UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST „VASILE GOLDIŞ” ARAD

FACULTATEA DE STIINTE UMANISTE, POLITICE SI

ADMINISTRATIVE

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH

PENTRU UZUL STUDENŢILOR ANULUI: I

FACULTATEA: STIINTE UMANISTE, POLITICE SI

ADMINISTRATIVE

SPECIALIZAREA: LIMBI MODERNE APLICATE

Lector univ. dr. ŢIRBAN NARCISA

FOREWORD

Learning a second or foreign language not only implies studying grammatical aspects of
the language, but also dealing with the culture of its speakers. A language cannot be
taught without taking into account its socio-cultural system: appropriateness of language,
gestures, social distance, values, mores, taboos, habits, social institutions, registers,
dialects, and so forth.
Varieties of English, is a course that aims to incorporate these social aspects of
language into the teaching and learning of English. The goals of this textbook are a) to
help high intermediate to advanced students use the language within the social context; b)
to make students aware of how English speakers use their language in terms of style,
register and dialect; and c) to encourage students to analyze their culture and the culture
of English speakers in order to be able to cope with cross-cultural misunderstandings.
This course focuses on regional differences in English. Students are invited to
work on origins of American place names, definitions of dialect and idiolect, and the two
major dialects of English. At the same time, they are engaged in developing language
skills (vocabulary about place names, prefixes, suffixes), and reading strategies (guessing
meaning from context). They also study differences between British and American
English in terms of spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
It concentrates on American English dialects: the description and location of the
main dialects of American English, differences among these dialects, their origins, and
how American English has been enriched by other languages and varieties. Students have
the opportunity to work on language areas such as the pronunciation of sounds typical of
American English, Latinate vocabulary, listening comprehension, and reading skills.
Varieties of English appears to be effective in the teaching of a second or foreign
language. The topics covered in the course heighten students' awareness of the social
aspects of language; students thus become more interested in the syntactic, semantic,
lexical, phonological, and pragmatic aspects of the language they are studying.
 I. The Origin and History of the
English Language

English is a West Germanic language originating in England, and is the first language for
most people in the Anglophone Caribbean, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the
Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States (sometimes referred to as
the Anglosphere). It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language
throughout the world, especially in Commonwealth countries and in many international
organisations. A native or fluent speaker of English is known as an Anglophone. (f. L.
Anglo "English" + Gk. phone "sound, speech").
Modern English is sometimes described as the first global lingua franca. English
is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation,
entertainment, radio and diplomacy. The influence of the British Empire is the primary
reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles. Since World War
II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly
accelerated the adoption of English.
A working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions, and
occupations. As a result, over a billion people speak English at least at a basic level (see
English language learning and teaching). English is one of six official languages of the
United Nations.
English is an Anglo-Frisian language. Germanic-speaking peoples from northwest
Germany ( Saxons and Angles) and Jutland ( Jutes) invaded what is now known as
Eastern England around the fifth century AD. It is a matter of debate whether the Old
English language spread by displacement of the original population, or the native Celts
gradually adopted the language and culture of a new ruling class, or a combination of
both of these processes (see Sub-Roman Britain).
Whatever their origin, these Germanic dialects eventually coalesced to a degree
(there remained geographical variation) and formed what is today called Old English. Old
English loosely resembles some coastal dialects in what are now northwest Germany and
the Netherlands (i.e., Frisia). Throughout the history of written Old English, it retained a
synthetic structure closer to that of Proto-Indo-European, largely adopting West Saxon
scribal conventions, while spoken Old English became increasingly analytic in nature,
losing the more complex noun case system, relying more heavily on prepositions and
fixed word order to convey meaning. This is evident in the Middle English period, when
literature was to an increasing extent recorded with spoken dialectal variation intact, after
written Old English lost its status as the literary language of the nobility. It has been
postulated that English retains some traits from a Celtic substratum. Later, it was
influenced by the related North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Vikings
who settled mainly in the north and the east coast down to London, the area known as the
Danelaw.
 The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 greatly influenced the evolution of the
language. For about 300 years after this, the Normans used Anglo-Norman, which was
close to Old French, as the language of the court, law and administration. By the latter
part of the fourteenth century, when English had replaced French as the language of law
and government, Anglo-Norman borrowings had contributed roughly 10,000 words to
English, of which 75% remain in use. These include many words pertaining to the legal
and administrative fields, but also include common words for food, such as mutton, beef,
and pork. However, the animals associated with these foods (e.g. sheep, cow, and swine )
retained their Saxon names, possibly because as a herd animal they were tended by Saxon
serfs, while as food, they were more likely to be consumed at a Norman table. The
Norman influence heavily influenced what is now referred to as Middle English. Later,
during the English Renaissance, many words were borrowed directly from Latin (giving
rise to a number of doublets) and Greek, leaving a parallel vocabulary that persists into
modern times. By the seventeenth century there was a reaction in some circles against so-
called inkhorn terms.
During the fifteenth century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel
Shift, the spread of a prestigious South Eastern-based dialect in the court, administration
and academic life, and the standardizing effect of printing. Early Modern English can be
traced back to around the Elizabethan period.
The English language belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch
of the Indo-European family of languages.
The question as to which is the nearest living relative of English is a matter of
discussion. Apart from such English-lexified creole languages such as Tok Pisin, Scots
(spoken primarily in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland) is not a Gaelic language, but
is part of the Anglic family of languages, having developed from early northern Middle
English. It is Scots' indefinite status as a language or a group of dialects of English which
complicates definitely calling it the closest language to English. The closest relatives to
English after Scots are the Frisian languages, which are spoken in the Northern
Netherlands and Northwest Germany. Other less closely related living West Germanic
languages include German, Low Saxon, Dutch, and Afrikaans. The North Germanic
languages of Scandinavia are less closely related to English than the West Germanic
languages.
Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (though
pronunciations are often quite different) because English absorbed a large vocabulary
from Norman and French, via Anglo-Norman after the Norman Conquest and directly
from French in subsequent centuries. As a result, a large portion of English vocabulary is
derived from French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old
French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional divergences in meaning, in so-called "faux
amis", or false friends.
Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language, as of
2006. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers,
after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native
speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though
possibly second to a combination of the Chinese Languages, depending on whether or not
distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects." Estimates that include
second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on
how literacy or mastery is defined. There are some who claim that non-native speakers
now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in
descending order: United States (215 million), United Kingdom (58 million), Canada
(17.7 million), Australia (15.5 million), Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million),
and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have
millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a
more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second
language, India has the most such speakers (' Indian English') and linguistics professor
David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more
people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Following
India is the People's Republic of China.
English is the primary language in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia
( Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, the British Indian Ocean
Territory, the British Virgin Islands, Canada ( Canadian English), the Cayman Islands,
the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey ( Guernsey English), Guyana,
Ireland ( Hiberno-English), Isle of Man ( Manx English), Jamaica ( Jamaican English),
Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, New Zealand ( New Zealand English), Pitcairn Islands, Saint
Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Georgia and the
South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United
Kingdom, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States (various forms of American
English).
In many other countries, where English is not the most spoken language, it is an
official language; these countries include Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Fiji, the
Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya,
Madagascar, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau,
Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Saint
Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is also one of the 11 official languages that are given
equal status in South Africa ( South African English). English is also the official
language in current dependent territories of Australia (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island
and Cocos Island) and of the United States (Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa
and Puerto Rico), and in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
English is an important language in several former colonies and protectorates of
the United Kingdom but falls short of official status, such as in Malaysia, Brunei, United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain. English is also not an official language in either the United
States or the United Kingdom. Although the United States federal government has no
official languages, English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state
governments.
The expansion of the British Empire and—since WWII—the primacy of the
United States has spread English throughout the globe. Because of that global spread,
English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based Creole languages and
pidgins.
The major varieties of English include, in most cases, several sub varieties, such
as Cockney slang within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian
English; and African American Vernacular English (" Ebonics") and Southern American
English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central
language authority like France's Académie française; and, although no variety is clearly
considered the only standard, there are a number of accents considered to be more
prestigious, such as Received Pronunciation in Britain.
Scots developed — largely independently — from the same origins, but following
the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive
generations adopted more and more features from English causing dialectalisation.
Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish
English is in dispute. The pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms
differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.
Because of the wide use of English as a second language, English speakers have
many different accents, which often signal the speaker's native dialect or language. For
the more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English
speakers, and for the more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of
dialects of the English language.
Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its
history, English loanwords now appear in a great many languages around the world,
indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and
creole languages have formed using an English base, such as Jamaican Creole, Nigerian
Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of
particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words.
Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English word content;
it is found on the Channel Islands. Another variant, spoken in the border bilingual regions
of Québec in Canada, is called Frenglish.

Phonology
Vowels

IPA Description word

monophthongs

i/iː Close front unrounded vowel bead

ɪ Near-close near-front unrounded vowel bid

ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel bed

æ Near-open front unrounded vowel bad

ɒ Open back rounded vowel box 1

ɔ/ɑ Open-mid back rounded vowel pawed

2

ɑ/ɑː Open back unrounded vowel bra

ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel good

u/uː Close back rounded vowel booed

Open-mid back unrounded vowel, Near-open central

ʌ/ɐ/ɘ bud
vowel

ɝ/ɜː Open-mid central unrounded vowel bird 3

ə Schwa Rosa's 4

ɨ Close central unrounded vowel roses 5

diphthongs

Close-mid front unrounded vowel

e(ɪ)/eɪ bayed 6
Close front unrounded vowel
 Close-mid back rounded vowel
o(ʊ)/əʊ bode 6
Near-close near-back rounded vowel

Open front unrounded vowel

aɪ cry
Near-close near-front unrounded vowel

Open front unrounded vowel

aʊ bough
Near-close near-back rounded vowel

Open-mid back rounded vowel

ɔɪ boy
Close front unrounded vowel

Near-close near-back rounded vowel

ʊɚ/ʊə boor 9
Schwa

ɛɚ/ɛə/e Open-mid front unrounded vowel

fair 10
ɚ Schwa

Notes:

It is the vowels that differ most from region to region.

Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to American English, General
American accent; the second corresponds to British English, Received Pronunciation.

1. American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with
/ɑ/ or /ɔ/.
2. Many dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See Cot-caught
merger.
3. The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel.
4. Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two
unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the
symbol usually used is schwa /ə/.
5. This sound is often transcribed with /i/ or with /ɪ/.
6. The diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongal for many General American
speakers, as /eː/ and /oː/.
7. The letter <U> can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/. In BRP, if this
iotated vowel /ju/ occurs after /t/, /d/, /s/ or /z/, it often triggers palatalization of
the preceding consonant, turning it to /ʨ/, /ʥ/, /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively, as in
 tune, during, sugar, and azure. In American English, palatalization does not
generally happen unless the /ju/ is followed by r, with the result that /(t, d,s,
z)jur/ turn to /tʃɚ/, /dʒɚ/, /ʃɚ/ and /ʒɚ/ respectively, as in nature, verdure,
sure, and treasure.
8. Vowel length plays a phonetic role in the majority of English dialects, and is said
to be phonemic in a few dialects, such as Australian English and New Zealand
English. In certain dialects of the modern English language, for instance General
American, there is allophonic vowel length: vowel phonemes are realized as long
vowel allophones before voiced consonant phonemes in the coda of a syllable.
Before the Great Vowel Shift, vowel length was phonemically contrastive.
9. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, this sound may be,
instead of /ʊə/, /ɔ:/. See pour-poor merger.
10. This sound only occurs in non-rhotic accents. In some accents, the schwa offglide
of /ɛə/ may be dropped, monophthising and lengthening the sound to /ɛ:/.

Consonants
This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA).

labio- post-
bilabial dental alveolar palatal velar glottal
dental alveolar

plosive p b t d k ɡ

nasal m n ŋ1

flap ɾ2

fricative f v θ ð3 s z ʃ ʒ4 ç5 x6 h

affricate tʃ dʒ 4

approximant ɹ4 j

lateral
l
approximant
 labial-velar

approximant ʍ w7

1. The velar nasal [ŋ] is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British
accents, appearing only before /k/ and /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate
phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas.
2. The alveolar flap [ɾ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North
American English and Australian English. This is the sound of tt or dd in the
words latter and ladder, which are homophones for many speakers of North
American English. In some accents such as Scottish English and Indian English it
replaces /ɹ/. This is the same sound represented by single r in most varieties of
Spanish.
3. In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged
with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is
merged with dental /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the
corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar
plosives.
4. The sounds /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /ɹ/ are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never
contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. Most
speakers of General American realize <r> (always rhoticized) as the retroflex
approximant /ɻ/, whereas the same is realized in Scottish English, etc. as the
alveolar trill.
5. The voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ is in most accents just an allophone of /h/ before
/j/; for instance human /çjuːmən/. However, in some accents (see this), the /j/ is
dropped, but the initial consonant is the same.
6. The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English
for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch /lɒx/ or by some speakers for loanwords from
German and Hebrew like Bach /bax/ or Chanukah /xanuka/. /x/ is also used in
South African English. In some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) either [x] or
the affricate [kx] may be used as an allophone of /k/ in words such as docker
[dɒkxə]. Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it
correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and
[h] instead.
7. Voiceless w [ʍ] is found in Scottish and Irish English, as well as in some
varieties of American, New Zealand, and English English. In most other dialects
it is merged with /w/, in some dialects of Scots it is merged with /f/.

Voicing and aspiration

Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a
few general rules can be given:
• Voiceless plosives and affricates (/ p/, / t/, / k/, and / tʃ/) are aspirated when they
are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable — compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin
[spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp].
o In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
o In other dialects, such as Indo-Pakistani English, all voiceless stops remain
unaspirated.
• Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
• Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal
stop in some dialects (e.g. many varieties of American English) — examples: tap
[tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].
• Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some
varieties of American English) — examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other
dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial
position.

II. Varieties of English

A. BRITISH ENGLISH

The size of the British Isles often leads people to assume that the language spoken in its
countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland is somewhat homogeneous and first
time visitors are often surprised to find that they have difficulty in understanding the
accents and dialects of certain regions. Even within the country of England alone there is
great diversity of dialect both regionally and socially.
Trudgill (1999) believes that for the majority of English people "where they are
from" is very important to them. Accents are clues to where people were born and where
they grew up. Although some people may change the way they speak during their
lifetimes, most people "carry at least some trace" of their accent and dialect origins
throughout their lives:
In addition to the regional accents of England, there can also be class differences
reflected in the different accents. The general sociolinguistic issues section discusses this
more fully.
The term "British English" can occasionally be confusing depending upon the
regions included by the term British. For the purpose of this project the current study of
British English will concentrate on dialects and accents found within the country of
England itself and will not include those found in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and
Ireland.
Although there is an abundance of different dialects within England that can be referred
to as "northern" or "southern" for example, they do not really follow any sharp
boundaries or coincide with any county lines. Dialects form a continuum and as Trudgill
(1999) describes, they can be differentiated on a "more-or-less" basis rather than an
"either-or" one. It is common in Britain for people who display particularly broad accents
to be labeled by terms such as "Geordie", "Cockney", "Jock" or "Scouse." All of these
identify a specific regional accent, most of which are recognizable to many of the people
in the country. Trudgill (1999) discusses specific regional dialects and vocabulary for
many areas of Great Britain.
In Britain, "people are often able to make instant and unconscious judgements
about a stranger’s class affiliation on the basis of his or her accent." (Wells 1982a) Both
the words and pronunciation of many individuals reflect that person’s social position. It is
agreed that in England, the "phonetic factors assume a predominating role which they do
not generally have in North America" (Wells 1982a).
Traditionally, it has been acknowledged that in England, the relation between
social and regional accents can be diagrammed as follows:
Geographical variation is represented along the broad base of the pyramid while the
vertical dimension exhibits social variation. It can be seen that working class accents
display a good deal of regional variety, but as the pyramid narrows to its apex, up the
social scale, it’s also apparent that upper class accents exhibit no regional variation.
(Wells 1982a)
Thus by definition, any regional accent would not be considered upper-class and the more
localizable the accent, the more it will describe as a "broad" accent. Wells (1982a)
purports that broad accents reflect:

• regionally, the highest degree of local distinctiveness

• socially, the lowest social class
• linguistically, the maximal degree of difference from RP.

A 1972 survey carried out by National Opinion Polls in England provides an example
of how significantly speech differences are associated with social class differences.
(Wells 1982a) The following question was asked:
"Which of these [eleven specified factors] would you say are most important in being
able to tell which class a person is?" Respondents were randomly chosen from the
British public. The factor that scored the highest was "the way they speak" followed by
"where they live." At the bottom of the list was "the amount of money they have." All this
is evidence that then, and to some degree even now, "speech is regarded as more
indicative of social class than occupation, education and income." (Giles & Sassoon,
1983) also cite consistent findings of listeners evaluating anonymous speakers with
standard accents more favorably for such status traits as intelligence, success, confidence.
In Britain the middle class is associated with having not only a standard accent, but with
also speaking in a more "formal and abstract style than working class."
Accents are often characterized by British speakers themselves as either "posh" or
"common" accents. Most speakers of British English would recognize these labels and
create a fairly accurate image of the sound of these far ends of the spectrum.
Conservative or U-"Received Pronunciation" representing the "posh" end and a less
broad version of Cockney representing the "common" accent.
The significance of accents and their cultural and social associations is well
represented in films and on television in Britain. The critically acclaimed 1964 file My
Fair Lady based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play, Pygmalion is often referenced in
linguistic discussions as a wonderful example of how social class and accent were, and
are still, inextricably linked in Britain. Over the past years, numerous television series
have also provided viewers with a glimpse of the lives and accents of the Cockney
population of London. The Cockney English section talks more about the current, very
popular long running television series East Enders.
As language change continues to take place within Britain and within England, there
are some who claim that a relatively newly established accent, "Estuary English" (EE) is
due to replace the traditional educated accent of England Received Pronunciation" (RP).
(Wells, 1998) Estuary English is reported to be used by speakers who constitute the
social "middle ground" Rosewarne, 1984) and is discussed in detail under the Estuary
English section.
It must be emphasized, however, that there are many features in common among
these more prevalent accents that are present in England and that they must be thought of
as existing on a continuum rather than having strict, non fuzzy boundaries.

B. AMERICAN ENGLISH

Social scientists estimate the number of U.S. dialects range from a basic three -
New England, Southern and Western/General America - to 24 or more. Some researchers
go so far as to suggest it's actually impossible to count the number of dialects in the
United States because under a loose definition of the term, thousands of cities, towns and
groups have their own varieties or dialects.
The authors of American English explain it this way:
“When people ask us what we do for a living, and we reply that we study American
English dialects, one of the next questions inevitably is, "how many dialects are there?"
This question is surprisingly difficult to answer, despite the fact that researchers have
been investigating language variation in America for at least a century. Discrete
boundaries between dialects are often difficult to determine, since dialects share many
features with one another. In addition, even the smallest dialect areas are characterized by
incredible heterogeneity. Speakers use different language forms - or identical forms at
different percentage rates or in different ways - based not only on where they live but also
on such factors as their social class, their ethnicity, their gender, and even whether or not
they view their home region as a good place to live. Further, different dialect boundaries
may emerge depending on which level of language we chose to focus on.” Walt Wolfram
& Natalie Schillings-Estes

C. AFRICAN – AMERICAN ENGLISH

 This linguistic variety is commonly referred to as Black English (BE), Black English
Vernacular (BE), African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), and Inner City English
(ICE).
There have been three primary theories regarding the source of African-American
English. These three theories can be named the following:
a. Decreolized Creole
b. Variety of Southern States English
c. The "Unified" Theory
Proponents of the decreolized creole theory maintain that African-American
English arose from a pidgin that was created among slaves from various linguistic
backgrounds, primarily from West Africa. This pidgin included features of both the West
African languages and English. Over time, this pidgin developed into a creole, and then
more recently, became decreolized, and began to resemble English more closely.
Others state that African-American English is a variety of Southern States
English, noting that the two varieties have many features in common, such as the
Southern Vowel Shift, vowel lowering, and double modals.
Proponents of the unified theory state that African-American English arose from a
number of sources, including West African languages and Southern States English,
through a variety of evolutionary tracks.
African-American English has a number of phonological features, including:
a. Consonant Cluster Reduction
b. Realization of /T/ and /D/ as /t,f/ and /d,v/
c. Vowel Lowering
d. /z/ -> [d] in Contractions
e. Monophthongization
f. R-lessness

D. AMERICAN – INDIAN ENGLISH

The term American Indian English refers to a number of varieties of English that
are spoken by indigenous communities throughout North America. As Leap (1982)
states, "there are many Indian English-es." Each one is unique in its phonology, syntax
and semantic properties. In this area of the site, we will explore some of the features that
have been studied in terms of different varieties of American Indian English.
There are two primarily studied sources of the features attributed to American
Indian English. In some cases, it has been proposed that the features of American Indian
English originate from the same sources as other nonstandard varieties of English, such
as Southern States English. In other cases, it has been argued that features of American
Indian English are the result of influence from the native language.
Some varieties of English that will be represented on this site are Mojave English,
Isletan English, Tsimshian English, Lumbee English, Tohono O'odham English, and
Inupiaq English.
Features:
a. The Central Diphthong
b. Final Devoicing
c. Deletion of Final Voiced Stops
d. Final ->
e. Vowel Shift
f. Consonant Cluster Reduction

E. CANADIAN ENGLISH

Canadian English, for all its speakers, is an under-described variety of English. In

popular dialectological literature it is often given little acknowledgement as a distinct and
homogeneous variety, save for a paragraph or two dedicated to oddities of Canadian
spelling and the fading use of British-sounding lexical items like chesterfield, serviette,
and zed.
There is a small body of scholarly research that suggests that if there is such a thing
as a Canadian English, all its unique characteristics are being lost. In fact, Lilles (2000)
goes so far as to claim that there is no such thing as a distinct Canadian English, and
argues that the notion of Canadian English is a myth, fabricated to reinforce a fragile
Canadian identity. As evidence, he cites the lack of phonological and orthographic
standardization for Canadian English, the paucity of distinct Canadian vocabulary, and
the appearance of regionalisms associated with various parts of the United States.
Sutherland (2000) quickly rebuts by pointing out that Canadian English is more
than a "network of regionalisms", and that a variety can be distinct by more than its
vocabulary. We can add that orthographic standards tell us little about what makes a
spoken variety unique. Further, as you have navigated the LSP site, you will have seen
that although few linguistic features are unique to any dialect, the confluence of a
particular set of features is what makes a dialect unique. This is certainly true of
Canadian English: no other dialect has all the same features.
Other research suggests that the few unique traits of Canadian English are
disappearing in favour of American forms. Clarke (1993) and Chambers (1998) point to
the loss of certain lexical items, like chesterfield and serviette, and the loss of certain
phonological traits, like voiceless wh of which and [yu] in news and student. These are
seen as a signal of the impending convergence of Canadian and American English.
Indeed, Woods (1993) identifies eight phonological variables as characteristically
Canadian, and argues that most of them are disappearing.
Features:
a. Phonetic properties of Canadian vowels: the low-back merger and the Canadian Shift
b. The vowel space
c. Some regional differences
d. Canadian Phonology
e. Canadian Raising: the Central Diphthong
f. Borrowings with low vowels

F. DIALECTS OF THE NORTHEAST U.S.

 The northeastern United States has a wide variety of distinct accents and dialects.
The diversity that exists in the modern northeast is partially a consequence of its older
settlement: communities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia have been around
longer than similar-sized communities in the western U.S. As a result, the speech of each
urban community has had more time to diverge from the dialects of other nearby cities.
Yet as we will see below, some of these divergent innovations are comparatively recent.
This part is intended as a gateway to discussions of several specific northeastern
dialects. The general traits page describes a number of features common to all
northeastern dialects. These are features which help distinguish them as a group from
other American varieties like Southern American English, African American English, and
the English of the Mid-west and West. You wil also find links to pages about the English
in and around Boston and New York City. In addition, the discussion of the Northern
Cities Shift describes some phonological features that are typical of Detroit, Buffalo, and
Chicago, among others.
Features of northeastern dialects
a. General traits
b. Boston English
c. New York English
d. The Northern Cities Shift
e. R-lessness in different dialects.
f. The low-back phonemes in different dialects.

G. SOUTHERN STATES ENGLISH

The term Southern American English (also known as Southern States English)
refers to a number of varieties of English spoken in many of the southern States,
including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, North and South
Carolina, Virginia, and parts of Arkansas, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas, and West
Virginia. Although these varieties are not uniform throughout these states, they share
certain common characteristics that differentiate them from other varieties found in the
Northern and Western United States.
The precise boundaries of Southern American English depend upon the variables
being studied, however Carver (1987) provides a map of the major dialect areas of the
United States, including Southern American English (the background image is based on
this map). This map delineates three major divisions of Southern American English: the
Upper South, Lower South, and Delta South. There are also some narrower
classifications, such as Virginia Piedmont and Southeastern Louisiana. It should be noted
that this classification has been criticized in recent years (Frazer 1997).
Speakers of Southern American English have been stereotyped as uneducated or
stupid, but without justification. Since the use of the dialect is stigmatized, educated
speakers often attempt to eliminate many of its more distinctive features from their
personal idiolect. Well-known speakers of Southern dialect include United States
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton along with playwright Tennessee Williams and
singer Elvis Presley.
Pronunciation
1. Merger of the /e/ and /i/ vowel sounds before nasals, such that "pen" and "pin" are
pronounced the same
2. Change of the /z/ sound in contractions to /d/, e.g. "wasn't" = /wadnt/
3. The diphthong /aI/ becomes monophthongized to a single long vowel /a:/. Some
speakers have this feature before voiced consonants but not before voiceless consonants,
so that ride is /ra:d/ and wide is /wa:d/, but right is /raIt/ and white is /hwaIt/; others
monophthongize /aI/ in all contexts.
4. The diphthongization or triphthongization of the traditional short front vowels as in the
words pat, pet, and pit: these develop a glide up from their original starting position to [j],
and then back down to schwa. This is the feature often called the "Southern drawl".
5. The English of the Deep South is historically non-rhotic: it drops the sound of final /r/
before a consonant or a word boundary, so that guard sounds similar to god and sore like
saw. Epenthetic /r/, where an /r/ sound is inserted between two vowel sounds ("lawr and
order") is not a feature of coastal SAE. The more northern or Appalachian varieties of
SAE are rhotic. Non-rhoticity is rapidly disappearing from almost all Southern accents, to
a greater degree than it has been lost in the other traditionally non-rhotic dialects of the
East Coast such as New York and Boston.
6. The distinction between the vowels sounds of words like caught and cot or talk and
tock is mainly preserved. In much of the Deep South, the vowel found in words like talk
and caught has developed into a diphthong, so that it sounds like the diphthong used in
the word loud in the Northern United States.
7. For many Southern speakers, some nouns are stressed on the first syllable that would
be stressed on the second syllable in other accents. These include pólice, cément, and
béhind.

Word use
1. Use of double modals ("might could", "might should", "might would", etc.)
2. Use of "y'all" as the second person plural pronoun (less commonly "you-all")
3. Use of "fixin' to" as an indicator of immediate future action
4. Use of the word "done" in place of "already" or "did", such as in "We done did
this" (We already did this).
5. Use of "over yonder" in place of "over there" or "in or at that indicated place,"
especially when being used to refer to a particularly different spot, such as in "the house
over yonder"
6.Word use tendencies from the Harvard Dialect
Survey (http://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/):
- A carbonated beverage in general as "coke" (likely influenced by The Coca-Cola
Company being headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and the resultant dominance of Coca-
Cola in the region).
- The small land crustaceans that roll when you touch them as "roley-poleys" rather than
"pill bugs" or "woodlouse"
- The push-cart at the grocery store as a "buggy"
- The small freshwater crustacean in lakes and streams as a "crawdad," "crawfish," or
"crayfish" depending on the location
Features of Southern American English
There are a number of phonetic/phonological features of Southern American
English, including the following:
a. Southern Vowel Shift
b. /z/ -> [d] in Contractions
c. /E/ -> /I/ before Nasals
d. Post-Coronal Glides
e. Vowel Lowering
f. Monophthongization
g. R-lessness
h. The Central Diphthong
Morphosyntactic features of Southern American English include the following:
Double Modals
The fixin' to Construction
There are also quite a few lexical distinctions that distinguish Southern American
English from other varieties, including:
/z/ vs. /s/ in greasy
III. English Usage in the UK and USA
Between British English and American English there are numerous differences in the
areas of vocabulary, spelling, and phonology. This article compares the forms of British
and American speech normally studied by foreigners: the former includes the accent
known as Received Pronunciation, or RP; the latter uses Midland American English,
which is normally perceived to be the least marked American dialect. Actual speech by
educated British and American speakers is more varied, and that of uneducated speakers
still more. Grammatical and lexical differences between British and American English
are, for the most part, common to all dialects, but there are many regional differences in
pronunciation, vocabulary, usage and slang, some subtle, some glaring, some rendering a
sentence incomprehensible to a speaker of another variant.
American and British English both diverged from a common ancestor, and the
evolution of each language is tied to social and cultural factors in each land. Cultural
factors can affect one's understanding and enjoyment of language; consider the effect that
slang and double entendre have on humour. A joke is simply not funny if the pun upon
which it is based can't be understood because the word, expression or cultural icon upon
which it is based does not exist in one's variant of English.
But it is not only humour that is affected. Items of cultural relevance change
the way English is expressed locally. A person can say "I was late, so I Akii-Bua'd (from
John Akii-Bua, Ugandan hurdler) and be understood all over East Africa, but receive
blank stares in Australia. Even if the meaning is guessed from context, the nuance is not
grasped; there is no resonance of understanding. English is a flexible and quickly-
evolving language; it simply absorbs and includes words and expressions for which there
is no current English equivalent; these become part of the regional English. American
English has hundreds of loan words acquired from its immigrants: these can eventually
find their way into widespread use, (spaghetti, mañana), or they can be restricted to the
areas in which immigrant populations live. So there can be variances between the English
spoken in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco. Thanks to Asian immigration, a
working-class Londoner asks for a cuppa cha and receives the tea he requested. This
would probably be understood in Kampala and New Delhi as well, but not necessarily in
Boise, Idaho.
Cultural exchange also has an impact on language. For example, it is possible
to see a certain amount of Americanization in the British English of the last 50 years.
This influence is not entirely one-directional, though, as, for instance, the previously
British English 'flat' for 'apartment' has gained in usage among American twenty-
somethings. Similarly the American pronunciation of 'aunt' has changed during the last
two decades, and it is considered classier to pronounce 'aunt' in the Commonwealth
manner, even for speakers who continue to rhyme 'can't' and 'shan't' with 'ant'. Australian
English is based on the language of the Commonwealth, but has also blended indigenous,
immigrant and American imports.
Applying these same phenomena to the rest of the English-speaking world, it
becomes clear that though the "official" differences between Commonwealth and
American English can be more or less delineated, the English language can still vary
greatly from place to place.
 IV. One Meaning - Two Words

Definition UK Word USA Word

11th June 1998 11/06/98 06/11/98
the dot at the end of a sentence full stop period
unit of paper currency note bill
mathematics maths math
the season after summer autumn fall
day when offices are closed bank holiday legal holiday
small pointed thing used to pin papers onto walls drawing pin thumb tack
mark made when something is correct or selected tick check
the name of the final letter of the alphabet zed zee
angry pissed off pissed
Definition UK Word USA Word
third piece of a male's suit that goes between
waist coat vest
the jacket and the shirt
what women wear over their legs tights (panty) hose
what men wear over their legs trousers pants
trainers,
a type of soft shoe used in sports or for casual wear sneakers
plimsolls
strap to hold up a man's trousers / pants braces suspenders
item to hold up stockings suspenders garters
dressing
item of clothing worn in house at night bathrobe
gown
a thin cloth from Arabia muslin cheesecloth
large bag carried by females hand bag purse
container carried by females for money purse pocket book
what you put in a baby's mouth dummy pacifier
what you put around a baby's bottom nappy diaper
Definition UK Word USA Word
the area next to a street where pedestrians walk pavement sidewalk
pedestrian
place to cross a street on foot crosswalk
crossing
place from where goods are bought shop store
place from where medicines are bought chemist drug store
payment in a restaurant bill check
place where alcoholic drinks are bought off licence liquor store
hardware
shop / store selling metal goods and tools ironmonger
store
the business part of a city town centre downtown
law enforcement officer copper cop
what there was before email post mail
code used when sorting mail / post postcode zip code
reverse
telephone call where the person called pays collect call
charge
free telephone call paid by company free phone toll free
company on the WWW .co.uk .com
Definition UK Word USA Word
four wheeled private vehicle car automobile
front of a car / automobile bonnet hood
rear compartment of a car / automobile boot trunk
metal plate with number on a vehicle number plate license plate
long piece of metal used for radio reception aerial antenna
metal tool for tightening nuts and bolts spanner wrench
glass in front of a car windscreen windshield
mud guard
metal over the wheel to keep mud off fender
(wing)
multi-lane road for cars motorway freeway
road passing over another flyover overpass
heavy goods vehicle lorry truck
fuel for vehicles petrol gasoline
place to buy fuel petrol station gas station
area to stop off a major road lay-by pull-off
metal container in street for unwanted items skip dumpster
ticket for one journey single one way
ticket for two journeys: out and back return round trip
type of transport run on metal rails railway railroad
a beam supporting railway / railroad tracks sleeper tie
Definition UK Word USA Word
what you eat with milk, tea or coffee biscuit cookie
what you put on bread jam jelly
a gelatinous dessert jelly jell-O
crunchy thin-sliced fried potatoes crisps chips
fried stick-shaped potatoes chips french fries
a large vessel for juice or water jug pitcher
sweet things given to children to rot their teeth sweets candy
rolled up cake with jam / jelly in the middle Swiss roll jelly roll
a sugary liquid like honey treacle molasses
flavoured ice on a stick lolly popsicle
soft long green vegetable marrow squash
meat passed through a device that breaks it up into little
mince ground meat
pieces
cereal made from oats, sugar and milk porridge oatmeal
Swiss cereal made from oats muesli granola
fluffy sweet item for children candy floss cotton candy
Definition UK Word USA Word
arthropod with six legs insect bug
red insect / bug with black spots ladybird ladybug
dwelling in a large building flat apartment
device for obtaining water tap faucet
container for household waste rubbish bin trash can
portable battery-operated light source torch flashlight
the floor of a building that is level with the ground ground floor first floor
the floor of a building that is one level above the ground first floor second floor
device for carrying people between floors of a building lift elevator
place where films / movies can be seen cinema movie theater
semi-
a type of house connected to one other detached duplex
house
Definition UK Word USA Word
a self contained section of television programme show
game played on chess board draughts checkers
contest between two teams match game
game played by two teams with bats and balls cricket baseball
player who throws a ball at another player
bowler pitcher
holding a bat
bar on a pivot for children see-saw teeter-totter
noughts and
simple game of O and X tic tac toe
crosses
a collection of playing cards pack deck
a portable telephone mobile cellular, cell
a group of people waiting for their turn queue line
the dates of the Second World War 1939 - 1945 1941 - 1945

One Word - Two Meanings

Word UK Usage USA Usage
Asian person of Indian, Pakistani, person of Japanese, Vietnamese,
 Bangladeshi origin Korean, Philippino origin
ass a donkey human posterior
bathroom a room containing a bath or shower a room containing a toilet
bill amount to pay for a service a piece of paper currency
bomb success disaster
buns sticky cake human posterior
bum human posterior unemployed, down-and-out
Person from the Caucus republics:
Caucasian white person
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
chips What Americans call "French fries" What the British call "crisps"
fag cigarette male homosexual
fanny external female sex organs human posterior
football soccer gridiron
hamper picnic basket full of food basket for dirty clothes
homely pleasant ugly
Indian person from the Indian sub-continent indigenous American
jelly gelatinous dessert fruit preserve
worn under trousers or dress by trousers that end between the knee
knickers
women and ankle
mad not sane angry
mean stingy aggressive
momentarily for a short while soon
pants worn under trousers worn over underwear
pissed drunk angry
presently soon now
public school fee-paying school state school
queen the head of state male homosexual
rubber implement to erase pencil marks male contraceptive
semi semi-detached house tractor-trailer
smart well dressed clever
spunk slang for male sexual emission full of "get up and go"
suspenders hold up stockings hold up trousers / pants
tea drink served hot with milk drink served cold with lemon
thong casual footwear item female underwear
derogatory term for a female of
tramp unemployed, down-and-out
"easy virtue"
 the third part of a three piece
vest a garment worn under a shirt
suit worn between the shirt and jacket
wash up wash dishes after a meal wash face and hands

V. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Aitchison, J. (1981). Language Change: Progress or Decay? London: Fontana.

2. Baugh, A.C. (1978, 3rd Edition). A History of the English Language. London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul.
3. Cheshire, J. (1991). English around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
4. Crewe, W.J. (1979). Singapore English and Standard English. Singapore: Eastern
Universities Press.
5. Hughes, A. & Trudgill, P. (1987). English Accents and Dialects: an introduction to
Social and Regional Varieties of British English. 2nd edition. Edward Arnold, London
6. Krapp, George P. (1925). The English Language in America. Ungar: New York.
7. Kurath, Hans, and Raven I. McDavid. (1961). The Pronunciation of English in the
Atlantic States. University of Michigan Press:Ann Arbor.
8. Labov, William. (1972). Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English
Vernacular. Univerisity of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia.
9. Mencken, H.L. (1947,4th ed.). The American language: an Inquiry into the
Development of English in the United States. New York : Knopf.
10. Platt, J., Weber, H., & Ho, M. (1984). The New Englishes. London: Routledge, Kegan
Paul.
11. Ramson, William S.(1989). Regionalism in Australian English: The value of
newspaper evidence. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 9/1, June 1989, 73-83.
12. Sivertsen, I. (1960). Cockney Phonology. Oslo University Press.
13. Smitherman, Geneva. (1977). Talkin and Testifyin: the Language of Black America.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
14. Taylor, William C. (1997). "Rule Ordering in the Phonology of Alabama-Georgia
Consonants." In Language Variety in the South Revisited, ed. by Cynthia Bernstein,
Thomas Nunnally, and Robin Sabino. University of Alabama Press:Tuscaloosa and
London.
15. Tresidder, Argus. (1943). "The Sounds of Virginia Speech." American Speech
18:261-272.
16. Troike, Rudolph C. (1986). "McDavid's Law." Journal of English Linguistics 19: 2.
17. Trudgill, P. (1999). The Dialects of England. Blackwell, 2nd edition.
18. Wells, J.C. (1982).(a) Accents of English 1. An Introduction. Cambridge University
Press
19. Wells, J.C. (1982).(b) Accents of English 2. The British Isles. Cambridge University
Press
20. Wolfram, Walt and Natalie Schilling-Estes. (1998). American English: Dialects and
Variation. Blackwell: Malden, Massachusetts

PRACTICE

I. Write short essays on the followings:

1. Is “British English” also “Standard English”?

2. In about 350 words enlarge upon the following: Varieties of Canadian English.
3. Comment on: English as a Global Language
4. Is “American English” also “Standard English”?
5. In about 350 words answer the following question: What is Cockney English?
6. Argue for and against the following question: Is R P E a British or an American
accent?
7. Analyze the Words Borrowed from Other Languages

II. Answer to the followings:

1. What are the participants and the stages involved in an act of communication by
means of language?
 2. Compare the following English semantic units with their nearest Romanian
equivalents. Is semantic encoding done identically in the two languages? Give
further examples from the language you know.

a) English: ocean, sea, lake, pond, pool, brook, river

Rom.: ocean, mare, lac, helesteu, bazin, balta, parau, rau, fluviu
b) English: hand, arm
Rom. Palma, mana, brat
c) English: wood, forest, grove, bush
Rom.: padure, codru, crang, tufis

3. What does grammatical encoding consist of?

4. Given these three words: cat, catch, mouse, as the basic semantic units, illustrate
several possible ways of combining them into actual English utterance.
5. By what means an a message be transmitted following its semantic and
grammatical encoding?
6. What does a speaker turn into sound?
7. Give the phonological encoding of the following longest English word
antidisestablishmentarianism starting from the basic unit of formation (establish)
and adding the successive bound morphemes.
8. What are the two types of structure exhibited by phonological encoding?
9. Speak about system in phonological encoding.
10. What would the disappearance of the difference between two units mean?
11. What exactly in meant by the “double articulation” of language?
12. Give the ways in which the secondary level of articulation can be analysed.
13. Define articulatory phonetics.
14. What do we mean by the production of speech sounds?
15. Give the names of the speech organs.
16. Define acoustic phonetics.
17. What other science is involved in the acoustic study of sounds?
18. What kind of analysis does acoustic phonetics presuppose?
19. Define auditory phonetics.
20. How are the sounds perceived by a hearer?
21. Match the following definitions with the terms thus defined: a) articulator; b)
fricative; c) manner of articulation; d) glottis.
1. The way in which the air-stream is released
2. The opening between the vocal cords
3. A speech sound produced by narrowing the passage of the air-stream which is
thus accompanied by audible friction
4. A movable speech organ which occupies a certain position against another
speech organ for the articulation of a given sound.
22. Give the articulators and the points of articulation for the following English
sounds: /p/, /m/, /w/, /k/.
Give the manner of articulation for the following English sounds: /ŋ/, /h/, /l/, /r/, /t∫ /,
/g/, /j/
23. What does auditory phonetics deal with?
24. What does perception refer to?
25. What does interpretation mean in point of auditory phonetics?
26. If acoustics deals with various aspects of amplitude and frequency as far as pure
tones are concerned , and with various aspects of amplitude and combinations of
frequencies as far as complex tones are concerned, what will be the data to be
processed in the ear.
27. Where is physiological audition performed?
28. Into how many parts can the ear be divided?
29. Describe the outer ear.
30. Describe the middle ear.
31. Describe the inner ear.
32. If one takes the tympanum to be a transmitter, how can the middle and the inner
ears be referred to?
33. Describe the mechanism of audition.
34. Describe the psychological interpretation of sound sensations.
35. What functions does the auditory apparatus perform?
36. What is the part played by a hearer’s knowledge of the language in the decoding
process?
37. On the basis of the functions of the auditory apparatus, which is the more
important of these functions?
38. How does noise affect the process of audition?
39. What is the “pattern” recognition?
40. Describe the three types of variation in speech.
41. What do we mean by sameness when we speak of speech sounds?
42. What is the invariant quality of the sounds /p/ and /b/ represented by?
43. What part of the study of the sounds of a language does the study of the physical
properties belong to? What about their study viewed from the angle of their
function in the language?
44. What is a phoneme?
45. What do we mean by the distribution o a phoneme?
46. What is an allophone?
47. Is the function of /t/ in: tin, knit, later and of /b/ in bin, nib, labour, that of
communicating different meanings?
- Do the distribution and function of a sound help us to establish its status as a
phoneme? Do /b/, /t/, /s/, /w/, /θ /, /d/, /k/, /p/ when distributed in the same
environment (/-Іn/) acquire phonemic status by virtue of the fact that they form
words with different meanings?
- Bin, tin, sin, win, thin, din, kin, pin are different words because of the existence
of (the same/different/) phonemes distributed in a (similar/different)
environment.
48. Divide pitches/pities; hitches/hippies; lecture/lector; Michie/mini;
matches/mashes; and digest/divest; deject/defect; budget/buffet; ledger/leisure;
ajar/afar into syllables.
49. /tr/ and /dr/ have also been treated as either a sequence of two phonemes or a
single….
 - Do /tr/ and /dr/ have a general distribution?
- Divide nitrate and hydrate into syllables.
- In nitrate/hydrate /tr/, /dr/ (do not belong/belong) to separate syllables.
- What about nightrate, and handrail?
50. Have diphtongs a general distribution?
51. In the following minimal pairs is there a functional difference between a
diphthong and a vowel?
Bea - bait; bee - beer; mouth - moth; cord – code; true – truer; bee – bear; mouth
– myth; tea – toy.
52. The so-called week forms o the verbs in: I’m, he’s, it’s, that’ll, I’ve, we’d, she’s,
etc, result from a different phonetic process. What is it?
53. Give several possible pronunciations of and in such phrases as: brad and butter, ham
and eggs, Jack and Jill, etc.
54. Is there a difference in lexical and meaning between: a) he’s and b) he is, between
a) we’d and b) we had, between a) she’d and b) she would?
55. What are the vowels which occur most frequently in unstressed syllables?
56. Which of the following silent letters result from a) a distributional impossibility in
English; which from b) assimilative processes; and which c) are anglicized
pronunciations of borrowed words?

1.know 10.aisle 19.honest

2.hors d’oeuvre 11.Pnompenh 20.knoll
3.psalter 12.knock 21.gnash
4.muscle 13.half 22.debris
5.knight 14.Ptolemy 23.Gnosall
6. fasten 15.handsome 24.Psyche
7.gnostic 16.Christmas 25.mnemonic
8.write 17.knight 26.calf
9.knob 18.gnu 27.reign

57. Which of the words in the following list have the phoneme /θ / in their
pronunciation?
though thumb teethe
plethora breathe wreathe
gather method wraith
depths north throat
seeths feather mouth
thick Prometheus mouthe
Hiawatha ethos soothe
sheath betrothals growth
northern kith fifth
thief swathe length
rhythms wroth wreaths
lathed loath faith
widths oath plinth
frothed scathe
moths thought
breathes smooth
lathes loathe
cloths strength Plymouth
with wealthy
froth forth
moth faiths
myth scythed
sheathe clothes tithed
worthy smith
bathe swath
south seethe
booth pith
58. In the following list discriminate between /s/ and /z/:

rose tours loose

roses lose was
use (noun) easy disease
pistol decease bosom
fussy example pencils
thousand cows gross
false falls expell
excavate exasperate visions
hesitate mouse except
exact examination husband
exemplar symbols house
pansy thanks licence
use (verb) houses exegesis
license pence pens
piece exaltation

59. Vowels and diphtongs. Match the words in the following list to the correct
pronunciation of the following groups of letters: a, ai, ar, ear, er, al, au, eir, ois, are, air,
oir.

swear reservoir chair

hare lark Charles
barge where
Berkley care calf
badinage Pall Mall variability
pear passage after
balm
dare
barrage
dance
balcony
manner
scarce
mare

bourgeois
mare
harm
carve
pair
underwear
plaid
tan
fanfare
sergent
 60. The following poem tries to illustrate the difficulties in the study of English
pronunciation encountered by any learner of English, difficulties which are due mainly to the
discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation. Read the poem aloud. Look up the words
in a pronouncing dictionary. Try to arrange these words in lists so as to indicate that there are,
nevertheless, reading rules for the English language.

a) English as she is spoke

Dearest creature in creation,

Studying English Pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse:
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy, -

Make your head with hat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear,
So shall I ! Oh, hear my prayer:

Pray, console your loving poet,

Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies, diet; lord and word;
Sword and Sward; retain and Britain, -
( Mind the latter, how it’s written),
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say – said, pay – paid; laid, but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you,

With such words as vague and ague;
But be careful how you speak:
Say break, steak – but bleak and streak,
Previous, precious; fuchsia, via;
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir!
Cloven, oven; how and low;
Script receipt; shoe, poem, toe;
Hear me say devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore;
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, reviles;

Wholly, holly; signal, signing;

Themes, examining, combining;
Scholar, vicar and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far.

From “desire”: desirable – admirable from “admire”,

Lumber, plumber, bier and brier;
Chatham, brougham; renown but known,
Knowledge, done but gone and tone,

One, anemone: Balmora,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

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Gertrude, German, wind and mind;
Scene, Melpone, mankind;
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather;

This phonetic labyrinth

Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth and plinth,
Billet does not sount like ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would;
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rhyme with “darky”.

Viscous, viscount: load and broad;

Toward, to forward, to reward;
And your pronunciation’s O.K.
When you say correctlycroquet;

Rounded, wounded: grieve and sleeve,

Friend and fiend; alive and live;
Liberty, library; heave and heaven
Rachel, ache, moustache, slaven.

We say hallowed but allowed,

People, leopard; towed but vowed.

Mark the difference moreover,

Between mover, plover, Dover;
Leeches, breeches; wise, precise;
Chalice, but police and lice.

Camel, constable, unstable;

Principle, disciple; label,
Petal, penal, and canal;
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal,
Suit, suite, ruin ; circuit, conduit,
Rhyme with « Skirk it » and « Beyond it ».

But it is not hard to tell

Why it’s pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle muscular; goal, iron;
Timber, climber, bullion, lion;
Worn and storm; chaise, chaos, chiar
Senatar, spectator, mayor,
Ivy, privy, famous, but clamour,
And enamour rhyme with « hammer ».

Pussy, hussy and possess.

Desert, dessert and address,
Gold, wolf; countenance; lieutenants
Hoist, in lieu of left pennants.

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River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb;
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger, front, wont; want, grand and grant,
Shoes, goes does. Now first say finger,
And then: singer, ginger, linger.

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge;

Marriage, foliage, mirage, age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost; post and doth, cloth, loth,

Job, Job, blossom, oath.
Though the difference seems little
We say actual but victual,
Seat, sweat, chaste, and caste.
Leigh, eight and height.

Put, nut granite, but unite

Refer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffor does and Zephyr, heifer.

Dull, bull: Geoffrey, George, ate, late,

Mint, pint, senate and sedate,
Scenic, Arabic, pacific;
Science, conscience, scientific:
Tour, but hour, and succour, four,
Gas and alas and Arkansas;
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria;
Youth, south, Southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine;

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion with battalion,
Sally with ally! Yea, ye,
Eye, I aye, ay, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Never guess – it is not safe;

We say calves, valves! Half but Ralph!
Heron, granary, canary,
Crevice, and device; eerie and eyrie:
Face, but preface, but efface,
Phlegm, phlegmatic; ass, bass, glass;
Large, but target; gin, give, verging.

Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scouring.

Ear, but earn; and year and tear,
Do not rhyme with “here’ but “ere”.
Seven is right, but so is even;

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Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work.

Pronunciation – think of Psyhe!

Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing “groats’ and saying “grits”
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like, rowlock, gunwale,
Islington, and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict, and indict!

Don’t you think so, reader, rather,

Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally: which rhymes with “enough”?
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of “cup” …
My advice is … give it up!

b) Exercise: Do the same with the following shorter poem:

English
By Dr. Richard N. Keogh

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like bread and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead:
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed.
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart,
Come, come I’ve hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Why man alive

I’d learned to talk it when I was five,

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I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.

61. The humor and fun of the following poem by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch is derived
from the author’s highly individual use of spelling. Identify the wrongly spelled words and
comment upon them. To what extent was the author entitled to use this deviant spelling?

The Harbor of Fowey

(A poem about spelling)

By Arthur Quiller-Couch

O the harbour of Fowey But the wave mountain-high,

Is a beautiful spot, And the violent storm,
And it’s there ienjowey Do I risk them? Not Igh!
To sail in a yot; But prefer ti sit worm

Or to race in a yacht With a book on my knees

Round a mark or a buoy- By the library fire
Such a beautiful spacht While I list to the brees
Is the harbor of Fuoy! Rising hire and hire.

When her anchor is weighed And so whether I weigh

And the water she ploughs, Up the anchor or not,
Upon neat lemoneighed I am happy each deigh
O it’s then I caroughs; Inmy home or my yot;

And I take Watt’s hymnus Every care I resign

And I sing them aloud Every comfort enjoy,
When it’s homeward she skymns In this cottage of mign
O’er the waters she ploud. By the Harbor of Foy

62. In the following excerpt from Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, Jim Higgins writes “an
anymous” letter to a Mr. Johns. He intends the letter to pass as having been written by an
uneducated man and uses wrong spellings to that effect. Identify them and comment on the
author’s use of this stylistical device.

Dear Mr. Johns, Dixon wrote, gripping his pencil like a bread-knife. This is just to let you
no that I no what you are up to with young Marleen Richards, young Marleen is a desent girl
and has got no tim for your sort. She is a desent girl and I wo`nt have you filling her head
with a lot of art and music, she is to good for that, and I am going to mary her wich is more
than your sort ever do. So just you keep of her, Mr. Johns this will be your only warning. This
is just a friendly letter and I am not threatening you, but you just do as I say else me and some
of my palls from the works will be up your way and we sha`nt be coming along just to say
How do you can bet. So just you wach out and lay of young Marleen if you no whats good for
you, yours fathfully, Joe Higgins.

63. How can the syllable be defined from the physiological point of view?

64. What shape has a syllable due to its physiological basis?

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 65. What does the crest of the physiological syllable correspond to in speech?

66. Give the scale of sonority of the English sounds.

67. What are the articulatory features which determine the sonority of a sound?

68. Mention some definitions of the phonetic syllable.

69. Give the physiological basis of a stressed syllable.

70. What parts of the speech producing movements are linked with a chest pulse and a
reinforced chest pulse ?

71. What is added to the movements producing speech for and articulated syllable to be
produced ?

72. What corresponds to the number of a chest pulses in a spoken stretch and what
corresponds to the reinforced chest pulses ?

73. On what does the rhythm of a certain language depend?

74. How can one divide the superimposed articulatory movements ?

75. What is a segment ?

76. How can the syllable be defined in phonological terms ?

77. How many segments can there be in a syllable ?

78. Give examples of syllables consisting of only one(central) segment.

79. Give examples of syllables made up of an initial and a central segment only.

80. Give examples of syllables made up of a central and a final segment only.

81. Give examples of syllables with segments in all possible positions.

82. How are syllables constructed from the point of view of the superimposed
articularitory movements ?

83. Given err; are; eh, as monosyllabic words, consisting of the central segment only, try
to give examples of English monosyllabic words built up so as to represent syllables 1) with
the central and final segments 2) syllables with the central and initial segments, and 3)
Syllables with all the three segments.

84. Give the names for the syllables with the following structures: 1) V, CV, 2) VC,
CVC .

85. What syllabic structure is predominant in English, and what syllabic structure is
predominant in Romanian as far as the third segment is concerned ?

86. How do structure and system apply to the formation o syllables ?

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 87. Illustrate structure and system in monosyllabic words of the CVC type.

88. There are no English words beep, teep, geep, zeep, etc. corresponding to the existing
ones: peep, deep, keep, seep, etc. However, if the need arose for a new English word, would
any of them be permissible in the language?

89. What is the name we give to the groups of consonants in initial and final positions?

90. Give examples of initial clusters which cannot occur as final clusters.

91. Give examples of final clusters which cannot occur in initial positions.

92. Give the consonant clusters in: tax-free, undo, jumbo, friction, tea-tray, heat-ray,
mouse-trap toe-strap.

93. What is the name of the consonants which are in a sequence but belong to different
syllables?

94. Give the abutting consonants in: tea spoons, hemisphere, awkward, mistake,
mispronounce, storm-bound, misspell, panic-stricken, Pangloss.

95. Read the following nonsense verse by Lewis Carroll and identify the possible
“English” distribution of the consonants in clusters and of consonants and vowels and discuss
the reason why spite of their Englishness some of the words (n, v, adj., adv), are not English
words:

‘Twas brlillig and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gibmle in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the momeraths outgrabe….

96. Accent is felt differently by the speaker and the listener.

a) how does the speaker feel accent ?
b) How does the listener perceive accent?

97. What are the acoustic correlates of accent?

98. The varying factors contributing to the prominence of an accented syllable result in
several distinguishable degrees of accent. What re they?

99. Give the different markings of the 4 types of accents in English.

100. Accent discharges its distinctive function in English in two ways. What are they?

101. Analyze the following words from the accentual point of view. Ascertain whether a
change in their accentual pattern brings about a change in their grammatical function: affix,
increase, abstract, import, accent, insult, contest, contrast, replay, inlay, survey.

102. Analyze the accentual pattern of the following words: unbelievable, demarcation,
delineation, substitute, publicize, profile, rehabilitate, foreknowledge, dustbin, labour
exchange.

103. Where can primary accent fall in English polysyllabic words? Give examples.

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 104. The place of accent in English (is/is not) is not fixed. What kind of language is
English from the point of view of the position of accent?

105. Analyze the shift in accent and the accompanying changes in sound in the following
derived words and try to establish rules of accent placement in terms of the affixes added in
order to form new words:

V Adj. N
a. compare, comparable, comparative comparison
compete Competitive competition
confide confidential confidence
blaspheme blasphemous blasphemy
celebrate celebrated celebration, celebrity
dispute disputable disputation, dispute
present presentable presentation
prefer preferable preference
refer reference
cremate crematory, crematorium
operate operative operation

106. Find seven ways in which to say Good-morning to: 1. a friend (appreciatively); 2.
somebody who you work with and is late (challenging; 3. to a friend or somebody younger
(encouragingly) ; 4. to anybody you know but are not too friendly with (calm and reserved) 5;
your wife, sister, daughter, etc. (with a hint of a reproach); 6. to an acquaintance, probably
your superior, (emphatically); 7. to somebody you know but not to well (liveliness).

107. Find as many intonation patterns as possible for that following utterances:

1. Hullo.
2. All right.
3. By all means.
4. Don`t mention it.

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