ENGLISH-BASED PRONUNCIATION STANDARDS OF ENGLISH

British English

As was mentioned before, BEPS (British English Pronuncia­tion Standards and Accents) comprise English English, Welsh English, Scottish English and Northern Ireland English (the corre­sponding abbreviations are EE, WE, ScE., NIE).

 

Table 1

British English Accents

 

English English		Welsh English	Scottish English		Northern Ireland English
Southern	Northern		Educated Sc. Eng.	Regional Varieties
1. Southern 2. East Anglia 3. South-West	1. Northern 2. Yorkshire 3. North­west 4. West Midland

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I. English English

In this chapter we are going to look in greater detail at the Received Pronunciation (RP) and at the regional non-RP accents of England.

Roughly speaking the non-RP accents of England may be grouped like this:

1. Southern accents.

1) Southern accents (Greater London, Cockney, Surray, Kent, Es­sex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire);

2) East Anglia accents (Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cam­bridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire;

3) South-West accents (Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Wilt­shire).

2. Northern and Midland accents.

1) Northern accents (Northumberland, Durham, Cleveland);

2) Yorkshire accents;

3) North-West accents (Lancashire, Cheshire);

4) West Midland (Birmingham, Wolverhampton).

 

A. RP (Received Pronunciation)

It has long been believed that RP is a social marker, a pres­tige accent of an Englishman. In the nineteenth century "re­ceived" was understood in the sense of "accepted in the best so­ciety". The speech of aristocracy and the court phonetically was that of the London area. Then it lost its local characteristics and was finally fixed as a ruling-class accent, often referred to as "King's English". It was also the accent taught at public schools. With the spread of education cultured people not belonging to the upper classes were eager to modify their accent in the direc­tion of social standards.

We may definitely state now that RP is a genuinely region-less accent within Britain; i.e. if speakers have it you cannot tell which area of Britain they come from; which is not the case for any other type of British accents.

It is fair to mention, however, that only 3—5 per cent of the population of England speak RP. British phoneticians (Ch. Barber

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(44), A. C. Gimson (57), A. Hughes and P. Trudgill (61) estimate that nowadays RP is not homogeneous. A. C. Gimson suggests that it is convenient to distinguish three main types within it: "the conservative RP forms, used by the older generation, and, traditionally, by certain profession or social groups; the general RP forms, most commonly in use and typified by the pronuncia­tion adopted by the BBC, and the advanced RP forms, mainly used by young people of exclusive social groups — mostly of the upper classes, but also for prestige value, in certain professional circles" (57, p. 88).

This last type of RP reflects the tendencies typical of changes in pronunciation. It is the most "effected and exaggerated varie­ty" of the accent. Some of its features may be results of tempo­rary fashion, some are adopted as a norm and described in the latest textbooks. Therefore, it is very important for a teacher and learner of English to distinguish between the two. RP speakers make up a very small percentage of the English population. Many native speakers, especially teachers of English and profes­sors of colleges and universities (particularly from the South and South-East of England) have accents closely resembling RP but not identical to it. P.Trudgill and J.Hannah call it Near-RP south­ern. So various types of standard English pronunciation may be summarized as follows: Conservative RP; General RP; Advanced RP; Near-RP southern.

 

Changes in the Standard

As was stated above, changes in the standard may be traced in the speech of the younger generation of native RP speakers. These changes may affect all the features of articulation of vowel and consonant phonemes and also the prosodic system of the language.

Considerable changes are observed in the sound system of the present-day English, which are most remarkable since the well-known Great Vowel Shift in the Middle English period of the language development. It is a well-established fact that no linguistic modification can occur all of a sudden. The appearance of a new shade in the pronunciation of a sound results in the co­existence of free variants in the realization of a phoneme. The choice between permissible variants of [w] or [ʍ] in wh-words is

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an illustration of what is meant by the process of variability and free variants. In Russian we observe free variants of the pronun­ciation of the words of энергия , темп type: non-palatalized and palatalized versions of [н] — [н'] and [т] — [т']. The degrees of variability are different. The most perceptible and stable changes are described in the works of British linguists and have been in­vestigated by Soviet phoneticians. The RP of recent years is characterized by a greater amount of permissible variants com­pared to the "classical" type of RP described by D. Jones, L. Arm­strong, I. Word.

The phenomenon is significant both from the theoretical and practical viewpoint. The variability concerns mainly vowels. Most of English vowels have undergone definite- qualitative changes. The newly appeared variants exhibit different stability and range.

The qualitative distinctions manifest new allophonic realiza­tions of the vowel phonemes. Ch.Barber comes to the conclusion that a definite trend towards centralization is observed in the quality of English vowels at present (44).

Changes of Vowel Quality

1. According to the stability of articulation. 1) It is generally acknowledged that two historically long vowels [i:], [u:] have be­come diphthongized and are often called diphthongoids; the or­gans of speech slightly change their articulation by the very end of pronunciation, becoming more fronted. Ch. Barber tries to draw a parallel with the Great Vowel Shift which took place in Middle English, where diphthongization was just one part of a complete change of pattern in the long vowels. He claims that there is some resemblance to this process today and other pho­nemes may move up to fill the places left vacant.

2) There is a tendency for some of the existing diphthongs to be smoothed out, to become shorter, so that they are more like pure vowels.

a) This is very often the case with [ei], particularly in the word final position, where the glide is very slight: [tə'dei], [sei], [mei].

b) Diphthongs [aı], [au] are subject to a smoothing process where they are followed by the neutral sound [ə]:

Conservative RP: [tauə], [faiə] General RP: [taə], [faə]

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Advanced RP: [ta:], [fa]

c) Also diphthongs [ɔə], [uə] tend to be levelled to [ɔ:]. Thus the pronunciation of the words pore, poor is varied like this:

older speakers: [pɔə], [puə] middle-aged speakers: [pɔ:], [puə] younger speakers: [рɔ:], [pɔ:]

It should be mentioned, however, that this tendency does not concern the diphthong [ıə] when it is final. The prominence and length shift to the glide, this final quality often being near to [ʌ]: dear [diə] — [diʌ].

2. According to the horizontal and vertical movements of the tongue. Very striking changes occur in the vowel quality affect­ed by the horizontal movements of the tongue. In fact the gener­al tendency is marked by the centering of both front and back vowels:

a) the nuclei of [ai], [au] tend to be more back, especially in the male variant of the pronunciation;

b) the vowel phoneme [æ] is often replaced by [a] by young­er speakers: [hæv] — [hav], [ænd] — [and];

c) the nucleus of the diphthong [ɜu] varies considerably, ranging from [ou] among conservative speakers to [ɜu] among advanced ones:

Conservative RP: [sou], [foun], [nout]; Advanced RP: [sɜu], [fɜun], [nɜut].

This tendency is so strong that the transcription symbol has been recently changed in many British books: [ou] — [ɜu].

d) Back-advanced vowels [ʌ], [u] are considerably fronted in the advanced RP: but [bʌt] — [bət], good [gud] — [gəd].

It should be mentioned here that there is a tendency for all short vowels to be made nearer the centre of the mouth, that is to move towards [ə], especially in unstressed position: honest ['ɒnist] — ['ɒnəst].

Thus the horizontal changes in vowel quality may be listed like this:

Centering of short vowels:

9—3483

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More back pronunciation of the nuclei of diphthongs: [ai] → [ai], [au] → [au].

More advanced pronunciation of the diphthong: [ou] → [ɜu].

More fronted pronunciation of the diphthongoids: [i:] → [ı(j)], [u] → [u(w)].

Vertical changes in vowels may be traced in [e] and [ɔ:] which tend to be closer in advanced RP. It has also been stated above that the nuclei of diphthongs [ei], [eə], [ɔə], [uə] become more open when these phonemes are being levelled, particularly the diphthong [eə], which is characterized by a great opening of the first element: careful ['kɛəful] — ['kɛ:ful]. The first element of the diphthong [uə] can be lowered considerably. Thus several words with [uə] are given a shade [ɔ^ə] pronunciation by some advanced RP speakers: poor, sure [puə, ʃuə] — [pɔ^ə, ʃɔ^ə].

3. Combinative changes. It is general knowledge that when sounds are in company they influence each other. These chang­es are called combinative. They take place only in certain pho­netic contexts. In a diacritic study, however, there is no sharp boundary between isolative and combinative changes.

1) Changes in [j + u:], [1 + u:). Words like suit, student, super may be pronounced either [sju:t] or [su:t], ['stju:tdənt] or ['stu:dnt], ['sju:pə] or ['su:pə]. The tendency is for middle-aged and younger speakers to omit the [j] after [s] before [u:]. Word-internally [j] tends to be retained as in assume [asju:m]. There is also fluctua­tion after [l]: word-initially lute [lu:t] is normal, but it is possible to pronounce [I’lju:ʒn] in illusion, for example. These recent devel­opments in combinative RP changes bear remarkable resemblance to American Standard pronunciation.

2) Change of [ɔ:] to [ɒ] before [f, s, Ɵ]. Where orthographic "o" occurs before the voiceless fricatives [f, s, Ɵ] older speakers pro­nounce the vowel [ɔ:]: loss [lɔ:s]. This pronunciation is currently dying out in RP and being replaced by [ɒ]: [lɒs].

Words like salt and fault still may be pronounced with [ɔ:].

4. Changes in length. It is an accepted fact that English vow­els vary in length according to the phonetic context — the con­sonant they are followed by (voiceless, voiced), syllabic border, the degree of stress, the types of nuclear tone and so on.

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Actually nowadays there are changes in vowel length that are influenced by other factors. There is, for example, a strong tendency for the so-called short vowels to be lengthened, and it is interesting to note that this lengthening can be heard sporadi­cally in many words in any position.

The lengthening of [i] is often heard in big, his, is; of [u] in good; [ʌ] in come. It should also be mentioned that [i] is often lengthened in the final syllable, i.e. very, many: ['veri:], ['meni:].

Short vowels [e, æ] are also very frequently lengthened in yes, bed, men, said, sad, bad, bag and so on. This tendency has considerably increased in the past few years.

Changes in Consonant Quality

1. Voicing and Devoicing. As is well known, there is no op­position of final RP consonants according to the work of the vo­cal cords. They are all partially devoiced, particularly stops. Such devoiced sounds are clearly heard after long vowels and diphthongs as in deed: [di:d]. However, these partly devoiced consonants are never identical with their voiceless counterparts, because the latter are pronounced with strong breath-force.

This tendency for devoicing now seems to be on the in­crease. As soon as the opposition of voiced — voiceless is neu­tralized in the final position, the fortis/lenis character of pronun­ciation has become the relevant feature of consonants.

The voiced/voiceless distinction of the minimal pairs [sed] — [set], [dɒg] — [dɒk] may seem to be lost. Actually it does not take place. The weak consonants are never replaced by their voiceless counterparts, they never become strong, the stops [b, d, g], though devoiced, never acquire aspiration. More than that. The interrela­tion of final consonants and the preceding stressed vowels is very close. The instrumental investigation of E. G. Kurjatnikova (21) showed that the duration of the vowel before the traditionally called voiced consonant is 1,5 times larger than that before the voiceless consonant. Cf.:

He saw his cap. — He saw his cab.

Describing the positional allophones of the English stops A. C. Gimson characterizes the initial lenis [b, d, g] as partially de-voiced, final lenis [b, d, g] as voiceless.

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The sound [t] in the intervocalic position is made voiced, e.g. better ['betə] — ['bedə], letter ['letə] — ['ledə].

2. Loss of [h]. In rapid speech initial [h] is lost in form words and tends to die out from the language. Even most highly educat­ed people subconsciously drop it completely. So instead of: He wants her to come [hi ^→ wɒnts hɜ tə ˎkʌm] one hears: [hi ^→ wɒnts ɜ tə ˎkʌm]. It is evident, of course, that the loss of [h] in stressed syllables sounds wrong.

3. Initial "hw". Some conservative RP speakers pronounce words like why, when, which with an initial weak breath-like sound [h] — [ʍ]. The general tendency is, however, to pro­nounce [w].

4. Loss of final |ŋ]. The pronunciation of [in] for the termina­tion [iŋ] has been retained as an archaic form of the RP: sitti'n', lookin'. These occasional usages are not likely to become general.

5. Spread of "dark" [ł]. This tendency is evidently influ­enced by the American pronunciation and some advanced RP speakers are often heard saying [ł] instead of [l] as in believe, for example. There is no threat in spreading it widely yet but it is quite common for pop singers now. It should also be mentioned that sometimes final [ł] tends to be vocalized as in people, for in­stance, but is not likely to become a norm.

6. Glottal stop. In RP the glottal stop [ʔ] can appear only in the following two environments: a) as a realization of syllable-final [t] before a following consonant as in batman ['bætman] — ['bæʔmn] or not quite ['nɒt 'kwait] — ['nɒʔ 'kwait]; b) in certain consonant clusters as in box, simply [bɒʔks], ['sıʔmplı], where it is known as "glottal reinforcements". The use of glottal stop by ad­vanced RP speakers produces a "clipped" effect on a foreigner.

7. Palatalized final [k'] is often heard in words week, quick, etc.: [wi:k'], [kwik'J.

8. Linking and intrusive [r]. It has been estimated that all English accents are divided into "rhotic" or "r-full" and "non-rhotic" or "r-less". Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r] corresponding to orthographic "r". RP is a non-rhotic accent but most speakers of it do pronounce orthographic "r" word-fi­nally before a vowel: lt is a far_⌣away country. It is known as link­ing "r". Failure by students to pronounce it does not usually af­fect comprehension but may result in their sounding foreign.

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As a further development and by analogy with linking "r", "r" is inserted before a following vowel even though there is no "r" in spelling. This "r" is known as intrusive "r". The actual situ­ation is that younger RP speakers do have it after [ə] as in idea of, China and.

It is said that nowadays in colloquial fluent speech there is a strong tendency towards elision, reduction and assimilation. This tendency is reflected in the pronunciation of the young gen­eration: tutor ['tʃutə], second year ['sekənʤiə], perhaps you [pə'hæpʃu:], gives you ['gıvʒu:], as you know [aʒju: 'nɜu]; in the transcribed texts of British textbooks: him [im], he [i:], her [ɜ], his [iz], can [kn], from [frm], than [ðn], them [ðm], some [sm], suppose [spɜuz], have to ['həftə], usually ['ju:ʒwəli], last time ['la:staim], and there was no one [an ðər wz 'nɜu wʌn]; even in the traditional spelling: C'm on, baby, Sorry 'bout that. Oh, le'mme see. Oh, I dunno. Must've puf'em all together. Why d'you ask? What dja think? Alright!

9. Combinative changes. Sound combinations [tj, dj, sj] are pronounced as [ʧ, ʤ, ʃ] respectively, e.g. actual ['æktjuəl] — ['æktʃuəl], graduate ['grædjuəit] — ['græʤueıt], issue ['isju:] — ['iʃu:]

In the clusters of two stops, where the loss of plosion is usu­ally observed, each sound is pronounced with audible release, e.g. active ['æktiv] — ['æktiv], sit down ['sit_⌣'daun] — ['sit 'daun].

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