by Ela Britchkow, Speech Therapist Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. -Anthony J. D'Angelo What is the difference between American English and British Accent? by Ela Britchkow, Speech-Language Pathologist, Accent Modification Specialist American pronunciation When people talk about “learning American pronunciation”, they are referring to learning General American or Standard American English pronunciation. General American is the accent that is most often spoken on national television in the United States. Educated Americans usually speak Standard American English and that is what you’ll hear 90% of what you’ll hear on American TV, radio, podcasts, movies, Web videos, etc. There are differences in regional accents, but in general, differences between American regional accents are small compared with the regional differences within Britain.
General American pronunciation is rhotic /’roʊtɪk/, which means that the letter R is always pronounced. British pronunciation When people talk about learning British pronunciation, they usually think of Received Pronunciation (RP). RP is the pronunciation of the British upper class – people who went to universities like Oxford and Cambridge. Only about 5% of Britons American pronunciation When people talk about “learning American pronunciation”, they mean learning General American or Standard American English pronunciation. General American is the accent that is most often spoken on national television in the United States. Educated Americans usually speak Standard American English and that is what you’ll hear 90% of what you’ll hear on American TV, radio, podcasts, movies, Web videos, etc. General American pronunciation is rhotic /’roʊtɪk/, which means that the letter R is always pronounced. British pronunciation When people talk about learning British pronunciation, they usually think of Received Pronunciation (RP). RP is the pronunciation of the British upper class – people who went to universities like Oxford and Cambridge. Only about 5% of Britons speak RP — these are upper-class people, academics, actors, TV personalities, politicians and English teachers. Most Britons speak with their local accents. If you go anywhere else than the south-east of England and talk to people on the street, you will most likely hear something quite different from RP, which can be very hard to understand to untrained ears. Sometimes cities that are only 20 km apart have very different accents. RP is non-rhotic, which means that the letter R is usually “silent”, unless it is followed by a vowel. For example: car will sound like “cah” and inform will sound like “infom”. In words like red, foreign, print, R is pronounced (R is followed by a vowel). R is also pronounced at the end of a word, if the next word starts with a vowel, for example: number eight, far away. Most RP speakers also insert an R in phrases like: the idea(r) of, Africa(r) and Asia, law(r) and order. This R is not in the spelling; they just use it to separate two vowels. The following pairs sound exactly the same in RP: or–awe, court–caught,sore–saw, farther–father, formerly–formally. In Standard American, they all sound different. There are a few words in British English where the stress is put in a different part of the word. For example: BritishAmerican BAL letbal LET Ad DRESSAD dress GA ragega RAGE Ad ver TIS ment ( short /i/)ad ver TISE ment (long /i/)Note: the capital letters symbolize where the sound is stressed. The differences in pronunciation of other words lie in the vowel sounds, not in differently-stressed syllables. For example: BritishAmerican vase: vars as in carsvace as in face route: root as in shootrout as in shout (Some Americans pronounce it the British way.) buoy: boy as in toy booey as in the French name Louis ate: et as in letate as in late tomato: tomartotomayto leisure as in pleasureleesure (lee as in she) The British use some vocabulary words that are different than Americans use. British American cupboard closet holiday vacation autumnfall Drawing pin Thumb tack torch flashlight underground subway luggage baggage film movie curtains drapes lift elevator bonnet hood postman mailman bill check queue line sweets candy petrol gas caravan trailer cutlery silverware Car park Parking lot lorry truck rubbish garbage jumper sweater chips French fries biscuit cookie flat apartment yard garden Some Words Ending in -ILE are Different in British and American English British (the /i/ is pronounced with the long /i/ sound)American (the /i/ is pronounced with the short /i/ sound agile agil fertile fertle hostile hostil versatileVersatil In some words, the letter “A” is pronounced differently in British and American English BritishAmerican Bath (baath) Bath (b/ae/th) Laugh (laagh) L/ae/gh Class (claass) Cl/ae/ss Chance (chance) Ch/ae/nce Ask (aask) /ae/sk After (aafter) /ae/fter Can’t (caan’t) c/ae/nt Example (example)Ex/ae/mpleThe -IZATION ending is different in British and American English British (long /i/ in the “ization” part and the first syllable is stressedEnglish Civilization (CI vil ization) ci vil I ZA tion Organization (OR gan ization)or gani ZA tion Authorization (AUTH or ization)Auth or I ZA tion Globalization (GLO bal ization)Glo bal I ZA tionThe letter “T” in the middle of a word can be pronounced like a soft “D” in American English and as a clear /t/ in British English. BritishAmerican water wader hated haded writing wriding bottom bodom little liddle better beder mattermadder letterledderSome words are spelled differently in British English than in American English. Here are just a few common words that are spelled differently: BritishEnglish colour color theatre theater travelling traveling jewellry jewelry proramme program skilful skillful checque check moustache mustache aeroplane airplane neighbour neighbor Gaol (pronounced jail) jail pyjamas pajamas learnt learned Are you repeatedly asked, “What?” or “Can you say that again?”
By Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist ©2017 Ela Britchkow Comments are closed.
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