1.7. British and american english: differences in pronunciation

Although the majority of language forms are common to both British English and American English are a great number of points where they are different. It is the area of pronunciation that American English and British English differences are most obvious while divergent patterns of grammatical usage, of vocabulary choice and spelling differences crop up only sporadically. Pronunciation colors every aspect of oral communication. Much of this is due to the differences in what is called articulatory set, i.e. a predisposition to pronounce sounds and words in a particular style. Many American speakers especially from Middle West have a nasal "twang". This is caused by the habit of leaving the velum /'vJlqm/ open so that the nasal cavity forms the resonance chamber. Southern Americans are stereotyped by other American their “drawl”. This drawling out of sounds is due perhaps to the overall lack of tension in articulation. British accents are often thought of as clipped possibly because of greater tension and lesser degree drawling in stressed vowels.