Chapter 6 English accent differences English is spoken as a native language by some 377 million people around the world (Crystal, 1995). It is spoken on every continent. Like all lan- guages, English varies in the way it is spoken from place to place. These varieties are called dialects; we use the term accent when referring to only the phonetic aspects of a dialect. In this chapter you will learn about: «history of English; @ various English accents. Background Two thousand years ago, Britain was inhabited by Celtic-speaking people known as Britons, the ancestors of the present-day Welsh of Wales and Bretons of France. In 55 1c, Julius Caesar visited Britain, and from aD 43, Roman soldiers colonised and ruled southern Britain until the early part of the fifth century when Rome recalled the soldiers to help with difficulties at hhome. The political vacuum created by the Romans’ departure was filled by sizeable settlements of Germanic-speaking people from continental Europe from ap-450. These people are traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; in Britain they became known as the English (< Angle-ish “be- longing to the Angles’, They established themselves strongly, pushing, back the Britons towards the west and also south across the water to Brittany. ‘The English seized and settled all of Britain except for Wales and the north ‘of Scotland. Their early language is known as Anglo-Saxon or Old English Old English is very different from Modern English. In addition to internal changes, English was influenced somewhat by the Scandinavians who held ‘much of England in the ninth and tenth centuries, and to a much greater extent in the Middle English period following the conquest of the French- speaking Normans in 1066, From the beginning, accent differences existed among the English. Cer- tainly there is considerable variation now in the local accents between Scotland in the north and the southern coast of England. The rural accents show the greatest variation, although they seem to be slowly giving way 10 108 16+ Enalish accent atforencer urban accents. There is less variation in the various accents of the cities, although generally enough to tell where someone comes from, About the same time as the Germanic speakers invaded Britain (fifth century ap), Gaelic speakers from Ireland conquered much of Scotland. The Anglo-Saxons settled in the lowlands (south and east) of Scotland, and the Gaels in the north-west. Since then, the use of English has gradually in- creased and pushed Scots Gaelic back to the north-west coastal region. The Jowland dialects of English have many interesting features, such as fwoa /twa/ for ‘two! and ane /en/ for ‘one’. In the Gaelic-speaking highlands (the north and wesb of Scotland, Eng- lish was introduced widely in the nineteenth century by teachers speaking, middle-class Scottish English. As a result, highland English has standard {grammatical features with an urban Scottish accent and few of the features, specifically associated with rural lowland speech. In Wales, English has steadily pushed west over the centuries, gradually eroding the territory where Welsh is spoken, English is the native language fof more than 80% of the people of Wales. As in the Scottish highlands, Eng- Tish was introduced in Wales largely through the school system with the result that the grammar of Welsh English is essentially the same as that of standard English although there are differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Ireland previously spoke Trish Gaelic, a Celtic language. Since the seven- teenth century English has been spoken there, first in Dublin, then spreading. out from the capital. The north of Ireland was colonised in the early seven- teenth century by English speakers, many of whom had Scottish accents During the nineteenth century almost the entire country adopted English as its native language. English reached North America with the British settlers in the early seven- teenth century. The earliest settlers were from England, but they were soon joined by English speakers from Scotland and Ireland as well. Much of the ‘West Indies became English speaking; however, its linguistic history is a bit - more complicated), as we will see when we look at Jamaican English, ‘The great colonial enterprise of the nineteenth century saw English be- come established in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand as English- speaking peoples settled in those areas. English became the predominant second language in other areas such as India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and much of Africa General scheme In the rest of this chapter, we will be looking at a variety of English accents, comparing them either to RP or GA. First we will look at accents in the British Isles and then overseas. The purpose of these brief descriptions is, 109‘The Sounds of Language fon the one hand, to present the variety of English for those interested in English accents, and further to help speakers of accents other than RP or GA understand their own accent. These descriptions are obviously very brief and do not pretend to be complete discussions. Readers seeking more information should turn to general discussions such as Hughes and Trudgill (1996), Trudgill and Hannah (1994), Wells (1982), and Wolfram and Schilling Estes (1998). Minor variations exist in the consonants, but most of the variation in English accents is in the vowels which are presented as a list showing a sample word and the vowel used in that word. The list for RP is given in. ‘Table 6.1. and for GA in Table 6.12. Note that in the last three words, buby, runner, and sofa, itis the second vowel which is of interest, as shown by the bbold print Table 6.1 RP vowels bat as =e nt ~ OU oe fey Cesd Be Sw a me sought 3 fees ee wo care ary om fun oa oS ba iain a bay tee Cas} be ae Lau] mer 8 aoe 5 boa} we 8 ‘This presentation gives reference points to you in figuring out the pro- rnunciation of other words with a fair degree of accuracy. If you want to now how fo pronounce a word in a certain accent, find a word on the relevant chart that has the same vowel in RP or GA. For example, if you ‘want to say plate with an Australian accent, you will ind that the word hate is on the Australian list (Table 6.7), and note that it has the vowel /aj/. From your own knowledge of English, you should be able to guess that hale and plate have the same vowel. Therefore, you can make a fairly reliable {guess that plate also has the vowel /aj/ in Australian English. (Gee Wells (1982: 122-4) for a discussion of this type of presentation) ‘The following is a shortlist of traits which commonly distinguish English accents, If you are investigating someone's accent, you might look first at these features. 1 Presence of non-prevocalic /1/. Accents with this /3/ are called thotie; those without, non-rhoti. 2 Distinction of eaught-cot 3 Distinction of but-put. 4 Final vowel of Baby: [il or (7 10 6 + English accent differences 5 Distinction of pat-path, 6 Presence of /h/. 7 Vowels of hate and boot: diphthongs or monophthongs? 8 Presence of /j/ after alveolars. 9 Intervocalic /t/: voiced, tapped, or glottalised. 110 Distinction of merry, marry, Mary, 11 Distinction of whicl-witeh. In the description of accents that follow, some or all of these eleven traits are identified as criteria for those accents, Received Pronunciation (RP) 1 Although RP is regarded as the standard accent of Britain, it is spoken natively by only a very small proportion of the population. Many people, particularly in the south of England, however, have an accent which is quite similar to RP. Even accents such a5 Cockney, our first example, although phonetically different from RP, are structurally quite similar to RP. In terms of the criteria cited above, RP has the following traits: 1 Non-shotie: ear thal 2 Caughi-eot distinguished: {kot kot) 53 But-put distinguished: (bst-pol 44 Final vowel in baby fi: Ube), Older RP had [ik bef 5 Pat-path distinguished: [pat pod) 6 /h/ present: haf /hat/ 7 Hate and boat have diphthongs: (hejt bowt} 8 /i/ present after alveolar: lune, dune, news (Yun djun wuz} 9 Inervoualic /t/glotalised non-fnally, especially with younger speakers: city (SPE 10 Meny, mary, Mery ll distinguished: mest mae ‘measil : 11 Which witch not distinguished: both (wtf Among younger RP and near-RP speakers, one notices that poor, pour, and pmw are merged as [po]. The phoneme /1/ among these speakers is often a labiodental approximant [uk: very [veull Certain wards show variability in almogt all accents of English, including RP: again(st) Faigents01 — falgejn(st)L either Cajal Wid} Sunday (and other days) [sandi]___sangdej] often Pofnl Pottal Kilometre Ueilonuto]—[ala'mitol‘The Sounds of Language Garage is notoriously variable, In RP, Ugeeiagl and 'gay.adg) are both common, as well as [geez (In GA, [golias has the greatest prestige, but {gol1eds] is common. In Canada, [gsias] is most commonly heard, but many people say [galeeds) or even monosyllabic [guseds)) The accents outside North America are more like RP. In the descriptions in this chapter, they are compared to RP, and the important points Where they differ from RP are noted. North American accents are similarly com- pared to GA. Note: in this chapter, the variety of sounds presented makes it necessary to introduce some symbols which are not discussed until later in the book. ‘Cockney : TS e { A well-known non-RP, working-class accent of the City of London is Cock- ney, traditionally defined as spoken by someone born within the sound of the Bow Bells, Structurally, Cockney is not very different from RP, but there are a number of phonetic differences, Table 6.2 Vowels of Cockney tat 4 toot me met ae ero tee tat) fin oy ir moe tought > fits me eaters pao ce fey pe 6 oof four bie mim a ‘by tie) Caz] Ge nme 8 hove Coe] mee 1 The phoneme /h/ is lost: half [af], help [eopl. 2 Non-final />/ is realised as [0]; a morpheme-final [5] is kept when a suffix is added. This creates a contrast between words such as paws and pres. paw [pol pws {poz} pause {poz 3 Glottal stop is common before voiceless stops and regularly replaces intervocalic and final /t/: stop [stop], butter ba? 4 /1/ becomes the glide [9] before consonants and at the end of words. ‘This development is spreading to other southern English accents. The [,] diacritic shows that in Bell the [o] is a glide: will [wigl, shelf [feof 5 Often, /0/ and /0/ are replaced by /f/ and /v/: Arthur Cafol, other Pavol. m 6 + English acent aitferences 6 Initial /t/ is affricated: ta tsi. 7 Specific words: the /da/, they /e)/, nothing Pnatink/. (Yorkshire oy ‘A West Yorkshire accent is presented here as an example of northern English, Table 6.2 Vowels of Yorkshire bent i boot perk mt pu perp hate © ban a pm oa pte bought > fre pa ar cure, fry nh = a} ae ra palma r bite ag out aw TAT] runner a Choice 3) CDE) fe 1 This accent is non-rhotic. 2 The vowels of but and put are the same: [but}-{pot]. 3 Generally /h/ has been lost: hat /22?/, 4 For some speakers, there are two contrasts: plate, mate el boat, ose fo} eight eight [ell nous ow) Cou") 5 Final /t/ is often realised as glotal stop: ite bas’ 6 Specific wots mike mek, tae eek} Scotland ‘Until 1603, Scotland had a separate monarch, and until 1707, was politically independent from England. It is not surprising, then, that it has its own standard accent different from RP, although same Scots do speak RP. Gram- ‘matically, standard Scottish English is quite similar to the standard accent ff England. Lowland Scotland also has a traditional local accent, known as Scots or sometimes Lallans, which has maintained a literary presence, as in the poetry of Rohert Burns, The accent described here is that of educated speakers of central Scotland. ‘The transcription [ag] represents a diphthong starting at {a] with a fol- lowing glide to an [e] position. ns“The Sounds of Language Table 6.4 Scottish vowels tet i tot or an ms for ee Ite me S pot =e fought 3 fe fs pre 3 cure jaye pm 8 me ee an mim ye ite ag nj (owt aw CAV rner 5 oie) Coe) mie 1 Scottish English is rhotic, ther is usually a tap [e] or even a trill [x]: note fern Ufecnl, pearl [ped 2 The RP vowels /v/ and /u/ are merged as /u/ (a high central vowel, pronounced farther forward than the RP /u/: look, Luke (lak, 3 The RP vowels of words such as bath and hat are merged, both having a Tow front vowel (lower than the /z2/ of hat). 4 Initial /h/ is retained: half {haf}, 8 The mid vowels /e o/ are monophthongs. 6 The which-witck distinction is maintained: /autf wtf/. 7 The unstressed vowel corresponding to schwa is often /4/: sofa Usofal- 8 Words such as fir, there, fur are often distinguished a8 /‘fir, Sex, fur/, 9 Length differs in Scottish English from other accents, 4. At the end of a morpheme, vowels, except /1/ and //, are long: row fro) rowed [ro-d] road rod) agree Igri] agreed [algrid) greed [grid] In these examples, row andl agree have long vowels at the end of a ‘morpheme. This length is retained when the past tense morpheme is added, producing a contrast with road and greed, which have short vowels b. Vowels, except /1/ and //, are long before the consonants /v 8 zr/: move {muv] —seethe [sid] size [saga] pour Ipod 10 The alternations described in 9a. apply to diphthongs as well; for the diphthong of tie, there is an alternation of quality as well fie (ag) fied {tared] tide {taja] cow [kaw] cows fkawz] loud {awa toy {toil foys tho jel Loyd Upjal Note that tied, cows, and toys consist of two moxphemes each, whereas tide, loud, and Lloyd consist of only one. 4 {6+ English accent afferencos 11 Most Scottish speakers also use a voiceless velar fricative /x/ in words such as foci /Iox/, and in many place names ~ Tullock /alax/, Belfast BS A i From the seventeenth century onwards, English speakers settled in north- fem Ireland. The English of Ulster, particularly the northern areas, is still quite similar to Scottish English. Southern Ulster English is more like that of the midlands of England. The moclern urban speech of Belfast has elements fof both these communities, There are a number of similarities between Ulster English and GA, reflecting the large Ulster settlement in the US. Table 6.5 Belfast vowels ter ms ae mt el oo Se ie ms fone feagie Sof a ae oe mn a: on ae 4 ae bie Spery Sa" we er foie 3 Cor] mee 1 This accent i rhotic. The tongue position for [i] is a little farther back than in RP, more as in GA. 2 There is often a caught-cot contrast: Ukot]-{kot] 3 The RP vowels of words such as but and hat are merged, both having a low front vowel (lower than the /ze/ of hat) 4 The phonemes /a/ and /u/ are distinct, but the distribution may be different from that in RP. 5 The phoneme /h/ is present: hat {hat} 6 The which-witeh distinction is maintained: /autf witf/. 17 The lateral /1/ is clear in all environments, 8 Intervocalic /t/ is often voiced or even a tap as in GA. 9 The words bay, say, day have the vowel [e. Dublin Jn Bire, English has been spoken since the seventeenth century, and it sien influenced by Irish Gaelic features. The accent shown here represents an educated accent of Dublin. us‘The Sounds of Language Table 6.6 trish vowels teat tot =a mt meow fe fate Sor =o mie fougit fm me me 8 care ny ce ot fee Fite Gar) owt sw RVI rer shoe 3) Bete 1 This accent is rhotie. 2 The RP vowels of words such as bath and hat are merged, both having a low front vowel lower than the /a®/ of ha) 3 The phoneme /h/ is present. 44 For some speakers, the phonemes /1/ and /u/ are merged as [. 5 The which-witch distinction is maintained: / tf wit/ 6 Wore suc as fir, fur, fern are distinct a fu, us, fean, 7 / 1s clear in all environments 8 For some speakers, /0/ and /3/are commonly realised as dental stops It] and [ql This is a Gaelic influence. Australia’) = ‘Australian English is structurally very similar to RP; there are, however, a number of phonetic differences. Within Australia, there is litle regional variation, although social variation may be quite marked (Mitchell and Delbridge, 1965). ‘Table 6.7 Australian vowels te CL) toot ow TYMD pert ae 7 bere fate (01 boa ow DOO tS moe tought 3 fet 3 me aS an 8 ze mS fe 3 Be TRE) Gut” few GD rarer 9 oie 5" (oe) eo 1 Australian English is non-rhotic. 2 The vowel of path andi jim is a front /a/, as isthe vowel of part and car 3 Initial /h/ is frequently lot: hat (ct) 4 Intervocalic /1/ is often voiced: city fi. us 6+ English accent differences 5 The vowels of pet and pat are higher than in RP. 66 Schwa is more frequently used in unstressed syllables than in RP: slop it Tstop at]. The weal forms of it and at are both (ot) 7 The lateral /1/ is dark in all positions: leave (ij). New Zealand ‘Table 6.8 The vowels of New Zealand English tet i boot poe pits pu por 83 hate sj (ae) boat awtav pn pete Bought > nt bate por eure, jury 03 pak a mn fr > but pain y ite gj (@E] out ewOEBD summer > oie Copy ete 1 The vowel of kit is pronounced [a also /u/ after /w/ is pronounced 2) Unstressed vowels are normally realised as [ol. All this has the result that woman and twonten are both pronounced woman). 2 For many speakers, there is neutralisation of certain vowels before /I/: fellow, fallow {heave well, woo! wal, 3 Younger speakers are no longer distinguishing toich and witch, pronounc- ws both as [with 4 Tntervocalie /t/ is sometimes voiced to [eas in GA. South Africa Table 6.9 Vowels of South African English teat boot mR pl a m8 pare hate 35 TIED boat w/a [YI pare a me bought 3 fm S pe pn} care, ry an ce 8 oe nt ima : tea ee eel ee Soe 3 aie 3 Ww‘The Sounds of Language 1 The phoneme /h/ is present. 2 The phoneme /t/ is often voiced or tapped intervocalically: better "berol 3 Whick and witch are both pronounced with [vv]. 4 The /1/ phoneme has two allophonic realisations: [i] and a more central- ised {i Ll in stressed sylls next to velars lick, big, sing, kit, gift after /h/ Tit ‘word initially inn before postalveolars fis, ditch, bridge [1] elsewhere bit, lip tin, slim, minutes, imited (both eylls) 5 Consonant clusters as in doctor, captain are pronounced without overlap, Le, with audible release, 6 The voiceless stops /p t k/ are often unaspirated. West Indies : English in the West Indies is quite vatied, although generally Britsh- oriented in ite phonology. Some West Indians speak RP or nea-RP; almost All speakers there are avare of RP and will fond to shift theit accent towards RP informal social situations In addition to ordinary English, most ofthe English-speaking Islands have languages which linguist cal reales. “These are Fall-Hedged languages with a very interesting history. The West Indies also has creoles based on French, Portuguese, and other languages. (For general information about creole, see Holm, 1988; Romaine, 1986, for details of West Indian English, see Roberts, 1988, We wil use the non- éreole English spoken in Jamaica as an example of West Indian English Table 6.10 West Indian vowels beat ms ae ae Ke ae fu we tong fee et me ore > a m fee fie ain fo bite 3) fas) out ow [DVS runner choice aj) [At >) sofa 8 ee eee 1 West Indian English is generally non-rhotie; only Barbados is regularly shot. 18 6+ English acco ferences 2 Note especially the vowels /a/ and /a:/; /a/ corresponds to RP /e v 2/, and /a:/ corresponds to RP /a 9/ 3 The consonant /h/ is generally absent. 44 The dental fricatives /8/ and /2/ are often pronounced as alveolar stops Mt/ and fe/: this thing /dis tmy/ 5 Certain consonant clusters are reduced: fact /fak/ mask fmas/ west /wes/ 6 The glide /)/ is sometimes found after inital velar stops: garden /gjxdn/, car Fij/ ‘mother /mada/ India [English is spoken as a second language by a large number of people in South, ‘Asia: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Its a native language for ‘some. Although the characteristics of Indian English were originally due to the fact that speakers spoke an Indian language natively, and thus acquired English with an Indian accent, these characteristics have now become estab- lished as the norm for Indian English. Nevertheless, RP still serves as a model for educated people. Obviously, there is considerable variation in such a large area, based both on education and on different native languages. Table 6.11 Vowels of Indian English feat tor wert pit m8 pert Ite @ fou 6 bot moe tought > fe 8 m8 cme 8 uh a mp fr 8 but 8 palm 3 4 bite gtasD but" Sw [ASI mer Hove 3 [>s) tole 1 Some speakers may be rhotic 2 Stops are frequently unaspirated. 3 The fricatives /@ 3/are often realised as Uf dl. 4 The stops /t d/ are often retroflex [td 3 The lateral /1/ is clear in all positions. 6 The stress pattern of Indian English is syllable-timed (see Chapter 14), 9“The Sounds of Language, General American (GA) revisited ‘Table 6.12 GA vowels a for ~ oe ey m8 oa fe sj texy feet ow Cow) ports mee fought 3 ioe oe a pee care jiry po Can eS Bie TAT) but aw FAP) inner a Soe 3)" Ipeh tm In terms of the criteria cited on pp. 110-11, GA has the following traits: 1 Rhotic: car [kau]. 2 Caught-cot distinguished: (kot kat) 3 But-put distinguished: [bat-pot) 4 Final vowel in baby [ik Pbepbil 5 The vowels of pat-path are not distinguished: [pact pee] 6 /h/ present: half (hae 7 Hate and boat have diphthongs: {hejt bowt]. 8 /i/ variably present after alveolars: tune, dune, news {ijun djun njuzl; ‘more often present in eastern areas than in the west. 9 Intervocalic /t/ tapped city Csi. 10 Merry, marry, Mary not distinguished: 'meai 'mesi ‘mes. 11 Which-witch variably distinguished: [outf wit] This distinction com- ‘mon in the south-eastern United States, and less so elsewhere. ‘A change in the vowel pattern for part of the GA area is currently in [progress in the urban north central region, known as the Northern Cities ‘Vowel Shift (Labov, 1991). It is strongest in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, ‘Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. As shown in Figure 6.1, there is a circular type of change affecting the low vowels. The symbol [4] is pronounced farther front than the usual GA La). {al > fee} lock (ae, calm fksemn) lee] fel cat (ket, can’ fen] fel lg] pet Ipgtl, wreck [ugh Ig) > Tal but toatl For some GA speakers, dark [4] is replaced by a glide [x] before fricat- ives, especially before [f v] and sometimes before [s 2]; the vowel quality of 120 6 + English acent differences e+ 4 \ Figure 6.1 GA: Northern cities vowel shift ‘this glide is like an unrounded [gl golf Igaxfl, elves legvzl, else ley, wells wera). New England ‘Table 6.13 Vowels of New England few i tor per et pu rere hte sifex) boot owfow) pm pe tought ft pt pe cure, jury poh be en bee! 3 pn 8 : tte 3f@53 but aw(AVI tener 9 choice >} toe) ‘The accent of eastern New England has many features different from GA. ‘The accent of most western New England speakers is generally GA. 41 This accent is non-rhotic, with linking Lal; the north-eastern area is, how-. ever, rhotic. 2 A rounded central vowel between [e] and [o] is used by some speakers; i is kmown as New England Short /o/; [ol: road, home, stone, coat, ohole, smoke, yolk, toad, folks, bone ~ ef. rode /ow/. 3 Note the vowel in path; as in RP, it is distinct from pat. 4 Aunt is frequently fant), distinct from ant (cent) New York City New York City English has a number of features which are quite distinct from other areas of the US, Many people in New York City speak General American. The accent described here is a traditional one. a‘The Sounds of Language Table 6.14 Vowels of New York City bor es oe ' 8 = ate oj (et boat ow (YS ert a me tought 99 iS ot se php ce, ry mes oF fur te GG Bd Mer eset tee 1 The accent is non-rhotic. 2 Older speakers have [sj] In hurt. I recall a lecture given by a professor with an older upper-class New York accent who spoke on The third person of the Hittite verb (b2 (sj jpsjsan av Ba "hytat v3) 3 Note the numerous [al-glides. 4 Some speakers have [td] for /0 3/. 5 The higher vowel in put, path is similar to the change taking place in the Northern Cities Vowel Shift shown in Figure 6. above US South E ‘The accents of the south-east of the United States following comments are only generally true. Table 6.15 Vowels of southern US English it tor =a pit ow put up ‘pear a fae ej Ces) bot ow (OU) prt m8 tough 3 ies fu oe me owe ae) me} four a pn 8 oo 4 bie aj(as] ur aw AV] sumer 3 toe 3s) eS 4 These accents are generally non-rhotic, 2 The ciphtnong /a/ i commonly realised as (a Tit my He a fat 3. The hoarse-horse distinction is common: wm 6 » English accent ltforences Yo! hoarse, pork, borne, four, fre, force, course, cored, ore, oar, ford, port, forge, wore, boarder, oral, mourning Jo! horse, fark, stork, born, for, north, cond, lord, form, or, tort, short, George, war, border, York, aural, morning 4 Before any nasal, /e/ is realised as (fen, ton [onl; tempo Ctumpow}. 5 In much of the south, the vowel /ow/ is pronounced [aw], similar to RP. ‘This phenomenon seems to be spreading, even to areas outside the south, 6 In some southern speech, [I] may be lost before consonants, as in wolf, Felp: [woaf heap] or even twof hep]. 7 Note the common casual forms: isn't dnt}, wasn’t Cwadnth, African American Vernaculat English ‘African American Vernacular English (AAVE) originated in the US south, bbut is now spoken widely in urban areas throughout the country. The stronger characteristics of this dialect are grammatical rather than phono- logical, Interestingly, the phonetic features which distinguish it from the southern accent just discussed are generally consonantal in nature. le 6.16 Vowels of African American Vernacular English bet toot mo i mut for fw Sjfex) for ow (ow) part =e tought 3 ie oe aoe cre jy om no S m3 ee bite (RTD out awl®D rarner > choice 3) (XE) sofa 1 Final stop devoicing: bid [bit 2 Consonant cluster reduction: best {bes}, left lef 3 Final /8/ often becomes /£/: bath [beef] Canada 2 Canadian English is very close to GA. In the late eighteenth century large numbers of loyalists settled in Ontario and in the Maritimes. The accent (of Ontario was later carried westwards; there is little accent difference in ‘middle-class speech from Halifax to Victoria. The Maritimes show greater differences, and Newfoundland English is different enough to be given a ‘separate treatment below. ory‘Tho Sounds of Language Table 6.17 Canadian vowels, tat a =e mt m8 fr fe ex) or ow CoV) nS a? bight OS me mas care, ry ot pee oa wes A ete fay Me Sajpae ar) Sut” Saw BAY, Aver Ae eoiee 9h Coe) ofa 1 The contextual variation for the diphthongs /aj/_and /aw/ forms a distinctive feature aw ‘of Canadian English, commonly known as SF ‘Canadian Raising. Before voiceless sounds, i the vowel portion of these diphthongs is iw higher than that used before voiced sounds or at the end of a word. We can symbolise this higher vowel as [a] (Figure 6.2). Figure 62 The ride (aaj) ite aa) sliphthongs of Canedian tie fief] Hike flac] ———_faltng, The lower tines wives fwwarvel wife. waif) ROW the unraised loud = lawl Tout flawt] ‘(aS AWE the upper tines how thaw mouth awe] SHOW the raed rouse (0.) thawz] house (n.) thaws] Vales faj aw] Notice that because of vowel lengthening before voiced consonants and in open syllables, the unraised vowels are allophonically longer than the raised ones. 2 Cot-enught are merged as /a/. In western Canada, some speakers have this vowel as fol or Ip]. Before /1/, /a/ is allophonically [bl: doll [dpil; collar, caller (ke33. 3 In words such as borrow, sorrow, orange, where GA has /2/, some speakers of Canadian English have /o/: /"bosow, soaow, ‘ounds/ 4 The vowel /ee/ is pronounced quite low: [g]. Canadian English does not participate in the Northern Cities Vowel Shift found in the US de- seribed above. ‘The glide /)/ is lost after coronal consonants /t d n/; eg, /tuh, dun, ‘nu fune, dune, new. This loss is common in GA, but almost universal in Canadian English, 6 Which and witch are merged as /wit{/. 8 6 + English accont differences 7 The following list shows some irregular differences in pronunciation between Canadian English and GA. In many eases, the Canadian pro- nunciation is more like the British; frequently the GA. pronunciation is algo used in Canada, Canadian GA "ent Sentaje antic ‘eeffolt ‘eesfalt asphalt Kohplast —‘houajeri corollary ‘dek} ‘dikel ‘decal ab ub herb Jleftenant tenant lieutenant ‘sail ‘ems missile ymantafol —mantusl_ Montréal fara Sarajwa Ottawa ‘pasos prmat primer (book) fan Jown shone (but fown Jown showon) t@ialow — towhantow Toronto (in casual Canadian speech often Ptuaia] or [taana)) vvaz, vejz ves vse '8 Many words in Canada have /ae/ where GA has /a/: eg, pasta /"peesta/, drama /'dazemo/, plaza /'pleeze/, Iran /xzen/, Irag(i) azekG)/. Note Canadian franian /Hiejnan/ GA /anen/ 9 Pronunciations of agnin(st) /algejn(st)/, either /'ajB0x/ and laboratory Vatboiaioui/ are common in Canada in addition to the typical GA agent sb), ida, Noebrotoi/. 10 As a strong form, /bin/ been is common; a strong form /wea/ were is, ‘occasionally heard among older speakers. Québec is variably /kwalbek, kolbek, kefbek/. Newfoundland is generally /;nufrilzend/ in Newfound” land, but elsewhere also /‘nufpend, ;nu'fawndind, 'nufylnd/. Calgary isusually /‘kaelgasi/, but occasionally /"kze}geai/. Some Canadians have Jaiizaja/ Isaiah for GA /azejo/ ‘Newfoundland ‘The accent of Newfoundland is distinct enough from general Canadian English to deserve its own description. This difference is not surprising 2s“The Sounds of Language considering the island’s early settlement in the sixteenth century, political independence from Canada until 1949, and large numbers of fairly isol- ated outport communities. All of these factors have acted to distinguish Newfoundland English from its Maritime neighbours (Clarke, 1997; Paddock, 1981; Shorrocks, 1997). There is considerable accent variation within Newfoundland. ‘Table 6.18 Newfoundland vowels tet toot mee pet peg perk hate boat Sw SU) parte moe tought int Pt me cure jury 34 res or een mt Sy pn : bite 5155) out aw Ge] rumer on Stoice J CSE) a8 1 Most ofthe island is zhotic with quite strong retroflexion although certain ‘communities are non-rhotic, 2 Some accents of Newfoundland have the cot-crught distinction as in GA. 3 The vowel /3/ is a central vowel with variable rounding, lying between [0] and [ce]. 4 Raising is not so common as in the rest of Canada. 5 The dental fricatives are often pronounced as alveolar stops: [1] and (dl In some areas dental stops are used: [t] and [g]. Some speakers substitute {ff and [v1 for [6} and (81. 6 /bj/ appears simply as /j/, in words like humour and human. 7 Many speakers have a clear {I] in postvocalie position (bel, help], although others have [u}, a voiced velar approximant: bell Loew], help Thewypl. 8 Initial ricatives are sometimes voiced: [zipk] sink, [vaen] fan Technical terms African American accent thotic Vernacular English Lallans non-rhotic Cockney Northern Cities Scots Creole Vowel Shift 26 6 + English accent ifforences Exercises eS Basic 1 Some accents of English replace all final voiceless stops with a glottal stop: to? top fit da? duck ‘Try imitating such an accent in the following words: stop catback wit’ tap rat tack stack In the following sentence, turn the final consonants into [7]. AL eight, that bike sat outside in the dirt on top of the mat. 2 Practice: revita 7eia teia teitaei7a cia ea e717 ela? "ea? 3 Many accents of English distinguish voiced and voiceless {v, particularly before tunrounded vowels. See if someone you know distinguishes which and twitch /sutf — watf/. Try pronouncing the following words on the left with /w/ ‘and those on the right with /a/: twitch which wet whet att what win hing we whee were whir went when soare where 4 There is also a distinction of /j —hj/ as in you-fue, found in most accents of English, but in only a few words. Transcribe the following according to your own accent: Iuge Hubert Hugh you ew = Houston Hume . Pronounce the following nonsense pairs: jow-hjow jaw-hjw wa-ma iil ee wooo jo-hjo he waa php wo-mo We-me WowWee hie jah 5 Many English speakers in North America'do not distinguish do and due, pro- nouncing them both as /du/. These accents do, however, distinguish /— ju/ after labials and velars, asin eaotcute and booty-bemuty; after alveolars, how- ever, /ju/ does not occur. Practise making this distinction with the pairs below. For each set, use /ut/ in the words on the left and /ju/ in the words on the right war‘The Sounds of Language fal fiwl fal Tal do dew, due Dooley duly too tune stooge student ‘Try pronouncing the following words with /ju/ after the intial consonant eg: Ms lure ru & a q E 5 your dict- dict. your dict- ‘accent ionary onary ‘accent ionary bent oot peor — pit S put per hate boat part pet toni Sa a al pot cure, jury atl ae on | a but pala maby bite out unner ehoice xa 17 Transcribe the following, paragraph into your accent corpse of the world’s nicest dolphin, once the most popular animal star on television and now left for the swimming vultures of the gulf to devour, he Knew something both sinister and perverted was about. 8 Pick RP or GA (whichever is more different from your native accent). Find @ dictionary appropriate for that accent. Using Table 6.1 or Table 6.12, make a conversion Key like the one you made in Exercise 6 9 Now, using the chart you made in Exercise 8, transcribe the paragraph of Exercise 7 into RP or GA (whichever you used in Exercise 8) using our system of transcription. 10 Look up the following words in American and British dicttonasies and com- pare the pronunciations. Show your own pronunciation if iis different 128 {6+ English accent diferencse [American] ish 1ours] cary hairy wary staff disaster cloth laboratory Kale garage either Advanced 11 Using the information from the main part of the chapter, transcribe the Paragraph of Exercise 7 into one of the accents described in this chapter (ie, not RP or GA). Try to find someone with each of these accents, Ask them to read the passage in a relaxed fashion. Tape record them, if you can, to work ‘on your transcription later. Read the passage to them as you thought it would be pronounced. Ask them to correct where you went wrong. Did you make 4 mistake or does the person have a different accent from the one described in the book? 12 Find someone who speaks English with an accent different from the ones described in this chapter. Tape record them reading the paragraphs in Exer- cise 7. Make sure to ask them to speak in a relaxed fashion the way they would speak to friends back home. Transcribe this as narrowly as you can. Transcribe hhow you expect them to pronounce the words below. Try to mimic their speech, Be sure to make it clear that you are learning from them and not making fan of their accent 29‘The Sounds of Language ee peer pit put pene fete brat mm pee bogs rt (ah secs jl cure path soft our — but pale baby ee ot unter choice fa 15 In Exercise 24 of Chapter 5, @ passage of Julius Casor was given in Shake- speare's own pronunciation of the sixteenth century. Today Shakespeare is usu- ally presented on the stage in an RP accent, even in North America. Using the information in this chapter, transcribe the passage from Julius Casar into RP. A British dictionary might be helpful {U4 Pretend that you are Shakespeare listening to a modern performance of your play with the actors using an RP accent. With the transcription from Julius Casar that you made in Exercise 13 just above, note the points in which RP English would sound odd to you Ghakespeare) Considering how strange a modern RP accent would have sounded to Shake- speare, why do you think that directors and actors often choose RP as the accent for his plays today? 130