Varieties of English Flashcards
(21 cards)
1
Q
RP
A
- Received Pronunciation
- acceptable in polite society
- many varieties (e.g. BBC accent, Oxford English)
- Upton’s model devised in 1980’s (it flopped in ELT world)
2
Q
GenAm
A
- General American
- by educated speakers in formal settings but still permitting variability in particular US regions
- unlike RP it doesnt imitate a model, they simply passively got rid of some of their old forms
3
Q
Cockney
A
- accent of urban working-class Londoners
4
Q
Cockney consonants
A
- the glottal stop, particularly word-medially and intervocalically (e.g. wa’er, bu’er, ligh’er);
- /h/-dropping in stressed syllables (e.g. Prince ‘Arry, ‘Appy ‘Ammers);
- /th/-fronting (e.g. I fink, my bruvver);
- yod-coalescence (e.g. Tuesday as Chooseday, dune as June)
- /l/-vocalisation, dark /l/ realised as /ʊ/ (e.g. milk as miuk).
5
Q
Estuary English (EE)
A
- British English accent, the region along the River Thames and its estuary (the Home Counties)
- Often defined as halfway between southern RP and Cockney
- viewed as a lower-middle-class accent
- some linguists say it doesnt exist
6
Q
West Midlands
A
- Mixture of heavily urbanised areas (Birmingham—local accent called Brummie— and the Black Country) and rural parts
- short BATH and raised STRUT
- -ing realised as /ɪŋg/ rather than /ɪŋ
- Lip-rounding of PRICE onset: /ɒɪ/.
7
Q
East Midlands
A
- between the linguistic South and North of England, comprising Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire
- short BATH /a/ + raised STRUT /ʊ/ (or fudge /ɤ/)
- word-final /ɪ/, e.g. Andy, more open: /ɛ/.
- some unstressed prefixes are not reduced, e.g. exist [ɛɡˈzɪst], conform [kɒnˈfɔ:m]
8
Q
Scouse
A
- urban working-class accent of Liverpool
- name comes from popular stew :)
9
Q
Scouse features
A
- NURSE vowel homophonous with SQUARE, e.g. shirt /ɛ:/;
- NEAR more open second element /iɛ/;
- -ng realised as /ng/, e.g. along, coming ;
- High rising terminal (HRT) intonation.
10
Q
Yorkshire accent (Tyke)
A
- Area comprises the cities of York, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Huddersfield; also big rural areas.
- features: Monophthongs GOAT /ɔ:/ and FACE /e:/.
- The definite article the is very often reduced to mere t, e.g. I love t’ book
11
Q
Geordie
A
- The urban working-class accent of Newcastle
- Northumbrian burr, i.e. uvular fricative [ʁ]
- Modern FACE and GOAT are /e:/ and /ɔ:/
- Non-rhotic and no /h/-dropping (unique among large - conurbations)
- Clear /l/ in all positions.
12
Q
Australian English (AusE)
A
- unstressed KIT /ə/
- variable BATH (both long and short); if long, then very front [a:]
- broad Australian accents have raised KIT [i], DRESS [e] and TRAP [ɛ]
- /t/ is often realised as American flapped /d/;
- non-rhotic
- high rising terminals are very common
13
Q
New Zealand English (NZE)
A
- Lowered and centralised KIT [ə]; given AusE [i], this is the single most prominent distinguishing feature btw AusE and NZE
- lettER more open: /ʌ/, butter /bʌtʌ/; this also applies to the indefinite article a, thus a cup /ʌ kʌp/;
- DRESS and TRAP raised to above [e] and [ɛ], thus bed may be misinterpreted as bead and bad as bed.
- NEAR and SQUARE homophonous [eə]
- Like in AusE speakers, NZ has dark /l/ [ɫ] in all positions.
14
Q
New York City
A
- cultural and ethnic melting pot
- /æ/-> /ɛə/
- /ɔː/ -> /ɔə/
- /t/ is glottalized in the following and similar words where /t/ follows /n
- Dropping r-coloration from /ə/
- /ɑː(r)/ -> /ɑːə/
15
Q
Canadian English
A
- most common variety is called General Canadian (GC)
- Canadian raising: before voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ PRICE and MOUTH have raised first elements: night time [nəɪt taɪm] and out loud [əʊt lɑʊd].
- Complete merger of LOT and THOUGHT: [ɔ]
- GC is a rhotic accent
- yod-dropping is now common
16
Q
South African English
A
- Unstressed KIT [ə]
- DRESS higher than [e], TRAP higher than [ɛ];
- BATH is typically long and, crucially, very back [ɑ:] (unlike AusE and NZ)
- strong happY tensing
- Unaspirated voiceless plosives /p, t, k/, e.g. pin [pən]
- In many varieties, dark /l/ [ɫ] does not exist
- SAfE is non-rhotic
17
Q
Irish and Nothern Irish English
A
- Many of the first English-speaking people in Ireland (17thC and later) were from West Midlands
- Both Irish and NI accents have a specific twang (often closed lips and teeth, sounds are being forced through them)
18
Q
Irish English
A
- A rhotic accent so no /ɜ:/, /ɪə/, /ɛə/ and /ʊə/;
- NURSE realised as /nors/, rather than /nʌrs/ as in Scottish English;
- GOAT monophthongised /ɔ:/
- rhotic, /r/ is a retroflex approximant (like American English)
- often, contrast between witch v. which: /h/ v. /hw/ [ʍ];
- clear /l/ in all positions; no /h/-dropping
- voiceless and voiced /th/ realised as alveolar plosives [t] and [d] respectively, e.g. three and this
19
Q
Northern Irish
A
- A rhotic accent so no /ɜ:/, /ɪə/, /ɛə/ and /ʊə/
- no /h/-dropping
- similar to Irish
- MOUTH extremely fronted second element /ɑʉ/
20
Q
Scottish English
A
- SSE
- more open KIT: /e/
- fronting FOOT and GOOSE [ʉ]
- FACE short monophthong /e/
- GOAT short monophthong /o/
- NURSE not central, lowered /ʌ/
- happY /e/
- BIRTH /ɪ/, NEAR /i/, SQUARE /e/, START /a/
- rhotic accent; /r/ realised as an alveolar tap [ɾ]
- witch and which are not homophonous: /w/ and /hw/
- /t/-glottaling is present
- /h/-dropping, on the other hand, is generally absent;
- /l/ is usually dark
- the stereotypical [x] is common in place names and many Gaelic borrowings
21
Q
Welsh English
A
- PRICE diphthong with additional /ə/
- NEAR and CURE centring diphthongs have inserted /j/ or /w/ respectively
- variable short/long BATH (more short BATH speakers though)
- additional contrast between RP homophones made v. maid
- clear /l/ in all positions
- in (place) names double /l/ (e.g. Llewellyn) is a voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ (not to be confused with dark /l/ [ɫ]).
- /r/ is a tap /ɾ/
