The republic of uzbekistan nukus state pedagogical institute foreign language faculty

2.2 Differences in the pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs
Some of the biggest differences that can be noticed between British and American English are differences in pronunciation. English, being spoken in a large territory and by a large number of people, presents a wide variety of pronunciations,but there are only three standard pronunciations distinguished.The General American (GA), and The General Australian. There are many regional varieties of both American and British English.These varieties are called accents. Accent refers to variety of speech distinguished by pronunciation differences. Dialect includes varieties differing in grammar and vocabulary as well as pronunciation. In this work we deal with differences between GA and RP.General American is the pronunciation used by the general population of the United States and by most US radio and TV announcers. It is also the model accent which is taught in American schools and in parts of the world close to the United States where English is taught as a second language.Received Pronunciation is the accent known as the model in Britain. Received in this case means generally accepted. It is a model of pronunciation taught in British schools and also in language schools where British English is taught rather than American English.English language is fascinating. Its history, development over hundreds of years, its rich vocabulary and fairly easy grammar system make English one of the most interesting languages.It is no wonder that it became the number one world’s language used by millions of speakers all over the world.We took on the goal, as stated in the introduction, to answer the question: Why are British and American English different? We can conclude that the history of the English language itself, as well as the history of the English language in the United States, is important in answering the stated question. The history and development of British and American English as two major different dialects shows that the different needs of speakers in different geographical locations influence of different languages, different social and cultural conditions all contributed to the one language dividing into two major dialects.The core of this thesis aimed to show selected differences in British and American English in the areas of grammar, spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary. This thesis proves that the differences in these areas are many. It shows that the differences which may cause the most confusion are in the area of pronunciation and vocabulary.We can add that not only are Received Pronunciation and General American very different, but these two standard pronunciations are only a small fraction of dialects found in Britain and the United States. With selected examples of British idioms and their American equivalents we have shown that often when the two dialects use the same words,phrases or idioms, they may be expressing a completely different meaning; and on the other hand, one meaning can be preferred to be expressed by completely different words or phrases.The chapters dealing with grammar and spelling show that we find plenty of differences in these areas as well but they do not play such a big role in the interaction between speakers of British and American English.The English language is a dynamic system which is always changing. We can only speculate whether the two dialects will become more or less alike in the future. The fact is that in present British and American English remain one language but two very different dialects.Received Pronunciation is considered “regionally neutral.” This accent is not typical for any geographical region and can be heard all over the country. It is often associated with the level of education and social status.There are many differences in pronunciation of GA and PR but we will only present a few of them and illustrate with examples.Distinguishes 7 different short pure vowel sounds – [ɪ, e, æ, ʌ, ܥ, ʊ, ɘ]. These can also be found in GA, except for the vowel sound which is replaced by the sound e.g. not, lot, hot, knowledge, etc.One important difference between various English accents is the pronunciation of the consonant r. We call American English rhotic because the r is pronounced before a vowel, a consonant and at the end of a word. On the other hand RP is called non-rhotic because the consonant r is not pronounced before a consonant and at the end of a word.It is believed that the weakening of the r started in Britain in the 1600s and it took about one hundred years for the r to be completely lost. The non-rhotic accent became standard among the British sometime in the 1800s.There are three main realizations of the phoneme [r] in GA.Rhotic accent can be pronounced as a retroflex approximant. This occurs when r is found in an initial position in a word, e.g. rat, red, etc.; intervocalically, e.g. irregular,floral, etc.; and in the final position in a word when preceded by a vowel, e.g. beer, far.The phonetic symbol for this sound found in the International Phonetic Alphabet is [ɻ]. It always functions as a consonant.Another realization of the phoneme [r] can be found when it occurs in the medial position in a word and is preceded and followed by a consonant, e.g. perhaps, perform,etc.; and in a final position in a word when preceded by a consonant, e.g. biker, teacher,etc. The phonetic symbol for this sound found in the International Phonetic Alphabet is [ɚ]. It functions as a vowel.The third realization of the phoneme [r] is found in all positions in words and functions as a long vowel. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is [ɝ]. It is found in words like hurt and burn.There are many variations of the phoneme [r] in the Received Pronunciation. The most common is a voiced post-alveolar approximant. It occurs only before a vowel or a voiced consonant, e.g. arrow, agree, etc.; or in the initial position in a word, e.g. red,really, etc.Rhotic accent in American English, in contrast to RP, can be found associated with the following sounds: [ܤ :], e.g. hard; [ɔ:], e.g. born, and [ɜ:], e.g. hurt, after the sound schwa ([ə]), e.g. later, in diphthongs ending by the sound schwa as in [iə] and [eə], e.g. here, there.In conclusion it should be stated that there are many more differences in pronunciation than this work deals with. We chose only a few examples to demonstrate that General American and Received Pronunciation, though still one language, are two quite different accents. These two accents are most likely to be the models for learners of English as a foreign language all over the world. As sound of the language is often the thing that makes it “attractive” to listeners of learners.A common difference in British and American English spelling is found in words which end in a consonant followed by the ending -re (RP) and -er (GA), both pronounced [ər]. This difference is most obvious in many words of French, Greek and Latin origin which end in the consonant b or t followed by the -re or -er ending. These include words like centre, litre, metre, sabre, etc. We find many exceptions or words that are spelled with the ending -er in both British and American English. These include words like enter,member, letter, sober, etc. Other exceptions include words of Germanic origin such as anger, mother, water, etc.The new sports’ center is modern and well equipped, unlike the old one.Citizens with insufficient health insurance often visit the new Health Centre near the housing project.In both ɒritish and ɑmerican EnglishĽ “we sometimes double the final consonant of a word before adding -ed, -er, -est, -ing, -able, -y (or any other ending that begins with a vowel).” This doubling usually occurs when the final syllable in a word is stressed. It is always only the final consonant which is preceded by one vowel which is doubled, e.g. stopped, sitting, winning, slimming, referring, beginning, etc.,however in British English the final consonant l can be doubled even in unstressed syllable, e.g. travelling.This is not common in American English.Words where the spelling –ll occurs can be found in American English, but the spelling with a single –l is preferred in British English. This happens when the words form the main part of other words. Some examples of these words are – fulfillment – fulfilment, installment – instalment, willful – wilful, skillful – skilful, etc.Although there are many differences in spelling between British and American English,most of them are not due to a set of spelling rules in one or the other dialect;rather they are preferences made by speakers which became common over time. The differences in spelling, though there are many, may be considered unimportant because they do not in any way influence the level of understanding of speakers of different dialects.