5.2. The Principal Features of the American Pronunciation Standard

Vowels

1. There is no strict division of vowels into long and short in GA, though some American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense and likely to be accompanied by relative length: [i:] in seat, [:] in pool.

2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is the most controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated in GA as biphonemic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from three to twelve phonemes. Following D.A. Shakhbagova we distinguish here five diphthongs in GA: [ei], [ai], [i], [au], [u].

3. Another very important feature in GA is the pronunciation of [r] sound between a vowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: turn [tз:rn], bird [bз:rd], star [sta:r]. GA is rhotic in words like far, core, etc. (when [r] follows the vowels and ends the word).

4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in American English is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasal consonant (e.g. in such words as small, name, etc.). Nasalization is often called an American twang (гнусавый выговор).

5. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP. Vowels [i:], [i] are distributed differently in GA and RP. In words like very, pity GA has [i:] rather than [i]. In word final position it is often even diphthongized.

Vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before [p], [t], [k]: let [lε^ət].

6. There are four mixed or central vowels in GA: [з], [ə], [٨], [a]. They differ markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.

7. The three RP vowels [], [æ], [:] correspond to only two vowels in GA – [a] and [æ]:

RP GA

Dad [] []

Dog [] [a]

Path [a:] []

8. Now to the qualities of GA diphthongs:

• the diphthong [ei] is closer in GA as opposed to RP;

• [зu] is transcribed as [ou] [9, 86]. In unstressed syllables, such as in radio, and before voiceless consonants, as in boat, coat, the diphthong is weakened and sometimes reduced to a monophthongal [o] [5];

• since GA is a rhotic accent the following RP vowels (derived historically from vowel + [r]) do not occur in GA: [iə] in dear – GA [dir], [εə] in dare – GA [deir], [uə] in tour – GA [tur];

• some words and names spelled er are pronounced [a:] in RP, but /з^r/ in GenAm, e.g. clerk, derby, Kerr;

• words ending in -ile tend to be pronounced [ail] in RP but [зl] or [l] in GenAm, e.g. hostile, missile, tactile, fertile, docile, sterile, agile, fragile, futile;

• an example of differing lexical distribution of consonants in RP and GenAm is the [h] phoneme: GenAm has preserved the older (seventeenth-century) pronunciation [зb] or [hзb] of the word herb without an [h], whereas RP invariably uses the newer form [hз:b];

• many GenAm words with a syllable initial alveolar consonant [t, d, n] and now less frequently [1, s, z], before a sound spelled u, ew, or eu exhibit the preference for [tu, du, nu, su, zu] in tune, duke, new, lewd, suit, Zeus (the so-called yod dropping), whereas RP has [j] after the alveolar sound;

• in GenAm [] is used in final unstressed syllables ending with -ion, or -ia, as in Asia ['еiə], excursion [iks'зrn], version ['vзrn], in contrast to RP []: ['eiə], [Iks'kз:n], ['vз:n].

There are very many individual words in common use in both accents with the same spelling but different phoneme incidence:

Words	Gen Am	RP
ate	[eit]	[et]
either	['i:]	['ai]
leisure	['li:]	['le]
schedule	['skeʤu:l]	['edju:l]
tomato	[t'meitou]	[t'ma:tu]
vase	[veis]	[va:z]

When RP has [r] + a vowel most Americans use r-colored, mid-central [зr]: courage ['kз:riʤ], hurry ['hз:ri].

The GenAm phoneme [æ] is somewhat closer than its RP. Before [r] plus a vowel, as in carry, marry, parrot [ε] is used instead of [æ]. The GenAm [æ] is tense, long and nasalized before [d], [m], [n] as in [bǣ:d], [mǣ:n], [lǣ:nd] [5, 24].

The pronunciation of weak vowels: for most The actual quality used by Americans for з varies considerably, being typically more [i]-like when followed by a consonant, but more []-like when at the end of the word. Longman Pronunciation Dictionary [11] follows the rule of showing [i] for GenAm before palato-alveolar and velar consonants [ʃ, ʧ, Ʒ ʤ, k, g, ŋ], and in prefixes, such as re-, e-, de-, but [ə] elsewhere.

Consonants

The most salient differences of realization among the GenAm consonants lie in the allophones of [r], [t].

1. The retroflex pronunciation of [r] is one of the most characteristic features of GA.

2. the pronunciation of [t] before a weakly stressed vowel or after a vowel+/r/ and before a weakly stressed vowel is more like a quick English [d], e.g. city, better, latest, forty, party. This means that pairs such as the following, which are distinct in RP, tend to share the same pronunciation in GenAm: latter / ladder, writer / rider.

After [n] GenAm [ṯ] can optionally be omitted. Accordingly, GenAm winter ['winṯə^ɔr] can sound identical to winner ['winə^ɔr] [Wells 1995:703].

3. The pronunciation of /j/:

• Yod Dropping: [j] is not pronounced in the combination of [j] + [U:] after t, s, d, e.g. tube, suit, student, news.

• Yod Coalescence (coalescent assimilation): [t] + [j], [d] + [j] before a weak vowel, as [u] or [ə] are assimilated into [ʧ], [ʤ], e.g. educate ['eʤukeit], factual ['fækʧuəl].

4. [S] vocalization: in GenAm [S] is vocalized in final weak syllables ending with –ion, -ia, e.g. Asia ['еiə], version ['vзn].

5. nasal twang: nasality is limited to vowels adjacent to m, n, ŋ, e.g. manner ['mǣn^r], candy ['kǣndi].

In a number of words the position of stress is different from that in RP, e.g.

inquiry ['ikwri] GA, ['in'kwairi] RP

garage [g'ra] GA, ['gra:] RP

laboratory ['lbrtri] GA, [l'b] RP