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National varieties of English

Introduction

“The youth is not only our hope and future, but it is a decisive force of our today and tomorrow”.

Islam Abduganievich Karimov

Our Republic pays the great attention to the education of the students of Universities ,colleges, schools.

Great attention is paid in the republic to the improvement of educational system and training of qualified specialists. On the basis of the president's decree dated February 28, 1992, twenty-four new institutions of higher learning and their branches to train specialists for principle branches of the national economy were established. Today there are 59 institutions of higher learning function in the republic, including 16 universities, 39 teacher training institutes, medical, technical, economic, agricultural, and other institutes. About 300 thousand students master 276 specialties there. The oldest higher Institutions in Uzbekistan are the National University named after Ulugbek (in past: first - Middle Asian, than Tashkent State University), the Technical Institute ( Polytecnical Institute). Since 1991 the number of higher educational institutions has increased by 30 %. New higher educational institutions have appeared: the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Academy of State and Public Structuring, Academy of Armed Forces, Academy of Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The English language is the national language of GB, USA, Australia, New Zealand .The English language is also one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization.We are learning such kind language which serves to connect people all over the world, this language is the language of the official documents of international organizations.It is the language of world famous poets,writers , beginners of the English literature.

Every language changes ,according to the rule of the modern world. You can find different varieties of pronunciation of the English language in different parts of our planet .

And the pronunciation of every national variety of English has its own specific pecularities that serves to distinguish it from other varieties of English.

1. The development of American english pronunciation

The development of American English on the American continent has a comparatively short history. The conditions under which it developed were peculiar and quite unlike those under which the English language developed in Great Britain.

It is generally assumed that American English, in its spoken form, is essentially Southern English Standard of the 17th and 18th centuries as modified locally in the course of the last century or two. The linguistic evidence for a historical connection between American speech of the North and West and that of Northern England on the one hand, and between the speech of Eastern New England and the pronunciation of the South of England on the other hand, is well supported by the history of American colonization, of the Westward movement, and of later immigration.

The details are complex and obscure, it is known that early settlers of New England and most of the central Atlantic coast were largely populated by people of the Southern and eastern part of England. Those who settled Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey came from the North of England. During the first half of the 18th century a large group of Germans came to America and settled throughout Pennsylvania .A group of Welsh immigrants also settled in an area just west of Philadelphia. These settlements were supplemented by the arrival of the Scotch and Scottish-Irish whose speech was similar to that of the North of England.

Thus, differences in American speech represented differences in British speech from the outset. Later settlers also reflected later usage in the British Isles.

During the centuries in which the migrations were moving to the west of the country, the original settlements maintained a contact with Britain which the western settlers lost. Cities of the East coast long maintained their contact with London, and the Southern gentry continued to go to England for their education. Ships which arrived in Boston and other eastern cities brought new fashions in speech from across the Atlantic. These new fashions in speech rarely reached the west.

The foundations of most of diversities in American pronunciation were thus laid during the colonial period. Some of the present differences in American pronunciation are attributed to that period as well.

American English pronunciation (AE) of today is by no means homogeneous. Variations in AE are treated by many linguists.

Many American linguists specify the fact that the diversities in pronunciation between the various regional standards in the USA are not so marked as in Great Britain, and they tend to become levelled out.

The three major types of American English standard pronunciation are not equal in importance. It may be said with certainty that the pronunciation of the southern States of the United States, example, is not the pronunciation standard of American English. The Southern American pronunciation is peculiar to that part of the country only and has not spread north.

Strictly speaking, there may be a question as to the priority of General American over Eastern American English. But it is an established fact that most of the typical American peculiarities of pronunciation are characteristic of both General American and Eastern American pronunciation.

GA is the form of speech used by radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific and business discourse. It not only the most wide spread type in the USA , but like RP in Great Britain , the least regional in character and the regionally neutral variety.

2.Phonology

Compared to English as spoken in England, North American English is more homogeneous. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast (for example, in eastern New England and New York City), partly because these areas were in close contact with England and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when these were undergoing changes. In addition, many speech communities on the East Coast have existed in their present locations for centuries, while the interior of the country was settled by people from all regions of the existing United States and developed a far more generic linguistic pattern.

The red areas are those where non-rhotic pronunciations are found among some white people in the United States. AAVE-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among black people throughout the country.

Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English, West Country English and Scottish English as well as the fact most regions of England at this time also had rhotic accents. In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter r is a retroflex (ɻ) or alveolar approximant (ɹ) rather than a trill or a tap. The loss of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to the accents of eastern New England, New York City and surrounding areas and the coastal portions of the South, and African American Vernacular English. In rural tidewater Virginia and eastern New England, 'r' is non-rhotic in accented (such as "bird", "work", "first", "birthday") as well as unaccented syllables, although this is declining among the younger generation of speakers. Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, the lost r was often changed into (ə) (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling diphthongs. Furthermore, the er sound of fur or butter, is realized in AmE as a monophthongal r-colored vowel (stressed (ɝ) or unstressed (ɚ) )This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech.

Some other English English changes in which most North American dialects do not participate:

· The shift of /æ/ to /ɑ/ (the so-called "broad A") before /f/, /s/, /θ/, /ð/, /z/, /v/ alone or preceded by a homorganic nasal. This is the difference between the British Received Pronunciation and American pronunciation of bath and dance. In the United States, only eastern New England speakers took up this modification, although even there it is becoming increasingly rare.

· The realization of intervocalic /t/ as a glottal stop (t) (as in (bɒtəl) for bottle). This change is not universal for British English and is not considered a feature of Received Pronunciation. This is not a property of most North American dialects. Newfoundland English is a notable exception.

On the other hand, North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in other varieties of English speech:

· The merger of /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, making father and bother rhyme. This change is nearly universal in North American English, occurring almost everywhere except for parts of eastern New England, hence the Boston accent

· The merger of /ɑ/ and /ɔ/. This is the so-called cot-caught merger, where cot and caught are homophones. This change has occurred in eastern New England, in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, and from the Great Plains westward.

· For speakers who do not merge caught and cot: The replacement of the cot vowel with the caught vowel before voiceless fricatives (as in cloth, off (which is found in some old-fashioned varieties of RP), as well as before /ŋ/ (as in strong, long), usually in gone, often in on, and irregularly before /ɡ/ (log, hog, dog, fog (which is not found in British English at all)).

· The replacement of the lot vowel with the strut vowel in most utterances of the words was, of, from, what and in many utterances of the words everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody; the word because has either /ʌ/ or /ɔ/; want has normally /ɔ/ or /ɑ/, sometimes /ʌ/.

· Vowel merger before intervocalic /ɹ/. Which vowels are affected varies between dialects, but the Mary-marry-merry, nearer-mirror, and hurry-furry mergers are all widespread. Another such change is the laxing of /e/, /i/ and /u/ to /ɛ/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ before /ɹ/, causing pronunciations like (pɛɹ), (pɪɹ) and (pjʊɹ) for pair, peer and pure. The resulting sound (ʊɹ) is often further reduced to (ɝ), especially after palatals, so that cure, pure, mature and sure rhyme with fir.

· Dropping of /j/ is more extensive than in RP. In most North American accents, /j/ is dropped after all alveolar and interdental consonant, so that new, duke, Tuesday, resume are pronounced /nu/, /duk/, /tuzdeɪ/, /ɹɪzum/.

· æ-tensing in environments that vary widely from accent to accent; for example, for many speakers, /æ/ is approximately realized as (eə) before nasal consonants. In some accents, particularly those from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City, (æ) and (eə) contrast sometimes, as in Yes, I can (kæn) vs. tin can (keən).

· The flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to alveolar tap (ɾ) before unstressed vowels (as in butter, party) and syllabic /l/ (bottle), as well as at the end of a word or morpheme before any vowel (what else, whatever). Thus, for most speakers, pairs such as ladder/latter, metal/medal, and coating/coding are pronounced the same. For many speakers, this merger is incomplete and does not occur after /aɪ/; these speakers tend to pronounce writer with (əɪ) and rider with (aɪ). This is a form of Canadian raising but, unlike more extreme forms of that process, does not affect /aʊ/. In some areas and idiolects, a phonemic distinction between what elsewhere become homophones through this process is maintained by vowel lengthening in the vowel preceding the formerly voiced consonant, e.g., (læ:·ɾɹ̩) for "ladder" as opposed to (læ·ɾɹ̩) for "latter".

· T-glottalization is common when /t/ is in the final position of a syllable or word (get, fretful: (ɡɛt), (fɹɛtfəl)), though this is always superseded by the aforementioned rules of flapping

· Both intervocalic /nt/ and /n/ may be realized as (n) or (ɾ̃), making winter and winner homophones. Most areas in which /nt/ is reduced to /n/, it is accompanied further by nasalization of simple post-vocalic /n/, so that V/nt/ and V/n/ remain phonemically distinct. In such cases, the preceding vowel becomes nasalized, and is followed in cases where the former /nt/ was present, by a distinct /n/. This stop-absorption by the preceding nasal /n/ does not occur when the second syllable is stressed, as in entail.

· The pin-pen merger, by which (ɛ) is raised to (ɪ) before nasal consonants, making pairs like pen/pin homophonous. This merger originated in Southern American English but is now also sometimes found in parts of the Midwest and West as well, especially in people with roots in the mountainous areas of the Southeastern United States.

Some mergers found in most varieties of both American and British English include:

· The merger of the vowels /ɔ/ and /o/ before 'r', making pairs like horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning, etc. homophones.

· The wine-whine merger making pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales, wear/where, etc. homophones, in most cases eliminating ɛ/, the voiceless labiovelar fricative. Many older varieties of southern and western American English still keep these distinct, but the merger appears to be spreading.

3. Eastern American english

C.G.Van Riper and D.E. Smith wrote in 1962:”It is difficult to generalize about Eastern American English ,since within the region where it is spoken there are many differing pronunciations.Eastern American pronunciation is typified as an “r-less”, or non-rhotic, type of American English pronunciation. Consequently ,it is characterized by the loss of (ɾ) in the final and preconsonantal positions,as in car (ka:) and park (pa:k) . EA speakers use (з:) and (ə) instead of the GA (ɝ) and (ɚ) in such words as bird,sister. One of the most striking features of EA, or more precisely, of Eastern New England is, perhaps, the use of the broad (a) ,in far , park,father... In contrast to GA Eastern American speakers use the RP (ɒ) in so-called “short-o” words, as in hot, crop, not, dog, in which places GA speakers use (ɑ) .In contrast to RP (ɒ) is also used in such words as caught , fought , law, horse. The word cot and caught come to the identical –(kɒt).

The frequent vowel in doll and solve is (ɑ) , though (ɔ) and (ɒ) can also occur.

In forest, orange, horrid ,tomorrow (ɑ) predominates. However , (ɒ) varies with (ɑ) , especially before the velar consonants (ə) and (ŋ) as in fog, long.

(ʌ) is normal in burry ,worry ,courage.

The diphtongs (aɪ) , (ɔɪ),(aʊ) are relatively stable, though some traces of (aʊ) and (æʊ) remain in rural areas.

Absorb, absurd, and desolate may have either (s) or (z) , greasy and the verb greasy have (s).

4. Southern American english

In the speech of the South there are subareas and gradations of social status, as reflected in speech ,to be found nowhere else in the country .Generally speaking ,SA has unique differences in the manner of articulation .Southerners lengthen certain vowels,they make the single vowels (monophthongs) into diphthongs and triphthongs .The articulation is more lax and unprecise and it is this rather than the rate ,or speed , of speech which characterizes “the southern drawl”. Few generalizations can be made about Southern pronunciation as there is great variation between the regions of the South , between older and younger people, and between people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The following features are characteristic of older SAE:

· Lack of yod-dropping, thus pairs like do/due and toon/tune are distinct. Historically, words like due, lute, and new contained /juː/ (as RP does), but report says that the only Southern speakers who make a distinction today use a diphthong /ɪu/ in such words. They further report that speakers with the distinction are found primarily in North Carolina and northwest South Carolina, and in a corridor extending from Jackson to Tallahassee.

o The distinction between /ær/, /ɛr/, and /er/ in marry, merry, and Mary is preserved by some older speakers, but few young people make a distinction. The r-sound almost becomes a vowel, and may be elided after a long vowel, as it often is in AAVE. The following phenomena are relatively wide spread in SAE, though the extent of these features varies across regions and between rural and urban areas. The older the speaker, the less likely he or she is to display these features:

· The merger of (ɛ) and (ɪ) before nasal consonants, so that pen and pin are pronounced the same, but the pin-pen merger is not found in New Orleans, Savannah, or Miami (which does not fall within the Southern dialect region). This sound change has spread beyond the South in recent decades and is now found in parts of the Midwest and West as well.

· Lax and tense vowels often neutralize before /l/, making pairs like feel/fill and fail/fell homophones for speakers in some areas of the South. Some speakers may distinguish between the two sets of words by reversing the normal vowel sound, e.g., feel in SAE may sound like fill, and vice versa.

Mean formant values for the ANAE subjects from the Southern U.S. (excluding Florida and Charleston, SC). The red symbol marks the position of monophthongized /aɪ/ before voiced consonants. The distinction between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ is preserved mainly because /ɔ/ has an upglide. /eɪ/ is backer and lower than /ɛ/.

The following features are also associated with SAE:

· The diphthong /aɪ/ becomes monophthongized to (aː):

o Most speakers exhibit this feature at the ends of words and before voiced consonants but not before voiceless consonants; some in fact exhibit Canadian-style raising before voiceless consonants, so that ride is (raːd) and wide is (waːd), but right is (rəɪt) and white is (ʍəɪt). Many speakers throughout the South exhibit backing to (ɑːe) in environments where monophthongization does not take place.

o Others monophthongize /aɪ/ in all contexts, as in the stereotyped pronunciation "nahs whaht rahs" for nice white rice; these speakers are mostly found in an Appalachian area that includes eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and Northern Alabama (the "Inland South"), as well as in Central Texas. Elsewhere in the South, this pronunciation is stigmatized as a working class feature.

· The "Southern Drawl", breaking of the short front vowels in the words "pat", "pet", and "pit": these develop a glide up from their original starting position to IPA| (j) , and then in some cases back down to schwa: /æ/ → (æjə); /ɛ/ → (ɛjə); /ɪ/ → (ɪjə).

· The "Southern Shift", a chain shift following on as a result of the Southern Drawl: the nuclei of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ move to become higher and fronter, so that, for example, instead of (ɛjə), /ɛ/ becomes a tenser /ejə. This process is most common in heavily stressed syllables. At the same time, the nuclei of the traditional front upgliding diphthongs are relaxed: /i/ moves towards (ɪi) and /eɪ/ moves towards (ɛi) or even lower and/or more retracted. The back vowels /u/ in boon and /oʊ/ in code shift considerably forward.

· The distinction between the vowels sounds of words like caught and cot or stalk and stock is mainly preserved. In much of the South, the vowel found in words like stalk and caught has developed into a diphthong (ɑɒ).

· The nucleus of /ɑr/ card is often rounded to (ɒr).

· /z/ becomes (d) before /n/, for example (wʌdn̩t) wasn't, (bɪdnɪs) business, but hasn't is sometimes still pronounced (hæzənt) because there already exists a word hadn't pronounced (hædənt).

· Many nouns are stressed on the first syllable that would be stressed on the second syllable in other accents. These include police, cement, Detroit, Thanksgiving, insurance, behind, display, recycle, TV, guitar, and umbrella.

· The distinction between /ɜr/ and /ʌr/ in furry and hurry is preserved.

· In some regions of the south, there is a merger of (ɔr) and (ɑr), making cord and card, for and far, form and farm etc. homonyms.

· The distinction between /ɪr/ and /ɪər/ in mirror and nearer, Sirius and serious etc. is not preserved.

· The distinction between /ʊər/ and /ɔr/ in poor and pour, moor and more is not preserved.

· The l's in the words walk and talk are occasionally pronounced, causing the words talk and walk to be pronounced /wɑlk/ and /tɑlk/ by some Southerners. Some older speakers have a phenomenon that resembles the trap-bath split. Where General American accents prescribe /æ/ and considerably liberal accents have /ɑ:/, Southern American English may have a new vowel diphthong /æɪ/, as in aunt /æɪnt/ and gas /gæɪs/. In the speech of the South there are subareas and gradations of social status, as reflected in speech ,to be found nowhere else in the country .Generally speaking ,SA has unique differences in the manner of articulation .Southerners lengthen certain vowels,they make the single vowels (monophthongs) into diphthongs and triphthongs .The articulation is more lax and unprecise and it is this rather than the rate ,or speed , of speech which characterizes “the southern drawl”. Southern American English is also typified as an “r-less” (non-rhotic)regional standart of AE pronunciation .standart SA generally adheres to the following patterns . In SA final and preconsonantal (ɾ) is usually omitted, as in far (fa:) and farm (fa:m) .Intervocalic (ɾ) frequently drops out , as in very (‘vɛ:ɪ) and Carolina (kə’lɑ:nə). The linking (ɾ) , as in far away (fɑ:ə’weɪ), is rare.

Normally (з) and (ə) replace the GA (ɝ) and (ɚ) , as in bird (bзd) and sister (‘sɪstə).

Consequently , southerners use the diphthongs (ɪə) , (ɛə), (ʊə), though (ə) may occasionally drop out . Therefore , fierce may be (fɪəs) or (fɪ:s) , poor may be (pʊə) or (poə) or (po).

(ɑ:) , (ɑ) and (ɔ), as in cart ,coat and caught , are usually clearly differentiated. On the other hand , caught some times diphthongizes as (kɔʊt) , approaching ambiguity with coat (koʊt). The shift to (ɔʊ) characterizes the whole class of words illustrated by caught , walk, cost, log and law .The diphthongal extreme is illustrated by laundry which may have (ɔ), (ɒ), (ɑ), (ɔʊ),(ɒʊ) or (ɑʊ). “Short-o” words may have (ɔ) and (ɒ) :log and mock usually have (ɔ); log may also have variants with (ɒ), (ɒʊ) and (oʊ); donkey may have (ɑ),or (ɔ), or (ɒʊ), or (ɔʊ).

(æ) is normally used in dance and ask,though a diphthongal variant (æɪ) is frequent ,as in (æɪsk) for ask.

5. American English intonation

In the opinion of many American linguists the most important differences between British and American pronunciation involve innovation rather than pronunciation proper.

British intonation is often characterized as having “wider melodic curves" and “more rapid changes” than AE intonation. As a result of such intonation patterns, the speech of an Englishman sounds “abrupt, explosive, manneristic” to American ears. At the same time American speech often sounds “unemotional, rather dry, sometimes hesitating,monotonous,colorless and indecisive” to an Englishmen All these observations are very impressionistic.However,to do justice to American scholars , we should say that some of these observations are not groundless.

Over the past decade a number of electro-acoustic analyses in this country and abroad have thrown some light on the differences between AE and BE intonation systems.

Since most research and specialist literature is largely devoted to the study of intonational differences of General American and RP, the following analysis will mainly concern itself with these two varieties of English.

The GA intonation has a general resemblance to that of RP. These are ,however ,quite a few noteworthy points of difference ,both structural and functional.

The most characteristic RP pre-terminal pitch contour in emotionally neutral speech is the so called “gradually descending stepping head”, in which the stressed syllable syllables are made prominent by means of a step down in pitch .

The counterpart GA pre-terminal contours that have a wide occurrence in emotionally neutral ,or unemphatic speech are:

1)a level pre-terminal contours

2)a wavy-level pre-terminal contour.

The level pre-terminal contour starts at a medium pitch and remains fairly even until the final rise or fall.The eveness of the tone is often not affected by any stressed syllables that may occur.

The mid-wavy-level contour is,actually,a variant of the mid-level contour:every stressed syllable has a wavy like motion , or a slightly rising-falling pitch .The unstressed syllables that precede or follow the stressed one are intoned on a lower pitch level .The “waves” are realized on the same medium pitch level. Sructural differences in the pre-terminal part concern the general movement the pitch contour :GA mid-level or mid-wavy-level vs RP descending-stepping contour and also the position of unstressed syllables intervening the stressed ones:in GA the unstressed syllables in the level and mid-wavy-level contour show a greater tendency to fall to a lower pitch ; in RP in down-stepping sequence of stressed syllsbles the intervening unstressed syllables the intervening unstressed syllables may from either a gradual descent or may be said on the same pitch as the previous stressed syllable.

The development of the English language in Australia has its own history , which is comparatively short one : less than two centuries. The chief reasons for the development of Australian speech are linguistic and historica ,though, as the majority of Australian linguists state ,it is difficult to trace them very satisfactorily.

Linguistic evidence which would make it possible to follow the development of Australian speech almost does not exist. Historical knowledge of early Australian immigration is not very sufficient or precise , particularly in the matter :what parts of England the transported convicts and early free settlers came from .

Australian speech,as well as Australian pronunciation , has always been subject to debate . Australian diphthongs resembling the Cockney diphthongs have been heard in some type of Australian speech from early times. Some general remarks concerning the origins of Australian pronunciation are ventured by A.G. Mitchell and A.Delbridge ,Australian linguists, who have done a thorough investigation of Australian pronunciation . They maintain that Australian is in its origins a town speech ,since the overwhelming number of convicts and early settlers were from the towns , it was in its origins a working class speech, the language of people who were poor and for tye most part unskilled, it included ways of speech characteristic of many parts of England , Scotland , Wales and Ireland. The authors conclude that since all these forms were brought in Australia ,and this had ever happened in England ,Australian speech began as a levelling and generalization of a number of English local dialects. Moreover speech developed in Australian in a society in which there has been constant movement from place to place and social mobility from the beginning.These internal population movements , added to mobility in the social structure itself , have provided the conditions in which the national variety of English has developed in Australia . Australian English is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world. As with most dialects of English, it is distinguished primarily by its vowel phonology.

6. Vowels

Australian English vowels are divided into two categories: long, which includes long monophthongs and diphthongs, and short, all of which are monophthongs. Australian English long vowels mostly correspond to the tense vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation (RP) as well as its centralising diphthongs whereas its short vowels correspond to the lax vowels. A number of vowels differ only by the length. There are two families of phonemic transcriptions of Australian English: revised ones, which attempt to more accurately represent the phonetic sounds of Australian English; and the Mitchell-Delbridge system, which is minimally distinct from Jones’ original transcription of RP. This page uses a revised transcription based on Durie and Hajek (1994) and Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) but also shows the Mitchell-Delbridge equivalents as this system is commonly used for example in the Macquarie Dictionary and much literature, even recent.

/ɪ/ for example kit, bid, hid. (M.-D. /ɪ/.) The target for this vowel tends to be tenser than in other varieties of English.

/e/ for example dress, bed, head. (M.-D. /ɛ/.) For some Victorian speakers this phoneme has merged with /æ/ in pre-lateral environments, and thus the words celery and salary are pronounced alike (Cox & Palethorpe, 2003). See salary-celery merger.

/æ/ for example trap, lad, had. (M.-D. /æ/.)

/a/ for example strut, bud, hud. (M.-D. /ʌ/.)

/ɔ/ for example lot, cloth, body, hot. (M-D. /ɒ/.) This vowel also forms the first part of the diphthong (ɔʊ) (gold, hold, pole, etc.), though remains distinct from (ɔ) before l in words such as (pɔl) "poll" (dehorned cattle) and so on.

/ʊ/ for example foot, hood. (M.-D. /ʊ/.)

/ə/ for example about, winter. (M.-D. /ə/.) As in most varieties of English, this phoneme is used only in unstressed syllables.

/iː/ for example fleece, bead, heat. (M.-D. /i/.) Includes an onset to the high front vowel, except before laterals (Palethorpe & Cox, 2003).

/ɪə/ for example near, beard, hear. (M.-D. /ɪə/.) This sound is traditionally transcribed with a diphthongal glyph; however, it is usually pronounced as a diphthong (or disyllabically) only in open syllables; in closed syllables, it is distinguished from /ɪ/ primarily by length (Cox, 2006; Durie & Hajek, 1994). It is primarily distinguished from /iː/ by the significant onset in the latter.

/eː/ for example square, bared, haired. (M.-D. /ɛə/.)

/æː/ for example bad, tan. (M.-D. /æ/.) This sound is traditionally transcribed and analysed the same as the short /æ/, but minimal pairs exist in at least some Australians’ speech (Blake, 1985; Durie & Hajek, 1994). See the bad-lad split.

/æɪ/ for example face, bait, hade. (M.-D. /eɪ/.) Includes a significantly lower first element than in many other dialects of English.

/æɔ/ for example mouth, bowed, how’d. (M.-D. /aʊ/.) The first element may be raised in broad accents.

/aː/ for example bath, palm, start, bard, hard. (M.-D. /a/.).

/əʉ/ for example goat, bode, hoed. (M.-D. /oʊ/.) The onset factually begins somewhere between /ə/ and /a/. There is significant allophonic variation in this vowel, particularly a backed one (ɔʊ) before /l/, where the distinction between /əʉ/ and /ɔ/ is usually neutralised.

/ɑe/ for example price, bite, hide. (M.-D. /aɪ/.) The first element may be raised and rounded in broad accents.

/oɪ/ for example choice, boy. (M-D. /ɔɪ/.)

/oː/ for example thought, north, sure, board, hoard, poor. (M.-D. /ɔ/.) Many cases of RP /ʊə/ correspond to this phoneme in Australian English, but unlike in some British accents there is no general merger between /oː/ and /ʊə/.

/ʉː/ for example goose, boo, who’d. (M.-D. /u/.) In some parts of Australia, a fully backed allophone, transcribed (ʊː) is common before /l/ (Durie & Hajek, 1994). The usual allophone is further forward in New South Wales than Victoria. It is moving further forwards, however, in both regions at a similar rate (Cox & Palethorpe, 2003). Many cases of RP /ʊə/ correspond to the sequence /ʉː.ə/ in Australian English.

/ɜː/ for example nurse, bird, heard. (M.-D. /ɜ/.) This sound is pronounced at least as high as /eː/, and is often pronounced rounded (Cox, 2006; Durie & Hajek, 1994). This glyph is used — rather than /ɘː/ or /ɵː/ — as most revisions of the phonemic orthography for Australian English predate the 1996 modifications to the International Phonetic Alphabet. At the time, (ɜ) was suitable for any mid-central vowel, rounded or unrounded.

/ʊə/ for example tour. (M.-D. /ʊə/). A rare, almost extinct phoneme. Most speakers consistently use /ʉː.ə/ or /ʉː/ (before/r/) instead. Variation between /aː/ and /æ/ Academic studies have shown that there are limited regional variations in Australian English. The table below, based on Crystal (1995), shows the percentage of speakers from different capital cities who pronounce words with /aː/ as opposed to /æ/.

Australian English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties of English. In comparison to other varieties, it has a flapped variant of /t/ and /d/ in similar environments as in American English. Many speakers have also coalesced /tj/ and /dj/ into /tʃ/ and /dʒ/, with pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/ being standard. /sj/, /zj/ and /lj/ merged with /s/, /z/ and /l/ word initially; other cases of /sj/ and /zj/ are often pronounced (ʃ) and (ʒ). Remaining cases of /lj/ are often pronounced simply as (j) in colloquial speech, though this is stigmatised particularly in the case a avoid the /lj/. /nj/, and other common sequences of consonant+/j/, are retained. Some speakers use a glottal stop as an allophone of /t/ in final position, for example trait, habit; or in medial position, such as a /t/ followed by a syllabic /n/ is often replaced by a glottal stop, for example button or fatten. Alveolar pronunciations nevertheless predominate. Linking- and intrusive-R are also features of Australian English.

A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below.

english american australian pronunciation

Australian English pronunciation is most similar to that of New Zealand English: many people from other parts of the world often cannot distinguish them but there are differences. New Zealand English has centralised /ɪ/ and the other short front vowels are higher. New Zealand English more strongly maintains the diphthongal quality of the NEAR and SQUARE vowels and they can be merged as something around (iə). New Zealand English does not have the bad-lad split, but like Victoria has merged /e/ with /æ/ in pre-lateral environments. Both New Zealand English and Australian English are also similar to South African English, so that they have even been grouped together under the common label "southern hemisphere Englishes".Like the other two varieties in that group, Australian English pronunciation is similar to dialects from the South-East of Britain; and like New Zealand English, it is particularly similar to Cockney. Thus, it is non-rhotic and has the trap-bath split although, as indicated above, there is some variation in particular words that are usually pronounced with the bath-vowel in England. Historically Australian English also had the same lengthening of /ɔ/ before unvoiced fricatives, but, like the English accents, this has since been reversed. Australian English lacks some innovations in Cockney since the settling of Australia, such as the use of a glottal stop in many places where a /t/ would be found, th-fronting, and h-dropping.

7.Australian english intonation

Australian English intonation is, perhaps , the least investigated component of the Aus E phonetic system.

Many theories have been offered to explain why Australian speak as they do and why they speak differently from other English-speaking nations .Few of these theories take account of the fact that pronunciation develops mainly in accordance with linguistic laws and principles. The propounders of one of the theories account the pecularities of Aus E for the possible influence of aboriginal dialects .The general idea of another pointbof view seems to be that the climate has some effect on muscular habits,leading to a more vigorous use of the organs of speech in cold climates and a more leisurely use of them in warm climates .The opponents of the second theory claim that this kind of relationship between climate and speech does not really exist. The adherents of the third theory imply that a peculiar kind of voice is heard in Australian.Voice quality,of course,modifies speech considerably, but voice quality is not speech. All these impressions and theories on Aus E intonation may be defined as interesting but metalinguistic .Such generalizations have no scientific basis.No full investigation of the intonation of Aus E has been published yet.Exact information on the intonational structure of Aus E may be gained only after serious linguistic investigations.

8. Canadian english pronunciation

Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians (77%), and more than 28 million (86%) are fluent in the language. 82% of Canadians outside Quebec speak English natively, but within Quebec the figure drops to just 11%. Canadian English contains elements of British English and American English in its vocabulary, as well as many distinctive "Canadianisms". In many areas, speech is influenced by French, and there are notable local variations. Canada has very little dialect diversity compared to the United States. The phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon for most of Canada are similar to that of the Western and Midland regions of the United States. The Canadian Great Lakes region has similarities to that of the Upper Midwest & Great Lakes region and/or Yooper dialect (in particular Michigan which has extensive business ties with Ontario), while the phonological system of western Canadian English is virtually identical to that of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and the phonetics are similar. As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes classified together as North American English. Canadian English spelling is largely a blend of British and American conventions. The term "Canadian English" is first attested in a speech by the Reverend A. Constable Geikie in an address to the Canadian Institute in 1857. Geikie, a Scottish-born Canadian, reflected the Anglocentric attitude that would be prevalent in Canada for the next hundred years when he referred to the language as "a corrupt dialect," in comparison to what he considered the proper English spoken by immigrants from Britain. Canadian English is the product of four waves of immigration and settlement over a period of almost two centuries. The first large wave of permanent English-speaking settlement in Canada, and linguistically the most important, was the influx of Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, chiefly from the Mid-Atlantic States – as such, Canadian English is believed by some scholars to have derived from northern American English. The historical development of CanE is underexplored, but recent studies suggest that CanE has been developing features of its own since the early 19th century, while recent studies have shown the emergence of CanE features. The second wave from Britain and Ireland was encouraged to settle in Canada after the War of 1812 by the governors of Canada, who were worried about anti-English sentiment among its citizens. Waves of immigration from around the globe peaking in 1910 and 1960 had a lesser influence, but they did make Canada a multicultural country, ready to accept linguistic change from around the world during the current period of globalization. The languages of Aboriginal peoples in Canada started to influence European languages used in Canada even before widespread settlement took place, and the French of Lower Canada provided vocabulary to the English of Upper Canada.The primary aspect of the Canadian English accent is a feature called "Canadian raising", where diphthongs are raised before voiceless consonants. The stereotypical aboat pronunciation, lampooned in the American television series South Park is unusual; the stereotype may derive from an interpretation of the aboot pronunciation as heard by someone who is used to the much lower abawt pronunciation, or from a misinterpretation of the spelling of the "word" aboot. Ironically, a monophthongized pronunciation of aboat is quite common in parts of the U.S. Upper Midwest, such as Minnesota. Anecdotally, the abuhwt vowels are heard in Ontario and further west, and the aboot vowels are heard in the Eastern provinces. etymologically appropriate, even where the contrast is lost in the consonant itself. Also heard is the variation in the pronunciation of the word can't, in Ontario, it is said almost as canned, whereas in the west, it becomes more like kahnt. The Northern cities vowel shift that is happening in Michigan also is heard to an extent in Southwestern Ontario.A recently identified feature (1995) found among many Canadians is a chain shift known as the Canadian Shift. This is not found in the Atlantic Provinces, east of Quebec; it is only found in Ontario and further west. For people with this shift, cot and caught merge in rounded (ɑ) position. The /ʌ/ of bat then moves down to (a), while the /ɛ/ of bet becomes (ʌ), which is short-a in other accents. This shift is still a relatively new phenomenon, so not all Canadians have it. Of the ones that do, not all have the last stage. Canadians without the Shift typically pronounce cot and caught as an un-rounded (ɒ), as in the western United States. Like American English, Canadian English is largely rhotic. This means it maintains the pronunciation of r before consonants. Rhoticity has been largely influenced by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. Americans sometimes claim to be able to recognize some Canadians instantly by their use of the word eh. However, only a certain usage of eh (detailed in the article) is peculiar to Canada. It is common in southern Ontario, the Maritimes and the Prairie provinces. In some parts of the United States, American English exhibits features of Canadian English, including Canadian Raising and the use of eh. Canadian accents are sometimes detected among Michiganders, Minnesotans, Western New Yorkers and their northern fellows.

The West/Central dialect is one of the largest and the most homogenous dialect area in North America. It forms a dialect continuum with the accent in the Western United States, and borders the dialect regions of North, Inland North, and North Central. While it is the most homogenous in that the regional differences inside the dialect area are very small, it has very few features that are unique. It is also fairly similar to General American English. While the West Central dialect is mutually intelligible with many dialects of English spoken in England, especially Received Pronunciation, in general it preserves more archaic features that existed before the dialects diverged.

9. Maritimes

Maritimer English quirks include the removal of pre-consonantal (ɹ) sounds, and a faster speech tempo. It is heavily influenced by both British and Irish English. An example of typical Maritime English might be the pronunciation of the letter t. The flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to alveolar tap (ɾ) before reduced vowels, as well as pronouncing it as a glottal stop (ɔ), is less common in the Maritimes. So, battery is pronounced as "bat-try" instead of with a flapped t.

While the stereotypical Canadian interrogative "Eh?" is used more often in the Maritimes than in most dialects in the U.S., it is actually relatively uncommon compared to the Prairies and Ontario. Alternatively, one might hear the interrogative "Right?" which is in turn used as an adverb (e.g.: "It was right foggy today!") as well. "Some" is used as an adverb as well, by some people (e.g.: "This cake is some good!"). And the two may even be combined to add emphasis. (e.g.: "That cake was right some good!") Such expressions tend to be widely used in the rural maritimes, but are less common in urban areas. British terms are very much still a part of Maritime English, although slowly fading away in favour of American or Western terms. "Chesterfield" and "front room" are examples of this. Cape Breton Island has a distinct dialect due to settlement by speakers of Acadian French and Scottish Gaelic.

10. Phonemic incidence

The pronunciation of certain words has both American and British influence; some pronunciations are more distinctively Canadian.

· The name of the letter Z is normally the Anglo-European (and French) zed; the American zee is less common in Canada, and it is often stigmatized.

· In the words adult and composite - the emphasis is usually on the first syllable, as in Britain.

· Canadians side with the British on the pronunciation of shone /ʃɒn/, lever /ˈlivə/, and several other words; been is pronounced by many speakers as /bin/ rather than /bɪn/; as in Southern England, either and neither are more commonly /ˈaɪðər/ and /ˈnaɪðər/, respectively.

· Schedule can sometimes be /ˈʃɛdʒul/; process, progress, and project are sometimes pronounced /ˈproʊsɛs/, /ˈproʊɡrɛs/, and /ˈproʊdʒɛkt/; leisure is often /ˈlɛʒər/, harassment is often /ˈhɛrəsmənt/.

· Again and against are often pronounced /əˈɡeɪn(st)/ rather than /əˈɡɛn(st)/.

· The stressed vowel of words such as borrow, sorry or tomorrow is /ɔɹ/ rather than /ɑɹ/.

· Words such as fragile, fertile, and mobile are pronounced /ˈfrædʒaɪl/, /ˈfɜrtaɪl/, and /ˈmoʊbaɪl/. The pronunciation of fertile as /fɜrtl̩/ is also becoming somewhat common in Canada, even though /ˈfɜrtaɪl/ remains dominant. Words like semi, anti, and multi tend to be pronounced /ˈsɛmi/, /ˈænti/, and /ˈmʌlti/ rather than /ˈsɛmaɪ/, /ˈæntaɪ/, and /ˈmʌltaɪ/.

Conclusion