Lecture 1 The Phonetics System of a Language

The Northern English Type of English Pronunciation

The main distinctions of the Northern type of English pr-n, as opposed to RP, are as follows:

1. 
   /æ/ is more open & more retracted back, as in /a/ (e.g. “back”, “bad”)
   
2. 
   /a:/ is fronted compared with RP /a:/ & it approximates to /æ/ in words
   

“Glass”, “laugh”, “after”.
(c) / / is used instead of /  / (e.g. “cup”, “love”, “much”).
(d) /o / is pronounced as a monophthongal /o:/ (e.g. “go”, “home”).
(e) /e/ or / : / are pronounced instead of /ei/ (e.g. “may”, “say”, “Take”).

The Scottish Type of English Pronunciation

The main distinctions of this type of pr-n, as compared to RP, are as follows:

(a) / : / is not used in the Scottish type of pr-n, instead of RP / : / they use the sequences /ir/, /er/ or / r/ (e.g. “bird” -/bird/, “heard”- /herd/, “word”- /w rd/, “beard”, “there”, “pure”, “poor”, “ sure”, etc).
(b) /u / is used instead of /a / (e.g. “down”- /dun /).
(с) The Scottish pr-n does not distinguish between /æ/ & /a:/ words like “bad”, “path”, ”grass”, “dance”, ”half”, “part” are pronounced with /æ/ & /a:/ or /ә/.
(d)All vowels are short. There is no distinction in the length of the vowels in words like “pull”, “pool”, “cot” & “caught”.
(e) /r / is not between or before vowels, as in “hurry ” & “brown”, but also after vowels as in “word”, “born”.
(f) A voiceless fricative / / is used to distinguish between “which” & “witch”, “whine” & “wine”.
(g) A backlingual fricative /x/ is used (e.g. “loch”).
One should distinguish between RP & “educated” regional type of pr-n (such as Southern, Northern & Scottish types of English pr-n), on the one hand, & local dialects, on the other.
One of the best examples of a local dialect is Cockney. It is used by the less educated in the region of London. Cockney has not been fully investigated, but there are certain striking peculiarities:

1. 
   In Cockney the nucleus of the diphthong /ei/ is an almost open vowel, so that it reminds of /ai/ (e.g. “take”, “lake ”).
   
2. 
   / æ / sounds like / / (e.g. “bag”)
   
3. 
   /o / is / / (e.g. “potatoes” - / p ә'tai æ z / ).
   

(d) A nasalised /ai/ is used for /ai/ (e.g. “Buy potatoes & cabbages”- /bai p ә'tait æ z n' k b әd iz/).

4. 
   /p, t, k/ are heavily aspirated.
   
5. 
   /h/ does not occur; it may appear only in stressed position (“his”, “her’, “happened’).
   
6. 
   The final /n/ sounds like /n/ (e.g. “something”, “evening”).
   
7. 
   / / & / / do not occur, /f/, /v/ or /d/ are used instead (e.g. «thin»
   

/fin/, «father» -/fa:vә/, “this” -/dis/).
/fin/, “father”- /fa:v ә/, “this” -/dis/).
(i) The glottal stop is often heard instead of /p/, /t/, /k/ & between vowels (e.g. “I hope so”- /aiæ ? s /, “back door” - /b ?doә/, “thirty” -/fә:?i).