General American English

General American English is the closest to a standard accent in the United States. It is considered by many speakers to be free from regional features.  It is the accent spoken by most actors, newscasters, etc. Some of its most characteristic features are:

Phonology

• Rhoticity. /r/ is pronounced in coda positions as in teacher /ti:tʃər/
• L- velarisation. “Dark L” is used for all context in which /l/ occurs. There is no distinction between “clear L” and “dark L” as in RP.  
• Intervocalic /t/ flapping. /t/ become [r] in intervocalic positions.
• /j/ dropping in words like new /nu:/ and duke /du:k/
• In many contexts, where RP has /ɑː/, GA uses /æ/ as in plant /plænt/ 

Vocabulary

RP	GA
cinema	movies
underground	subway
petrol station	gas station
lift	elevator
chips	French fries
motor way	free way
rubbish	garbage

Spelling

• Use of <z> instead of <s> in words like organize, satirize, organization, etc.
• –er ending instead of –re in words like center, meter, theater.
• Words ending in –our (and their derivates and inflected forms) in RP usually ends in –or in GA. Eg: favor, color,

Activities

• Decide whether the sentences below would be samplers of General American or Received Pronunciation. Justify your answers.

o   Benedict Cumberbatch is my favourite actor.

o   The Natural History Museum is in the city center.

o   I went to the movies last night and it was great.

o   Tom told me to get off the underground at Charing Cross.

o   Can we take the elevator, please? I am really tired. 

o   By the time he arrived from Paris, everything was already organized. 

• Watch the following video and try to find phonetic features from both General American and RP.  

Scottish Standard English

Scottish Standard English (SSE) is the variety of English spoken in Scotland. Note that in Scotland other languages are also spoken: Gaelic and Scots.  Traditionally, these two languages were the main languages there, however, after the Act of Union in 1707 (which led to the creation of the United Kingdom), English became the language of the Scottish Church, administration and upper classes.  SSE resulted from the language contact between Standard English and Scots. That’s why we are going to find many features from Scots in SSE. Nowadays, boundaries between Scots and SSE are really blurred.

Some of its features are:

• —  Rhoticity: /r/ is pronounced in the syllable coda. /r/ may be an alveolar approximant as in RP [ɹ] or an alveolar tap [ɾ]

• —  There is a distinction between /w/ and /ʍ/so that witch and which are pronounced differently.

• —  Use of the phoneme /x/ for <–ch> in a small number of Scottish words. Eg: loch.

• —  Use of Scots /u/ instead of /ʊ/. This vowel may be pronounced [ʉ] or even [ʏ]. Thus pull and pool are homophones.

• —  Non-initial /t/ is often realised as a glottal stop /ʔ/.

• —  Vowel length: The Scottish Vowel Length Rule( ”Aitken’s Law”)

• —  Use of  double modals. Eg: They might could be working in the shop.

• —   Negation: use of the suffix  -nae . Eg. She isnae leaving for She is not leaving.

• —  Vocabulary: wee = small; bonnie=pretty, bairn=child, haggis, kilt, kirk=church, etc.

• —  Scotticisms: She learnt him some manners = She taught him some manners ; Pure dead brilliant= exceptional, fantastic. 

ACTIVITIES

1. Do some research on Aitken's law and summarise its more important aspects. 
2. Write down at least five Scottish words not mentioned above. 
3. Watch the following video and try to identify at least three features described above. 

More on Scottish English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1tJJO_pVvQ

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/scotland/edinburgh/

Received Pronunciation

When you go to your English class and listen to your teacher or to an audio record from the book, this accent is probably what you hear. Received Pronunciation (RP) is the closest to a standard accent in the UK and it is the accent which enjoys the highest prestige in England. Although it is said to be influenced by the English spoken in London, it is regionless i.e. not associated with any locality. Traditionally, RP has been associated to the middle and upper classes and until the 1970s BBC announcers were required to be RP speakers. That is why RP is also known as BBC English.

Some of its more important features are:

-   Non rhoticity (The r is not pronounced unless it is followed by a vowel or it is at the beginning of a word)  Eg: paper /ˈpeɪpə/ bird /bɜːd/

-    No h-dropping. That is, h is pronounced in words like horse or head.

-    No j-dropping.  /j/ is pronounced in words like tune /tjuːn/ or stupid /ˈstjuːpid/

-    FOOT/STRUT split.  Words that contained the short /u/ in Middle English are pronounced with the phoneme / ʊ / meanwhile others are pronounced with /ʌ /

-  RP has not undergone significant vowel shifts.  That’s why its vowels tend to be more conservative if we compare them with other varieties of English.

All these features may sound familiar you since this is the variety that you are used to.  

Exercises:

1. Do some research on RP and try to identify features not mentioned above. 

2. Watch the following video and try to identify at least 3 of the features described above. Give   examples.

If you have any doubt, any question or you want to know the answers of these exercises please contact me. 

For a more detailed discussion:

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/vowel-sounds-rp/

Hughes, A., Trudgill, P., & Watt, D. (2013). English accents and dialects: an introduction to social and regional varieties of English in the British Isles. Routledge.