Varieties of English

British English Accents

English English		Welsh English	Scottish English		Northern Ireland English
Southern	Northern		Educated Sc.English	Regional Varieties
Southern East Anglia South-West	Northern Yorkshire North-West West Midland

Questions:

1. What is the characteristics of national variants?

2. Define the difference between a variant and a dialect.

3. Name the types of dialects. Give the examples.

4. Dialect – accent: are these terms identical?

5. Where do pronunciation standards from come?

6. Can people speak two or more dialects? How do we call such a phenomenon?

7. Analyze all English varieties from the point of view of their pronunciation standards.

Seminars

Seminar 1

Topic: The essence of the course of theoretical phonetics.

The aims and purposes of the course. Segmental and suprasegmental phonetics.

Seminar 2

Topic: Problems of phonostylistics.

The norms of the English language. A phonetic style-forming factor.

Seminar 3

Topic: Extralinguistic factors – the speaker’s individuality, temporal provenance, social provenance, range of intelligibility, sex of the speaker. Classification of phonetic styles.

Seminar 4

Topic: The functional aspect of speech sounds.

The phoneme. Main trends in phoneme theory. Methods of phonological analysis.

Seminar 5

Topic: The system of English phonemes.

Consonants. Modifications of English consonants in connected speech. Vowels. Modifications of vowels in connected speech. Sound alternations.

Seminar 6

Topic: Syllabic structure. Syllable formation. Syllabic functions in connected speech.

Syllabic division.

Seminar 7

Topic: Accentual structure.

The nature of word-stress, pitch, quantity and quality of word-stress. The placement of word-stress. The instability due to the different origin of several layers in the modern English word-stock.

Seminar 8

Topic: Intonation.

Pitch, loudness, tempo – the main components of intonation. The number of intonation groups. Rhythm. Stylistic use of intonation.

Seminar 9

Topic: Territorial varieties of English pronunciation.

Functional styles. Dialectology. Spread of English. Standard English.

Themes for the reports:

1. Historical background of English accentual system.

2. The peculiarities of American intonation (the comparative analysis of BE and AE intonation).

3. Canadian variant. Its specific features.

4. The functional use of intonation.

5. Modifications of vowels in connected speech.

6. Modifications of consonants in connected speech.

7. The problem of the norm.

Model Test Work

Variant 1

1) What is the difference between progressive and regressive assimilation?

a) in the degree;

b) in the level;

c) in the direction.

2) Try to remember in what positions the auxiliary and modal verbs are generally stressed in a sentence.

a) both in the final and in the initial positions;

b) both in the middle and in the initial positions;

c) both in the final and in the middle positions.

3) Transcribe the sentences. Mark the stresses and tunes. Concentrate your special attention on strong and weak forms of personal and possessive pronouns and other form words:

Sam said he was coming.

Is he bringing Mary?

He only said he was coming.

Variant 2

1) What allophone of the phoneme [r] is used within the word train?

a) voiced;

b) voiceless;

c) completely devoiced.

2) We call [ o] open and [i] close. Can you explain why?

a) because of the pitch level;

b) because of the degree of a tongue protruding;

c) because of the position in a word.

3) Which are the words that always have strong forms in an unstressed position?

1. to be b) he

to do } when main verbs when

to have then

when off

then in

on what

in do } when auxiliary

off have} when auxiliary

that (demonstrative pronoun) should

some (an indefinite pronoun) able

will (modal verb