Chapter 2: Articulatory, Auditory and Acoustic Phonetics.

Phonology
2.1. Phonetics and phonology
2.2. Articulatory phonetics
2.3. Auditory phonetics
2.4. Acoustic phonetics
2.5. Synchronic, diachronic, comparative phonology
2.6. Varieties of English. The international spread of English. Regional
variation. Accents. Standard English and Received Pronunciation.
2.7. Sound Change. The gap between spelling and pronunciation. The
International Phonetic Alphabet. Homonyms, homo-phones,
homographs

2.6. Varieties of English. The international spread of English.

Regional variation. Accents. Standard English and Received
Pronunciation

If there are people who claim that Chinese rather than English is the language that
has the largest number of speakers in the world (though arguably so, since we can hardly
speak about a unique language spoken by the 1.2 billion Chinese) English is indisputably
the most widely spread language on earth, as it is practically spoken on all continents,
either as mother tongue or first language or as a second language (often an official
language in the respective countries) by hundreds of millions of people. A language
having such a wide geographical spread cannot be expected to be “the same” in places
tens of thousands of kilometres apart. In other words, we cannot imagine that people in
Sydney, Calcutta, Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, the Falkland Islands, Dar es
Salaam, Harare, Johannesburg, Cork, Glasgow, York, Manchester, London or Victoria
speak the same ”kind” of English. The differences are not always proportional to the
distances, since General American (the variety of American English that is dialectally
neutral, that is it is not influenced by the souythern or eastern American accents and is
spoken by the majority of the population of the USA; it is usually abbreviated GA) is
much closer to standard British English (see the explanation of the term below) than are
some of the northern accents11 spoken on the very island of Britain. This is so because
dialectal (or regional) variation is typical of any language, not only of languages having
such a remarkable geographical spread as English. The fact that English came into
contact – as a consequence of the worldwide extent of the British colonial empire – with
a wide variety of languages spoken by native populations in various parts of the world
only contributed to an even greater diversification of the varieties of English that are
currently spoken all over the world. Therefore, the distinctions mentioned above can be
of different kinds, pertaining either to the already mentioned regional variation, or to the

11
We use the term accent with the sense of pronunciation typical of a certain dialect (regional
variant) of a given language.
separate evolution of the language in different parts of the world to which geographical
distances and cultural factors largely contributed. In many cases, the interaction between
English and one or several local languages gave birth to so-called pidgins. Variation can
also be noticed at individual level and the kind of English spoken by a certain person
often illustrates his or her educational and social background, a situation particularly
relevant in a conservative country like Britain where social and cultural differences are
more important than in other parts of the world. Differences between the varieties of
English pertain, naturally, not only to the vocabulary or grammar, but, essentially, to
pronunciation as well. They are never that important, however, to justify the
identification of a different “language” and those speaking about an “American”
language, for example, are doing it either out of ignorance, or of “patriotism”, or because
of commercial interests (more people would be interested in being taught “American”
than “English”, for instance). If variation in the case of individual languages is a natural
and common phenomenon, institutionally and administratively it can hardly be accepted.
Attempts at standardization and normalization, at preserving the unity and even the
“purity”12 of the language represent therefore a constant concern for different official
bodies and institutions in various countries. If this is easier to achieve at the level of the
written language, difficulties are much greater in the case of the spoken language. Even at
this level, however, the need for a standardized, more or less universally acceptable and
recognizable variant is even greater in the case of English than in that of other languages,
since this is the official language of many countries in the world and is the most widely
used language in international conferences, meetings, etc, being the main language used
by UN organizations and having become since World War II a kind of lingua franca of
contemporary world. A variety of English ignoring the natural diversity of various
dialects or geographical/national variants of the language thus gradually established itself
as the standard version of the language. This variety of English is largely based on the
southern dialects of the language, around which the literary language had been formed,
and its pronunciation is commonly known as Received Pronunciation. The emergence of
a southern dialect to this predominant position can be historically explained by the
political, economic and cultural importance of London ever since early Middle Ages. The
language spoken at Court by the royal family and their refined entourage was early
invested with all the respect, authority and influence that a model needs. Being the
language of the educated upper segments of the English society, it was perceived as the
correct version of the language, in opposition to other accents that were consequently
regarded as corrupted forms of the norm. The two traditional universities, Oxford and
Cambridge and, in more recent times, the public schools largely contributed to the
growing prestige of Received Pronunciation. The very term received suggests the idea of
the general acceptance of this variety of English. The invention of the radio and the
adopting of RP by the BBC also played an important role in the imposing of RP as the

12
The French are notorious for their often exaggerated efforts to protect and preserve the purity of
their language. Similar attempts, less consistent and systematic and having little if any scientific foundation
– and consequently being pure political demagogy – have been made in our country, too.
socially desirable norm for the pronunciation of the language. It also accounts for RP
being known as BBC English. This prestige of RP is not linguistically motivated but is
essentially rooted in tradition and in the authority of the educational system and of the
upper classes, since it has been for a long time the pronunciation taught in school,
described by English dictionaries and phonetic books, disseminated through the media,
used by the educated people in academic circles, in public speeches, conferences, etc. It
is, in one word, the kind of English having the highest social and cultural status and that
any “respectable” person is supposed to use.13 Starting as the accent of a limited social
segment and having the essential features of a southern accent, RP transcended social and
geographical limits and came to be recognized as the correct variant of the language, the
norm as regards pronunciation. As mentioned above, more than other countries, England
is a place where accent still represents an important index to the social and educational
background of the speaker. This largely accounts for the survival of RP as the standard
pronunciation of the language in spite of its statistic insignificance described in the note
before. Within RP itself, however, three main types can be distinguished: conservative
RP, general RP and advanced RP. Conservative RP is characteristic for the older
generations of RP speakers and is the variant most resistant to change. Advanced RP, on
the contrary typifies attempts to change within RP and may be suggestive of future
evolutions within RP. General RP is the most widely used, keeping the balance between
the conservative and the innovative tendencies within the accent. It is the RP variant that
is commonly used by the media.
As for the other dialectal pronunciations of British English we will mention only
some of the most important. Cockney enjoys a certain notoriety as it is the accent used in
the south, notably in the London region and typifies the pronunciation of what was
traditionally called the working class. Some of the most striking characteristics of
Cockney are that it replaces voiceless stops by the glottal stop and widens the diphthong
[eı] to [aı]. Several accents of southern and south-eastern England are collectively known
as Estuary England. Northern dialects, which include accents of Northern England and of
Scotland are, generally, rhotic {r is pronounced in post-vocalic final or pre-consonantal
position; e.g. in words like car or part), while the central open vowel [ʌ] is generally
pronounced as some sort of [ʋ]. Irish people speak English with a very distinct accent. If
we extend our outlook to varieties of English spoken outside the British isles in various
regions of the world that were formerly included in the British Empire, American English
will of course have an outstanding position, Americans forming the largest community of
native English speakers in the world. Various labels will be attached to different varieties
of the language, that have borrowed the name of the respective countries or geographical
regions: Australian English, Indian English, Canadian English etc. Further subdivisions

13
It should be mentioned, however, that, according to statistics, RP is characteristic only of about
3% of the overall number of speakers of the English language, that many native speakers will consider it
affected and that foreign speakers rarely acquire it correctly. For most people it functions as an ideal target
rather than an actual means of communication.
are, of course, possible, taking into account linguistic diversification even within the
varieties mentioned above.