National varieties of English
somewhere between /ə/ and /a/. There is significant
allophonic variation in this vowel, particularly a backed one [ɔʊ]
before /l/, where the distinction between /əʉ/ and /ɔ/
is usually neutralised.
/ɑe/ for
example price, bite, hide. (M.-D. /aɪ/.) The first element may
be raised and rounded in broad accents.
/oɪ/ for
example choice, boy. (M-D. /ɔɪ/.)
/oː/ for
example thought, north, sure, board, hoard, poor. (M.-D. /ɔ/.)
Many cases of RP /ʊə/ correspond to this phoneme in
Australian English, but unlike in some British accents there is no
general merger between /oː/ and /ʊə/.
/ʉː/ for
example goose, boo, who’d. (M.-D. /u/.) In some parts of
Australia, a fully backed allophone, transcribed [ʊː] is
common before /l/ (Durie & Hajek, 1994). The usual allophone is
further forward in New South Wales than Victoria. It is moving
further forwards, however, in both regions at a similar rate (Cox &
Palethorpe, 2003). Many cases of RP /ʊə/ correspond to the
sequence /ʉː.ə/ in Australian English.
/ɜː/
for example nurse,
bird,
heard.
(M.-D. /ɜ/.)
This sound is pronounced at least as high as /eː/,
and is often pronounced rounded (Cox, 2006; Durie & Hajek, 1994).
This glyph is used — rather than /ɘː/
or /ɵː/
— as most revisions of the phonemic orthography for Australian
English predate the 1996
modifications to the International Phonetic Alphabet. At the
time, [ɜ]
was suitable for any mid-central vowel, rounded or unrounded.
/ʊə/
for example tour.
(M.-D. /ʊə/).
A rare, almost extinct phoneme. Most speakers consistently use /ʉː.ə/
or /ʉː/
(before/r/)
instead. Variation
between /aː/
and /ж/
Academic
studies have shown that there are limited regional
variations in Australian English. The table below, based on
Crystal (1995), shows the percentage of speakers from different
capital cities who pronounce words with /aː/
as opposed to /ж/.
Australian
English consonants are similar to those of other non-rhotic varieties
of English. In comparison to other varieties, it has a flapped
variant of /t/
and /d/
in similar environments as in American English. Many speakers have
also coalesced
/tj/
and /dj/
into /tʃ/
and /dʒ/,
with pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/
being standard. /sj/,
/zj/
and /lj/
merged with /s/,
/z/
and /l/
word initially; other cases of /sj/
and /zj/
are often pronounced [ʃ]
and [ʒ].
Remaining cases of /lj/
are often pronounced simply as [j]
in colloquial speech, though this is stigmatised particularly in the
case a avoid the /lj/.
/nj/,
and other common sequences of consonant+/j/,
are retained. Some speakers use a glottal
stop as an allophone of /t/
in final position, for example trait,
habit;
or in medial position, such as a /t/
followed by a syllabic /n/
is often replaced by a glottal
stop, for example button
or fatten.
Alveolar
pronunciations nevertheless predominate. Linking-
and intrusive-R
are also features of Australian English.
A
table containing the consonant
phonemes
is given below.
english
american australian pronunciation
| MONOPHTHONGS |
| /ɪ/ |
/ɪ/ |
bid,
pit |
| /iː/ |
/iː/ |
bead,
peat |
| /ɛ/ |
/e/ |
bed,
pet |
| /ж/ |
/ж,
жː/ |
pat,
bad |
| /aː/ |
/aː,
ɐː/ |
balm,
father,
pa |
| /ɒ/ |
/ɔ/ |
bod,
pot,
cot |
| /ɔː/ |
/oː/ |
bawd,
paw,
caught |
| /ʊ/ |
/ʊ/ |
good,
foot,
put |
| /uː/ |
/ʉ/ |
booed,
food |
| /ʌ/ |
/a/ |
bud,
putt |
| 5.DIPHTHONGS |
| /aɪ/ |
/ɑe/ |
buy,
high,
ride,
write |
| /eɪ/ |
/жɪ/ |
bay,
hey,
fate |
| /aʊ/ |
/жɔ/ |
bough,
how,
pout |
| /oʊ/ |
/əʉ/ |
beau,
hoe,
poke |
| /ɔɪ/ |
/oɪ/ |
boy,
hoy |
| /ju/ |
/jʉ/ |
beauty,
hue,
pew,
new |
Australian
English pronunciation is most similar to that of New
Zealand English: many people from other parts of the world often
cannot distinguish them but there are differences. New Zealand
English has centralised /ɪ/
and the other short front vowels are higher. New Zealand English more
strongly maintains the diphthongal quality of the NEAR and SQUARE
vowels and they can be merged as something around [iə].
New Zealand English does not have the bad-lad
split, but like Victoria has merged /e/
with /ж/
in pre-lateral environments. Both New Zealand English and Australian
English are also similar to South
African English, so that they have even been grouped together
under the common label "southern
hemisphere Englishes".Like the other two varieties in that
group, Australian English pronunciation is similar to dialects from
the South-East of Britain; and like New Zealand English, it is
particularly similar to Cockney. Thus, it is non-rhotic
and has the trap-bath
split although, as indicated above, there is some variation in
particular words that are usually pronounced with the bath-vowel in
England. Historically Australian English also had the same
lengthening
of /ɔ/
before unvoiced fricatives, but, like the English accents, this has
since been reversed. Australian English lacks some innovations in
Cockney since the settling of Australia, such as the use of a glottal
stop in many places where a /t/
would be found, th-fronting,
and h-dropping.
7.
Australian
english intonation
Australian
English intonation is, perhaps , the least investigated component of
the Aus E phonetic system.
Many
theories have been offered to explain why Australian speak as they do
and why they speak differently from other English-speaking nations
.Few of these theories take account of the fact that pronunciation
develops mainly in accordance with linguistic laws and principles.
The propounders of one of the theories account the pecularities of
Aus E for the possible influence of aboriginal dialects .The general
idea of another pointbof view seems to be that the climate has some
effect on muscular habits,leading to a more vigorous use of the
organs of speech in cold climates and a more leisurely use of them in
warm climates .The opponents of the second theory claim that this
kind of relationship between climate and speech does not really
exist. The adherents of the third theory imply that a peculiar kind
of voice is heard in Australian.Voice quality,of course,modifies
speech considerably, but voice quality is not speech. All these
impressions and theories on Aus E intonation may be defined as
interesting but metalinguistic .Such generalizations have no
scientific basis.No full investigation of the intonation of Aus E has
been published yet.Exact information on the intonational structure of
Aus E may be gained only after serious linguistic investigations.
8.
Canadian english pronunciation
Canadian
English
(CanE,
CE,
en-CA)
is the variety
of English
spoken in Canada.
English is the first
language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24
million Canadians
(77%), and more than 28 million (86%) are fluent in the language. 82%
of Canadians outside Quebec
speak English natively, but within Quebec
the figure drops to just 11%. Canadian English contains elements of
British
English and American
English in its vocabulary, as well as many distinctive
"Canadianisms". In many areas, speech is influenced by
French,
and there are notable local variations. Canada has very little
dialect diversity compared to the United States. The phonetics,
phonology,
morphology,
syntax,
and lexicon
for most of Canada are similar to that of the Western
and Midland
regions of the United
States. The Canadian
Great Lakes region has similarities to that of the Upper
Midwest & Great Lakes region and/or Yooper
dialect (in particular Michigan which has extensive business ties
with Ontario), while the phonological system of western Canadian
English is virtually identical to that of the Pacific
Northwest of the United States, and the phonetics are similar. As
such, Canadian English and American
English are sometimes>
The
West/Central dialect is one of the largest and the most homogenous
dialect area in North America. It forms a dialect continuum with the
accent in the Western United States, and borders the dialect regions
of North, Inland North, and North Central. While it is the most
homogenous in that the regional differences inside the dialect area
are very small, it has very few features that are unique. It is also
fairly similar to General American English. While the West Central
dialect is mutually intelligible with many dialects of English spoken
in England, especially Received Pronunciation, in general it
preserves more archaic features that existed before the dialects
diverged.
9.
Maritimes
Maritimer
English quirks include the removal of pre-consonantal [ɹ]
sounds, and a faster speech tempo. It is heavily influenced by both
British and Irish English. An example of typical Maritime English
might be the pronunciation of the letter t. The flapping
of intervocalic /t/
and /d/
to alveolar
tap [ɾ]
before reduced vowels, as well as pronouncing it as a glottal stop
[ɔ],
is less common in the Maritimes. So, battery is pronounced as
"bat-try" instead of with a flapped t.
While
the stereotypical Canadian interrogative "Eh?" is used more
often in the Maritimes than in most dialects in the U.S., it is
actually relatively uncommon compared to the Prairies and Ontario.
Alternatively, one might hear the interrogative "Right?"
which is in turn used as an adverb (e.g.: "It was right foggy
today!") as well. "Some" is used as an adverb as well,
by some people (e.g.: "This cake is some good!"). And the
two may even be combined to add emphasis. (e.g.: "That cake was
right some good!") Such expressions tend to be widely used in
the rural maritimes, but are less common in urban areas. British
terms are very much still a part of Maritime English, although slowly
fading away in favour of American or Western terms. "Chesterfield"
and "front room" are examples of this. Cape
Breton Island has a distinct
dialect due to settlement by speakers of Acadian
French and Scottish
Gaelic.
10. Phonemic
incidence
The pronunciation of
certain words has both American and British influence; some
pronunciations are more distinctively Canadian.
The
name of the letter Z
is normally the Anglo-European (and French) zed;
the American zee
is less common in Canada, and it is often stigmatized.
In
the words adult
and composite
- the emphasis is usually on the first syllable, as in Britain.
Canadians
side with the British on the pronunciation of shone
/ʃɒn/,
lever
/ˈlivə/,
and several other words; been
is pronounced by many speakers as /bin/
rather than /bɪn/;
as in Southern England, either
and neither
are more commonly /ˈaɪрər/
and /ˈnaɪрər/,
respectively.
Schedule
can sometimes be /ˈʃɛdʒul/;
process,
progress,
and project
are sometimes pronounced /ˈproʊsɛs/,
/ˈproʊɡrɛs/,
and /ˈproʊdʒɛkt/;
leisure
is often /ˈlɛʒər/,
harassment
is often /ˈhɛrəsmənt/.
Again
and against
are often pronounced /əˈɡeɪn(st)/
rather than /əˈɡɛn(st)/.
The
stressed vowel of words such as borrow,
sorry
or tomorrow
is /ɔɹ/
rather than /ɑɹ/.
Words
such as fragile,
fertile,
and mobile
are pronounced /ˈfrжdʒaɪl/,
/ˈfɜrtaɪl/,
and /ˈmoʊbaɪl/.
The pronunciation of fertile
as /fɜrtl̩/
is also becoming somewhat common in Canada, even though /ˈfɜrtaɪl/
remains dominant. Words like semi,
anti,
and multi
tend to be pronounced /ˈsɛmi/,
/ˈжnti/,
and /ˈmʌlti/
rather than /ˈsɛmaɪ/,
/ˈжntaɪ/,
and /ˈmʌltaɪ/.
Conclusion
In
considering the history and development of the English language we
may