British English and American English: Phonetic differences

 

 

2.1.4. Change from [ju:] to [u:]

 

Around the beginning of twentieth century several changes took place in the English vowels. One of them was the so-called yod-dropping , the omission of sound [j] before [u:]. The change is named after the Hebrew letter yod, which represents the sound [j]. Both RP and GA embraced the change, although GA extended the cases in which yod-dropping was applied.

 

• Yod-dropping before [u:] takes place in RP and GA in the following cases.

 

• After the post-alveolar affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ], as in chew [ʧu:], juice [ʤu:s], and Jew [ʤu:s].

 

• After [r], as in rude [ru:d], prude [pru:d], shrewd [ʃru:d], and extrude [Ikˈstru:d].

 

• After clusters formed by a consonant followed by [l], as in blue [blu:], flu [flu:], and slew [slu:].

 

Apart from this common corpus of words, in GA as well as in many other varieties of English we observe yod-dropping in further cases.

 

• After [s] and [z], as in suit [su:t], Zeus [zu:s], assume [əˈsu:m], and hirsute

[ˈh3:rsu:t].

 

• After [l], as in lute [lu:t], and pollute [pəˈlu:t].

 

• Especially in GA, after [t], [d], and [n], as in tune [tu:n], stew [stu:], student [ˈstu:dənt], dew [du:], duty [ˈdu:tI], produce [prəˈdu:s], and new [nu:]. Notice that spellings eu, ue, ui, ew, and u followed by consonant plus vowel frequently
• correspond to sounds [ju:], or just [u:] if yod-dropping has taken effect.

 

 

2.1.5. Change of [æ]

 

Around the American Revolutionary War vowel [æ] started to undergo a change in Southern English, the future seed of RP. This near-open front unrounded vowel [æ] is first lengthened to [æ:] and later lowered to the open back unrounded vowel [ɑ:]. However, the change did not take off in GA, bringing about a new difference between both accents.

 

The change of vowel occurs under certain conditions, but it is deemed to be inconsistent, as we will see in the examples below. Vowel [æ] becomes vowel [ɑ:] in RP when:

 

• Vowel [æ] is before sounds [s], [f], and [θ], as in pass, calf, and path.

 

• Vowel [æ] is followed by consonant clusters such as [ns], [nt], [nʧ], and [mpl], as in dance, can’t, ranch, and sample.

 

• The changes are not applied before other consonants, as in cat, pal, cab, and drag.

 

Here there are some examples to illustrate the above rules as well as a few exceptions.

 

Words pronounced with [æs] in GA but with [ɑ:s] in RP: brass, class, glass, grass, passmast, past, master, plaster, clasp, grasp, gasp, mask, task, ask, basket. Exceptions: crass, gas, lass, mass, astronaut, pastel.

 

• Words pronounced with [æf] in GA but with [ɑ:f] in RP: calf, graph, giraffe, half, laugh, staff, after, craft, daft, draft, laughter, raft, shaft.

 

• Words pronounced with [æθ] in GA with [ɑ:θ] in RP: bath, lath, path. Exceptions: hath, maths, athlete, decathlon.

 

• Words pronounced with [ænt] in GA with [ɑ:nt] in RP: aunt, plant, can’t, advantage. Exceptions: ant, banter, scant, mantle.

 

• Words pronounced with [æmp] in GA with [ɑ:mp] in RP: sample, example. Exceptions: trample, ample.

 

It has been conjectured that the more common a word is, the more likely the change from [æ] to [ɑ:] is to occur.

 

 

2.1.6. Minor changes

 

Other changes took place, but they were in most cases inconsistent and without a clear phonological reason to happen.

 

 

2.1.6.1 Change of [I] and [aI]

 

In some cases the pronunciation of lax vowel [I] in RP becomes other vowels, mainly diphthong [aI] and [ə] in the suffix -ization.

 

• For the change to [aI], here we have a few examples: dynasty, privacy, simultaneously, vitamin.

 

• In the suffix -ization, pronounced as [aIˈzeIʃn] in RP, the diphthong [aI] is transformed into the unstressed and neutral vowel sound [ə], resulting in the pronunciation [əˈzeIʃn] in GA. Examples of this change are: authorization, centralization, civilization, colonization, dramatization, fertilization, globalization, hybridization, legalization, localization, mobilization, modernization, neutralization, normalization, optimization, organization, privatization, specialization, synchronization, urbanization, visualization.

 

2.1.6.2 Changes of [i:] and [e]

 

Sometimes, swaps between vowels [i:] and [e] are also found. Here we have a few instances.

 

• Change of [i:] in RP to [e] in GA: aesthetic, devolution, epoch, evolution, febrile, predecessor.

 

• Change of [e] in RP to [i:] in GA: cretin, depot, leisure, medieval, zebra.

 

 

2.2. Differences in consonant pronunciation

2.2.1. Classifying the consonants sounds of English according to the manner and place of articulation

According to the manner of articulation (how the breath is used) the consonants are: stops, also known as plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, laterals, and approximants. Nasals, laterals and approximants are always voiced; stops, fricatives and affricates can be voiced or unvoiced.

Table 4. Classifying the consonants sounds of English according to the manner of articulation

Stops  /Plosives/	During production of these sounds, the airflow from the lungs is completely blocked at some point, then released. In English, they are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/.
Fricatives	The flow of air is constricted, but not totally stopped or blocked. In English, these include /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/,  /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /h/.
Affricates	These sounds begin like stops, with a complete blockage of air/closure of the vocal tract, and end with a restricted flow of air like fricatives. English has two affricates - the /ʧ/ sounds of "church" and the /ʤ/ of "judge".
Nasals	Nasals are sounds made with air passing through the nose. In English, these are /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/.
Laterals	Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is only one such sound - /l/
Approximants	In the production of an approximant, one articulator is close to another, but the vocal tract is not narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. In English, these are /j/, /w/* and /r/. Approximants /j/ and /w/ are also referred to as semi-vowels.

According to the place of articulation (where in the mouth or throat the sound is produced) the consonants are shown in the table 5.

Table 5. Classifying the consonants sounds of English according to the place of articulation

Bilabial: with both lips	/p/, /b/, /m/
Labiodental: between lower lip and upper teeth	/f/, /v/
Dental/Interdental: between the teeth	/θ/, /ð/
Alveolar: the ridge behind the upper front teeth	/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/
Alveo-palatal (or post-alveolar): it is the area between  the alveolar ridge and the hard palate	/ʃ/, /ʒ/, / ʧ /, /ʤ/
Palatal: hard palate, or 'roof' of the mouth'	/j/
Velar: the soft palate or velum	/k/, /g/, /ŋ/
Glottal (laryngeal): space between the vocal cords	/h/

 

The consonants in the table above are the consonant phonemes of RP (Received Pronunciation) and GA (General American), that is, the meaning distinguishing consonant sounds (c.f. pat – bat).

 

/p/  put, supper, lip                                     /ʃ/  show, washing, cash

/b/  bit, ruby, pub                                       /ʒ/  leisure, vision

/t/  two, letter**, cat                                  /h/  home, ahead

/d/  deep, ladder**, read                             /ʧ/  chair, nature, watch

/k/  can, lucky, sick                                     /ʤ/ jump, pigeon, bridge

/g/  gate, tiger, dog                                      /m/ man, drummer, comb

/f/  fine, coffee, leaf                                     /n/  no, runner, pin

/v/  van, over, move                                     /ŋ/  young, singer

/θ/  think, both                                              /l/  let***, silly, fall

/ð/  the, brother, smooth                               /r/  run, carry, (GA car)

/s/  soup, fussy, less                                      /j/  you, yes

/z/  zoo, busy, use                                          /w/  woman, way

 

* /w/ is a voiced labio-velar approximant (semi-vowel).

 

** In American English ‘letter’ and ‘ladder’ may also be pronounced with an aalveolar flap [ɾ]: [ˈleɾɚ] [ˈlæɾɚ].

 

*** In many varieties of British English (including RP) there is a distinction between clear l [l] and dark (velarised) l [ɫ]. Clear l comes before vowels (e.g. ‘let’[let], ‘silly’ [ˈsɪli]), whereas dark l comes after vowels (e.g. ‘milk’ [mɪɫk]) or at the end of a word (e.g. ‘fall’ [fɔːɫ]). In American English dark l [ɫ] is used in all positions.

 

2.2.2. Pronunciation of letter t

In American English letter t is pronounced in six different ways:

• As an aspirated sound [tʰ], when it is the first sound of a word, as in temping [ˈtʰemptIŋ], or in an inner and stressed position, as in potential  [pəˈthen ʃ l].
• As an de-aspirated sound [t], when the syllable does not carry the stress, as in thesecond t in tempting [ˈtʰemptIŋ], or after [s] as in stop [stɑ:p], or at the ends of syllablesas in pet [pet], or patsy [ˈpætsi].
• As a flapped sound [r], the most distinguishing allophone, which consists of pronoun-cing an alveolar flap instead of the plosive dental [tʰ] or de-aspirated [t]. This change occurs when t is at an intervocalic position, the first vowel being stressed, as in water [ˈwɔ:tər]. This phenomenon also applies when words are linked together in a full prosodic unit, as in the sentence What is this? [ˈwʌrIzˈðIz] when uttered it in colloquial register.
• As a glottal stop [ʔ]. A glottal stop is a voiceless sound produced by the obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract. The glottis is the organ that actually prevents the airfrom passing through the vocal tract. The glottal stop substitutes the de-aspirated [t] sound at the end of words, as in put [pu ʔ] or report[rIˈpɔ:r ʔ], and also in the presence of a stressed syllable followed by patterns [t+vowel+n] or [tn], as in button [ˈbʌ ʔn], or continent [ˈkA:nʔInənt].
• As a glottalized stop [tʔ]. In a glottalized [tʔ] the stop [t] and the glottal stop [ʔ] areproduced at the same time. For its production, this allophone follows the same rulesas the glottal stop does. Example where this sound can be found are mutton [ˈmʌtʔn], or curtain [ˈk3:rtʔn].
• The sound [t] could be completely omitted in some circumstances. In the presence of the pattern formed by a stressed vowel followed by [nt], sound [t] is not pronounced in some varieties of GA. Thus, we can hear winter [ˈwInə] or center [ˈsenər].

Both GA and RP have aspirated and de-aspirated [t] sounds, which, in a formal or simplycareful enunciation, are the only two sounds corresponding to stop [t]. In colloquial and otherregisters, the other allophones may appear. In the RP the flap [t] is never used, but insteadit is pronounced as a de-aspirated [t] or as a glottalized [t]. Glottal stops are common in both varieties of English and follow similar rulesin general. The omission of the sound [t] in RP can also be found.

 

2.3. Rhotic Accent

The presence of the rhotic accent is one of the most noticeable differences between British and American English. Except for New York City and the area of Boston, American English is rhotic. British English is largely non-rhotic, save for Scotland and Ireland.

Rhotic accent refers to the manner letter r is pronounced after a vowel within a syllable, as in words such as hard, borne, or here. Sometimes, it is also called post-vocalic [r], or r-coloring, a term highlighting the timbre features of the sound. In English, rhotic accent is produced as a retroflex approximant. The following words have rhotic accent: York, quarter, four, born, door, water, later, hers, heard, hurt, university, were, birth, thirty, ear, nearly, air, where.

Let us describe now how the rhotic accent, the retroflex approximant, is produced. First, the tongue approaches the gum and the tip is then curled back towards the roof of the mouth. This movement makes the tongue to be pulled back in the mouth. This accounts for the retroflexion part of the consonant. Furthermore, the tip of the tongue does not touch the gum at all, and thus no friction is caused. The vocal tract remains open throughout. This justifies the term approximant; in other sounds, like the stop [d], the tongue actually touches the gum. The phonetic symbol for the retroflex approximant is [ɻ]. Apart from sound [ɻ], responsible for the rhotic accent of American English, letter r can be pronounced in other two ways.

• As the alveolar approximant [ɹ]. Sound [ɹ] appears at prevocalic positions in a syllable or syllable-clusters, as in red [ɹed], camera [ˈkæməɹə], train [tɹeIn], confrontation [kɑ:nfɹənˈteISn], or program [ˈpɹ oʊgɹæm].

 

• As the alveolar flap [r]. In American English, very often in colloquial registers, sound[ɹ] at intervocalic position with the stress on the first vowel is substituted [r], as in parish [ˈpærIʃ], or lurid [ˈlʊrId]; however, notice that camera is pronounced as [ˈkæməɹə] because the vowel before letter r is not stressed. This alveolar flap also appears substituting an [ɹ] at intervallic position between two words linked together in a sentence. For example, the sentence “One beer is enough" is pronounced as [wʌnˈbiərIzIˈnʌf]; notice the change from [ɹ] (or [ɻ]) to [r] in beer.

 

The alveolar flap [r] only occurs in American English, while the alveolar approximant [ɹ] is found in both accents. For the sake of simplicity, we will use the symbol [r] for the three allophones (variants) of letter r, and the rules drawn up below will make the context unambiguous. In most dictionaries, the three sounds are also indicated by [r]. For example, in the Oxford English Dictionary we find hard [hɑ:d] and hard [hɑ:rd], the former being the British version and the latter its American counterpart.

 

Returning to rhotic accent, it can be found associated with the following sound:

Long vowels [ɑ:], [ɔː], and [3:], as in hard [hɑ:rd], borne [hɔːrn], and hurt [h3:rt], respectively.

 

• After the short sound schwa [ə] in the comparative endings, as in later [ˈleItər], or taller [ˈtɔːlər].

 

• Diphthongs ending by sound schwa [Iə] and [eə], as in here [hIər], and there [ðeər], respectively.

 

• The combination [jʊ], as in cure [kjʊr], or pure [pjʊr].

 

• After the short sound [ʊ], as in poor [pʊr], moor [mʊr], or boor [bʊr].

 

Furthermore, rhotic accent is produced according to the following circumstances.

 

• There is rhotic accent when a word is pronounced in isolation or at the end of a prosodic break. For example, It was very hard.

 

• The rhotic accent is lost when the letter r does not belong to the same syllable. Compare water [ˈwɔːtəɻ] and watery [ˈwɔːtəɹi].

 

• If within a prosodic unit the last syllable of a words ends by [ɻ] and the next word begins by a vowel, then the rhotic consonant is substituted by [ɹ] or [r], depending on the particular accent. For example, the sentence That water is cold is pronounced as [ðætˈwɔːtəɹIzˈkoʊld]; notice the change from [ɻ] to [ɹ] in water.

 

It is documented that up to 1776, when the American Revolution broke out, there was no such thing as British and American accents. Both were indistinguishable.

 

“Received Pronunciation developed at the end of the eighteenth century, during

the period of the American Revolution. At that time there was no pronunciation by which people in America could be distinguished from people in England. In the impressment controversies of the 1790s, naval officers on both sides found it so difficult to tell whether sailors were British or American that the American government considered providing certificates of citizenship (D. Simpson).”

 

Towards the end of 18th century the upper classes of Southern England started to remove the rhotic accent as a way of marking class distinction. Gradually, the new accent took off and middle classes adopted it as well. Scotland and Ireland, where the population was mainly composed of lower working classes, did not take on the change of accent, and at the present time both remains rhotic. In America there are two notable exceptions, namely, New York and New England areas. It has been hypothesized that those areas kept the non-rhototic accent because of their strong links with the British.

 

2.4. Stress

2.4.1. Change of Stress

So far major differences in pronunciation between British and American English have beendescribed in terms of change of vowels and consonants. The change of stress, although notbeing as marked, also contributes to differentiate both accents. We will examine three areaswhere worth mentioning differences are found, namely, the French loanwords, the ending-ate, and the suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony.

 

2.4.2. French Loanwords

In 1066 William of Normandy invaded England. That would mark the beginning of Normanrule of the England, which would last for about four hundred years, until the end of theHundred Years War. In a first stage, the Norman took over the power and decided to change the language of government as well as impose new institutions inspired in the French ones.

However, they let low- and middle-classes speak English. In this period, loanwords come from the domains of political, social and diplomatic activity. In a second stage, which could be dated at between 1250 and 1400, French started to be used by the population. The reason was that many Normans had to permanently settle in England as Normandy was bought by the French king in 1204, and many Normans migrated to England. The number of loanwords proliferated as the Normans -which now did include low- and middle-classes brought new experiences and ways to name objects. In a third stage, from 1400 on, most of the loanwords are related to the domain of culture.

Loanwords from French were adapted by American English in a different way than there were by British English. Change of stress is the most noticeable difference. In GA French loanwords have a final-syllable stress, while RP stresses an earlier syllable. It seems that the American English phonology has respected the fixed accent of the French language, which in most cases falls on the last syllable. A few examples of this change of stress are the following.

• First-syllable stress in RP but second-syllable stress in GA: adult, baton, beret, bidet,blas´e, brochure, buffet, caf´e, chalet, chauffeur, clich´e, coup´e, debris, debut, d´ecor, de-tail, flamb´e, frapp´e, garage, parquet, pˆ at´e, pr´ecis, sachet, salon, vaccine. With morethan two syllables we have matin´ee, n´eglig´ee, nonchalant. (The word matin´ee  has acertainly difficult pronunciation                   [-mætnˈeI].)

• Second-syllable stress in RP but last-syllable stress in GA: attach´e, consomm´e, d´ecollet´e, fianc´e(e).

• Common words where GA has a first-syllable stress and RP has last-syllable are address, cigarette, magazine.

 

2.4.3. Ending -ate

Words ending in -ate, mostly verbs, have a different stress pattern in both accents dependingon the length of the word.

• Most 2-syllable verbs ending in -ate have first-syllable stress in GA and second-syllablestress in RP. This includes dictate, donate, locate, migrate, placate, pulsate, rotate. There are exceptions where both pronunciations agree, as in abate, checkmate, duplicate, evacuate, graduate, imitate.

• Most longer -ate verbs are pronounced the same in GA and RP. There are a few exceptions where in RP has a first-syllable stress and in GA a second-syllable stress, as in elongate, remonstrate, tergiversate.

 

2.4.4. Suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony

There are a few differences in pronunciation of suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony betweenboth accents.

• Suffix -ary: In general, in GA suffixes -ary is pronounced as [eri], whereas in RP thepronunciation is [əri]. Examples of this difference are contrary, corollary, honorary,imaginary, sedentary. In some cases in RP, the sound schwa is even elided, as in military [ˈmIlItri] or momentary [ˈməʊməntri].

• Suffix -ory: We will describe two rules along with some exceptions. If the preceding syllable is unstressed, then RP still keeps the pronunciation [eri], but GA prefers [ɔːri], as in accusatory, amatory, derogatory, exclamatory, laudatory, mandatory, mi-gratory, nugatory, premonitory, recriminatory, repudiatory. When the preceding syllable is stressed in most cases RP drops the sound schwa and GA keeps the sound [ɔː], as in conservatory, pronounced [kənˈs3:vtri] in British English and [kənˈs3:rvtɔːri] in American English. Other examples are inventory, laboratory, lavatory, inflammatory, obligatory, oratory, predatory, repository, signatory, suppository, territory, transitory. Exceptions to this last rule are advisory, contradictory, compulsory, cursory, illusory, peremptory, rectory, satisfactory, where both accents pronounce [əri].

• Suffix -berry: In general, GA tends to pronounce the full suffix as [beri] and RP tendsto either substitute [e] by schwa, yielding [əri], or even elide the first vowel, yielding simply [bri], especially in informal or quick speech.