Теоретическая фонетика английского языка (Теоретическая фонетика английского языка М.А. Соколова, И.С.Тихонова, Р.М.Тихонова, Е.Л.Фрейдина. - Дубна; Феникс+, 2010. - 192 с.), страница 42

Northern Ireland EnglishIt should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards inNorthern Ireland and in the Republic of Eire are different. The explanationlies in history.,Tn the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking.Nowadays, however, native speakers ofIrish are few in number and are con­fined to rural areas even though Irish is the official language of Ireland andis taught in schools. The English language in Southern Ireland was origi­nally introduced from the West and West Midlands of Englandshows signs of this today.

This kind of English has spread to cover most ofthe Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains fea­tures ofwestern parts of England.The English of northern parts ofthe island with its centre in Belfast hasits roots in Scotland, as large numbers of settlers carne to this part from thesouth-west of Scotland from the seventeenth century onwards.

Now speak­ing about Northern Ireland, it is true to say that English here is not homo­geneous. Areas ofthe far north are heavily Scots-influenced. Other parts aremarked by less heavily Scots-influenced varieties of English. It is, ofcourse,obvious that the language distinction is not coterminous with the politicaldivision ofthe Republic ofIreland and Northern Ireland, some areas ofthe[;):]:[n]:[aI]:[au]:[;)1]:pitbee _.pet [pet], bed Ibay [be], bear 1but [bAt];pat [pat], bard 11)I]l'dl, halllwll, dance [dans], haif[haf];put [put], boolll.mli. pull Ipoll, pool I pull, poor [pur];boat [bot], boartl IIlC11'(j I, pole' Ipoll, knows [noz], nose [noz],pour [par],pore [par];paw [P;):], dol/ld,l;ll, /HIIIS(' 11>'1:~,1;cot [kut];buy [bal], tic/ellnulj:bout [buut];boy [b;)I].The followingabove.Thenol~':1 UIIrcad in ";>;>VvlaLIVllmay vary considerably according to theL in words,tally it may be u dip"lvuwcl is a monophthong [e], preconsonan­onhc type lea] - [Id]: gate [glat];2.

[;):], [u] are flljl'l,VV~'lIlInl:3. [;):] and1.'01 c()lllrw.i ollly bolbl'c [p, t, k];4. [all, [au] arc W1Ythevilli"hl~~;5. realization oflll:IIlIiIY VBI)' considerably.Consonants1. [I] is mainly l'l"[lI';182Chapter VI. Social and Territorial Varieties ofEnglish2. intervocalic [t] is often a voiced flapcity ['slrli:];3. between vowels [0] may be lost: mother ['m;):ar]4.

[h] is present.6.4. American-based Pronunciation Standards of EnglishThe American variant of English has been very thoroughly described bymany prominent scholars both in this country and in the USA. In this book,however, we shall try to follow the conception introduced by A. D. Shweitzerin his sociolinguistic approach to the treatment of contemporary speechsituation in America.The sociolinguistic situation in the United States is very complicated. Itis moulded by certain linguistic, cultural, historic, demographic, geograph­ic, political and other factors.Generally speaking, the situation in the USA may be characterized asexoglossic, i. e. having several languages on the same territory, the balancebeing in favour ofAmerican English.It is true, of course, that the formation of the American Standard un­derwent the influence of minorities' languages, but its starting point wasEnglish language of the early 17th century.

However, time has passed,American English has drifted considerably from English English though asyet not enough to give us ground to speak of two different languages.we speak of the national variant of English in America.American English shows a lesser degree ofdialect than British English dueto some historical factors: the existence ofStandard English when first Englishsettlers came to America, the high mobility ofpopulation, internal migrationsofdifferent communities and so on.

As regards pronunciation, however, it is notat all homogeneous. There are certain varieties of educated American speech.In the USA three main types of cultivated speech are recognized: the Easterntype, the Southern type and Western or General American.1. The Eastern type is spoken in New England, and in New York city. Itbears a remarkable resemblance to Southern English, though there are, ofcourse, some slight differences.2. The Southern type is used in the South and South-East of the USA. Itpossesses a striking distinctive feature - vowel drawl, which is a specific way ofpronouncing vowels, consisting in the diphthongization and even triphthongi­6.4.

American-based Pronunciation Standards of English183zation ofsome pure vowels and monophthongization ofsome diphthongs at theexpense ofprolonging ("drawling") their nuclei and dropping the glides.3. The third type of educated American speech is General American(GA), also known as Northern American or Western American spoken incentral Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin and others. GApronunciation is known to be the pronunciation standard ofthe USA. Thereare some reasons for it. GA is the form ofspeech used by the radio and televi­sion. It is mostly used in scientific, cultural and business intercourse. Also intwo important business centres - New York and St.

Louis - GA is the pre­vailing form ofspeech and pronunciation, though New York is situated with­in the territory where Eastern American is spoken, and S1. Louis is within theregion of Southern American. In this chapter we shall give an outline of GAaccent. We will then point to differences between this accent and RP.6.4.1. General AmericanVowels1. There is no strict division ofvowels into long and short in GA, thoughsome American phoneticians suggest that certain GA vowels are tense andlikely to be accompanied by relative length: [i:] in seat, [u:] in pool.They also admit that a slight rise in tongue position during the pronun­ciation of tense vowels leads to a diphthongal quality of tense vowels whichcontrasts to a monophthongal quality oflax vowels.2. Classification of vowels according to the stability of articulation is avery controversial subject in GA. Some diphthongs are treated as biphone­rnic combinations. The inventory of GA diphthongs varies from three totwelve phonemes.

Following D. Shakhbagova we distinguish here five diph­thongs in GA: [el], [al], [;)1], [au], [au].3. Another important feature that causes different interpretations ofdiphthongs and vowel length in GA is the pronunciation of [r] between avowel and a consonant or between a vowel and a silence: tum [t3f n], birdstar [sta:'].It has been estimated that 2/3 of American population pronounceand 1/3 omit it. Thus GA is rhotic. In words likefar, core, when [r] followsthe vowels and ends the word this sound is consonantal and non-syllabic.

Itinvolves the characteristic hindering of the free flow ofbreath which we as">sociate with consonants. The sound [r] in far closes the syllable more dcH"184Chapter VI. Social and Territorial Varieties of Englishnitely than in British Received Pronunciation of the word [fa:]. On the oth­er hand, there is a vocalic or vowel-like and syllabic [r] that occurs in wordslike bird, murmur, after a vowel and before a consonant.4. One more peculiar feature of pronunciation of vowels in AmericanEnglish is their nasalization, when they are preceded or followed by a nasalconsonant (in such words as take, small, name, etc.

). Nasalization is oftencalled an American twang. It is incidental and need not be marked in pho­nemic transcription.S. GA front vowels are somewhat different from RP.In words like very,pity GAhas [i:] rather than [I]. In word flnalpositionit is often even diphthongized.The vowel [e] is more open in GA. It also may be diphthongized before[p], [t], [k]: let [Ieot].6. There are four mixed or central vowels in GA: [3], [aJ, [A], [a]. Theydiffer markedly from RP vowels in articulation and distribution.7. The three RP vowels [u], [ee], [a:] correspond to only two vowels inGA- [a] and [eel. This combined with the articulatory differences betweenRP [u] and GA [a] and a difference in vowel distribution in many sets ofwords makes it very complicated. The following chart vividly shows it:RPdad[ee]dog path dance half 6.4.

American-based Pronunciation Standards185Consonants1. The RP allophonic differentiation of [I] does not exist in GA. In allpositions [I] is fairly dark.2. Intervocalic [t] as in pity is most normally voiced. The result is neu­tralization of the distribution between [t] and [d] in this position, i. e.

latter,ladder. The original distinction is preserved through vowel length with thevowel before [t] being shorter.In words like twenty, little [t] may even drop out. Thus winner and win­ter, for example, may sound identical.3. GA [r] is articulated differently from RP one. The impression is oneof greater retroflexion (the tip of the tongue is curled back further than inRP).spelling is represented in GA by [M] sound (or sometimesas LhW].