Practical Phonetics 1

Practical Phonetics

Joanna Masoń-Budzyń
 Practical Phonetics 2

SOME PRONUNCIATION DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

 Practical Phonetics 3

BRITISH ENGLISH VS AMERICAN ENGLISH

There are many varieties of English, probably the most crucial being British and American English.
Within those varieties, there are other differences in pronunciation patterns among different regions
of those countries. Here we will concentrate on the differences between the standard accents:
General American (GA) and Received Pronunciation (RP). Both of them have never been the
accents of entire nations, and both of them carry prestige.
General American (sometimes called Standard American) is an accent spoken by educated
Americans all over the US, although people from the North Midland, Western New England, and
Western regions are the most likely to be perceived as speaking General American. The main point is
that this variety has no regional, ethnic, social, or economic characteristics.
We may also consider Standard Canadian English to belong to the GA category. This is why some
linguists use the term Standard North American.
It should be borne in mind that the accent used in New York is not General American. NY English is a
regional accent one may encounter in American media and many TV shows. Many well-known people
and characters are native New York City area speakers, e.g., Donald Trump, Bugs Bunny, Woody Allen,
or the Sopranos cast. Among the characteristic features of the NY accent, probably the most noticeable
is its r dropping except before vowels, which makes it similar to RP.
Received Pronunciation, sometimes quite misleadingly called the Queen’s English, Oxford English,
BBC English, or posh English, is an accent, not a regional dialect. It is, however, associated with the
educated speech of people from the south-eastern region of Britain (London, Oxford, Cambridge) who
graduated from public boarding schools (public schools in the UK are prestigious secondary schools
that charge high fees; they are NOT financed from the budget and are independent of the government,
so they differ from state schools). RP speakers, who constitute only 3% to 5% of all speakers of English
(spoken in England), are perceived as people with a high social and/or educational status. RP can be
further divided into Conservative RP (used by older speakers and the aristocracy) and Contemporary
RP (used by younger people). Still, both accents are deprived of regional pronunciation features.
In the 20th century, people who climbed the social ladder felt the need to get rid of their regional
pronunciation features and speak RP, not to be perceived as uneducated or belonging to lower social
strata. Today, we may observe a reverse tendency among some young RP speakers who try to
incorporate some regional elements into their pronunciation.
Those who learn English as a foreign language are bound to encounter RP in dictionaries and grammar
books. Phonetic transcription in such reliable dictionaries as The Oxford English Dictionary or The
Cambridge English Dictionary is based on RP and General American for the American variety of English.

SOME PRONUNCIATION FEATURES OF GENERAL AMERICAN:

GA is a rhotic accent, meaning that the letter r is pronounced in every context. Whenever you see
the letter, you pronounce it. RP is a non-rhotic accent, which means that we pronounce the letter
r only when the next sound is a vowel. The word car is pronounced /kɑː/ in RP and / kɑːr/ in GA.
However, in the sequence car owner, the letter r will be pronounced in Received Pronunciation as the
next word (owner) starts with a diphthong (a combination of two vowels) /kɑːr ˈəʊnə/.
Where GA has r-colored vowels (/ər/ or /ɜr/, as in teacher or turn), RP has plain vowels /ə/ or /ɜː/. The
intrusive r of many RP speakers (as in the idea-r-is) is absent in GA. According to some linguists, General
American does not have the opposition between /ɜr/ and /ər/, which are both r-coloured and
pronounced [ɚ], so the vowels in further will be typically pronounced in the same way [ˈfɚðɚ].
 Practical Phonetics 4

Another characteristic consonant pronunciation feature of General American is the so-called t- and d
– flapping. /t/ can be voiced in AE. It is the flapped sound – one tap of the tongue against the alveolar
ridge – in such words as letter, butter, better. This means that such words as metal and medal, or latter
and ladder will sound the same.
In RP there is a distinction between the allophones of /l/ - clear (light) [l] and dark [ɫ], which are two
allophones in complementary distribution. Thus, the words filling and fill will be pronounced
differently in RP. In General American this difference tends to be lost, with filling pronounced [ˈfɪɫɪŋ],
not [ˈfɪlɪŋ].
Americans tend to drop the /j/ after alveolar consonants (yod-dropping). New will be pronounced
/nu/, not /nju:/ as in RP. Other examples include due, news, duke, duty, knew, student, and stupid (but:
beauty, music, and pure will be pronounced /ˈbjuti, ˈmjuzɪk, pjʊr/).
Regarding vowels, we may say that Standard British English has one more vowel than Standard
American English. The vowel in question is the short open back vowel // as in pot. General American
speakers will pronounce it either as an open back unrounded sound /ɑ/, as in pot /pɑt/, or as an open-
mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/, as in cost /kɔst/. Note that nearly half of American speakers use // for
the RP /ɔː/ (the cot–caught merger). Notice the absence of the IPA length mark /:/ in the transcription
of GA words. Vowel length is not really phonemic in General American, and this is why in many sources
the length mark is omitted. Phonetically, the vowels of GA are short when they precede the fortis
consonants /p, t, k, tʃ, f, θ, s, ʃ/ within the same syllable and long in other contexts.
The American variety of English preserved older linguistic forms that in Britain were transformed to
others, e.g. the retention of the flat  as in fast  past / which became the broad
 in BE.
The letter i in words such as specialisation, generalisation, civilisation, fertile, hostile, fragile, mobile is
rendered as the diphthong // in British English and the monophthong / / in American English.
The diphthong in the words boat, going, rope, no, wrote, lonely, alone, note, is realised as // in
Received Pronunciation (the first element is central) and as /oʊ/ in General American (the first element
is back).

The endings -ary, -ery, -ory, -mony, -ative, -bury, -berry are also pronounced differently in GA and RP.
When the syllable preceding those suffixes is unstressed, GA speakers will pronounce the penultimate
syllable with a full vowel sound: /-ɛri/ for -ary and -ery, /-ɔːri/ for -ory, /-moʊni/ for -mony and /-eɪtɪv/
-ative. In Standard BrE the vowel is rendered as the schwa or even disappears: /-əri/ or /-ri/, /-məni/
and /-ətɪv/. So military in GA is /ˈmɪlətɛri/ and in BrE /ˈmɪlɪtəri/, inventory is AmE /ˈɪnvəntɔːri/ and BrE
/ˈɪnvəntəri/, testimony is AmE /ˈtɛstəmoʊni/ and BrE /ˈtɛstɪməni/, and innovative is AmE /ˈɪnoʊveɪtɪv/
or /ˈɪnəveɪtɪv/ and BrE /ˈɪnəvətɪv/.

SOME WORDS WITH SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN PRONUNCIATION 1

in transcription /ɛ/=/e/

In many French loanwords, we will stress the final syllable in GA and an earlier syllable in RP.2

1
Sometimes there are other acceptable pronunciation options of the words included in the tables.
2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences#Effects_of_
the_weak_vowel_merger
 Practical Phonetics 5

Word RP GA

ballet ˈbæleɪ bæˈleɪ

beret ˈbɛreɪ bəˈreɪ

bidet ˈbiːdeɪ bɪˈdeɪ

blasé ˈblɑːzeɪ blɑˈzeɪ

brochure ˈbrəʊʃə broʊˈʃʊr

buffet ˈbʊfeɪ ˈbʌfət, bəˈfeɪ

café ˈkæfeɪ kæˈfeɪ

caffeine ˈkæfiːn kæˈfin

château ˈʃætəʊ ʃæˈtəʊ

chauffeur ˈʃəʊfə ʃoʊˈfɜr

cliché ˈkliːʃeɪ kliˈʃeɪ

croissant ˈkrwɑːsɒŋ ˌkwɑˈsɑnt

croquet ˈkrəʊkeɪ kroʊˈkeɪ

debris ˈdeɪbriː dəˈbri

debut ˈdeɪbjuː deɪˈbju

detail ˈdiːteɪl dɪˈteɪl

duvet ˈduːveɪ duːˈveɪ

figurine ˈfɪgjʊriːn ˌfɪgjəˈrin

filet ˈfɪlɪt fɪˈleɪ

frontier ˈfrʌntɪə frənˈtɪr

garage ˈgærɑːʒ, ˈɡærɪdʒ gəˈrɑʒ

lingerie ˈlɒ̃ ʒəri ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ

massage ˈmæsɑːʒ məˈsɑʒ

nonchalant ˈnɒnʃələnt ˌnɑnʃəˈlɑnt

nondescript ˈnɒndɪskrɪpt ˈnɑndɪˈskrɪpt

 Practical Phonetics 6

nouveau ˈnuːvəʊ ˌnuˈvoʊ

plateau ˈplætəʊ plæˈtoʊ

purée ˈpjʊəreɪ ˌpjʊˈreɪ

salon ˈsælɒn səˈlɑn

sorbet ˈsɔːbeɪ ˌsɔrˈbeɪ

soufflé ˈsuːfleɪ suˈfleɪ

touché ˈtuːʃeɪ tuˈʃeɪ

vaccine ˈvæksiːn ˌvækˈsin

valet ˈvælɪt væˈleɪ

vermouth ˈvɜːməθ vərˈmuθ

Miscellaneous differences in pronunciation3

Word RP GA

/ɑː/ /eɪ/

charade, cicada, praline, ʃəˈrɑːd, sɪˈkɑːdə, prɑːliːn, ʃəˈreɪd, səˈkeɪdə, ˈpreɪliːn,

stratum, tomato ˈstrɑːtəm, təˈmɑːtəʊ ˈstreɪtəm, təˈmeɪˌtoʊ

/æ/ /eɪ/

basil, canine, granary, ˈbæzl, ˈkænaɪn, ˈgrænəri, ˈbeɪz(ə)l, keɪˌnaɪn, ˈɡreɪn(ə)ri,

patronise, patriot, expatriate, ˈpætrənaɪz, ˈpætriət, ˈpeɪtrəˌnaɪz, ˈpeɪtriət,
plait, ɛksˈpætrɪeɪt, plæt ɛkˈspeɪtriˌeɪt, pleɪt

/eɪ/ /æ/

apparatus, babel, dahlia, data, ˌæpəˈreɪtəs, ˈeɪprɪkɒt, ˈbeɪbəl, ˌæpəˈrætəs,ˈbæbəl, ˈdæljə,

gratis, patent, status ˈdeɪliə, ˈdeɪtə, ˈgreɪtɪs, ˈdætə, ˈgrætəs, ˈpætənt,
ˈpeɪtənt, ˈsteɪtəs ˈstætəs

/iː/ /ɛ/

(a)esthete, an(a)esthetist/-ize, ˈiːsθiːt, əˈniːsθətɪst, əˈmiːnɪti, ˈɛsθit, əˈnɛsθətəst, əˈmɛnəti,

amenity, eco-, ecumenical, ˈiːkəʊ-, ˌiːkju(ː)ˈmɛnɪkəl, ˈɛkoʊ-, ˌɛkjuˈmɛnɪkəl, ˈɛpəkəl,
epochal, esoteric, hygienic, ˈiːpɒkəl, ˌiːsəˈterɪk, haɪˈdʒiːnɪk, ˌɛsəˈtɛrɪk, haɪˈdʒenɪk, ˈkɛnjə,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences#Effects_of_
the_weak_vowel_merger

Kenya, lever(age, methane,
Oedipus, p(a)edophile,
penalize, predecessor, Semite
crematorium, cretin, depot,
hedonism, leisure,
presentation, zebra
dynasty, hibiscus, idyll, italic
privacy, simultaneous,
sinecure, tricolo(u)r,
trimester, vitamin
albino, geyser, migraine
In the prefixes anti-, multi-
and semi- in loose compounds
(e.g. in anti-establishment,
but not in antidote)
Berkeley, Berkshire, clerk,
derby. (The only AmE word
with ⟨er⟩ = /ɑːr/ is sergeant.)
baboon, platoon, raccoon,
taboo, tattoo, trapeze
ˈkiːnjə, ˈliːvərɪʤ, ˈmiːθeɪn,
ˈiːdɪpəs, ˈpiːdəfaɪl, ˈpiːnəlaɪz,
ˈpriːdɪsɛsə, ˈsiːmaɪt
/ɛ/
ˌkrɛməˈtɔːrɪəm, ˈkrɛtɪn,
ˈdɛpəʊ, ˈ ˈhɛdənɪzəm, ˈlɛʒə,
ˌprɛzɛnˈteɪʃən, ˈzɛbrə
/ɪ/
ˈdɪnəsti, hɪˈbɪskəs, ˈɪdɪl, ɪˈtælɪk
ˈprɪvəsi, ˌsɪməlˈteɪniəs,
ˈsɪnɪkjʊə, ˈtrɪkələ, trɪˈmɛstə,
ˈvɪtəmɪn
/iː/
ælˈbiːnəʊ, ˈgiːzə, ˈmiːgreɪn
/i/
ˈænti-, ˈmʌlti- ˈsɛmi-
/ɑː/
ˈbɑːkli, ˈbɑːkʃə, klɑːk, ˈdɑːbi
/ə/
bəˈbuːn, pləˈtuːn, rəˈkuːn,
təˈbuː, təˈtuː, trəˈpiːz
/ə/
Practical Phonetics 7
ˈlɛvərɪʤ, ˈmɛθeɪn, ˈɛdɪpəs,
ˈpɛdəfɪl, ˈpɛnəˌlaɪz,
ˈprɛdəˌsɛsər, ˌskɪtsəˈfriniə,
ˈsɛmaɪt,
/iː/
kriməˈtɔriəm, ˈkritən, ˈdipoʊ,
ˈhidəˌnɪzəm, ˈliʒər,
ˌprɛzənˈteɪʃən, ˈzibrə
/aɪ/
ˈdaɪnəsti, haɪˈbɪskəs, ˈaɪdəl,
aɪˈtælɪk ˈpraɪvəsi,
ˌsaɪməlˈteɪniəs, ˈsaɪnɪˌkjʊr ,
ˈtraɪˌkʌlər, traɪˈmɛstər,
ˈvaɪtəmən
/aɪ/
ælˈbaɪˌnoʊ, ˈgaɪzər, ˈmaɪˌgreɪn
/aɪ/
ˈæntaɪ-, ˈmʌlti- /aɪ ˈsɛmaɪ-
/ɜːr/
ˈbɜrkli, ˈbɜrkʃər, klɜrk, ˈdɜrbi,
/æ/
bæˈbun, plæˈtun, ræˈkun,
tæˈbu, tæˈtu, træˈpiz
/eɪ/
 Practical Phonetics 8

draconian, hurricane, drəˈkəʊniən, ˈhʌrɪkən, dreɪˈkoʊniən, ˈhɜrəˌkeɪn,

legislature. Also, longer words ˈledʒɪslətʃə ˈlɛʤəˌsleɪʧər
ending in -ative.

/ə/ /oʊ/

anchovy, borough, thorough, ˈænʧəvi, ˈbʌrə, ˈθʌrə, ˈænˌʧoʊvi, ˈbɜˌroʊ, ˈθɜːrəʊ

place names that end in "-
burgh", such as Edinburgh and
surnames ending in -stone,
e.g. Johnstone.

/ð/ /θ/

bequeath, booth, loath, bɪˈkwiːð, buːð, ləʊð, ˈsmɪði, bɪˈkwiθ, buθ, loʊθ, ˈsmɪθi, wɪθ
smithy, with wɪð

Miscellaneous differences in pronunciation without a pattern4

Word RP GA

Advertisement ədˈvɜːtɪsmənt ˌædvərˈtaɪzmənt

Anthony ˈæntəni ˈænθəni

Asthma ˈæsmə ˈæzmə

Ate ɛt eɪt

Been biːn bɪn

Brooch brəʊʧ bruʧ

Buoy bɔɪ ˈbui

Chassis ˈʃæsi ˈʧæsi

Entrepreneur ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜː ˌɑntrəprəˈnʊr

Falcon ˈfɔːlkən ˈfælkən

Figure ˈfɪgə ˈfɪgjər

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences#Effects_of_
the_weak_vowel_merger
 Practical Phonetics 9

Financial faɪˈnænʃəl fɪˈnænʃəl

Forehead ˈfɒrɪd ˈfɔrhɛd

Inherent ɪnˈhɪərənt ɪnˈhɛrənt

Iran ɪˈrɑːn ˌaɪˈræn, ɪˈrɑn

Iraq ɪˈrɑːk ˌaɪˈræk

Jalousie ˈʒælu(ː)ziː ˈdʒæləsi

Junta ˈʤʌntə ˈhʊntə

Lieutenant lɛfˈtɛnənt luˈtɛnənt

Liqueur lɪˈkjʊə lɪˈkɜr

Longitude ˈlɒŋɡɪtjuːd ˈlɑnʤəˌtud

Los Angeles ˌlɒs ˈændʒəliːz lɔs ˈænʤəlɪs

Machismo məˈtʃɪzməʊ məˈkɪzmoʊ

Mama məˈmɑː ˈmɑmə

Masseur mæˈsɜː məˈsʊr

Milieu ˈmiːljɜː mɪlˈjʊ

Nausea ˈnɔːziə ˈnɔziə

Nephew ˈnɛvju(ː) ˈnɛfju

Niche niːʃ nɪʧ

Pathos ˈpeɪθɒs ˈpeɪθɑs

Premature ˈpremətʃə ˌpriməˈʧʊr

Premier ˈprɛmiə prɛˈmɪr

Process ˈprəʊsɛs ˈprɑsɛs

Progress ˈprəʊgrəs ˈprɑgrəs

quasi- ˈkweɪzaɪ, ˈkwɑːzi(ː)- ˈkwɑsi-

Quay kiː keɪ

Route ruːt raʊt

 Practical Phonetics 10

Sandwich ˈsænwɪʤ ˈsændwɪʧ

Schedule ˈʃɛdjuːl ˈskɛʤʊl

Shone ʃɒn ʃoʊn

Spinach ˈspɪnɪʤ ˈspɪnəʧ

Vase vɑːz veɪs

Z (the letter) zɛd (ðə ˈlɛtə) zi (ðə ˈlɛtər)

Bibliography:

Arabski, J. (1987). Wymowa amerykańska. PWN.

Davies, Ch. (2005). Divided by a Common Language. Houghton Mifflin Company

Oxford University Press. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

Robinson, J. ( 2019). Received Pronunciation. British Library.

Wikipedia. Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_General_American_and_Received_Pronunciation

Wikipedia. American and British English Pronunciation Differences

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_pronunciation_differences

Wikipedia. General American English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American_English

Wikipedia. New York City English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_English