1. Exploration: Accents of English
Lecture C1
Exploration: Accents of English

2. Textbook: Unit C Accents in English
C1: General American & Comparisons to NRP (Standard British English)
In the “C” units we will apply our knowledge of English phonology to specific types of English accents…
… and practice the differences in sounds.

3. What to remember:
Standard English (American (GA) and British (NRP)) are quite similar.
There are 5 main differences between GA and NRP consonants.
There are 10 main differences between GA and NRP vowels.
This lecture will discuss GA and NRP similarities and differences and offer us a chance to practice these accents.

4. Types of variation found in accents

5. Classifying pronunciation variation between accents

6. Distributional variation

7. Practice—can these words be pronounced differently?

8. Lexical variation

9. No easy way… no shortcut or rule…

10. Realisational variation

11. British NRP and General American
These are both “standard” varieties.
Are they very different?

13. Some differences… Consonants

14. Some differences… Consonants

15. Some differences… Consonants

16. Some differences… Consonants

17. Yod-dropping?

18. Yod-dropping

19. Some differences… Consonants

20. Vowels

21. Vowel… differences

22. Vowel differences…rhotic…

23. Rhotic????…

24. Vowel differences…

25. Vowel differences…

26. Vowel differences…

27. Vowel differences…

28. Practice!

29. Vowel differences…

30. Vowel differences…

31. Vowel differences…

32. Vowel differences…

33. Vowel differences…

34. Stress… & stress-related features of GA

35. Practice! (These words are all borrowed from French)

36. -ary… -ery… -ory

37. Differences… individual words

38. Stress shift

39. Consonant variance

40. Vowel variance… part 1

41. Vowel variance part 2

42. Names!

43. Setting, intonation and rhythm

44. Remember creaky voice?
Listen:
This woman explains creaky voice (and how it’s become popular!)
Also… watch how this American speaker opens her mouth while speaking.
Kardashians…

45. Intonation

46. Rhythm

47. End.
Types of variation?
Differences… vowels, consonants… stress… individual words…
Names…
Setting…
Intonation…
Rhythm…
Again—while this looks like a long list of differences… the similarities between standard varieties are significant.