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Classification of pronunciation variants of British English
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Classification of pronunciation variants of British English.
It is common knowledge that over 300 million people now speak English as a first language. It is the national language of Great Britain, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Nowadays two main types of English are spoken in the English-speaking world: British English and American English. According to British dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others), 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 Ireland English fall somewhere between the two, being somewhat by themselves. With Scottish and Irish Somewhere between the two groups by themselves. According to M. Sokolova and others, English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Irish English should be better combined into the British English subgroup, on the ground of political, geographical, cultural unity which brought more similarities - then differences for those variants of pronunciation. So, BEPS (British English Pronunciation Standarts and Accents) comprise four variations plus each of them has its own deviating accents – dialects.
In the nineteenth century Received Pronunciation (RP) was a social marker, a prestige accent of an Englishman. "Received" was understood in the sense of "accepted in the best society". The speech of aristocracy and the court phonetically was that of the London area. Then it lost its local characteristics and was finally fixed as a ruling-class accent, often referred to as "King's English". It was also the accent taught at public schools. With the spread of education cultured people not belonging to upper classes were eager to modify their accent in the direction of social standards. RP is widely regarded as a model for correct pronunciation, particularly for educated formal speech. It’s stated that RP is regionless – if speakers have it you cannot tell which regions they come from. But only 3-5% of the Population of England speak it. It is also not homogenious and there are three main types within it: Conservative RP – is used by the older generation and by certain profession or social groups. General RP – most commonly in used and typified by the pronunciation adopted by the BBC. Advanced RP – mainly used by young people of exlusive social groups (upper classes) and also in certain professional circles. It reflects the tendencies typical of changes in pronunciation, some of which are results of temporary fashion, some become adopted as a norm. Near-RP southern – the pronunciation of teachers of English and professors of colleges and universities particulary from the South and South-East of England. English English (Southern and Northern) – 220-223 The division into Southern and Northern Welsh Englisg – 227 Scottish English – 228-229 Northern Ireland English – 230-232 The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End. Linguistically, it refers to the form of English spoken by this group. The earliest recorded use of the term is 1362 in and it is used to mean a small, misshapen egg, from Middle English coken (of cocks) and ey (egg) so literally 'a cock's egg'. In the Reeve's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1386) it appears as "cokenay", and the meaning is "a child tenderly brought up, an effeminate fellow, a milksop". By 1521 it was in use by country people as a derogatory reference for the effeminate town-dwellers. As with many accents of England, Cockney is non-rhotic. A final -er is pronounced [ə] or lowered [ɐ] in broad Cockney. As with all or nearly all non-rhotic accents, the paired lexical sets commA and lettER, PALM/BATH and START, THOUGHT and NORTH/FORCE, are merged. Broad /ɑː/ is used in words such as bath, path, demand. This originated in London in the 16h-17th centuries and is also part of Received Pronunciation. T-glottalisation: Use of the glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in various positions, including after a stressed syllable. Glottal stops also occur, albeit less frequently for /k/ and /p/, and occasionally for mid-word consonants. For example, spelt "Hyde Park" as Hy' Par' . Like and light can be homophones. "Clapham" can be said as Cla'am. /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically. London /p, t, k/ are often aspirated in intervocalic and final environments, e.g., upper, utter, rocker, up, out, rock, where RP is traditionally described as having the unaspirated variants. Also, in broad Cockney at least, the degree of aspiration is typically greater than in RP, and may often also involve some degree of affrication. Affrication may be encountered in initial, intervocalic, and final position. Th-fronting: /θ/ can become [f] in any environment. [fɪn] "thin", [mɛfs] "maths". /ð/ can become [v] in any environment except word-initially when it can be [ð, ð̞, d, l, ʔ, ∅]. [dæɪ] "they", [bɒvə] "bother". H-dropping. Sivertsen considers that [h] is to some extent a stylistic marker of emphasis in Cockney. Diphthong alterations: /iː/ → [əi~ɐi]: [bəiʔ] "beet" /eɪ/ → [æɪ~aɪ]: [bæɪʔ] "bait" /aɪ/ → [ɑɪ] or even [ɒɪ] in "vigorous, dialectal" Cockney. The second element may be reduced or absent (with compensatory lengthening of the first element), so that there are variants like [ɑ̟ə~ɑ̟ː]. This means that pairs such as laugh-life, Barton-biting may become homophones: [lɑːf], [bɑːʔn̩]. But this neutralisation is an optional, recoverable one.: [bɑɪʔ] "bite" /ɔɪ/ → [ɔ̝ɪ~oɪ]: [tʃoɪs] "choice" /uː/ → [əʉ] or a monophthongal [ʉː], perhaps with little lip rounding, [ɨː] or [ʊː]: [bʉːʔ] "boot" /əʊ/ → this diphthong typically starts in the area of the London /ʌ/, [æ ̠~ɐ]. The endpoint may be [ʊ], but more commonly it is rather opener and/or lacking any lip rounding, thus being a kind of centralized [ɤ̈]. The broadest Cockney variant approaches [aʊ].: [kʰɐɤ̈ʔ] "coat" /aʊ/ may be [æə] or a monophthongal [æː~aː]: [tʰæən] "town" Other vowel differences include /æ/ may be [ɛ] or [ɛɪ], with the latter occurring before voiced consonants, particularly before /d/: [bɛk] "back", [bɛːɪd] "bad" /ɛ/ may be [eə], [eɪ], or [ɛɪ] before certain voiced consonants, particularly before /d/: [beɪd] "bed" /ɜː/ is on occasion somewhat fronted and/or lightly rounded, giving Cockney variants such as [ɜ̟ː], [œ̈ː]. /ʌ/ → [ɐ̟] or a quality like that of cardinal 4, [a]: [dʒamʔˈtˢapʰ] "jumped up" /ɔː/ → [oː] or a closing diphthong of the type [oʊ~ɔo] when in non-final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney: [soʊs] "sauce"-"source", [loʊd] "lord", [ˈwoʊʔə] "water" /ɔː/ → [ɔː] or a centring diphthong of the type [ɔə~ɔwə] when in final position, with the latter variants being more common in broad Cockney; thus [sɔə] "saw"-"sore"-"soar", [lɔə] "law"-"lore", [wɔə] "war"-"wore". The diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause can contrast with bored [bɔəd] and paws [pɔəz] In broad Cockney, and to some extent in general popular London speech, a vocalised /l/ is entirely absorbed by a preceding /ɔː/: i.e., salt and sort become homophones (although the contemporary pronunciation of salt /sɒlt/ would prevent this from happening), and likewise fault-fought-fort, pause-Paul's, Morden-Malden, water-Walter. A preceding /ə/ is also fully absorbed into vocalised /l/. The reflexes of earlier /əl/ and earlier /ɔː(l)/ are thus phonetically similar or identical; speakers are usually ready to treat them as the same phoneme. Thus awful can best be regarded as containing two occurrences of the same vowel, /ˈɔːfɔː/. The difference between musical and music-hall, in an H-dropping broad Cockney, is thus nothing more than a matter of stress and perhaps syllable boundaries. According to Siversten, /ɑː/ and /aɪ/ can also join in this neutralisation. They may on the one hand neutralise with respect to one another, so that snarl and smile rhyme, both ending [-ɑɤ], and Child's Hill is in danger of being mistaken for Charles Hill; or they may go further into a fivefold neutralisation with the one just mentioned, so that pal, pale, foul, snarl and pile all end in [-æɤ]. But these developments are evidently restricted to broad Cockney, not being found in London speech in general. A neutralisation discussed by Beaken (1971) and Bowyer (1973), but ignored by Siversten (1960), is that of /ɒ~əʊ~ʌ/. It leads to the possibility of doll, dole and dull becoming homophonous as [dɒʊ] or [da̠ɤ]. Wells' impression is that the doll-dole neutralisation is rather widespread in London, but that involving dull less so. One further possible neutralisation in the environment of a following non-prevocalic /l/ is that of /ɛ/ and /ɜː/, so that well and whirl become homophonous as [wɛʊ]. Cockney has been occasionally described as replacing /r/ with /w/. For example, thwee instead of three, fwasty instead of frosty. Most of the features mentioned above have, in recent years, partly spread into more general south-eastern speech, giving the accent called Estuary English; an Estuary speaker will use some but not all of the Cockney sounds. Some of the features may derive from the upper-class pronunciation of late 18th century London, such as the use of "ain't" for "isn't" and the now lost reversal of "v" and "w". The Cockney accent has long been looked down upon and thought of as inferior. On the other hand, the Cockney accent has been more accepted as an alternative form of the English Language rather than an 'inferior' one. Download 1.77 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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