Variants of English language

Regional differences in pronunciation and vocabulary are small in comparison to those of the British and American English, and Australian pronunciation is determined less by region than by social, cultural and educational influences. In Tasmania, words such as "dance" and "grant" are usually heard with the older pronunciation of these words, using [æ], whereas in South Australia, [aI] is more common. Other regions of Australia show different patterns of pronunciation of words with this vowel sound [22].

As have been stated above there also hybrid languages. Hybrid languages are dialects arising in the Pacific area and in Africa and based on combining local structure with English vocabulary.

According to professor Iliysh there are three chief hybrid languages. They are:

• Pidgin English, which existed for some time in Eastern China and in Japan
• Beach-la-Mar on the Pacific coast
• Kroo English in Africa.

Pidgin English arose in the 18th century. It served as a means of communication between the local population and colonizer in China, Japan, the South Seas and also in California. Beach-la-Mar is a jargon used in commercial relations in the Pacific area. Kroo English is used in Liberia and in Guinea in West Africa. It is a mixed language on an English basis with admixture of Portuguese words [17; 244].

There are approximately 125 pidgin and creole languages throughout the world, spoken by more than nine million people, about thirty-five are English-based. A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that has originated from a pidgin language that has been nativized (that is, taught to children). Historical settlement and colonization produced two major groups pf English-based creoles, an Atlantic group and a Pacific group. The Atlantic creoles were established in West Africa and varieties in Sierra Leone (Krio), Liberia, Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana in northern South America), Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica and other West African countries and Caribbean islands. The Pacific group, established largely during the 19th century, includes varieties in Hawaii, Papua New Guinea (Tok Pisin) and other islands [3; 313]. It is commonly assumed a priori that, compared to other languages, creoles have a simpler grammar and more internal variability. However, these notions may be little more than prejudices [1; 9].

Thus, we have studied the reasons of the English language spread, reasons of appearance of English varieties and some characteristic features of these varieties. The language began to spread because of the colonial expansion of Great Britain and after a consequence of the political, cultural and economic dominance of the USA English was spread more widely. The varieties of English were appeared because of mixing the English language with other languages, which have influenced on phonetic, spelling and vocabulary of English language. And now each of the varieties has its own peculiarities. The status of the varieties  are also different. For instance, American English variant has an official status, its own pronunciation standard (General American) and it is used by educated people of the whole country. While dialects have no pronunciation standard and literary norm and they are  used by group of people who live at local territory. However, the varieties have much in common and due to this fact, we speak about one and the same language – the English language.

 

 

2. Variants of the English Language.

2.1. Phonetic Peculiarities of Variants of English Language

 

There are several other variants where difference from the British standard is normalised. Besides the Irish and Scottish variants that have been mentioned above, there are American English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, Indian English. Each of these has developed a literature of its own, and is characterised by peculiarities in phonetics, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. However, these variants have much in common, because they developed from the English language.

The differences between the English language as spoken in Britain, the USA, Australia and Canada are immediately noticeable in the field of phonetics. However, these distinctions are confined to the articulatory-acoustic characteristics of some phonemes, to some differences in the use of others and to the differences in the rhythm and intonation of speech.

There are two pronunciation standards English-based (Received Pronunciation) and American-based (General American). According to British dialectologists (P. Trudgill, J. Hannah, A. Hughes and others) the following variants of English are referred to the English-based group: English, Welsh English, Australian English, New Zealand English; to the American-based group: United States English, Canadian English [30].

As have been stated above all variants have much in common. Thus, most North American speech is rothic, i.e. Canadian and American speakers pronounce written “r” in all positions. They will pronounce the “r” in stork, whereas non-rothic speakers will make no distinction between stork and stalk. Non-rothic speakers pronounce “r” only if it is followed by vowel (right, rain, far away, etc.). Some types of British English, Australian, New Zealand and South African English are non-rothic. Rothic accents can be found also in Scotland and Ireland. Canadian, American and Australian English flap intervocalic [t] and [d] to alveolar tap [ɾ] before unstressed vowels and syllabic[l]. Thus, for most speakers, pairs such as ladder/latter, metal/medal and coating/coding are pronounced the same. But Canadian English flaps intervocalic [t] in more contexts, including between [f] and a vowel (as in after), between [s] and vowel (sister), between [ʃ] and a vowel (washed out), and between [k] and a vowel (picture) [7; 414].

Canadian English has much in common with that of the United States while retaining a few features of British pronunciation.

Several features are shared with US English, in the speech of most Canadians:

• The use of a strong syllable in such suffixes as –ary and –ory (secretary, laboratory)
• The use of [aɪ] in such words as fertile, missile, and hostile.
• In addition, several individual words adopt US pronunciations, such as schedule with [sk] and tomato with [eɪ].

On the other hand, British influence is evident in a number of individual cases:

• [anti] for anti- instead of US [antaɪ].
• [zed] for letter z instead of US[zi:]
• The first syllable of lieutenant pronounced [lef-], not [lu:].
• [baθ] for bath, not US bathe [beið].
• Such words as tune are pronounced with initial [tʃu:] or [tju:], not US [tu:]
• Similarly, such words as news are pronounced [nju:z], rather than US [nu:z].
• The first syllable of process and progress is pronounced with [o] , but in the US with [ɑ].

Everywhere, variation is normal: thus in one survey, 68 per cent of adults said leisure with [I:] rather than US [e], whereas 84 per cent said lever with [I:] rather than US [e] [6; 341].

The most pronunciation feature involves the vowels in the bike, bite, life and bout, shout, house word classes. In the nucleus of the diphthongs [aI] and [au], a phenomenon usually called Canadian raising produces [ʌa] before voiceless consonant, as in wipe, white, strike, lice and life (but not bribe, wide, lies, Clive) and [ʌa] in about and house (but not proud and houses). Currently, there appears to be a change underway in the pronunciation of this vowel, a change that would threaten this distinctive features. Especially in inland urban areas, younger Canadians increasingly pronounce the diphthong in the how, houses, house class with a low front onset vowel, just like their American counterparts [7; 414].

Many Canadians pronounce asphalt as "ash-falt" [æʃfɒlt] [2; 77]. This pronunciation is also common in Australian English, but not in General American English or British English.

Australian English also has some phonetic peculiarities

The vowels of Australian English can be divided into two categories: long and short vowels. The short vowels, consisting only of monophthongs, mostly correspond to the lax vowels used in analyses of Received Pronunciation. The long vowels, consisting of both monophthongs and diphthongs, mostly correspond to its tense vowels and centring diphthongs. Unlike most varieties of English, it has a phonemic length distinction: that is, certain vowels differ only by length .

The diphthong [eI] has become something like [æI]. The long [i:] tends to become [I] or [əI], as in sweets [swIts], [swəIts]. The long [u:] tends to become [Iu] or [əu], as in boot [bIut], [bəut]. Many speakers have also coalesced /dj/, /sj/ and /tj/ into /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /tʃ/, producing standard pronunciations such as /tʃʉːn/ for tune.

Both intervocalic /nt/ and /n/ may be realised as [n] or [ɾ̃], another trait which it shares with American English; it can make winter and winner homophones. Interesting will sound like inner-resting. Most areas in which /nt/ is reduced to /n/, it is accompanied further by nasalisation of simple post-vocalic /n/, so that V/nt/ and V/n/ remain phonemically distinct. In such cases, the preceding vowel becomes nasalised, and is followed in cases where the former /nt/ was present, by a distinct /n/. This stop-absorption by the preceding nasal /n/ does not occur when the second syllable is stressed, as in entails [22].

G.W.Turner in a special study of Australian and New Zealand English points out some peculiarities of Australian pronunciation. Thus, he states that “Australian rhythms are slower, more even and much deliberate than English ones” [14; 95]. To explain why the speakers of General Australian English speak slowly and less emotionally than the speakers of the Received Pronunciation were suggested a number of theories. The supporters of one of these theories suggest that Australian Aboriginal languages had influenced on the intonation and speed of speech General Australian English. In contrast to this theory put forward the fact that the cultural level of the Australian Aborigines was too low to affect the culture and language of settlers considerably. Futhermore, owing to the relatively short history of relations between settlers and Aborigines, the language of the past could have no appreciable effect on the speech of the settlers.

Next theory touches upon the issue of the influence of climatic conditions on the speed of speech and intonation of speakers. It has been suggested that climatic conditions may influence the articulation of a native speaker. For example, people living in cold climates have more intense articulation in contrast to people living in warm or hot climates. This theory explains the differences in speed and intonation of speech between the General Australian English speakers and the speakers of Received Pronunciation by warm climate of Australia. Opponents of this theory argue that this effect is impossible, because, for example, many Canadians living in the north speak slower than living in the south [18; 4].

Australian and New Zealand English are very similar. But New Zealand English has its own peculiarities. G.W. Turner points out that “Distinction between wh and w is very often made in New Zealand, the wh being sounded as [h+w]. Thus, the difference between what and Watt, where and wear is being maintained” [14; 105].   

Several features of Australian English are also found in New Zealand, such as tendency to turn [i:] and [u:] into diphthongs and the use of [ə] in unstressed syllables.

The following are some of the features which have attracted attention.

• the short-i of KIT is a central vowel not phonologically distinct from schwa /ə/, the vowel in unstressed "the". It thus contrasts sharply with the [i] vowel heard in Australia. Recent acoustic studies featuring both Australian and New Zealand voices show that the accents were more similar before the Second World War and that the KIT vowel has undergone rapid centralisation in New Zealand English. Because of this difference in pronunciation, some New Zealanders claim that Australians say "feesh and cheeps" for fish and chips while some Australians counter that New Zealanders say "fush and chups" [13; 23].
• [e] has a closer articulation, moving towards [i], so that yes is heard as “yis”.
• The vowels /ɪə/ as in near and /eə/ as in square are increasingly being merged, so that here rhymes with there; and bear and beer, and rarely and really are homophones. This is the "most obvious vowel change taking place" in New Zealand English. There is some debate as to the quality of the merged vowel, but the consensus appears to be that it is towards a close variant, [iə] [11;582].
• Several individual word have local pronunciations. The name of the country is often heard with short [I]: [zIlənd] not [zi:lənd] [6; 354].

Thus, the language was spread on these territories by settlements from different parts of British Isles. Pronunciation standard is divided into English-based and American-based because the language was spread in one country by British settlements and in another by American settlements. After settlements came to occupy such territories as Canada, Australia and New Zealand settlements communicated with aborigines and this communication had influenced the language, which was spread in these territories. Due to these facts, differences in pronunciation of English language variants appeared.

 

2.2. Peculiarities in Vocabulary of Variants of English Language.

 

As have been stated earlier each variant has peculiarities from the lexical point of view. In this paragraph, we will study main characteristic features in vocabulary of each English language variants.

The American variant of English language differs from British English in pronunciation, some minor features of grammar, but chiefly in vocabulary. A word or a set expression peculiar to the English language as spoken in the USA may be defined as Americanism. E. g. cookie ‘a biscuit’; frame-up ‘a staged or preconcerted law case’; guess ‘think’; mail ‘post’; store ‘shop’ [16; 266].

Professor Benson identifies ten groups of lexical differences. The first five of these groups are:

1. Words that reflect cultural differences, with no equivalent in the other variety, e.g. Ivy League, Groundhog for American English; Honours Degree, Value Added Tax for British.
2. Words that are variety-specific but which have an equivalent in the other variety, e.g. American English baggage room = British English left-luggage office.
3. Words that have at least one sense used in World English, with an additional sense or senses specific to varieties. For example, caravan has the World English sense of “a company of trades or other travelers journeying together, often with a train of camels, through the desert”, but it has the specific sense in British English of “a large enclosed vehicle capable of being pulled by car or lorry and equipped to be lived in”, which is equivalent to American trailer.
4. Words that have a single sense in World English and have an equivalent word in either British or American variants. For example World English filling station has American equivalent gas station and British equivalent petrol station.
5. Some words have no World English meaning, but that have different specific meanings in two varieties. For example, flyover has American meaning “a ceremonial flight over a given area”, equivalent to British flypast In British English, flyover has meaning “an intersection of two roads at which one is carried over the other by a bridge”, equivalent to American overpass [4;300].

Crystal adapts Benson’s scheme to given a fourfold division on terms of crossover potential of equivalent words between the American and British English varieties:

1. no crossover potential from either side, e.g. (American words on the left, British on the right):

candy

sweets

diaper

nappyfreeway

motorwaykerosene paraffin

zip code post code

 

2. crossover potential from American to British English, but not from British to American English; so the American English words is in World English, e. g.:

can tin

crepe pancake

French fries chips

intermission interval

zero nought

 

3. crossover potential from British to America English, but not from American to British English ; so the British English words is in World English, e.g.:

ash can dustbin

bathtub bath

casket coffin

fall autumn

 

4. crossover potential both from American to British English and from British to American English; so both words are in World English, e.g.:

administration government

antenna  aerial

mail post

nightgown nightdress

sweater jumper

All the above examples are taken from David Crystal [6; 309]. They only begin to illustrate the vast differences in vocabulary between American and British English, differences that have come about as the two nations have developed their own identities and pursued their own goals since the first settlers emigrated to America in the 17th century.

The vocabulary of Canadian English is not the same as that of American English. While there has been steady cross-border contact with the USA, Canada has also experienced a continuous flow of immigration from Britain. Other factors include the bilingual influence of French in Quebec and contact with the Native American language of Canada. Words for vehicles and their parts are usually American English: truck, hood, fender, trunk, station wagon. Some British and American English words co-exist, and may be more commonly used is some regions than others, e.g. American fry pan and British frying pan. Words from French include beteau (flat-bottomed riverboat), brule (area of forest destroyed by fire), habitant (a French Canadian, especially a farmer). Words from Native American language include bogan (a sluggish sidestream) from Algonquian, mowitch (deer) from Chinook, and hooch (alcoholic drink) from Tlingit, which has passed into World English [10; 125].

Unlike in the United States, use of metric units within a majority of industries (but not all) is standard in Canada, as a result of the national adoption of the Metric System during the mid to late 1970s; this has spawned some colloquial usages such as klick for kilometre (as also heard in the U.S. military). Nonetheless, Imperial units are still used in many situations. For example, many Canadians will state their weight and height in pounds and feet/inches, respectively. Temperatures for cooking are often given in Fahrenheit. Directions in the prairie provinces are often given using miles, because the country roads generally follow the mile-based grid of the Dominion Land Survey. Also, the U.S. letter paper size of 8.5 inches × 11 inches is used instead of the international and metric A4 size of 210 mm × 297 mm.

Several political terms are more in use in Canada than elsewhere, including riding (as a general term for a parliamentary constituency or electoral district). The term reeve was at one time common for the equivalent of a mayor in some smaller municipalities in British Columbia and Ontario, but is now falling into disuse. The title is still used for the leader of a rural municipality in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Members of the Liberal Party of Canada or a provincial Liberal party are sometimes referred to as Grits. Historically, the term comes from the phrase Clear Grit, used in Victorian times in Canada to denote an object of quality or a truthful person. The term was assumed as a nickname by Liberals by the 1850s.

Members of the Senate are referred to by the title "Senator" preceding their name, as in the United States. Members of the Canadian House of Commons, following British parliamentary nomenclature, are termed "Members of Parliament", and are referred to as "Jennifer Jones, MP" during their term of office only. This style is extended to the Premiers of the provinces during their service. Senators, and members of the Privy Council are styled "The Honourable" for life, and the Prime Minister of Canada is styled "The Right Honourable" for life, as is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Governor-General. This honorific may also be bestowed by Parliament, as it was to retiring deputy prime minister Herb Gray in 1996. Members of provincial legislatures do not have a pre-nominal style, except in Nova Scotia, where members of the Queen's Executive Council of Nova Scotia are styled "The Honourable" for life, and are entitled to the use of the post-nominal letters "ECNS".

Terms common in Canada, Britain, and Ireland but less frequent or nonexistent in the U.S. are:

• Tin (as in tin of tuna), for can, especially among older speakers. Among younger speakers, can is more common, with tin referring to a can which is wider than it is tall.
• Cutlery, for silverware or flatware.
• Serviette, especially in Eastern Canada, for a paper table napkin. This usage is fading.
• Tap, conspicuously more common than faucet in everyday usage [23].

Canadian English is influenced both by British and American English but it also has some specific features of its own. Specifically Canadian words are called Canadianisms [16; 270].For example, dunch (half-baked bread), frazil (ice at the bottom of a river), lund (quiet).

Australian English vocabulary has also some characteristic features. One of the best known is outback, meaning a remote, sparsely populated area. Another is The Bush, meaning either a native forest or a country area in general. 'Bush' is a word of Dutch origin: 'Bosch'. However, both terms have been widely used in many English-speaking countries. Early settlers from England brought other similar words, phrases and usages to Australia. Many words used frequently by country Australians are, or were, also used in all or part of England, with variations in meaning. For example, creek in Australia, as in North America, means a stream or small river, whereas in the UK it means a small watercourse flowing into the sea; paddock in Australia means field, whereas in the UK it means a small enclosure for livestock; bush or scrub in Australia, as in North America, means a wooded area, whereas in England they are commonly used only in proper names (such as Shepherd's Bush and Wormwood Scrubs). Australian English and several British English dialects (for example, Cockney, Scouse, Glaswegian and Geordie) use the word mate [22].