RP and GA

RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION
pronunciation standard with highest overt prestige in England
is the norm taught to foreigners
still a media standard (though not obligatory)
received in the outdated meaning of generally accepted
popular names: BBC English, Oxford English
modern name: Southern British Standard/Standard Southern English
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modern name: Southern British Standard/Standard Southern English
now not associated with a particular dialect area within England,
but originated in the Southeast
socially characteristic of the upper and upper middle class (public
school education, diplomats, barristers, stockbrokers etc.)
RP and GA
VARIETIES OF RP I
U-RP (upper-crust RP)
old-fashioned upper class accent, almost a caricature (elderly Oxbridge dons,
private schoolmistresses, officers etc.)
Final y (happy) very open, []
intervocalic tapped r (very sorry), []
syllable-initial voiceless stops in stressed syllables weakly aspirated
/:/-vowel in, e.g., nurse very open, []
centering diphthongs with low second element: near [ni:], share []
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centering diphthongs with low second element: near [ni:], share []
Mainstream RP
regular native RP-speakers
combinatory processes: place assimilations (ten minutes with [m]), elisions
(cluster reductions), unstressed H-Dropping, smoothing, intrusive r etc.)
lexical-incidental variability
Sunday as /snd/ or /snd/
again as /gn/ or /gn/ etc.
RP and GA
VARIETIES OF RP II
Adoptive RP
spoken by adults who did not speak RP as children
influence of the native accent
tends to be more formal than Mainstream RP (less assimilations, elisions,
no intrusive r)
Near-RP
accent not within definition of RP, but with very few regionalisms
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accent not within definition of RP, but with very few regionalisms
rhotic features, if speakers original dialect contains them
final y in such words as happy, city with front, high /i/
occasional flapping or glottalling of /t/
// for //in suffixes (offices = officers, tended = tendered,
cabin, village)
breaking (insertion of // between vowel and /l/): feel [fi:]
RP and GA
RP VOWEL INVENTORY
/i:/ beat
// bit
// beard, beer
// bait
// bet
// scarce, bear
/u:/ boot
// put
// pure
// boat
// boy
/:/ port

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// scarce, bear
/a/ bat (older: //)
/a/ bite
// again, butter
/:/ bird
/:/ port
/a/ bout
// butt
// pot
/:/ part
Rising diphthongs: //, /a/, //, //, /a/
Centering diphthongs: //, // (develops towards //), // (now mostly // )
RP and GA
RP VOWELS: RECENT INNOVATIONS
smoothing: diphthongs are realized as monophthongs if followed by
another vowel
quality of the monophthong is that of the starting-point of the underlying diphthong
player as /pl/, chaos as /ks/, mower as /m/, going as /g/
applies especially frequently to /a/ and /a/ before //
some words stay disyllablic: coward /kad/
potential triphthongs are diph- or even monophthongized: fire /fa/ or /f:/,
tower /ta/ or /t:/
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tower or
lowering of [] to [a] began to be established in the early 1970s
bad as /bad/ not /bd/
loss of centering diphthongs (in progress):
// /:/ (pour); // // /:/ (poor); // /:/ (care)
centering of // to // (goat, home)
current in the 19
th
century, established norm since WWII
RP and GA
HISTORICAL PROCESSES: CENTERING DIPHTHONGS
Historical form, e.g., beer /bi:r/ (Scottish English) vs /b/ (RP)
Chronological order of processes:
Pre-R Breaking: epenthesis of schwa between vowels /i:, e:, o:, u:/ and /r/
(movement from a tense, nonlow vowel to postalveolar /r/ requires considerable movement
of the tongue if movement is slowed, epenthetic vowel can occur as tongue passes through)
/ [- cons, - low, + long]__r
/bi:r/ /bi:r/
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/bi:r/ /bi:r/
Pre-Schwa Laxing: long tense vowel becomes short and lax
[- cons, - low, + long, +tense] [- cons, - low, - long, -tense]/__ r
/bi:r/ /br/
R-Dropping: historical /r/ eliminated except when followed by a vowel
r /__{
/br/ /b/
###
#
0
C
RP and GA
IMPORTANT CONSONANT FEATURES
non-rhoticity: underlying // is pronounced only
when followed by a vowel (ring, price, weary) word-internally and, as
Linking R across word boundaries unless a pause is involved (the car is green)
in a hypercorrect insertion, Intrusive R: e.g., law and order as /l: nd :d/
/l/ is light [l] when followed by a vowel or /j/ (luck, jelly, feeling,
value) in the same word, i.e. in the onset of a syllable, but dark [] in all
other cases, i.e. the rhyme of a syllable (steal, cattle)
Yod Dropping:
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Yod Dropping:
RP only with Early Yod Dropping after palatals (chew, juice, yew), //
(rude) or consonant + /l/ (blue, flew, glue), optionally (and more and
more) after // (enthusiasm) and /l/ (lewd)
no Later Yod Dropping as in GA: /j/ remains in underlying /ju/ (or /j/ if //
follows) after all coronal consonants (tune, student, duke, reduce, new,
suit, assume, presume) in stressed syllables
Yod Coalescence in unstressed syllables: situate as [stt]
RP and GA
TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISE RP
Theres a dreadful sound coming from Anns room. What on earth is it?
Shes borrowed a record-player from one of her friends.
Does she have to have it on quite so loud?
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Does she have to have it on quite so loud?
The whole house seems to be trembling with it.
Why cant she use headphones to protect her and our ears?
RP and GA
GENERAL AMERICAN
English in North America
basis reflects 17
th
century Early Modern English
rhoticity, // in dance, fall = autumn, mad = angry, gotten
three settlement centers (westward expansion over the centuries)
eastern Mass., Conn., Hudson Valley, NY, NJ permanent contacts with UK
Philadelphia, Baltimore including first German, Irish, Scottish settlers
Virginia, South Carolina southeastern British aristocracy
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General American (GA)
not necessarily a single, unified accent, but a useful concept/norm to be
followed/taught
is not a regionless standard pronunciation
covers all speakers who do not have marked eastern or southern
characteristics - internal regional differences (west, midwest, north) are
possible
RP and GA
GA VOWEL INVENTORY

/i:/ beat
// bit
// bait
// bet
// bat
/a/ bite
/
/u:/ boot
// put
// boat
// boy
// port
/a/ bout
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/a/ bite
// again, butter
/:/ bird
/a/ bout
// butt
// part, pot
Rising diphthongs: //, /a/, //, //, /a/
No centering diphthongs due to rhoticity
// merges with // , // is lowered, sometimes also // (rarely with /r/)
RP and GA
GA VOWELS: DIFFERENCES FROM RP
no centering diphthongs due to rhoticity (e.g., // //, // //)
RP vowel // corresponds to GA // (stop, dog, god, modern etc.)
with a few words still resisting the change in most accents (gone, song)
phonetic realization of // is much lower in GA than in RP and in many
accents becomes // as well (thought, cause), though rarely when
followed by a liquid (port, call)
words in the flat A-Group with // in GA, but /:/ in RP (half, past)
words with // in 18
th
century British English split into two groups: those with
long [:] lowered and backed to /:/ (staff, castle, ask), the others
retained // (gaffe, math, hassle), which is now modern RP /a/
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retained // (gaffe, math, hassle), which is now modern RP /a/
no phonological conditioning (e.g., basket vs. mascot, bath vs. math):
purely based on lexical diffusion
modern pronunciation often raised to //
// retains back starting point as opposed to RP mid starting point in //
/, , , / with schwa-offglide before voiced consonant (e.g., [bd])
// and // neutralized as [] before intervocalic // (merry vs. marry)
diphthong /a/ often raised to []
RP and GA
DIFFERENCES CONCERNING CONSONANTS
rhoticity: GA retains // also in syllable-final position (car)
/l/ tends to be dark in all environments, certainly intervocalically (jelly)
// used by many speakers in original wh-words (which vs. witch)
Later Yod Dropping:
/j/ is eliminated from underlying /ju/ (or /j/ if // follows) after all coronal
consonants (tune, student, duke, reduce, new, suit, assume,
presume) in stressed syllables
Yod coalescence in unstressed syllables: situate as [stut]
RP only with Early Yod Dropping after palatals (chew, juice, yew), //
http://www.ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka Proseminar Basic Phonetics and Phonology I
RP only with Early Yod Dropping after palatals (chew, juice, yew), //
(rude) or consonant + /l/ (blue, flew, glue), optionally (and more and
more) after // (enthusiasm) and /l/ (lewd)
tapping: /t/ and /d/ are tapped (//), if preceded by a sonorant and followed
by a vowel or syllabic /l/ (party, writer, rider, little)
also nasal tapping (//)under same conditions (winter)
R Dissimilation: historical // is elided in unstressed, non-final syllables
adjacent to // in another syllable (governor, surprise, thermometer)
(so in fact a very limited non-rhotic feature)
RP and GA
NON-SYSTEMATIC PRONUNCIATION DIFFERENCES GA - RP
individual words
charade (GA: /d/, RP: /:d/); cordial (GA: /kl/, RP: /k:dl/),
herb (GA: /b/, RP: /h:b/), leisure (GA: /li/, RP /l/),
privacy(GA: /pavsi/, RP: /pvs/), schedule (GA: /skl/, RP: /dju:l/),
tomato (GA: /tm/, RP /tm:t/), vase (GA: /vz/, RP: /v:z/),
Asia(GA: //, RP: //), anti-, semi- (GA: /nta, sma/, RP: /ant, sm/),
GA: aluminum (/lumnm/), RP: aluminium (/almnm/) etc.
stress differences
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stress differences
French origin: ballet (GA: /bl/, RP: /bal/), also: attach, beret, baton etc.
first syllable stress in GA: address, cigarette, research, margarine, inquiry etc.
-ory/-ary words:
with secondary stress on penultimate in GA, but no stress (reduced) in RP: e.g., secretary
(GA: /skti/, RP: /skt/) also: lavatory, commentary, auditory etc.
with main stress on first syllable in GA, on second syllable in RP: e.g., laboratory (GA:
/lbti/, RP: /lbt/) also: corollary, capillary, ancillary etc.
RP and GA
CONSONANT INVENTORY OF ENGLISH (RP AND GA)
bilabial labio-
dental
dental alveolar post-
alveolar
palato-
alveolar
palatal velar glottal
Plosive
p b t d k g
Fricative
() f v s z () h
Affricate

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Nasal
m n
Approximant
l
Tap
()
Glide
w j (w)
RP and GA
TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISE GA
The president wanted to veto the bill and let Congress deal with it.
The coach showed us how to pitch, catch and bat.
Everyone stared at the mess they had made.
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Everyone stared at the mess they had made.
The floods that have eroded the mountains are over.
She put some soy sauce on her eggplant, but it gave her a stomachache
RP and GA
GENERAL TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISES I
RP GA
advertisement
stupid
Z
wrath
boxer
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boxer
tomato
whistle
schedule
thermometer
matter
lieutenant
RP and GA
GENERAL TRANSCRIPTION EXERCISES II
RP GA
progress was made
the clerk didnt know
can you carry him
dont ask me
I fought the law
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I fought the law
a loss of forty points
the Tower of London
thats my address
theres a bear there
stop moaning about the task
get out of here