English and its Varieties. An Analysis of the British and the North American Sound System

English and its Varieties. An Analysis of the British and the North American Sound System PDF Author: Agnetha Hinz
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668010900
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Levels of Linguistic Analysis II, language: English, abstract: Regarding the English language, there are wide variations in pronunciation, including dialects or accents due to differences within the age, the gender, or the geographical origin of the speaker. But there are also variations that are defined as standard pronunciation. Two of them, concerning the English language, are known as the Received Pronunciation (RP), which presents the Standard British accent, and the General American accent (GA), which presents the standard pronunciation in North America. Nowadays those variations face the people amongst others by the spoken media, like television or radio. Especially English learners who were, or still are predominantly confronted with the British English Pronunciation due to their academic education tend to have an issue with the unfamiliar General American pronunciation. To illustrate the differences between the General American accent and the Received Pronunciation in British English, this paper dwells on the individual parts that finally form a specific pronunciation type: The differences within the vowel and consonant system, as well the differences within the articulation with focus on the stress of syllables.

English and its Varieties. An Analysis of the British and the North American Sound System

English and its Varieties. An Analysis of the British and the North American Sound System PDF Author: Agnetha Hinz
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668010900
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Free University of Berlin (Institut für Englische Philologie), course: Levels of Linguistic Analysis II, language: English, abstract: Regarding the English language, there are wide variations in pronunciation, including dialects or accents due to differences within the age, the gender, or the geographical origin of the speaker. But there are also variations that are defined as standard pronunciation. Two of them, concerning the English language, are known as the Received Pronunciation (RP), which presents the Standard British accent, and the General American accent (GA), which presents the standard pronunciation in North America. Nowadays those variations face the people amongst others by the spoken media, like television or radio. Especially English learners who were, or still are predominantly confronted with the British English Pronunciation due to their academic education tend to have an issue with the unfamiliar General American pronunciation. To illustrate the differences between the General American accent and the Received Pronunciation in British English, this paper dwells on the individual parts that finally form a specific pronunciation type: The differences within the vowel and consonant system, as well the differences within the articulation with focus on the stress of syllables.

Earlier North American Englishes

Earlier North American Englishes PDF Author: Merja Kytö
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027257949
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
Varieties of English in the U.S. and Canada display fascinating developments from colonial times up until the twenty-first century. To throw light on the linguistics of North American Englishes and their socio-historical contexts, this volume brings together research from various traditions, including corpus linguistics, variation studies, dialectology, historical sociolinguistics, historical pragmatics, language ideology, and the enregisterment framework. In the ten chapters of the volume, a wide variety of sources, published and unpublished, containing evidence of past language use in the U.S. and Canada are introduced and exploited for novel insights. Among the research questions addressed are the following: how to best model the emergence of new varieties of English in North America? Are morphological Americanisms historical retentions, post-colonial revivals, or progressive innovations? What is distinctly Canadian in the context of North American Englishes? How can synchronic dialects be used to examine trajectories of change in the history of Canadian English?

International English

International English PDF Author: Peter Trudgill
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351756567
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
From Singapore to Scotland, Canada to the Channel Islands, Namibia to New Zealand and beyond, International English takes you on a fascinating journey through the varieties of English spoken around the world. Comparisons across the varieties provide a comprehensive guide to differences in phonetics, phonology, grammar and vocabulary, making this a useful resource for teachers of English as a foreign language and linguistics students alike. This sixth edition has been thoroughly updated to include the following: new sections on the Death of RP, Estuary English, Multicultural London English, the Dublin accent and Fijian English; updated material on RP phonology, New Zealand English phonology, Australian English lexis, North American English lexis and the Northern Cities Chain Shift; revised and updated references and bibliography. This textbook comes with free-to-download MP3 files at www.routledge.com/9781138233690, which demonstrate the different varieties featured in the book – ideal for use in class, at home or on the move. International English remains a key and indispensable resource for teachers and students, and is essential reading for anyone studying varieties of English in a global context.

Introduction to International Varieties of English

Introduction to International Varieties of English PDF Author: Laurie Bauer
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474408443
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
This book looks at native speaker varieties of English, considering how and why they differ in terms of their pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. It shows how the major national varieties of English have developed, why similar causes have given rise to different effects in different parts of the world, and how the same problems of description arise in relation to all 'colonial' Englishes.It covers varieties of English spoken in Britain, the USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Falkland Islands.Key FeaturesIntroductory text, presupposes a minimum of previous knowledgeFocuses on common traits rather than on individual varietiesInformed by latest research on dialect mixingExercises included with each chapterReferences for further reading in each chapter

The Atlas of North American English

The Atlas of North American English PDF Author: William Labov
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110206838
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
The Atlas of North American English provides the first overall view of the pronunciation and vowel systems of the dialects of the U.S. and Canada. The Atlas re-defines the regional dialects of American English on the basis of sound changes active in the 1990s and draws new boundaries reflecting those changes. It is based on a telephone survey of 762 local speakers, representing all the urbanized areas of North America. It has been developed by Bill Labov, one of the leading sociolinguists of the world, together with his colleagues Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg. The Atlas consists of a printed volume accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The print and multimedia content is also available online. Combined Edition: Book and Multimedia CD-ROM The book contains 23 chapters that re-define the geographic boundaries of North American dialects and trace the influence of gender, age, education, and city size on the progress of sound change; findings that show a dramatic and increasing divergence of English in North America; 139 four color maps that illustrate the regional distribution of phonological and phonetic variables across the North American continent; 120 four color vowel charts of individual speakers. The multimedia CD-ROM supplements the articles and maps by providing a data base with measurements of more than 100,000 vowels and mean values for 439 speakers; the Plotnik program for mapping each of the individual vowel systems; extended sound samples of all North American dialects; multimedia applications to enhance classroom presentations. Online Version: Book and CD-ROM content plus additional data The online version comprises the contents of the book and the multimedia CD-ROM along with additional data. It presents a wider selection of data, maps, and audio samples that will be recurrently updated; proffers simultaneous access to the information contained in the book and on the multimedia CD-ROM to all users in the university/library network; provides students with easy access to research material for classroom assignments. For more information, please contact Mouton de Gruyter: [email protected] System Requirements for CD-ROM and Online Version Windows PC: Pentium PC, Windows 9x, NT, or XP, at least 16MB RAM, CD-ROM Drive, 16 Bit Soundcard, SVGA (600 x 800 resolution) Apple MAC: OS 6 or higher, 16 Bit Soundcard, at least 16MB RAM Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer, 5.5 or 6 (Mac OS: Internet Explorer 5.1)/Netscape 7.x or higher/Mozilla 1.0 or higher/Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or higher PlugIns: Macromedia Flash Player 6/Acrobat Reader

Spotlight on Standard American English and Standard British English

Spotlight on Standard American English and Standard British English PDF Author: Thomas Schachtebeck
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640804090
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin (Fachbereich Englisch), course: Sociolinguistics and Varieties of English II , language: English, abstract: Throughout the 20th century, Standard British English (hereafter BrE) and Standard American English (hereafter AmE) made up the two ‘reference varieties’ of the English language. Even today - in the 21st century – BrE and AmE represent “a large proportion of all native speakers of English (83 per cent)” [Svartvik & Leech 2006: 150] in the world. The reason why these two varieties have aquired such a prestigious position among many other varieties of English is that in Great Britain and in the United States - two of the most influential nations of the 20th century in terms of political power and economical strength – “English has been institutionalised longer than anywhere else” [Cheshire 1991: 13]. Consequently, BrE and AmE “provided the chief native-speaker models which non-native speaking teachers of English” [Svartvik & Leech 2006: 150] aim to instil. Although both ‘reference varieties’ of English seem to be very much the same at first sight, “British and American English undoubtedly are different, and Englishmen and Americans undoubtedly know it.” [Partridge & Clark 1951: 308]. Closer investigations reveal that AmE is different from BrE at levels of phonetics, phonology, grammar, lexis and spelling. Whereas the fields of pronunciation and lexis definitely share the most prominent and numerous differences between AmE and BrE, the field of spelling shows only a couple of minor differences. Today, the vast majority of English lexis is spelled the same in AmE and BrE. However - to a certain extent - there are some characteristic spelling differences between AmE and BrE which many learners of English are not well familiar with. In the following, this paper concentrates on pointing out the major differences in spelling between contemporary AmE and BrE since this linguistic field of interest is very strongly related to the different historical and political developments America and Great Britain went through. Therefore, this paper will first work out some historical reasons for the development of spelling differences between the two ‘reference varieties’ and highlight America’s most influential attempts to standardise American spelling. Afterwards, it will give a detailed overview about the most prominent and common spelling differences between AmE and BrE by categorising them into three major groups and providing a couple of examples for each group, and finally, this paper will briefly reflect on the situation of AmE and BrE in the world today.

Phonological Characteristics of American English

Phonological Characteristics of American English PDF Author: Dominik Borner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638369994
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Bamberg, course: Proseminar: English Varieties, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction Even to non-native speakers of the English language it is in most cases an easy task to differentiate between British and American native speakers by listening to their pronunciation. In this term paper the most characteristic phonological features of American English will be named and explained and an overview of the variety of dialects within the United States will be provided. This can be done best by using British Standard English – also known as Received Pronunciation (RP) – as reference accent and pointing out the differences to American English. 2. General American However, it is hard to work with the term American English when doing a phonological analysis of American speech since it covers a broad spectrum of different dialects. For this reason the term General American (GA), which is widely used and preferred by most linguists today, will be introduced and worked with. General American can be seen as the Standard English of North America, but in contrast to Received Pronunciation, it is not defined by social reputation or a specific geographical origin. Throughout the United States one can not really find a socially preferred accent that is commonly recognized as the standard pronunciation. There have been several different approaches to defining a Standard English for the USA and in this paper General American will be used in means of a range of accents that do not exhibit any of the North-Eastern or Southern features which “are perceived as regional by the majority of American speakers.” One has to keep in mind that GA is not “a single and totally homogeneous accent. But since its internal variation is mainly a matter of differences in the phonetic realizations of a system of phonemes that is by and large shared by all GA speakers, the generalization expressed in the notion ‘General American’ is useful in phonological terms.”

Variations in the Phonologies of Different English Varieties

Variations in the Phonologies of Different English Varieties PDF Author: Christiane Iden
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783656289173
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, Free University of Berlin (Englische Philologie), language: English, abstract: The following essay will deal with pronunciation differences of varieties and will therefore regard different English accents and the phonology of those. In a nutshell, phonology deals with the "study of the selection and patterns of sounds in a single language" (Collins & Mees 2006:7). Since the term accent symbolizes the pronunciation and the term phonology stands for different sound patterns, it is not difficult to see the close link between both terms. More detailed information on phonology will be provided in the following. In order to categorize an English language further, one might also point out that several variations exist within the different varieties. These can, for instance, be of a social or regional nature and can occur between different varieties or within them (Collins & Mees 2006:2). Concerning the latter, the speakers do, nevertheless, have mutual core features by which they can be classified as a group of speakers. "An accent, in phonological terms, is an idealized system which speakers of that variety share" (McMahon 2002:93). This idealized version is perceived as the standard version. This also helps to produce a categorization of types of differences between accents (McMahon 2002:93). In the following it will be argued that the phonology of English varieties can differ in four ways. Firstly, to create a basic understanding, the essay will shortly deal with the terminology around phonology. Then the possible general phonological differences between varieties will be explained. Subsequently, the essay will spotlight the differences in the phonology of the North American Standard English in comparison to the British Standard English. Lastly, a short conclusion will be given.

World Englishes Volumes I-III Set

World Englishes Volumes I-III Set PDF Author: Tometro Hopkins
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441157182
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 864

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Book Description
World Englishes is a twelve-volume series, presenting a comprehensive, detailed survey of English as it is spoken all over the world. The volumes are organised into four groups, covering Britain, Europe, America, Africa and Asia, and celebrate English in all its diversity. The chapters contain maps, facts and figures, and a detailed description about English as it is spoken in each region and are an invaluable library resource for undergraduates, postgraduates and academics interested in the diversity of the English language.

The Cambridge History of the English Language: English in North America

The Cambridge History of the English Language: English in North America PDF Author: Richard M. Hogg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521264792
Category : Aneuploidy
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
The volumes of The Cambridge history of the English language reflect the spread of English from its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon England to its current role as a multifaceted global language that dominates international communication in the 21st century.