Received Pronunciation: Historical Background and Application

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

d) Back-advanced vowels [?], [u] are considerably fronted in the advanced RP: but [b?t] - [b?t], good [gud] - [g?d].

It should be mentioned here that there is a tendency for all short vowels to be made nearer the centre of the mouth, that is to move towards [?], especially in unstressed position: honest [бnist] - [бn?st].Thus the horizontal changes in vowel quality may be listed like this:

Centering of short vowels:

More advanced pronunciation of the diphthong: [ou] - [u].

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

Vertical changes in vowels may be traced in [e] and [o:] which tend to be closer in advanced RP. It has also been stated above that the nuclei of diphthongs [ei], [ea], [oa], [ua] become more open when these phonemes are being leveled, particularly the diphthong [ea] which is characterized by a great opening of the first element: careful [k?ful] - ['k:ful]. The first element of the diphthong [u?] can be lowered considerably. Thus several words with [u?] are given a shade pronunciation by some advanced RP speakers: poor, sure [pu?] [?u?] - [p?], [??].

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

a) Changes in [j+u:], [l+u:]. Words like suit, student, super, bulletin may be pronounced either [sju:t] or [sat], [stju:dant] or [stu:dnt], [sjuipa] or [su:pa]. The tendency is for middle-aged and younger speakers to omit the [j] after [s] before [u:]. Word-internally [j] tends to be retained as in assume [asju: m]. There is also fluctuation after [1]: word-initially lute [lu:t] is normal, but it is possible to pronounce [ilju:?n] in illusion, for example. These recent developments in combinative RP changes bear remarkable resemblance to American Standard pronunciation.

b) Change of [?:] to [б] before [f, s]. Where orthographic “o” occurs before the voiceless fricatives [f, s] older speakers pronounce the vowel [?:]: loss [l?:s]. This pronunciation is currently dying out in RP and being replaced by [б]: [lбs].

4. Changes in length.

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

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

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

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

Changes in Consonant Quality.

Consonant phonemes of Received Pronunciation.
Nasal	m			n			?
Plosive	p b			t d			k g
Affricate					t? d?
Fricative		f v	и р	s z	? ?			h
Approximant				?	j		w

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

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

The voiced/voiceless distinction of the minimal pairs [sed] - [set], [dбg] - [dбk] may seem to be lost. Actually it does not take place. The weak consonants are never replaced by their voiceless counterparts, they never become strong, the stops [b, d, g], though devoiced, never acquire aspiration. The interrelation of final consonants and the preceding stressed vowels is very close. The instrumental investigation of E. Kurjatnikova (1988, p. 14), showed that the duration of the vowel before the traditionally called voiced consonant is 1.5 times larger than that before the voiceless consonant. Cf.: He saw his cap. - He saw his cab.

Describing the positional allophones of the English stops A. Gimson (1964, p.p.131-136) characterizes the initial lenis [b, d, g] as partially devoiced, final lenis [b, d, g] as voiceless.

The sound [t] in the intervocalic position is made voiced, e.g. better [bet?] - [bed?], letter [let?] - [led?].

2. Loss of [h]. In rapid speech initial [h] is lost in form words and tends to die out from the language. Even most highly educated people subconsciously drop it completely. So instead of: He wants her to come [hi - wбnts h t?, k?m] one hears: [i wants ? t? k?m]. It is evident, of course, that the loss of [h] in stressed syllables sounds wrong.

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

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

5. Spread of “dark” [l]. This tendency is evidently influenced by the American pronunciation and some advanced RP speakers are often heard saying [l] instead of [1'] as in believe, for example. There is no threat in spreading it widely yet but it is quite common for pop singers now. It should also be mentioned that sometimes final [l] tends to be vocalized as in people, for instance, but is not likely to become a norm.

6. Glottal stop. In RP the glottal stop [t] can appear only in the following two environments: a) as a realization of syllable-final [t] before a following consonant as in batman [btman - [b' mn] or not quite [nбt 'kwait] - [nб 'kwait]; b) in certain consonant clusters as in box, simply [bбks], [simpli], where it is known as “glottal reinforcements”. The use of glottal stop by advanced RP speakers produces a “clipped” effect on a foreigner.

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

8. Linking and intrusive [r]. It has been estimated that all English accents are divided into “rhotic” or “r-full” and “non-rhotic” or “r-less”. Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r] corresponding to orthographic “r”. RP is a non- rhotic accent but most speakers of it do pronounce orthographic “r” word-finally before a vowel: It is a far away country. It is known as linking “r”. Failure by students to pronounce it does not usually affect comprehension but may result in their sounding foreign.As a further development and by analogy with linking “r”, “r” is inserted before a following vowel even though there is no “r” in spelling. This “r” is known as intrusive “r”. The actual situation is that younger RP speakers do have it after [a].

It is said that nowadays in colloquial fluent speech there is a strong tendency towards elision, reduction and assimilation. This tendency is reflected in the pronunciation of the young generation: tutor [tju:t?], second year [sek?nd jia], perhaps you [p?'hps ju:], gives you [givzju:], as you know [?zju: 'n?u]; in the transcribed texts of British textbooks: him [im], he [i:], her [?], his [iz], can [kn], than [рn], them [рm], some [sm], suppose [spouz], have to [hafta], last time [la:staim], and there was no one [?n ?r wz'nou wn]; even in the traditional spelling: C'm on, baby. Oh, I dunno. Must've put'em all together. Why d'you ask? What d'ja think? Alright!

9. Combinative changes. Sound combinations [tj, dj, sj] are pronounced as [tu, d,u] respectively, e.g. actual [ktjual] - [ktjual], graduate ['grdjueit] - [grdueit], issue ['isju:] - [i?u:].

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

Non - systematic Variations in RP Phonemes.

Some free phonemes have appeared under the influence of the written image of words, their spelling.

Unstressed prefixes ex - and con - have gained orthographical pronunciation: excuse [iks'kju:z] - [eks'kju:z], exam [ig'zm] - [eg'zm], continue [k?ntinju:] - [kan tinju;], consent [k?n sent] - [kan'sent].

The days of the week: Sunday [s?ndi] - [s?ndei], Monday - [m?ndei].

Note also free variants in often: [af?n] - [aft (?) n].Other cases: economics [ika'namiks] - [eka'namiks].

Changes from the early twentieth century. Transfer of the Cloth set. In D. Jones's (1965) time, and until around the time of the second world war, words belonging to the standard lexical set “cloth” (Wells 1982, p. 412) were usually pronounced with the vowel [??] (as in thought); but nowadays they are pronounced with [?] (as in lot). Examples include cough, soft, cross, lost -- words in which the vowel is followed by a voiceless fricative.

Merger of [??] and [??]. There used to be a distinction in pronunciation in pairs such as floor [fl??] vs. flaw [f l??]. Even Jones recognized that some speakers in his time pronounced [??] in words where he had [??], and by now the distinction is obsolete. In contemporary RP floor and flaw are homophones, as are four and for, cores and cause, shore and Shaw.

Change in the quality of the Goat vowel. Jones's predecessor Gimson's decision (1962) to change the transcription of this diphthong from [??] to [??] reflected the change that had taken place in pronunciation. In over the road ['??v?р?'r??d], I don't know [a?'d??nt'n??]. we now use a diphthong with a mid-central, usually unrounded starting point. A century ago the starting point was back and rounded. A side effect of this change is that the corresponding weakened vowel, written by Jones as [?], thus November [n'?vemb?], has now become an ordinary [?], thus [n?'vemb?]. If we keep the first vowel strong in profound we have [pr???fa?nd]; if, as is more usual, we weaken it, we get [pr?'fa?nd].Opening of [ж]. Listening to old film clips or recordings we are often struck by the quality of the vowel [ж] previously to be heard, as in that bad man ['ржt'bжd'mжn]. It was not only considerably less open than is now customary, but was also tenser and had more pharyngeal constriction.

Loss of tapped [r]. A further change from this period was the loss of the alveolar tap [r] as a usual realization of [r] between vowels, as in very sorry, better off. It has been replaced by the ordinary approximant [?].

Changes in the mid twentieth century. Decline and disappearance of [??]. Words formerly containing the diphthong [??] have come increasingly to be pronounced with [??] instead. Thus your is no longer [j??] but [j??]. Poor, sure, moor, cure, tourist are often [p??, ???, m??, kj??, 't??r?st]. According to the survey figures for poor showed that when we group all ages together [p??] was preferred over the traditional [p??] by a margin of 57% to 43% of the respondents; but when we look at different age-groups separately [p??] was preferred by only 27% of the oldest respondents (born before 1923) as against a massive 81% of the youngest (born since 1962). Words such as jury, rural seem generally to be resistant to this change, and do not rhyme with story, choral. Rather, they seem now typically to be pronounced with a monothong of the [??] type, perhaps to be interpreted as a variant of [u:].

Drift from weak [?] to [?]. In various categories of weak syllables [?] is increasingly used where [?] formerly prevailed. Thus possible is now usually ['p?s?bl] rather than, as previously, ['p?s?bl]. For private and carelessness my father said ['pra?v?t], ['ke?l?sn?s], but we say ['pra?v?t], ['ke?l?sn?s]. While both variants are still to be heard in these endings - ible, - ate, - less, - ness, and likewise in - ity, - ily, the balance of preference has, in our judgment, swung from [?] to [?]. Where weak [?] was word-final, as in visibility, once ['v?z??b?l?t?], now ['v?z'?b?l?ti], a different change is taking place, as discussed below.

Plosive epenthesis. Between a nasal and a voiceless fricative, in words such as fence [fens], answer ['??ns?], speakers increasingly now insert a plosive, thus [fents], ['??nts?]. This development appears to have a physiological origin, since it can be demonstrated to result from a slight adjustment in the relative timing of the movements of the soft palate and the primary articulator (the tongue tip). The result is that pairs such as mince and mints have become homophonous, [m?nts].

Yod coalescence. English has long had a tendency to convert [tj] into [t?], [dj] into [d?]. We see this in the history of words such as nature, where the earlier [t] plus [j] has long ago been replaced by an affricate, ['ne?t??]. During the course of the twentieth century this process has continued apace. Jones pronounced actual as ['жktju?l], a variant that nowadays would be perceived as mannered or indeed artificial: we say ['жkt?u?l, 'жkt?l, 'жkt?o]. For me, perpetual and to graduate have formal, extremely careful forms [p?'petju?l, 'grжdjue?t], but everyday forms [p?'pet?u?l, 'grжd?ue?t]. These are all words, you will notice, in which the new affricate is followed by a weak (unstressed) vowel.

T glotalling. In various environments the consonant [t] tends to be pronounced as a glottal plosive, [t], rather than as the traditional alveolar [t]. This is by now normal before a following obstruent consonant in a different syllable or word, as in football ['f?tb??l], quite good ['kwa?t 'g?d]. It is also frequent before a sonorant consonant in the same environment, as in witness ['w?tn?s], atlas ['жtl?s], network ['netw??k], quite wrong ['kwa?t' r??]. London's second airport, Gatwick, for us has a careful variant ['gжtw?k] and a casual variant ['gжtw?k].

Changes in the late twentieth century.The developments that have arisen in the last two decades or so are associated also with the rise of what has been dubbed Estuary English -- a term coined by D. Rosewarne (1984, p. 305}, after the Thames estuary, and implying influence of the southeastern part of England centered on London. From the phonetic point of view, Estuary English is supposed to comprise the middle ground between traditional RP on the one hand and Cockney (London working-class speech) on the other. It is best seen as a variety of Standard English, though spoken with a regional accent, just as Standard English may be expressed in a northern or Scottish or Irish accent. But since London is, as ever, the main source of new fashions, in pronunciation as in everything else, many of the characteristics of Estuary English are being, or are likely to be, gradually incorporated into RP. Estuary English is well described in the popular though well-informed book Do you speak Estuary? (Coggle 1993, p.203), with its subtitle “The new Standard English--how to spot it and speak it”.

Tensing of final and prevocalic [i]. The final vowel in words such happy, coffee, valley was traditionally identified with the [?] of bit. But many speakers nowadays identify it with the [i:] of beat. In many recent works (Wells 1990, Roach 1991) the phonetic symbol [i] is used, to denote this variable or intermediate quality, thus ['hжpi], ['k?fi], ['vжli]. This notation reflects the fact that there is no actual opposition between [i] and [i:] in these weak syllables (happy does not become a different word by switching from one vowel to the other); what has happened is a change in the preferred phonetic quality of the weak vowel. If our phonological theory is sufficiently sophisticated to recognize a distinction between a strong vowel system (used typically but not exclusively in stressed syllables) and a weak vowel system (used only in unstressed syllables), then we can place [i] in the weak system. It is used not only word-finally, but also before a vowel as in happier ['hжpi?], various ['ve?ri?s], radiate ['re?die?t].

Rise of the diphthong [??]. Increasingly in RP words such as fold, goal are said with a back rounded diphthong with a starting point comparable to the [?] of lot. This diphthong is found only before dark [l], or the vowel that develops from it Speakers who do this are often quite conscious of the difference between their [??] and ordinary [??]. Through a process of morphological regularization, they may extend this to words where [l] is morpheme-final but followed by a vowel, yielding occasional minimal pairs such as wholly ['h??li] vs. holy [h??li].

Change in the quality of [u:], [?]. Traditionally classified as back and rounded, these vowels are not only losing their lip-rounding but also ceasing to be very back. Thus spoon conservatively [spu:n], may now range to a loosely rounded [sp?n] or even [sp?n], while good [g?d] is often pronounced with a schwa-like quality.

T glottalling. The environments for the glottal stop replacing [t] now extend to word-final position even when the next word does not begin with a vowel, as in quite easy ['kwa?t 'i:zi], take it off ['te?k ?t '?f], not only ['n?t '??nli], or absolute-final right. [ra?t]. Intervocalically within a word, as in city, water, glottal stops are still regarded as Cockney: ['s?ti, 'w??t?] belong neither to EE nor, of course, to RP.

Yod coalescence continues to widen its scope, extending now to stressed syllables. This makes Tuesday, conservatively ['tj:z-], become ['t?u:z], identical with choose [t?u:z]. Tune and duke become [t?u'n], [d?u'k], and reduce comes to have a second syllable identical with juice. We'd like to think of the avoidance of this development as a touchstone of RP (as against EE, which clearly accepts it); but we are not sure that this claim can really be maintained. One further development that perhaps deserves mention is the rise of so-called up talk or up speak, the use of a rising nuclear tone on a statement, where a fall might be expected. The (presumably unintended) effect may be one of reluctance to commit oneself or of diffidence. This use of the rise may well have started in Australia or California, but is observably spreading to Britain.

Specific lexical items. The changes we have been discussing up to this point have all been general ones, applying in an environment that can be specified phonetically. There are other changes, though, that are lexically specific: they involve just a single word that has changed its shape. Thus for example nephew, which at the beginning of the century was usually ['nevju:], is now mostly pronounced ['nefju:]. This is not part of a general trend affecting [v] between vowels, but something affecting just this word. This data comes from the survey of pronunciation preferences that is carried out for the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (Wells 1990). In the dictionary the polling results are reported relating to close on a hundred words in which speakers were known to disagree about the pronunciation. These results were pooled for all respondents. What is done now is to analyze the results by respondent's age. In some cases this reveals no difference at all between the old and the young: for example, in chrysanthemum the pronunciation with [s] is preferred over the form with [z] by a margin of approximately 60% to 40% by all age groups. In other cases there is sharp age grading, such that one can see a clear trend as a newer pronunciation, preferred by the young, comes to predominate over an older form. Thus in nephew the [f] form, preferred by 79% of all respondents, proves to be the choice of a mere 51% of those respondents born before 1923, but of as many as 92% of those born since 1962. There is a clear trend line, showing that the [v] form (which happens to be the one I prefer myself) is due to disappear entirely before very long. Similarly, the percentage preferring [su:t] over [sju:t]in suit has risen from 47% among the oldest group to 92% among the youngest. In deity ['de?] (as against ['di:]) has risen from 40% to 98%. In zebra ['zebr?] is preferred over ['zi:br?] by 65% rising to 96%. In applicable stress on the second syllable is preferred over initial stress by 59% of the oldest, but by 91% of the youngest. In primarily, antepenultimate stress ([pra??mer?li] and the like) is preferred over initial stress ([?pra?m?r?li]) by 51% of the oldest but 77% of the youngest.

Now by way of conclusion we would like to state that not all the changes are recognized as a norm by most affected advanced RP speakers. Some of these changes are quite stable, some tend to disappear. The language is a living body and its oral aspect is most vitally changeable. But one should realize the importance of most recent developments, which, in opinion of many prominent phoneticians, may lead to radical changes in the whole inventory of vowel and consonant phonemes.

2.2 Regional Non-RP Accents of England

On the map below we can discern dialects and languages on the territory of British Isles. As was stated above, we grouped regional accents of England into southern and northern ones. This division is very approximate of course, because there are western and eastern accents but their main accent variations correspond either with southern or northern accentual characteristics. Thus we would like to point out here the main differences between southern and northern accents.

In vowels. One of the main differences between these groups of accents is in the phoneme inventory - the presence or absence of particular phonemes. Typically, the vowel [a] does not occur in the accents of the north; e.g.

	South	North
blood	[bl?d]	[blбd]
one	[w?n]	[wбn]
but	[b?t]	[bбt]



We can also note that many northern speakers while they do not have [a] have [u:] rather than [u] in words such as hook, book, look.

They therefore distinguish pairs like book and buck, which in the south sound [buk] and [bak], in the North as

	South	North
Book	[bu:k]	[bak]
Buck	[bu:k]	[bak]

Another well-known feature which distinguishes northern and southern accents concerns [a].

Before the voiceless fricatives [f,и,s] and certain consonant clusters containing initial [n] or [m], is pronounced in the north instead of [a].

They therefore distinguish pairs like book and buck, which in the south sound [buk] and [bak], in the North as

	South	North
path	[pa: и]	[pи]
dance	[da:ns]	[dns]

One more major north-south differentiating feature involves the final [i:] like in words city, money, etc. In the north of England they have [i]. In the south of England these words are pronounced with [i] e.g. South - North: city [siti:]- ['siti], money [m?ni:] - [mani].

In consonants

It has been mentioned above that some English accents are “rhotic” or “r-ful” and other are non-rhotic or “r-less”. Rhotic accents are those which actually pronounce [r], corresponding to orthographic “r” in words like bar and farm. This [r] sound is post-vocalic and is most often heard in Scotland, Ireland and in the southwest of England.

In most regional accents the glottal stop is more widely used than in RP. In some areas, especially the north-east of England, East Anglia and Northern Ireland, the glottal stop may also be pronounced simultaneously with the voiceless [p, t, k], most strikingly between vowels: pity [piti:]. Many non-RP speakers use [n] in the suffix “- ing” instead of sitting [sitin]. In an area of western central England which includes Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool they pronounce [g]: singer [sing?], wing [wing].

Now about [j] - dropping. In most accents [j] is dropped after [t, s]: student [stjud?nt], suit [su:t]. In parts of the north the change has progressed a good deal further, it has been lost after [и]: enthusiasm [an'иu:zi?zm].

In large areas of eastern England [j] is lost after every consonant. In London [j] is lost after [n, t, d]: news [nu:z], tune [tu:n].

Southern English Accents

We now turn to an examination of regional non-RP accents of England and we shall first give a brief outline of the group of Southern accents.

As was stated above, educated Southern speech is very much near-RP accent whereas non-standard accents are very much near Cockney. Therefore we shall focus our attention on the rather detailed description of uneducated London accent - Cockney.

Cockney accent. It has been long established that Cockney is a social accent - the speech of working-class areas of the Greater London. Here are some pronunciation peculiarities of it.

In vowels

1. [? ] is realized as [i]: blood [b?d] - [blid];

2. [i] in word-final position sounds as [i:] city [siti] - [siti:];

3. when [o] is non-final, its realization is much closer, it sounds like [?:]: pause [p?:z] - [p?:z]; when it is final, it is pronounced as [? ?]: paw [p?:] - [p?:?];

4. the diphthong [ei] is realized as [i] or [ai]: lady [leidi] - [lidi:], [laidi:];

In consonants

1. [h] in unstressed position is almost invariably absent;

2. The contrast between [р] and [f] is completely lost: thin [рin], booth [bu:f].

3. The contrast between [р] and [v] is occasionally lost: weather [weva].

4. when [р] occurs initially it is either dropped or replaced by [d]: this [dis], them [ (d)?m].

5. [1] is realized as a vowel when it precedes a consonant and follows a vowel, or when it is syllabic: milk [mivk], table [teibv]; when the preceding vowel is, [1] may disappear completely;

6. [?] is replaced by [n] in word-final position: dancing [da:nsin] or it may be pronounced as [ik] in something, anything, nothing.

7. [p, t, k] are heavily aspirated, more than in RP.

Northern and Midland Accents. Midland accents, Yorkshire, for example, West Midland and North-West accents have very much in common with Northern ones. Therefore they are combined in this book into one group; peculiar realization of vowels and consonants will be marked, of course, when each subgroup is described separately. The counties of northern England are not far from the Scottish border, so the influence of Scottish accent is noticeable, though there are of course many features of pronunciation characteristic only of northern English regions. The most typical representative of the speech of this area is Newcastle accent. It differs from RP in the following:

In vowels

1. RP [o] is realized as [u]: love [lu:v] - [l?v].

2. RP final [i] sounds like [i:]: city [siti] - [siti:].

3. Words like dance, chance which in RP have [a] are pronounced with: [dns], [t?ns].

4. [ei], [ou] are either monophthongs, or much narrower diphthongs than the ones in the south of England, or they may even sound as opening diphthongs: bay [be:], [bei], plate [ple:t], [pleit], boat [b?:t], [b?ut].

5. words that have “al” in spelling - talk, call, all, are pronounced with [a]: [ta:k], [ka:l], [a:l].

6. RP words with [?:] are pronounced with [?] in a broad Tyneside accent: first [f?st], shirt [f?:t]; so first, forced; shirt, short are homonyms;

7. [ai] is [i]: right [rit].

8. Words which in RP have [au] may have [u], e.g. about [abut].

In consonants

1. [1] is clear in all environments;

2. [h] is usually present in all positions;

3. - ing is [in]: shilling [?ilin];

4. [p, t, k] between vowels are accompanied by glottal stop: pity [piti:];

5. in parts of Northumberland and Durham [r] may be uvular (in its production the tongue and the uvular, not the tongue and the alveolar ridge take part),

Yorkshire accents. Yorkshire and Bradford accents are identical with northern vowel features in points 1, 3, 4 (only many speakers pronounce words which have “ow”, “ou” in spelling with [au]: know [nau]; with northern con-sonant features in point 3.

Now having accomplished the description of regional non-RP accents of England we would like to say that we didn't attempt to give a detailed account of all the regional differences in accents of remote rural areas. Rather we concentrated on urban accents which can be heard when one travels throughout the country and which are most likely to be encountered by foreign tourists.

Welsh English. As everyone probably knows Wales is a bilingual area. This speech situation in linguistics is known as exoglossic. In Wales English dominates over Welsh in urban areas, in the west and north-west of the country the balance being in favor of Welsh, where English is learnt at schools as a second language. At the moment nationalistic feelings are rather strong in Wales and we are witnessing a movement in favor of the revival of the Welsh language and its spread in all areas of Wales. However, Welsh English at the level of educated speech and writing is not much different from that of English. Most differences are found at the level of more localized dialects.

In this chapter we shall give a brief outline of Welsh English pronunciation standard.

The principal phonological differences between WE and RP are the following: In vowels:

1. The distribution of [?] and [a] is in the north of England. Last, dance, chance, etc. tend to have [?] rather than [a].

2. There is no contrast between [?] and [a]: rubber [r?b?].

3. [i] at the end is a long vowel: city [siti:].

4. in words like tune, few, used we find [iu] rather than [ju:]: tune [tiun].

5. [ei], [ou] may become monophthongs: bake [bi:k], boat [b?:t];

6. the vowel [?] as in “girl” is produced with rounded lips approaching [?:].

7. the vowels [i?], [u?] do not occur in many variants of Welsh English: fear is [fi:j?], poor is [pu:w?].

In consonants

1. W. English is non-rhotic, [r] is a tap, or it is also called a flapped [r]. Intrusive and linking [r] do occur.

2. Consonants in intervocalic position, particularly when the preceding vowel is short are doubled: city [siti].

3. Voiceless plosives tend to be strongly aspirated: in word final position they are generally released and without glottalization, e.g. pit

4. [1] is clear in all positions.

5. Intonation in Welsh English is very much influenced by the Welsh language.

Scottish English. We must first make clear that the status of Scottish English is still debated. Some linguists say that it is a national variant. Others say that it is a dialect. English has been spoken in Scotland for so long as it has been spoken in England. In the Highlands and Islands of northern and western Scotland, however, Gaelic is still the native language of thou-sands of speakers from these regions. A standardized form of this language, known as Scots, was used at the court and in literature until the Reformation. Then it was gradually replaced by English. Incidentally a number of writers and poets of the likes of R. Burns retained their native language.

Nowadays educated Scottish people speak a form of Scottish Standard English which grammatically and lexically is not different from English used elsewhere, although with an obvious Scottish accent. We must admit, however, that non-standard dialects of Scotland still resemble Scots and in many respects are radically different from most other varieties of English. It is very difficult to understand them for students who learn RP.

At the moment there is currently a strong movement in Scotland for the revival of Scots. Nevertheless Scottish Standard English is still more prestigious and in this paper we concentrate on Scottish English as used and spoken by educated urban Scots.

As for the status of Scottish English, in this paper it will be treated as a dialect though it is fair to say that there is much in favor of calling it a national variant of English.

Vowels

1. Since Scottish Eng. is rhotic, i.e. it preserves post-vocalic [r], vowels such as RP [i?], [?:], [?], [u?] do not occur:

	RP	Sc. Eng.
Beer	[bia]	[bir]
Bird	[b?:d]	[bird]
Hurt	[h?:t]	[hirt]
Bard	[ba:d]	[ba:rd]

2. Length is not a distinctive feature of Scottish vowels. So pairs like pool-pull, palm-pam, cot-caught are not distinguished. It should be noted, however, that vowels are longer in final stressed open syllables than elsewhere.

3. Monophthongs are pure, there is no trace of diphthongization with the exceptions of [ai - ei], [a?- eu].

4. The RP [a (a)] distinction doesn't exist: hat [hat], dance [da:ns].

5 - [i], [u], [?] [?] may be central.

6. In non-standard Sc. Eng. accent [u:] often occurs when RP has [au]: house [haus-hu:s]

7. It is interesting to mention that [to] and [su] may be not contrasted.

8. In very many regional accents do, to are pronounced as [d?], [t?].

9. In some accents words such as arm, after, grass may have [e] rather than [a:] after [ft?].

Consonants

1. Scottish English consistently preserves a distinction between [w]: which [vit?] - witch [w?].

2. Initial [p, t, k] are usually non-aspirated.

3. [ r ] is most usually a flap.

4. Non-initial [t] is often realized as glottal stop.

5. [l] is dark in all positions.

6. The velar fricative [x] occurs in a number of words: loch [lux].

7. - ing is [in].

8. [h] is present.

9. A specific Scottish feature is the pronunciation of [r] as [и r]: through [иru:].

Northern Ireland English. It should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Eire are different. The explanation lies in history.In the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking. Nowadays, however, native speakers of Irish are few in number and are confined to rural areas even though Irish is the official language of Ireland and is taught in schools. The English language in Southern Ire-land was originally introduced from the West and West Midlands of England and still shows signs of this today. This kind of English has spread to cover most of the Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains features of western parts of England.

The English of northern parts of the island with its centre in Belfast has its roots in Scotland, as large numbers of settlers came to this part from the south-west of Scotland from the seventeenth century onwards. Now speaking about Northern Ireland, it is true to say that English here is not homogeneous. Areas of the far north are heavily Scots-influenced. Other parts are marked by less heavily Scots-influenced varieties of English. It is, of course, obvious that the language distinction is not coterminous with the political division of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Some areas of the Republic, Donegal, for instance, speak N. Ir. Eng. (Northern Ireland English), while some of the northern provinces speak S. Ir. Eng. (Southern Ire-land English).So we shall deal with Northern Ireland English pronunciation.

Vowels. The vowel system is similar to that of Scottish accents, post-vocalic retroflex frictionless sonorant [r] being used as in Scotland.

[i]: pit [pit], fir [fir], bird [bird], city [siti], fern [firn], fur [fir];

[i:] bee [bi:], beer [bi:r], seedy [si:di], meet [mi:t], meal [mil];

[e] pet [pet], bed [bed];

[a] pat [pat], bard [bard], hat [hat], dance [dans], half [haf];

[u] put [put], boot [but], pull [pul], pool [pu:l], poor [pu?r];

[o] boat [bot], board [bord], pole [pol], knows [noz], nose [noz], pour [por], pore [por];

[б]: cot [kбt];

[ai]: buy [bai], tide [taid];

[au]: bout [baut];

[?i]: boy [b?i].

The actual realization of a vowel may vary considerably according to the following phoneme:

1. in words like bay, say the vowel is a monothong [e], preconsonantally it may be a diphthong of the type gate [geit];

2. [i], [u] are fairly central;

3. [ai], [au] are very variable;

5. realization of [a] may vary considerably.

2.3 The American variant of English

The American variant of English has been very thoroughly described by many prominent scholars both in the UK and in the USA. In our research, however, we shall try to follow the conception introduced by A.D. Schweitzer (1995, p. 59) in his sociolinguistic approach to the treatment of contemporary speech situation in America. The sociolinguistic situation in the United States is very complicated. It is molded by certain linguistic, cultural, historic, demographic, geographic, political and other factors. Generally speaking, the situation in the USA may be characterized as exoglossic, i.e. having several languages on the same territory, the balance being in favor of American English. It is true, of course, that the formation of the American Standard underwent the influence of minorities' languages, but its starting point was the English language of the early 17^th century. However, time has passed American English has drifted considerably from English though as yet not enough to give us ground to speak of two different languages. Thus we speak of the national variant of English in America.

American English shows a lesser degree of dialect than British English due to some historical factors: the existence of Standard English when first English settlers came to America, the high mobility of population, internal migrations of different communities and so on. As regards pronunciation, however, it is not at all homogeneous. There are certain varieties of educated American speech. In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Eastern type, the Southern type and Western or General American.

1. The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in New York city. It bears a remarkable resemblance to Southern English, though there are, of course, some slight differences.

2. The Southern type is used in the South and South-East of the USA. It possesses a striking distinctive feature - vowel drawl, which is a specific way of pronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even diphthongization of some pure vowels and monothongization of some diphthongs at the expense of prolonging (“drawling”) their nuclei and dropping the glides.

3. The third type of educated American speech is General American (GA), also known as Northern American or Western American spoken in the central Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and others. GA pronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard of the USA. There are some reasons for it. GA is the form of speech used by the radio and television. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse.

1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA, though some American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense and likely to be accompanied by relative length: [i:] in seat, [u:] in pool.

They also admit that a slight rise in tongue position during the pronunciation of tense vowels leads to a diphthongal quality of tense vowels which contrasts to a monophthongal quality of lax vowels.

2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is the most controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated in GA as biphonemic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from three to twelve phonemes. Following DA. Shakhbagova we distinguish here five diphthongs in GA: [ei], [ai], [?i], [au], [ou].

3. Another very important feature that causes different interpretations of diphthongs and vowel length in GA is the pronunciation of [r] sound between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and. a silence: turn [t?:rn], bird [b?:rd], star [star].

It has been estimated that 2/3 of American population pronounce [r] and 1/3 omit it. Thus GA is rhotic in words like far, core, etc. (when [r] follows the vowels and ends the word), this sound is consonantal and non-syllabic according to Ch. Thomas (1987). It involves the characteristic hindering of the free flow of breath which we associate with consonants. The sound [r] in far closes the syllable more definitely than in British Received Pronunciation of the word [fa]. On the other hand, there is a vocalic, or vowel-like and syllabic [r], that occurs in words like bird, murmur (after a vowel and before a consonant). Ch. Thomas (1987) writes that in such cases we should better transcribe the words bird and murmur like [brd] and [mrmr]. In such cases [r] is responsible for the characteristic vowel-like quality within the syllable; it is responsible for syllabic quality as well. That's why Ch. Thomas (1987) says that [r] syllabic in bird and [r] non-syllabic in far should be transcribed differently. According to V. A.Vassilyev (1980) it is still the vowel of the word that forms a syllable ([?:] in bird, [?:] in corn, etc.), not the syllabic [r] sound. He mentioned although that all the vowel sounds in pre - [r] position sound more like [a], [r] gives the preceding vowel a retroflex coloring. It means that the tip of the tongue glides to the retroflex position without, however, staying there long enough to produce a full-fledged retroflex [r] sound, [r] also prolongs the vowel a little. V.A. Vassilyev (1980) uses the term “[r] - compensating” vowels for the vowels in such words in British Received Pronunciation.

4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant (e.g. in such words as take, small, name, etc.). Nasalization is often called an American twang. It is incidental and need not be marked in phonemic transcription.

5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. Vowels [i], [i:] are distributed differently in GA and RP.

In words like very, pity GA has [i] rather than [i:]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized.

Vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before [p], [t], [k]: let [leat].

6. There are four mixed or central vowels in GA: [?], [?], [a],[ ж]. They differ markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.

7. The three RP vowels [б], [ж], [?] correspond to only two vowels in GA - [a], [ж]. This is combined with the articulatory differences between RP [б] and GA [a] and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets or words makes it very complicated. The following chart vividly shows it.

	RP	GA
Dad	[ж]	[a]
path	[б:]	[ж]
dance	[б:]	[ж]
half	[б:]	[ж]

Besides, word distribution of [б] in RP and GA is completely different. GA is intermediate in quality between the RP and [б]. In its production the lips are considerably less rounded.

8. Now to the qualities of GA diphthongs.

a) the diphthong [ei] is closer in GA as opposed to RP;

b) very front realization of [u?] such as in RP is not found in GA;

c) the nucleus of [au] tends to be more advanced in GA;

d) since GA is a rhotic accent with non-prevocalic [r], it has the consequence that the following RP vowels (derived historically from vowel +[r]) do not occur in GA: [i?] in dear - GA [dir], [??] in dare - GA [deir], [u?] in tour - GA [tur].

1. The RP allophonic differentiation of [1] does not exist in GA. In all positions [l] is fairly dark.

2. Intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. The result is neutralization of the

distribution between [t] and [d] in this position, i.e. latter, ladder. The original distinction is preserved through vowel length with the vowel before [t] being shorter.

In words like twenty, little [t] may even drop out. Thus winner and winter, for example, may sound identical.

3. GA [r] is articulated differently from RP one. The impression is one of greater retroflexion (the tip of the tongue is curled back further than in RP).

4. The “wh” spelling is represented in GA by [w] sound (or some-times transcribed as [hw]. So most American speakers make a clear distinction between “wh” and “w” words: where - ware, which - witch.

5. The sonorant [j] is usually weakened or omitted altogether in GA between a consonant (especially a fore lingual one) and [a] as in the words: news [nu:z], Tuesday ['tuzdi], student ['studnt], suit [sut], tube [tu:b], stupid [stu:pid], during ['du:ri?].

1. Many differences involve the pronunciation of individual words or groups of words.

2. Words apparatus, data, status can be pronounced with either [ei] in GA, but only with [ei] in RP.

3. Words like hostile, missile, and reptile have final [ail] in RP. In GA they may have [?l]. In words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable, while RP has it on the initial one:

	GA	RP
ballet	[bж'lei]	['bж'lei]
beret	[b?'rei]	['berei]

3. Some compound words have stress on the first element in GA and in RP they retain it on the second element: weekend, ice-cream, hotdog, New Year. [wi:k'end], [' wi:kend]

4. Polysyllabic words ending in - ory, - ary, - many have secondary stress in GA, often called “tertiary”: laboratory [l?'b?r?tri] - ['lжbr?t?ri],dictionary ['dik??nri] - [dik?'neri].

GA intonation on the whole is similar to that of RP. But there are, of course, some differences that should be mentioned here.

1. In sentences where the most common pre-nuclear contour in RP is a gradually descending sequence, the counterpart GA contour is a medium Level Head: e.g. I don't want to go to the theatre.

2. The Fall-Rise nuclear tone is different in RP and GA: e.g. Really?

These comparisons show that the main differences in intonation concern the direction of the voice pitch and the realization of the terminal tones. In GA the voice doesn't fall to the bottom mostly. This explains the fact that the English speech for Americans sounds «affected» and “pretentious” or “sophisticated”. And for the English, Americans sound “dull”, “monotonous”, and “indifferent”.

It should also be mentioned that the distribution of terminal tones in sentence types is also different in both variants of English:

1. GA “Yes, No” questions commonly have a falling terminal tone; the counterpart RP tone would be a rising one: e.g. Shall we stay here?

2. Requests in RP are usually pronounced with a Rise, whereas in GA they may take a Fall-Rise: e.g.Open the door.

Its emphatic variant in Mid-wavy-level Head:

3. The usual Medium or Low Fall in RP has its rising-falling counterpart in GA: e.g. Come and see me tomorrow.

4. Leave-takings are often pronounced with a high-pitched Fall-Rise in GA: e.g. Good night.

5. The rising terminal tone in RP in GA has a mid-rising contour: e.g. Do you like it?Or it may have a level tone in GA:

So having accomplished the description of regional non-RP accents of England and GA, we would like to say that we didn't attempt to give a detailed account of all the regional differences in accents of remote rural areas, rather we concentrated on urban accents which can be heard when one travels throughout the country and which are most likely to be encountered by foreign tourists. As for the American variant of English the comparisons show that the main differences are not only in sound structure, but there are also differences in intonation, which concern the direction of voice pitch and realization of the terminal tones. And it's certain that we have not covered here all the cases of different intonation structures used in RP and GA.

Conclusion

According to the studied material we have come to the following conclusions:

· The modern version of RP is the most appropriate accent to learn, the most widely understood. It has also the benefit of producing very clear, well-balanced and articulated speech. The name “Received Pronunciation” suggests an accent that is acquired rather than regional. It is also sometimes called BBC English, as the BBC initially adopted this accent for its clarity and non-regionality. It is the accent described in dictionaries and taught to foreign speakers.