03.11.

STANDARDS OF PRONUNCIATION

1. There exist numerous varieties of pronunciation in any language, the English language as well.
The pronunciation of almost every locality in the British Isles has peculiar features that
distinguish it from the pronunciation of other localities. Dialects have some peculiarities in
pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical structure. Every dialectal pronunciation is
characterized by features that are common to all the other dialects of the language, and by a
number of specific peculiarities of its own. . In British English phoneticians generally distinguish
3 main regional types of pronunciation: Southern, Northern and Scottish regional types of
English pronunciation. The orthoepic norm of a language is the standard pronunciation adopted
by native speakers as the right and proper way of speaking. The orthoepic norm is based on the
variants of pronunciation that are widely used in actual speech, that refect the main phonetic
tendencies, and that are considered to be acceptable by the educated. Thus, the orthoepic norm
comprises well—established (or codified) variants of pronunciation acceptable in all the varieties
of speech, and it also includes stylistic variants that are acceptable only in some varieties of
speech in case they do not violate the main phonetic tendencies. Since the orthoepic norm is ever
changing and developing, from time to time the pronouncing dictionaries have to be revised and
reset. But the orthoepic norm involves prosodic phenomena as well. The intonation of a speaker
may also be acceptable or unacceptable.

2. There is a wide range of pronunciation varieties of the English language. These varieties
reflect the social class the speaker belongs to, the geographical region he comes from, and they
also convey stylistic connotations of speech. Every national variant of the English language has
an orthoepic norm of its own: RP or Southern English for BrE, General American for AmE, the
Australian Standard Pronunciation for AustrE. It is generally considered that the orthoepic norm
of BrE is RP. Received Pronunciation was accepted as a phonetic norm of English about a
century ago. It is mainly based on the Southern English regional type of pronunciation, but has
developed its own features which have given it a non-regional character, i.e. there is no region in
Britain to which it is native. RP is spoken all over Britain by a comparatively small number of
Englishmen who have had the most privileged education in the country - public school
education. RP is actually a social standard pronunciation of English. It is often referred to as the
prestige accent.

3. For American English, EPD also follows what is frequently heard from professional voices on
national network news and information programmes. It is similar to what has been termed
General American, which refers to a geographically (largely non-coastal) and socially based set
of pronunciation features. It is important to note that no single dialect – regional or social – has
been singled out as an American standard. Even national media (radio, television, movies, CD-
ROM, etc.), with professionally trained voices have speakers with regionally mixed features.
However, ‘Network English’, in its most colourless form, can be described as a relatively
homogeneous dialect that reflects the ongoing development of progressive American dialects.
This ‘dialect’ itself contains some variant forms. The variants involve vowels before [r], possible
differences in words like cot and caught and some vowels before [l]. These differences largely
pass unnoticed by the audiences for Network English, and are also reflective of age differences.
What are thought to be the more progressive (used by educated, socially mobile, and younger
speakers) variants are listed first in each entry in EPD. J.C. Wells prefers the term General
American. According to him, this is what is spoken by the majority of Americans, namely those
who do not have a noticeable eastern or southern accent.
Vowels. American English is commonly described as having lax vowels, tense vowels, and wide
diphthongs. Lax vowels are lower and made with less oral tension; they do not usually end
syllables. Vowel length in American English is generally considered to be conditional by
phonological environment, so the long/short distinction in BBC English is not usually present,
though they have retained the length mark on the tense vowels [i: ɑ: ɔ: ɜ: u:] in order to mark
their relationship lo the English long vowels. Since the diphthongal movement in [eı] and [oʊ] is
small in American pronunciation, these are treated as tense vowels.
Vowels preceding /r/ are notably influenced by rhotic colouring. Word spellings such
as bird, word, earth, jerk, which now rhyme with [ɝ] in American English, at one time in history
had differing vowels. The retroflexed vowels [ɝ] and [ɚ], stressed and unstressed, are among
those features that noticeably distinguish American English from BBC English. All vowels
occurring before [r] within a syllable are likely to become "r-coloured" to some extent.

 lax vowels: ı e æ ʌ ʊ ə
 tense vowels: i: ɑ: ɔ: ɜ: u: eı oʊ
 wide diphthongs: aʊ aı ɔı
 retroflexed vowels ("r-coloured") ɚ ɝ
There is an issue in the symbolization of the diphthong in the word home. This has for many
years been represented as [əʊ]. [oʊ] is the preferred transcription for the American English
diphthong, though it can be argued that the latter symbolization would be suitable for both.
The American [æ] vowel is somewhat closer than BBC [æ], and seems to be evolving into an
even closer vowel in many speakers. It is used in the same words as BBC [æ] and also in most of
the words which in BBC have [ɑ:] when there is no letter “r” in the spelling, e.g. pass, ask. The
quality of American [ɑ:] is similar to the BBC [ɑ:] vowel; it is used in some of the words which
have [ɑ:] in BBC when there is no letter “r” in the spelling (e.g. father, calm). It also replaces the
BBC short [ɒ] vowel in many words (e.g. hot, top, bother): bother rhymes with father.
American [ɔ:] is more open in quality than BBC [ɔ:]. It is used where BBC has [ɔ:]
(e.g. cause, walk), and also replaces BBC short [ɒ] in many words, e.g. long, dog;. American [u:]
is similar to BBC [u:], but is also used where BBC has [ju:] after alveolar consonants (e.g. new,
duty).
Consonants. There are numerous phonetic and phonological differences between British and
American English, as there are within regional and social varieties within the two political
entities. Two differences receive sufficient attention and have attained sufficient generality
within the two varieties. One is phonetic: the "flapped" medial [t] (as in butter) is transcribed as
[t̬ ]. The other is phonological: the presence (in American English) of postvocalic [r] (as
in farmer ['fɑ:r.mɚ]).
It should also be noted that the difference between "clear" and "dark" [l] is much less marked in
American than in the BBC accent, so that even prevocalic [l] in American pronunciation sounds
dark to English ears.
The accent used for British English is classed as non-rhotic - the phoneme [r] is not usually
pronounced except when a vowel follows it. The American pronunciations, on the other hand, do
show a rhotic accent, and in general in the accent described, [r] is pronounced where the letter
“r” is found in the spelling.
Styles of pronunciation are those special forms of speech suited to the aim and the contents of
the utterance, the circumstances of communication, the character of the audience, etc. As D.
Jones points out, a person may pronounce the same word or sequence of words quite differently
under different circumstances. Thus in ordinary conversation the word and  is frequently
pronounced [n] when unstressed (e.g. in bread and butter ["brednÙ "bʌtǝ], but in serious
conversation the word, even when unstressed, might often be pronounced [ænd]. In other words,
all speakers use more than one style of pronunciation, and variations in the pronunciation of
speech sounds, words and sentences peculiar to different styles of speech may be called
stylistic  variations.