Gen Am ([ɔ]) [ɑ] [æ] = 4 vowels [ɔː] [ɒ] [ɑː] [æ] in RP

e.g. cot / /caught ht

(Trudgill & Hannah 2002: 5)

Merger of [ɪ] and [ɛ] before nasals

The Northern Cities (Chain) Shift 1

e.g. pin/pen

(Svartvik & Leech 2006: 240)

The Northern Cities (Chain) Shift 2 [ɛə/ɪə]

Diphthongs p g desk

[ɛ]

bat


busses bosses

head

[æ]

[ʌ]

[ɔ]

General American


[ou]

[əʊ]

so, dough

Diphthongs + /r/

Less pronounced

[ɪɚ] /ɪr/

peer, dear

[ɪə]

diphthongs in Gen Am

block

[ɛɚ] /ɛr/

pair, care

[ɛə]

because it is rhotic

socks

[ ] /ʊr/ [ʊɚ] / / tour, t cure

[ ] [ʊə]

(postvocalic /r/ is

[ɑ]

pronounced)


Differences in Lexis 1

Consonants

Crystal (2005: 308, after Benson et al 1986) distinguishes between these

General American


Convergence of intervocalic /t/ & /d/; t/d tapping (flapped t/d) [ɾ] [ɾ]

bitter, latter

[t]

Often no distinction in

[ɾ]

bidder ladder bidder,

[d]

Gen Am

Convergence of intervocalic /nt/ /nd/ & /n/; nasal tapping [ɾ̃] [nt/d]/[ɾ̃] winter, twenty

[nt]

Of Often no distinction in

[n]/[ɾ̃]

[n]

Gen Am

winner, penny


types of lexemes (words or lexical items): Cultural differences, not part of World Standard English (WSE) e.g. AmE the Ivy League, BrE A levels, value added tax (VAT)

Single g sense & synonym y y in the other variety y e.g. AmE checking account, BrE current account

One meaning in WSE & synonym in one or both of the other varieties e g WSE undertaker, e.g. undertaker AmE mortician, mortician BrE undertaker


One meaning in WSE & additional meaning in one or both of the other varieties e.g. WSE caravan ‘group of travellers in a desert’ BrE caravan ‘vehicle towed by a car’ = AmE trailer No WSE meaning, but different meanings in BrE & AmE e.g. AmE overpass, BrE flyover y , BrE fly-past yp AmE flyover, Meanings exist in both, but differences in frequency e g apartment vs flat, e.g. flat mail vs post, post store vs shop (Crystal 2005: 309)


Differences in Lexis 5a A cluster of lexical differences between BrE & AmE: Cars/ A t Automobiles bil (Crystal 2005: 310, adapted from Longman Dictionary of English Language & Culture 1992)

Differences in Lexis 5b A cluster of lexical differences between BrE & AmE: Cars/ A t Automobiles bil (Crystal 2005: 310, adapted from Longman Dictionary of English Language & Culture 1992)

Differences in Grammar 1 There are relatively few grammatical differences between educated BrE and AmE. A leading reference grammar [Greenbaum & Quirk 1990] notes regional trends affecting only c. 250 points in morphology or syntax, with many of these affecting individual items (e.g. irregular verbs), and very few being general points of syntactic construction.

(Crystal 2005: 311)

Differences in the Verb Phrase American English

British English

Preference for: have: do you have?

have got: have you got?

Differences in Grammar 2


Differences in the Verb Phrase (cont.)

Differences in the Verb Phrase (cont.)

American English

British English

American English

Distinction made in AmE: have got/gotten

British English

Irregular vs regular verbs have got

Regular

Irregular

He’s got a new boat


= has

burn – burned

burn – burnt (burned)

He’s gotten a new boat


= obtained

dream – dreamed

dreamt – dreamt (dreamed)

Irregular just/already + past simple I jjust ate

Regular

just /already + present perfect

dive – dove

dive – dived

I’ve jjust eaten

sneak – snuck

sneak – sneaked (snuck) ( )

fit – fit – fitted

fit – fitted – fitted


R i Regional l Varieties V i ti off N. N American A i English

Differences in the Verb Phrase (cont.) American English

British English

Strong preference for: will/won’t

rather than formal BrE shall/shan’t

I will be arriving at …

I shall/will be arriving at …

Strong preference for collective nouns + singular verb

+ plural (or singular verb)

government is … the g

the g government are ((is)) …


Urban Dialect Areas of the US

New York City Accent 1 New York City y has a very y distinct accent. 

Partly ascribed to close early ties with England, but also because of influences from other immigrant languages languages, e e.g. g


Yiddish, Irish, Irish English & Italian 

More social stratification of accents than anywhere else in N. America (Trudgill & Hanna 2002: 47)



U Upper class l ffeatures t have h ffar fewer f local l l ffeatures t than th lower class accents.

New York City Accent 2



Characteristic features: 

In common with many other Eastern New England accents it is non-rhotic (lacking postvocalic /r/).

The vowel [ɜ] followed by /r/ = [ɝ] in General American is

characteristically vocalised as [ɜɪ] [ ] before a consonant, but not in a final position: [ [nɜɪvəs] ]

[moənɪŋ]

See, I was so nervous and upset that my pulse was goin' so fast, a::nd I couldn't talk

three o'clock in the morning This is less so among young New Yorkers (esp. of higher social class): [wɝk] /wɜrk/


[wɝkt] /wɜrkt/ [jɔɚk] /jɔrk/

I work in the city I’ve I ve always worked in New York

This pronunciation is stigmatised (and therefore not used by the upper class) and is being ousted among young people: [wɝk]

[wɝkt]

y worked in New York I work in the cityy I’ve always

New York City Accent 4 


An additional A dditi l /a/ / / phoneme h (c.f. ( f Gen. G Am. A pott [pɑt] [ ] and d father [fɑðɚ]), often realised as a diphthong: [ɑə] [fɑəðɚ] ð



The same rounded quality of the /a/ occurs in the diphthong /ai/, e.g. in buy [baɪ], die [daɪ] which is often realised as [ɑɪ]

the lightning turned out to be my father who gave me two quick noogies q g on the top p of my y head [tɑp] [pəʤɑəməz] [p ʤ ] [[bæəθɹoubz]]

the men were comin' down their pajamas an' bathrobes, and they had bottles stickin' all out all over [bɑɾɫ̩z] [bɑɾɫz]

New York City Accent 6 

Distinction Di ti ti maintained i t i db between t cott [kɑt] [k ] and d caught ht [kɔt] [k ] (unlike many varieties of Am. English), but this is typically realised as a diphthong: [ɔə] [bɔəɾ]

[lɑɾ]

[ t t] [stɑpt]

[ [paːstə] ]

[ b [ɛɚbɔɚn] ]

the dish stopped but the pasta became airborne an’ it just slid

[bɑɾɫ̩z]

I bought g a lot of fancy y bottles,, little like one drink in,, for souvenirs t- t- all of my friends [əbɹɔəd]

I had the opportunity to travel abroad for one year

[[sɔəs]]

outt off the th di dish h because b it had h d been b liquified li ifi d b by th the sauce an’’ it [flɑɪŋ]

jjust went flying y g all over him

Regional versus Social Variation Received Pronunciation Social

(Svartvik & Leech 2006: 127)

Variation

Regional Variation The Pyramid of Standardisation

Social Dialects (Sociolects) 1

Social Dialects (Sociolects) 2

sociolinguistics: “the study of the relationship between language

variation in pronunciation of postvocalic /r/

and d society” i t ” (Yule 2006: 205)

 (r): [ɚ/ɹ] versus (r): ø

sociolect: a language g g variety y characterised by y social class ((often in urban areas) – correlating social and linguistic variables

variable

social i l markers: k th ffrequency off a certain the t i lilinguistic i ti variable i bl iin speech may mark a person as a member of a social group

e.g. “fourth floor” Standard AmE: [fɔɚθ flɔɚ] /fɔrθ flɔr/ variable: a unit in language g g that is subject j to social or stylistic y

(Yule 2006: 207-8)

e.g.

fourth [fɔɚθ] versus fou’th [fɔ(ə)θ]

variant

variation (and thus most susceptible to change) variant: a specific linguistic form which a variable takes when it is used in a specific context by a speaker

Social Dialects (Sociolects) 3 Labov’s department store investigation: elicit “fourth

Social Dialects (Sociolects) 4 80

floor” in 3 NY department stores, lean forward

60

pretending p g not to have heard p properly p y to g get a

40

second more careful pronunciation (Labov 1972)

20 0

 Saks, 5th Avenue: high status  Macy’s: M ’ middle iddl status t t  S. Klein: low status

30 27

44

5

8

4th

floor

Labov’s results for postvocalic /r/ on 1st & 2nd request q (Labov 1972: 51-52)

64 61

63 40 22 13 4th

18 floor S k Saks Macy's S. Klein

Social Dialects (Sociolects) 5 (Yule 2006: 2006: 208) 208) speech style: situationally distinctive uses of language,

Bibliography Benson, M., Benson, E. & Ilson, R (1986) Lexographic Description of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins

e.g. making a distinction between formal (careful)

Crystal, David (2005) 2nd edn. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge:

and informal (casual) style

Crystal David (2003) 2nd edn. Crystal, edn English as a Global Language Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Cambridge University Press Press

style-shifting: changing from one style to another

Greenbaum, S. & Quirk, A. (1990) A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman L b Labov, W W. (1972) Sociolinguistic S i li i ti P Patterns. tt Phil d l hi U Philadelphia: University i it off P Pennsylvania l i P Press

According to Labov style depends on the amount of

Svartvik, Jan & Leech, Geoffrey (2006) English. One Tongue, Many Voices. Basingstoke, Hants:

attention paid to speech production

Trudgill, Peter & Hannah, Jean (2002) 4th edn. International English: A Guide to Varieties of Standard

Palgrave Macmillan English. London: Edward Arnold Yule, G. (2006) 3rd edn. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press