1.7.1. Differences in Phonetic Inventory
The consonants of Received Pronunciation and of General American English are identical. Both variants contain the same 24 phonemes, the only possible difference lies in maintenance of /hw/ - /w/ distinction. In some regions it is a recessive component. Some Received Pronunciation speakers retain this distinction too.
Within vowels there is a clear difference in the number of phonemes available: Received Pronunciation has twenty and the general American English has fifteen.
Simple Vowels and Diphthongs of American English
| Simple vowel | Diphthong | Simple vowel | Diphthong | ||||
| pit set cat pot | /I/ /F/ /x/X /Q/ | heat say buy cow | /Ij/ /ej/ /aj/ /Qw/
| cut bought put suppose | /A/ /O/ /u/ /q/
| lose grow boy | /uw/ /ow/ /Oj/ |
In all cases, the American English diphthongs are somewhat longer than the simple vowels.
This maybe credited to the fact that General American English has no central diphthongs while Received Pronunciation has /Iq/ and /Eu/. General American English has a combination of /Ir/: learn /lIrn/; /Fr/ lair (барлога); /ur/ lure (спокуса).
In addition General American English doesn't have phoneme /P/. Whenever Received Pronunciation has this sound General American English has either /Q/ or /O/, e.g. clock /Q/, Washington /Q/. Correspondingly to /P/ (R.P.) General American English has /Q/ especially in the Middle West and neighbouring Canada. Before such consonants as l, m, n and before stops AmE have /Q/: top, rob, bomb, don. But before g in the words dog, fog /O/, before /N/ they have /O/ as well.
- American english: Матеріали до вивчення курсу
- Contents
- 1.1. English as it exists today
- 1.2. Dialects vs variety/variation
- 1.3. English in america
- The languages of the usa and canada
- 1.3.1. Canadian English
- 1.3.2. Regional varieties of Canadian English
- 1.3.3. Regional varieties of English in the usa
- 1.4. Social variations of american english
- 1.5. Ethnic varieties of american english
- 1.5.1. Native American English
- 1.5.2. Spanish-influenced English
- 1.5.3. Black English
- 1.6. Male-female differences
- 1.6.1. Approaches to the Explanation of Cross-Sex Difference
- 1.6.2. Differences encoded in language
- 1.6.3. How to Avoid Sexist Language
- 1.7. British and american english: differences in pronunciation
- 1.7.1. Differences in Phonetic Inventory
- 1.7.2. Differences in Quality of the Phonemes
- 1.7.3. Phonotactic Differences
- Intervocalic /t/
- 1.7.4. Divergent Patterns of Phoneme Use in Sets of Words
- 1.7.5. Stress and Intonation
- 1.8. British english and american english: differences in morphology
- 1.8.1. Differences in the Verb
- 1.8.2. Differences in the Noun and Pronoun
- 1.8.3. Differences in the Preposition and the Adverbs
- Time Expressions:
- 1.9. British english and american english: differences in lexis
- British english and american english:
- BrE fulfil, instil may be interpreted as simplification. In AmE we find double “ll” in fulfill, instill, but both forms are used in AmE install(l), install(l)ment.
- BrE BrE
- Individual Words which Differ in Spelling
- Exercise 2
- Exercise 3
- Exercise 4
- Exercise 5
- Exercise 6
- Exercise 7
- Exercise 18
- Exercise 19
- 1. Eastern New England
- 2. Middle Atlantic
- 3. Southern
- 4. North Central
- 5. Southern Mountain
- Exercise 20
- Exercise 21
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary