Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation explained

pronounced as /notice/One aspect of the differences between American and British English is that of specific word pronunciations, as described in American and British English pronunciation differences. However, there are also differences in some of the basic pronunciation patterns between the standard dialects of each country. The standard varieties for each are in fact generalizations: for the U.S., a loosely defined spectrum of unmarked varieties called General American (abbreviated "GA") and, for Britain, a collection of prestigious varieties most common in southeastern England, ranging from upper- to middle-class Received Pronunciation accents (often classified along a continuum with local Estuary English),^[1] which together here are abbreviated "RP". However, other regional accents in each country also show differences, for which see regional accents of English speakers.

Received Pronunciation has been the subject of many academic studies,^[2] and is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. The widely repeated claim that only about two percent of Britons speak RP^[2] is no more than a rough estimate and has been questioned by several writers, most notably by the phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis.

Phonological differences

• Rhoticity  - GA is rhotic while RP is non-rhotic; that is, the phoneme pronounced as //r// is only pronounced in RP when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound. Where GA pronounces pronounced as //r// before a consonant and at the end of an utterance, RP either has no consonant (if the preceding vowel is pronounced as //ɔː//, pronounced as //ɜ:// or pronounced as //ɑː//, as in bore, burr and bar) or has a schwa instead (the resulting sequences being diphthongs or triphthongs). This leads to several RP mergers characteristic of non-rhotic accents, whereas GA maintains these distinctions. Similarly, where GA has r-colored vowels (pronounced as //ər// or pronounced as //ɜr//, as in "cupboard" or "bird"), RP has plain vowels pronounced as //ə// or pronounced as //ɜː//. The "intrusive R" of many RP speakers (in such sequences as "the idea-r-of it") is absent in GA; this is a consequence of the rhotic/non-rhotic distinction.
• The trap–bath split has resulted in RP having the back unrounded open vowel pronounced as //ɑː// in many words where GA has a front open unrounded vowel pronounced as //æ//; this RP vowel occurs typically (but not always) when followed by:
  • pronounced as //nt//, pronounced as //ntʃ//, pronounced as //ns//, pronounced as //s//, pronounced as //f//, or pronounced as //θ// (e.g. aunt, branch, chance, pass, laugh, path).
• pronounced as //æ// is usually tensed before pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //n//, and sometimes pronounced as //ŋ// in GA; in other words, rap is pronounced as /[ɹæp]/ but ram is pronounced as /[ɹɛəm]/.^[3]
• Several foreign names and loanwords spelled with (a) use pronounced as //æ// in RP but pronounced as //ɑː// in GA, such as kebab, pasta, macho, and taco. In a small number of words, these phonemes are exactly reversed in the two dialects, such as banana, khaki, and Pakistan.
• RP has three open back vowels, where GA has only two or even one. GA speakers use pronounced as //ɑ// for both the RP pronounced as //ɒ// (spot) and pronounced as //ɑː// (spa): the father–bother merger.
  • Nearly half of American speakers additionally use the same vowel for the RP pronounced as //ɔː// (the cot–caught merger).
• While the lot–cloth split is no longer found in RP, it is found in those GA speakers who do not have the cot–caught merger (which otherwise neutralizes this split). This results in pronounced as //ɔ// in some words which now have pronounced as //ɒ// in RP, particularly before voiceless fricatives and sometimes before pronounced as //ɡ// (where it is always pronounced as //ɒ// in RP, both older and contemporary). This is reflected in the "eye dialect" spelling "dawg" for dog.
• "Long o" and "short o" before intervocalic /r/ have merged in American English. Thus "moral" and "oral" rhyme in GA (pronounced as //ˈ(m)ɔrəl//), while in RP they do not rhyme, being pronounced pronounced as //ˈmɒrəl// and pronounced as //ˈɔːrəl//, respectively.
• RP has a marked degree of contrast of length between "short" and "long" vowels (the long vowels being the diphthongs plus pronounced as //iː//, pronounced as //uː//, pronounced as //ɜː//, pronounced as //ɔː//, and pronounced as //ɑː//). In GA this contrast is somewhat less evident and non-phonemic, so the IPA length symbol (pronounced as /ː/) is often omitted.
• The "long o" (as in boat) is realised differently: GA back first element pronounced as /[oʊ]/; RP central first element pronounced as /[əʊ]/. However, there is considerable variation in this vowel on both sides of the Atlantic.
• The distinction between unstressed pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ə// is lost in GA, while in RP it is retained. Thus in RP, edition pronounced as //ɪˈdɪʃən// and addition pronounced as //əˈdɪʃən// are not homophones.
• Where GA has pronounced as //i// in an unstressed syllable at the end of a morpheme, conservative RP has pronounced as //ɪ//, not having undergone happy-tensing. For many RP speakers, the vowel does tense word-finally, but this distinction is still retained in inflected forms (e.g. candied and candid are homophones in RP, but not in GA).
• In GA, flapping is common: when either a pronounced as //t// or a pronounced as //d// occurs between a sonorant phoneme and an unstressed vowel phoneme, it is realized as an alveolar-flap allophone pronounced as /[ɾ]/. This sounds like a pronounced as //d// to RP speakers. pronounced as /[ɾ]/ is an allophone of pronounced as //r// in conservative RP. The degree of flapping varies considerably among speakers, and is often reduced in more formal settings. It does occur to an extent in nearly all speakers of American English, with better pronounced with a flap almost ubiquitously regardless of background. Pronouncing the t would be considered overly formal. This does not mean it always completely merges with bedder, as pronounced as //ɛ// in the latter can be somewhat longer than in better.
• Yod-dropping occurs in GA at the onset of stressed syllables after all alveolar consonants, including pronounced as //t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l//; i.e. historic pronounced as //juː// (from spellings u, ue, eu, ew), is pronounced pronounced as //u//. In contrast, RP speakers:
  • always retain pronounced as //j// after pronounced as //n//: e.g. new is RP pronounced as //njuː//, GA pronounced as //nu//;
  • retain or coalesce it after pronounced as //t/, /d//: e.g. due is RP pronounced as //djuː// or pronounced as //dʒuː//, GA pronounced as //du//;
  • retain or drop it after pronounced as //θ/, /l//: e.g. allude is RP pronounced as //əˈljuːd// or (as GA) pronounced as //əˈlud//;
  • retain, coalesce in stressed or unstressed syllables, or drop it after pronounced as //s/, /z//: e.g. assume is RP pronounced as //əˈsjuːm//, or (as GA) pronounced as //əˈsum//.
• RP speakers also drop the yod especially in coupon and Pulitzer as pronounced as //ˈkuːpɒn// and pronounced as //ˈpʊlɪtsə// respectively, but many GA speakers retain it, becoming pronounced as //ˈkjuːpɒn// and pronounced as //ˈpjuːlɪtsər//, although Pulitzer with the yod is widely incorrect.^{[4] [5]}
• Yod-coalescence occur in both GA and RP in unstressed syllables or after a stressed vowel. RP however more often retains the yod, especially in carefully enunciated forms of words. For example, issue is RP pronounced as //ˈɪsjuː// or (as GA) pronounced as //ˈɪʃu//, graduate may be carefully enunciated in RP as pronounced as //ˈɡradjʊeɪt//, but nature is always coalesced pronounced as //ˈneɪtʃə(r)//. In both GA and RP, however, the sounds of word-final pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //s//, pronounced as //t//, and pronounced as //z// (spelled either s or z) can coalesce with the sound of word-initial pronounced as //j// (spelled u or y) across word boundaries in casual or rapid speech, becoming pronounced as //dʒ//, pronounced as //ʃ//, pronounced as //tʃ//, and pronounced as //ʒ// respectively, thus this year (pronounced as //ˈðɪʃɪə(r)//) can sound like thi(s) shear/sheer. This is also found in other English accents.
• For some GA speakers from any U.S. region whose accents are derived from, or similar to, those that originate especially in California, other Western states, and even Midwestern areas, including the Upper Midwest, the unstressed I in -ing (pronounced as //ɪŋ//) is tensed (i.e., raised) and the G is dropped, so that -ing is enunciated to sound like ean (as in mean), een, or ene (as in scene; pronounced as /[in]/), thus coding is similar to codeine (pronounced as //ˈkoʊdin//), akin to how "in" is typically pronounced by speakers from Australia, where the target for pronounced as //ɪ// is closer to cardinal pronounced as /[i]/,^[6] or Romance languages-speaking countries like France and Spain, whether as a standalone word or a syllable, but shorter than the long vowel of bean or the traditional RP pronunciation of been (pronounced as /[iːn]/). However, this pronunciation is considered incorrect, but it had already been widespread in American television as early as 1990 and was described in that year's Orlando Sentinel article as a "corruption of the language"^[7] so that it has been either unconventional or nonexistent in RP.
• For some RP speakers (upper class), unlike in GA, some or all of tyre (tire), tower, and tar are homophones; this reflects the merger of the relevant vowels.
• The voiceless stops /t/, /p/, and /k/ have a stronger aspiration in RP.
• Most General American accents, but not British ones, have undergone vowel mergers before /r/: the nearer–mirror and hurry–furry mergers, and some variation of the Mary–marry–merry merger, a total three-way merger being the most common throughout North America.
• GA accents usually have some degree of merging weak vowels.
• Disyllabic laxing is more common in American than in British English, with a short vowel in GA and a long vowel in RP in such words as era, patent and lever.
• Trisyllabic laxing however is somewhat less common in GA than in RP, for example in privacy, vitamin and spherical.

See also

• Phonological history of English

After American-British split to after World War II

• American and British English pronunciation differences
• General American English
• Received Pronunciation

Bibliography

• Book: Collins. Beverly. Mees. Inger M.. 2003. The Phonetics of English and Dutch. 5th. Brill. Leiden. 90-04-10340-6.
• Book: Fowler , H.W. . R.W. Birchfield. Fowler's Modern English Usage. registration. Oxford University Press. 1996. 978-0-19-869126-6.
• Web site: Windsor Lewis. Jack. A Notorious Estimate. 14 April 2013. JWL's Blogs. 17 January 2017.
  • Book: Wells. John C.. Medina. Carmelo. Soto. Palomo. Il Jornadas de Estudios Ingleses. Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation?. Universidad de Jaén. 1997. 19–28. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/rphappened.htm. 28 January 2015.
• Book: Metcalf . Allan . How We Talk: American Regional English Today . 2000. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Far West and beyond. 0618043624 . https://books.google.com/books?id=SsMUCl5j8X4C&pg=PA143.
• Book: Hunter. Marsha . Johnson. Brian K. . The Articulate Advocate: New Techniques of Persuasion for Trial Attorneys . 2009. Crown King Books. Articulators and Articulation . 9780979689505 . https://books.google.com/books?id=-OQDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92.

Notes and References

1. Moreno Falcón, Manuel. (2016). Received Pronunciation, Estuary English and Cockney: a study focused on l-vocalisation, th-fronting and t-glottaling. 10.13140/RG.2.1.2286.7444.
2. Web site: Learning: Language & Literature: Sounds Familiar?: Case studies: Received Pronunciation . . 25 December 2011 . 22 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190722181432/http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/ . dead .
3. Boberg, Charles (Spring 2001). "Phonological Status of Western New England". American Speech, Volume 76, Number 1. pp. 3-29 (Article). Duke University Press. p. 11: "The vowel /æ/ is generally tensed and raised [...] only before nasals, a raising environment for most speakers of North American English".
4. Web site: A Nation Divided on How to Say the Word "Coupon" . Dow Jones & Company Inc. . 6 November 2011 . All Things D . Duryee, Tricia.
5. Web site: FAQ. The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. 24. How is 'Pulitzer' pronounced? The correct pronunciation is 'PULL it sir.'.
6. Web site: Australian English monophthongs . Robert Mannell . Felicity Cox . Macquarie University.
7. News: NOT EVEN NETWORK STARS PRONOUNCE WORDS CORRECTLY . Orlando Sentinel . 7 November 1990.