Analyzing BrE and GAE

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Analyzing the differences between and
GA and British English
 José Ribamar de Castro
There are a number of noticeable differences between standard Southern British and standard GAE pronunciation. These differences
are summarized here in terms of the (1) phonemic inventories;(2) allophonic variation; (3)pronunciation of common words;(4)word
stress; (5) sentence stress;(6)intonation ;and(7)
overall sound of voice quality.All useful sources of information on this topic here presented are from Ladefoged (1993) , and Catford (1988).
1. Differences in Phonemic Inventories
Differences in the consonant inventories
One minor difference in the consonant inventories of GA and British English is that some dialects of GAE still have the voiceless
/hw/ sound distinct from the voiced approximant /w/(e.g.; in words such what,which and when).(This /hw/ is also still common in Scottish standard.)Such speakers
have the contrast witch/which.
Differences in the vowel inventories
The phonemic differences between GA and British English vowel inventories are considerably greater than the differences in their consonant inventories,particularly in the area of the low back vowels.For example,both dialects use unrounded /a/ in words like spa and car; however,British English has a low-back lax vowel /o/;which is slightly rounded and occurs in words such as spot,not,rock,whereas GA has unrounded /a/ in these words.
Also,whereas virtually all British speakers have rounded /o:/ as a distinct low back vowel (slighly higher and tenser than /o/ in words such as law,taught,walk,awe many speakers of GAE no longer have a distinct /o/ phoneme and have merged this sound with /a/. Thus British English has three low back vowels,whereas GAE has two or (in many dialects) only one:
spa BE /a:/ Midwestern AE /a/ Western AE /a/
stop BE /o/ Midwestern AE /a/ Western AE /a/
straw BE /o:/ Midwestern AE /o/ Western AE /a/
2. Differences in Allophonic Variation
Differences in vowel production
 The differences in allophonic variation between BE and GAE are much more extensive than the differences in their inventories.Because most British vowels tend to be less glided than GAE vowels,a different notation (Jones 1991)is used for tense vowels and diphthongs:
bite GAE /bayt/ BE /bait/
boot GAE /buwt/ Be /bu:t/
Also GAE /^/ is often slightly higher than BE /^/ in words such as hut,son,rust.
Differences in consonant production
Southern BE speakers omit the /r/ completely in medial or final position and produce instead a lengthen or centralized vowel sound.
heart / car /ha:t/ /ka:/ (GA) /ha:rt/ /k:ar/
3. Different pronunciations of common words
Words spelled with A
Many words spelled with A are pronounced with the 
 vowel /a:/ in British English but with the vowel / / in GAE: ask,answer,can’t,branch,dance,half,grass,cast,
laugh. Such words tend to have an alveolar nasal /n/ or a voiceless fricative /s,f,0/ after the vowel.
Words with syllable-initial alveolar consonants
Many words with a syllable-initial alveolar consonant( /t,d,n/ and now less frequently /l,s,z/ before na /u:/ sound spelled u,ew,eu have a more distinct /j/ glide
between the consonant and the vowel in Britisdh and Canadian English than in other varieties of GE,which have lost the /u:/ vs /ju:/ distinction even after /t,d,n/:
tune /tu:n/ (GAE) /tju:n/ (British/Canadian)
duke /du:k/ dju:k/
new /nu:/ /nju:/
Words with U spellings following alveolar consonants
Some students of BE have a tendency to
pronounce /y/ in certain words with U spellings (i.e.,those following alveolar consonants)whereas GAE speakers generally 
palatalize the consonant following this U spelling instead:
issue / /(GAE) /sj/(BRE)
virtue /t /(GAE) /tj/ (BRE)
Words spelled with er are pronounced /a:/ in BRE but /3:r/ in GAE.
clerk, derby,Kerr.
Words ending in –ile
Words ending in –ile tend to be pronounced /ail/ in BRE and /al/ or /l/
in GAE: 
hostile,fertile,docile,fragile,missile.
Other words
There are many individual words in common use in both dialects with the same spelling that are routinely pronounced differently:
ate /et/ /eit/
vase /va:z/ /veis/
either /ai / /i: ar/
schedule 
tomato
leisure
process /prouses/ /prases/
4. Differences in word stress
There are also numerous words in BRE and GAE in which the primary difference in pronunciation can be traced to differences
in word stress.
Verbs ending in –ate
In many two-syllable verbs ending in –ate,GAE tends to stress the root syllable and BRE the suffix:
DICtate dicTATE
Vibrate viBATE
Words of French origin
In words of French origin,GAE tends to mirror the French syllable-final stress pattern,whereas BRE anglicizes these words with stress on the first syllable.
garAGE GARage
baLLET BALlet
fronTIER FRONtier
cabaRET CABaret
Stress in three- or four-syllable words
There are also several types of three- or four- 
syllable words in which stress falls on the second syllable in GAE but on the first syllable in BRE.
priMARily PRImarily
arIStocrat ARistocrat
Secondary stress differences in words ending in –ily
There are many five-syllable words ending in –ily
for which BE gives primary stress to the first syllable whereas GAE gives primary stress to the third syllable.In these same words,BRE speakers also tend to reduce or drop the third syllable,thus pronouncing them with four rather five syllables:
neces’sarily ‘necessarily
Words ending in –ary,-ery,-ory,and –mony.
There is also a tendency for GAE to give some stress to penultimate syllables that tend to drop out in BRE;this gives many words ending in –ary,-ery,-ory,and –mony rather different rhythmic patterns in the two dialects:
dictionary/ category/cemetery/testimony.
Words ending in –day
In days of the week,the –day syllable is unstressed and has reduced vowel in BRE variety;thus ,it has a full vowel in GAE:
Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/
Thursday/ Friday/Saturday.
Place names ending in –aster / -ester.
Place names ending in –aster/ -ester have a different stress páttern in GAE and BRE,since the latter variety gives stress gives less stress to the penultimate syllable:
Lan’caster ‘Lancaster
Ro’chester ‘Rochester
There is also a tendency to place names ending in -ham or –wood,which receive some
Stress on the final syllable in GAE but are stressed only on the first syllable in BRE,with resulting loss of the /h/ in –ham:
Birming’ham ‘Birmingham
Bucking’ham ‘Burckingham
Holly’wood /u/ ‘Hollywood /a/
Other word stress differences
In some cases,words in GAE and BRE have the same number of syllables but simply take different stress patterns,with concomitant differences in pronunciation:
adver’tisement / ad’vertisement
labora’tory / la’boratory
5. Differences in Sentence Stress
There is very little empirical research available on differences in sentence stress between GAE and BRE.One area in which differences have been noticed is yes/no questions; BRE sometimes gives light stress tothe fronted auxiliary verb whereas GAE does not:
British is it NICE ?
GAE is it NICE ?
6. Differences in Intonation
Differences in neutral and unemotional British and GA English intonation are marked enough such that speakers of both varieties seem to develop stereotyped perceptioins of the other group.GAE speakers tend to perceive British speakers as pretentious and mannered,and British speakers tend to perceive Americans as monotonous and negative. Consider this example:
British It’s not quite the right shade of blue.
GAE: It’s not quite the right shade of blue.
In yes/no questions that are not responses
the British low rise is polite whereas a high rise
signals incredulity.In GHAE,however,the high rise is polite and not incredulous.(Cruttenden: 1986).
Did he pass the exam?
He certainly did!
6. Differences in Overall Sound and Voice Quality
With the exception of certain regional varieties of British English (such Norfolk and the Home Counties,from which many of the Nwe Englanders and other settlers emigrated during the 7th century),GAE has a more nasal quality than BRE. BRE is more clipped and precise quality whereas GAE is more drawn out or ‘drawled’ quality(glided and lengthened vowels).
As it is suggested in the title,this workshop has no other ambitious purpose than the practical one of helping teachers/students of English to be acquainted with the most important differences between British and American English. If this workshop is somewhat helpful,
we will have fulfilled our purposes.