English as a Second Language. ▫. Indian English. General American versus RP.
Vowels. General American. Received Pronunciation. [ɔ/ɑ] brought, talk. [ɔː].
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
General American versus RP
busses bosses
head
[æ]
[ʌ]
[ɔ]
General American
Received Pronunciation
[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)
General American versus RP
Differences in Lexis 1
Consonants
Crystal (2005: 308, after Benson et al 1986) distinguishes between these
General American
Received Pronunciation
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
Differences in Lexis 2
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
Differences in Lexis 3
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 4
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 Grammar 3
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
He’s got a new boat
= has
burn – burned
burn – burnt (burned)
He’s gotten a new boat
He’s got 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
Differences in Grammar 4
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)) …
(Trudgill & Hannah 2002: 41)
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
(Trudgill & Hannah 2002: 5)
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/
New York City Accent 3
[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
New York City Accent 5
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