Ўзбекистон республикаси олий ва ўрта махсус таълим вазирлиги самарқанд давлат чет тиллар институти инглиз тили ва адабиёти кафедраси

e.g. Why haven’t you told me about it? or




Why haven’t you told me about it?
Such questions sound dispassionate and disrespectful to an RP speaker.

The RP Special Question pronounced with a rising tone (polite question) are perceived by the Americans as questions implying curiosity.

To end a sentence with a high-pitched fall-rise (which differs from the RP fall-rise) is another frequent intonational characteristic in GA.

e.g. Can you do it? We ˌcertainly ˅can.

We ˌhappened to be ˅passing by.

On account of the fact that the features which distinguish AE from the British English are numerous, some linguists claim that AE can no more be considered a variant of the English language. H. L. Mencken, for instance, wrote that “the American form of the English language was plainly departing from the parent stem, and it seemed at least likely that the differences between American and English would go on increasing”.

But most of the linguists express the opposite point of view. Prof. Shveitser, a Russian linguist who has made a thorough study of AE, has proved that the distinctions between AE and BE do not affect the inventory of the main language units which are common to both variants of the English language: AE and BE.

The Pronunciation of English in Other Countries

6. Canadian English Pronunciation

English came to Canada in the seventeenth century when the British colonists arrived there. English is one of the national official languages (about 14 million speakers) together with French (about million speakers) in Canada.

Canadian English (CaE) has common phonetic features both with RP and GA. English, which is spoken in Ontario region, is more similar to GA than in other parts of Canada as this region is situated very close to the USA. The most specific phonetic features of CaE are the following:

a) before the voiceless consonants the first element of the diphthongs /aI/ and /au/ may be substituted by the vowels /ʌ/and /ɛ/ in words like out /ʌut/ or /ɛut /, nice /nʌIs/ or /nɛIs/, house /hʌus/or /hɛus/;

b) in word final position before the sonants /l/ , /m/, /n/, the vowel sounds as /u/,/ə/, /I/ may be added: mail /meiul/, film /filəm/, known /nouən/ etc.;

c) the vowel sound /ɔ:/ is used both in pod and pawed which sound homophonic, i.e. similar;

d) Scottish influence is apparent in Canada, especially in the use of the intermediate /a/ for /æ/ in words like man, hat, bad in the regions of Nova Scotia and Alberta. For the /au/ diphthong /ou/ and /u/ are heard, which probably reflects Scottish influence as well;

e) the American retroflex /r/ is used in CaE too, nonetheless the retroflex /r/ sounds “brighter” (further front in the Canadian Maritimes than Canada West of the French-speaking belt. It is regarded as a valid dialectological statement);

f) the glottal stop /?/ used in GA is typical of CaE too: mountain, fountain, sentence, accountant;

g) /æ/ is usually used instead of /ɑ:/ in words like path /pæθ/, task /tæsk/ etc.;

h) dark /l/ is used in CaE in almost all position: pull /pul/, fellow /fɛlau/ etc.;

i) both GB and GA forms of accentuation are used in words ending with -ary, -ory, -iry; dictionary /dIkʃənrI/ or /`dIkʃənˏɛrI/, laboratory /lə`bɔrətri/ or /ˊlæbrə ˏtɔrɪ/

j) CaE intonation possesses many features in common with both RP and GA. However it is still not scientifically investigated by the methods of instrumental phonetics.

7. Australian English Pronunciation

Australian English is one of the literary national types used since the end of the eighteenth century. There are three types of pronunciation in Australia:

1 .Educated or Cultivated Australian English;

2. Broad Australian English;

3. General Australian English (GAu) which is regarded as a literary type.

The following simple vowels (monophthongs and diphthongized vowels) exist in GAu;

/i/ as in the word seat /sIt/

/ı/ » sit /sIt/

/ɛ/ » head /hɛd/

/æ/ » had /hæd/

/ʌ/ » father /ˈ fʌðƏ/

/ɔ/ » hot /hɔt/