Main Comparative Peculiarities of American and British English Standards
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORTS OF UKRAINE
ENGLISH PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Main Comparative Peculiarities of American and British English Standards
Kyiv – 2013
Content
Introduction………………………………………………
Chapter І Main features of British English……………………………………..8
1.2. Differences in British dialects………………………………………………..13
1.2.1 Regional differences……………………………………………….
1.2.2 Standardization………………………………………
1.3. Accents in British English……………………………………………………19
Conclusion to Chapter I…………………………………………………………26
Chapter ІІ Main features of American English……………………………….28
2.1. The history of American English…………………………………………….28
2.2. Regional variations of American English Language………………………...30
2.3. Social variations of American English……………………………………….32
2.3.1 Influences: British and American…………………………………….41
2.3.2 An Indian English Grammar………………………………………….43
Conclusion to Chapter II……………………………………………………….47
Chapter ІІІ Main Comparative Peculiarities
of American and British English Standards………………………………………………………
3.1. Comparative peculiarities of British English and
American English ……….49
Introduction
British English (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all English dialects used within the United Kingdom.
American English (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all English dialects used within the United States.
Written forms of British and American English as found in newspapers and textbooks very little in their essential features, with only occasional noticeable differences in comparable media [46] (comparing American newspapers with British newspapers, for example). This kind of formal English, particularly written English, is often called "standard English". [78], [37]
The spoken forms of British English vary considerably, reflecting a long history of dialect development amid isolated populations. Dialects, word use and accents vary not only among the countries of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but also within these individual countries. Received Pronunciation (RP) refers to a way of pronouncing Standard English that is actually used by about two percent of the UK population. It remains the accent upon which dictionary pronunciation guides are based, and for teaching English as a foreign language. It is referred to colloquially as "BBC English", "Oxford English" and "the Queen's English", although none of these actually use or require it exclusively. [55]
An unofficial standard for spoken 9American English has also developed, as a result of mass media and geographic and social mobility, and broadly describes the English typically heard from network newscasters, commonly referred to as non-regional diction, although local newscasters tend toward more parochial forms of speech. Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William Labov.
Regional dialects in the United States typically reflect the elements of the language of the main immigrant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and vernacular vocabulary. Scholars have mapped at least four major regional variations of spoken American English: Northern, Southern, Midland, and Western. After the American Civil War, the settlement of the western territories by migrants from the east led to dialect mixing and leveling, so that regional dialects are most strongly differentiated in the eastern parts of the country that were settled earlier. Localized dialects also exist with quite distinct variations, such as in Southern Appalachia and New York.
British and American English are the reference norms for English as spoken, written, and taught in the rest of the world. For instance the English-speaking members of the Commonwealth often closely follow British English forms while many new American English forms quickly become familiar outside of the United States. Although most dialects of English used in the former British Empire outside of North America are, to various extents, based on British English, most of the countries concerned have developed their own unique dialects, particularly with respect to pronunciation, idioms and vocabulary. Chief among other English dialects are Canadian English, based on the English of United Empire Loyalists who left the 13 Colonies, [55; 422] and Australian English, which rank third and fourth in number of native speakers.
The English language was first introduced to the Americas by British colonization, beginning in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. Similarly, the language spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and colonization elsewhere and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, held sway over a population of 470–570 million people, approximately a quarter of the world's population at that time.
Over the past 400 years the form of the language used in the Americas—especially in the United States—and that used in the United Kingdom have diverged in a few minor ways, leading to the dialects now occasionally referred to as American English and British English. Differences between the two include pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary (lexis), spelling, punctuation, idioms, formatting of dates and numbers, although the differences in written and most spoken grammar structure tend to be much less than those of other aspects of the language in terms of mutual intelligibility. A small number of words have completely different meanings in the two dialects or are even unknown or not used in one of the dialects. One particular contribution towards formalizing these differences came from Noah Webster, who wrote the first American dictionary (published 1828) with the intention of showing that people in the United States spoke a different dialect from Britain, much like a regional accent.
This divergence between American English and British English once caused George Bernard Shaw to say that the United States and United Kingdom are "two countries divided by a common language"; [56] a similar comment is ascribed to Winston Churchill. Likewise, Oscar Wilde wrote, "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language" (The Canterville Ghost, 1888). Henry Sweet incorrectly predicted in 1877 that within a century American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible. It may be the case that increased worldwide communication through radio, television, the Internet and globalization has reduced the tendency to regional variation. This can result either in some variations becoming extinct (for instance, the wireless, superseded by the radio) or in the acceptance of wide variations as "perfectly good English" everywhere. Often at the core of the dialect though, the idiosyncrasies remain.
Nevertheless it remains the case that, although spoken American and British English are generally mutually intelligible, there are enough differences to cause occasional misunderstandings or at times embarrassment—for example some words that are quite innocent in one dialect may be considered vulgar in the other.
So, the topicality of the master’s paper is a lumber (approximately junk) and corn of British and American English Language.
The object of research is American and British English discourse
The subject of research is differences between American and British English languages
The aim of the theme is to study deeply the differences of American and British English. There are thousands of differences in detail between British and American English, and occasionally they crowd together enough to make some difficulty. If you read that a man, having trouble with his lorry, got out his spanner and lifted the bonnet to see what was the matter, you might not realize that the driver of the truck had taken out his wrench and lifted the hood. It is amusing to play with such differences, but the theory that the American language is now essentially different from English does not hold up. It is often very difficult to decide whether a book was written by an American or an English man. Even in speech it would be hard to prove that national differences are greater than some local differences in either country. On the whole, it now seems probable that the language habits of the two countries will grow more, rather than less, alike, although some differences will undoubtedly remain and others may develop.
Chapter I
Main features of British English
1.1 The history of British English
English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic invaders from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Initially, Old English was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England. One of these dialects, Late West Saxon, eventually came to dominate.
English changed enormously in the Middle Ages. Written Old English of AD 100 is similar in vocabulary and grammar to other old Germanic languages such as Old High German and Old Norse, and completely unintelligible to modern speakers, while the modern language is already largely recognizable in written Middle English of AD 1400. This was caused by two further waves of invasion: the first by speakers of the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic language family, who conquered and colonized parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries; the second by the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and ultimately developed an English variety of this called Anglo-Norman. A large proportion of the modern English vocabulary comes directly from Anglo-Norman.
Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Frisian core of English. However, this had not reached South West England by the 9th century AD, where Old English was developed into a full-fledged literary language. This was completely disrupted by the Norman invasion in 1066, and when literary English rose anew in the 13th century, it was based on the speech of London, much closer to the centre of Scandinavian settlement. Technical and cultural vocabulary was largely derived from Old Norman, with particularly heavy influence in the courts and government. With the coming of the Renaissance, as with most other developing European languages such as German and Dutch, Latin and Ancient Greek supplanted Norman and French as the main source of new words. Thus, English developed into very much a "borrowing" language with an enormously disparate vocabulary.
The languages of Germanic peoples gave rise to the English language (the Angles, Saxons, Frisii, Jutes and possibly the Franks, who traded and fought with the Latin-speaking Roman Empire in the centuries-long process of the Germanic peoples' expansion into Western Europe during the Migration Period). Some Latin words for common objects entered the vocabulary of these Germanic peoples before their arrival in Britain and their subsequent formation of England.
The main source of information for the culture of the Germanic peoples (the ancestors of the English) in ancient times is Tacitus' Germania, written around 100 AD. While remaining conversant with Roman civilization and its economy, including serving in the Roman military, they retained political independence. Some Germanic troops served in Britannia under the Romans. It is unlikely that Germanic settlement in Britain was intensified (except for Frisians) until the arrival of mercenaries in the 5th century as described by Gildas. As it was, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived as Germanic pagans, independent of Roman control.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around the year 449, Vortigern, King of the Britons, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles allegedly led by the Germanic brothers Hengist and Horsa) to help him in conflicts with the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the southeast of Britain. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles and Jutes). The Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. However, modern scholars view the figures of Hengist and Horsa as Euhemerised deities from Anglo-Saxon paganism, who ultimately stem from the religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
Old English. The invaders' Germanic language displaced the indigenous Brythonic languages and Latin in most of the areas of Great Britain that were later to become England. The original Celtic languages remained in parts of Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (where Cornish was spoken into the 19th century). Latin also remained in these areas as the language of the Celtic Church and of higher education for the nobility. Latin was later to be reintroduced to England by missionaries from both the Celtic and Roman churches, and it would, in time, exert an enormous influence over English. What is now called Old English emerged over time out of the many dialects and languages of the colonizing tribes. [66] Even then, it continued to exhibit local language variation, the remnants of which continue to be found in dialects of Modern English.[49] The most famous surviving work from the Old English period is the epic poem Beowulf composed by an unknown poet.
Old English did not sound or look like the Standard English of today. Any native English speaker of today would find Old English unintelligible without studying it as a separate language. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English; and many non-standard dialects such as Scots and Northumbrian English have retained many features of Old English in vocabulary and pronunciation. [76] Old English was spoken until sometime in the 12th or 13th century.
Later, English was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Old Norse, spoken by the Norsemen who invaded and settled mainly in the North East of England (see Jórvík and Danelaw). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distinct.
The Germanic language of these Old English-speaking inhabitants was influenced by contact with Norse invaders, which might have been responsible for some of the morphological simplification of Old English, including the loss of grammatical gender and explicitly marked case (with the notable exception of the pronouns). English words of Old Norse origin include anger, bag, both, hit, law, leg, same, skill, sky, take, and many others, possibly even including the pronoun they.
The introduction of Christianity added another wave of Latin and some Greek words. The Old English period formally ended some time after the Norman conquest (starting in 1066 AD), when the language was influenced to an even greater extent by the Normans, who spoke a French dialect called Old Norman. The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development.
Middle English. For about 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and their high nobility spoke only one of the French langues d'oïl, that we call Anglo-Norman, which was a variety of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period and originating from a northern dialect of Old French, whilst English continued to be the language of the common people. Middle English was influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French (see characteristics of the Anglo-Norman language).
Even after the decline of Norman-French, standard French retained the status of a formal or prestige language—as with most of Europe during the period—and had a significant influence on the language, which is visible in Modern English today (see English language word origins and List of English words of French origin). A tendency for French-derived words to have more formal connotations has continued to the present day; most modern English speakers would consider a "cordial reception" (from French) to be more formal than a "hearty welcome" (Germanic). Another example is the very unusual construction of the words for animals being separate from the words for their meat, e.g., beef and pork (from the French bœuf and porc) being the products of "cows" and "pigs"—animals with Germanic names.
English was also influenced by the Celtic languages it was displacing, especially the Brittonic substrate, most notably with the introduction of the continuous aspect—a feature found in many modern languages but developed earlier and more thoroughly in English.
While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old Norman or Latin. A large number of Norman words were taken into Old English, with many doubling for Old English words. The Norman influence is the hallmark of the linguistic shifts in English over the period of time following the invasion, producing what is now referred to as Middle English.
The most famous writer from the Middle English period was Geoffrey Chaucer, and The Canterbury Tales is his best-known work. English literature started to reappear around 1200, when a changing political climate and the decline in Anglo-Norman made it more respectable. The Provisions of Oxford, released in 1258, was the first English government document to be published in the English language since the Conquest. In 1362, Edward III became the first king to address Parliament in English. By the end of that century, even the royal court had switched to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.
English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the Old English letters þ (thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman. These letters remain in the modern Icelandic alphabet, which is descended from the alphabet of Old Norse.
Early Modern English. Modern English is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift, which took place mainly during the 15th century. English was further transformed by the spread of a standardized London-based dialect in government and administration and by the standardising effect of printing. By the time of William Shakespeare (mid 16th - early 17th century),[8] the language had become clearly recognizable as Modern English. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published, the Table Alphabetical. English has continuously adopted foreign words, especially from Latin and Greek, since the Renaissance. (In the 17th century, Latin words were often used with the original inflections, but these eventually disappeared). As there are many words from different languages and English spelling is variable, the risk of mispronunciation is high, but remnants of the older forms remain in a few regional dialects, most notably in the West Country.
Modern English. In 1755, Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary, his Dictionary of the English Language. The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.
1.2 Differences in British dialects
English language in England refers to the English language as spoken in England, part of the United Kingdom. There are many different accents and dialects throughout England and people are often very proud of their local accent or dialect, however there are many associated prejudices - illustrated by George Bernard Shaw's comment:
"It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him" [86]
Other terms used to refer to the English language as spoken in England include: English English, Anglo-English, English in England. The related term British English has "all the ambiguities and tensions in the word "British" and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity"[6] but is usually reserved to describe the features common to English English, Welsh English, Scottish English, and Hiberno-English.
1.2.1 Regional differences
The British Isles are one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the English-speaking world. Significant changes in dialect (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary) may occur within one region. The four major divisions are normally classified as Southern English dialects, Midlands English dialects, Northern English dialects, and Scottish English—and the closely-related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster). There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish. An important feature of English regional accents is the bundle of isoglosses, which separate different pronunciations and grammar in different areas. The most prominent one is the north-south split in the pronunciation of words such as cut, strut, etc., which runs geographically running roughly from mid-Shropshire to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash — separating Northern and Southern accents. However, there are several other isoglosses in England, and it is rare for them to coincide with each other. Accents throughout Britain are influenced by the phoneme inventory of regional dialects, and native English speakers can often tell quite precisely where a person comes from, frequently down to a few miles. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas. There are, furthermore, several cases where a large city has a very different accent from a surrounding rural area (e.g. Bristol and Avon, Hull and the East Riding). However, modern communications and mass media have reduced all these differences significantly. In addition, speakers may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary towards Standard English, especially in public circumstances. In consequence, the accent best known to many people outside the United Kingdom as English English, is that of Received Pronunciation (RP). Until recently, RP English was widely believed to be more educated than other accents and was referred to as the Queen's (or King's) English, or even "BBC English" (due to the fact that in the early years of broadcasting it was very rare to hear any other dialects on the BBC). However, for several decades, regional accents have been more widely accepted and are frequently heard. Thus the relatively recent spread of Estuary English is influencing accents throughout the south east. RP is also sometimes called "Oxford English", and the Oxford Dictionary gives RP pronunciations for each word. The form of English most commonly associated with the upper class in the southern counties of England is called Received Pronunciation (RP). [11] It derives from a mixture of the Midland and Southern dialects which were spoken in London in the early modern period[11] and is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners.[11] Although speakers from elsewhere in England may not speak with an RP accent it is now a class-dialect more than a local dialect. It may also be referred to as "the Queen's (or King's) English", "Public School English", or "BBC English" as this was originally the form of English used on radio and television, although a wider variety of accents can be heard these days. About two percent of Britons speak RP, [12] and it has evolved quite markedly over the last 40 years.
In the South East there are significantly different accents; the London Cockney accent is strikingly different from RP and its rhyming slang can be difficult for outsiders to understand. In the South Eastern county of Surrey, where RP is prevalent, closer to London it approaches Cockney, further south it becomes more rural, and this continues through Sussex and Hampshire where the accents and language are even more rustic. In fact the accents and dialect of the south coast can range from the classic South Eastern RP through rustic and gradually to a West Country accent as one passes through Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and finally into Cornwall, where the Celtic language of Cornish is also spoken by some people. The Cornish language had a considerable influence on the traditional Cornish accent and dialect, which is still evident today among older Cornish people, for example saying "I do go" for "I go".
Estuary English has been gaining prominence in recent decades: it has some features of RP and some of Cockney. In London itself, the broad local accent is still changing, partly influenced by Caribbean speech. Communities migrating to the UK in recent decades have brought many more languages to the country. Surveys started in 1979 by the Inner London Education Authority discovered over 100 languages being spoken domestically by the families of the inner city's school children. As a result, Londoners speak with a mixture of accents, depending on ethnicity, neighbourhood, class, age, upbringing, and sundry other factors. Since the mass immigration to Northamptonshire in the 1940s and its close accent borders, it has become a source of various accent developments. There, nowadays, one finds an accent known locally as the Kettering accent, which is a mixture of many different local accents, including East Midlands, East Anglian, Scottish, and Cockney. In addition, in the town of Corby, five miles (8 km) north, one can find Corbyite, which unlike the Kettering accent, is largely based on Scottish. This is due to the influx of Scottish steelworkers.
Outside the South East there are, in England alone, other families of accents easily distinguished by natives, including:
West Country (South West England)
East Anglian
West Midlands (Black Country, Birmingham)
East Midlands
Liverpool and Wirral (Scouse)
Manchester (Mancunian) and other east Lancashire accents
Yorkshire (Varies significantly in each region.)
Newcastle (Geordie) and other northeast England accents
Major differences in Scottish accents include:
Glasgow and Strathclyde (Glaswegian/West Scotland Accent or "Weegie")
Edinburgh and Lothian (East Scotland Accent)
Aberdeen and Grampian (Aberdonian/North East Accent)
Dundee and Fife
Inverness and Highlands
Although some of the stronger regional accents may sometimes be difficult for some anglophones from outside Britain to understand, almost all "British English" accents are mutually intelligible amongst the British themselves, with only occasional difficulty between very diverse accents. However, modern communications and mass media[citation needed] have reduced these differences significantly. A small number of British films have been dubbed when released in America as Americans struggle to understand certain dialects (e.g. Kes in the Yorkshire dialect, Trainspotting in the Edinburgh dialect). In addition, most British people can to some degree temporarily 'swing' their accent towards a more neutral form of English at will, to reduce difficulty where very different accents are involved, or when speaking to foreigners. This phenomenon is known in linguistics as code shifting.
1.2.2 Standardization
As with English around the world, the English language as used in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland is governed by convention rather than formal code: there is no equivalent body to the Académie française or the Real Academia Española, and the authoritative dictionaries (for example, Oxford English Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Chambers Dictionary, Collins Dictionary) record usage rather than prescribe it. In addition, vocabulary and usage change with time; words are freely borrowed from other languages and other strains of English, and neologisms are frequent. For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the 9th century, the form of language spoken in London and the East Midlands became standard English within the Court, and ultimately became the basis for generally accepted use in the law, government, literature and education within Britain. Largely, modern British spelling was standardised in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), although previous writers had also played a significant role in this and much has changed since 1755. Scotland, which underwent parliamentary union with England only in 1707 (and devolved in 1998), still has a few independent aspects of standardization, especially within its autonomous legal system.
Since the early 20th century, numerous books by British authors intended as guides to English grammar and usage have been published, a few of which have achieved sufficient acclaim to have remained in print for long periods and to have been reissued in new editions after some decades. These include, most notably of all, Fowler's Modern English Usage and The Complete Plain Words by Sir Ernest Gowers. Detailed guidance on many aspects of writing British English for publication is included in style guides issued by various publishers including The Times newspaper, the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, and others. The Oxford University Press guidelines were originally drafted as a single broadsheet page by Horace Henry Hart and were, at the time (1893) the first guide of their type in English; they were gradually expanded and eventually published, first as Hart's Rules and, most recently (in 2002), as part of The Oxford Manual of Style. Comparable in authority and stature to The Chicago Manual of Style for published American English, the Oxford Manual is a fairly exhaustive standard for published British English, to which writers can turn in the absence of any specific document issued by the publishing house that will publish their work.
1.3 Accents in England
Received Pronunciation (RP)
Received Pronunciation (RP), also called the Queen's (or King's) English,[1] Oxford English, [2] or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England,[4] with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms.[5] Although there is nothing intrinsic about RP that marks it as superior to any other variety, sociolinguistic factors give Received Pronunciation particular prestige in England and Wales.[6] However, since World War II, a greater permissiveness towards allowing regional English varieties has taken hold in education[7] and in the media in England. Researchers generally distinguish between three different forms of RP: Conservative, General, and Advanced. Conservative RP refers to a traditional accent associated with older speakers with certain social backgrounds; General RP is often considered neutral regarding age, occupation, or lifestyle of the speaker; and Advanced RP refers to speech of a younger generation of speakers. [18] The modern style of RP is an accent often taught to non-native speakers learning British English [19]. Non-RP Britons abroad may modify their pronunciation to something closer to Received Pronunciation in order to be understood better by people unfamiliar with British regional accents. They may also modify their vocabulary and grammar to be closer to Standard English, for the same reason. RP is often used as the standard for English in most books on general phonology and phonetics and is represented in the pronunciation schemes of most dictionaries published in the United Kingdom Traditionally, Received Pronunciation was the "everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk [had] been educated at the great public boarding-schools"[20] and which conveyed no information about that speaker's region of origin prior to attending the school. It is the business of educated people to speak so that no-one may be able to tell in what county their childhood was passed. In the 19th century, there were still British prime ministers who spoke with some regional features, such as William Edward Gladstone. [21]
From the 1970s onwards, attitudes towards Received Pronunciation have been changing slowly. The BBC's use of announcers with strong regional accents during and after World War II (in order to distinguish BBC broadcasts from German propaganda) is an earlier example of the use of non-RP accents.
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect(s) of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England". [1] The name comes from the area around the Thames Estuary, particularly London, Kent and south Essex. The variety first came to public prominence in an article by David Rosewarne in the Times Educational Supplement in October 1984. [2] Rosewarne argued that it may eventually replace RP (Received Pronunciation) in the south-east. Studies have indicated that Estuary English is not a single coherent form of English; rather, the reality behind the construct consists of some (but not all) phonetic features of working-class London speech spreading at various rates socially into middle-class speech and geographically into other accents of south-eastern England Estuary English is widely encountered throughout the south and south-east of England, particularly among the young. Many consider it to be a working-class accent, though it is by no means limited to the working class. In the debate that surrounded a 1993 article about Estuary English, a London businessman claimed that Received Pronunciation was perceived as unfriendly, so Estuary English was now preferred for commercial purposes. [13] Some people adopt the accent as a means of "blending in", appearing to be more working class, or in an attempt to appear to be "a common man" – sometimes this affectation of the accent is derisively referred to as "Mockney". A move away from traditional RP is almost universal among upper and upper middle class young people. The term "Estuary English" is sometimes used with pejorative connotations: Sally Gunnell, a former Olympic athlete who became a television presenter for Channel 4 and the BBC, quit the BBC, announcing she felt "very undermined" by the network's lack of support after she was widely criticized for her "uninspiring interview style" and "awful estuary English
The term "Estuary English" is a euphemism for a milder variety of the "London Accent". The spread of the London Accent extends many hundreds of miles outside London and all of the neighbouring home countries around London have residents who moved from London and took their London Accent with them. The London Accent or its Londonised variant, called “Estuary English”, can be heard in all of the New Towns and coastal resorts and in the larger regional cities in the southern half of England
"Queen’s" English
The notion of the "Queen’s" English or "King’s" English, depending on who is the ruler of the time, can be traced back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where the idea that the monarch’s usage of the language should be a model in speech and writing (Wales, 1994). During these times there was a development of a prestigious speech associated with the court and aristocracy. Wales, (1994) also points out that the phrase "The King’s English" was first used during the reign of James I.
The British Royal Family would generally be considered to be speakers of the standard English, RP, discussed in the Received Pronunciation section. However, Wales, (1994) differentiates between the way the older "royals" speak and the changes that can be seen in the younger members of the royal family The accents of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret (the Queen’s sister) reflect the conservative RP as epitomized by the old British films and Pathe newsreels of the first part of the century. The younger members of the royal family such as Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and the in-laws of the family, the Duchess of York (Fergie) as well as the late Princess of Wales (Diana), all speak an RP closer to "advanced" RP than to the conservative, more traditional accent. The distance between the Royal Family and the "subjects" of the country was seen to be enhanced by the traditional speech of the royals. As the younger members of the Royal Family attempt to close the gap between the two, their speech reflects the changes. Wales, (1994) also cites examples of linguistic features traditionally associated with Cockney being found in the speech of this younger generation. Word-final glottal stops (there’s a lo’ of I’ about’) have been heard in the speech of Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Edward, the queen’s youngest son.
Features of "Queen’s" English:
General pronunciation
The Queen and Older Royals might pronounce the following words as noted.
Examples:
house = hice
off = orf
tower = tar
refined = refained [80]
Younger royals might exhibit the following types of pronunciations:
really = rairly
milk = miuk
yes = yah
St. Paul’s = St. Pauw’s [80]
The "Royal ONE"
Wales, (1994) discusses the pronominal usage of "one" that is not only stereotypically associated with the upper classes, and especially the Royal Family, but that is also used frequently in their real life. There are a number of ways that the word "one" used in place of "I" and it has also been seen to be commonly used in those people connected with the Royal Family. Friends of the family as well as household help like the Queen’s dresser or an ex-cook have been heard to use the phrase "one" in place of "I."
Examples:
"One says to oneself: "Oh God, there’s one’s daughter." [80]
(Father of the Duchess of York – quoted from The Star, July 1986)
Cockney English
Due to the fact that London is both the political capital and the largest city within England, Wells, (1982b) doesn’t find it surprising that it’s also the country’s "linguistic center of gravity." Cockney represents the basilectal end of the London accent and can be considered the broadest form of London local accent.(Wells 1982b) It traditionally refers only to specific regions and speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak what is referred to as "popular London" (Wells 1982b) they do not necessarily speak Cockney. The popular Londoner accent can be distinguished from Cockney in a number of ways, and can also be found outside of the capital, unlike the true Cockney accent.
The term Cockney refers to both the accent as well as to those people who speak it? The etymology of Cockney has long been discussed and disputed. One explanation is that "Cockney" literally means cock's egg, a misshapen egg such as sometimes laid by young hens. It was originally used when referring to a weak townsman, opposed to the tougher countryman and by the 17th century the term, through banter, came to mean a Londoner (Liberman, 1996). Today's natives of London, especially in its East End use the term with respect and pride - `Cockney Pride'.) Cockney is characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage, and traditionally by its own development of "rhyming slang." Rhyming slang, is still part of the true Cockney culture even if it is sometimes used for effect. More information on the way it works can be found under the Cockney English features section London, the capital of England, is situated on the River Thames, approximately 50 miles north of the English Channel, in the south east section of the country. It is generally agreed, that to be a true Cockney, a person has to be born within hearing distance of the bells of St. Mary le Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London. This traditional working-class accent of the region is also associated with other suburbs in the eastern section of the city such as the East End, Stepney, Hackney, Shoreditch Poplar and Bow The Cockney accent is generally considered one of the broadest of the British accents and is heavily stimatized. It is considered to epitomize the working class accents of Londoners and in its more diluted form, of other areas. The area and its colorful characters and accents have often become the foundation for British "soap operas" and other television specials. Currently, the BBC is showing one of the most popular soaps set in this region, "East Enders" and the characters’ accents and lives within this television program provide wonderful opportunities for observers of language and culture.
Conclusion to Chapter I
Concerns to West-German group Indo-European of languages. In English speak and use in state office-work, literature and science, about 200 millions the person - in Great Britain and Ireland, in USA, Canada, Australia New of Zealand, partially in Southern Africa and India. One of five official and working languages accepted UN. The English language conducts the beginning from language Old German племен, moved in V-VI centuries from continent in Britain. The complex interaction Old German tribe`s of adverbs brought in Britain, occupied celtes tribes, and formation, developing in conditions, English nationality, has resulted in formation territorial dialects on old tribe`s to a basis. Due to economic and political influence Wessecs kingdom in IX-X centuries in cultural life of England the greatest meaning has got wessecs a dialect. The ambassador penetration into England in VI century of a christianity the latin alphabet has replaced Old German runes, and the influence of latin language was reflected in English lexicon. From subdual Anglosaxons celts of the population of Britain, thus, geographical names were kept. Forays Scandinavians, finished by submission of England in 1016 to the Danish king, have caused creation of Scandinavian settlements in the country. The interaction kindred of languages - English and Scandinavian - had an effect available in modern English language, significant quantity of words of a Scandinavian origin, and also some fanatical features describing dialects of northern England. During formation a nation there was a formation of national English language developing on the basis of a London dialect, which combined in itself southern and western-central dialect features. The introduction in England book-printing (1476) promoted fastening to distribution of the London forms, to that popularity of product of a large writer D. Choler (1340-1400) writing on a London dialect has helped much.
In second half XVII century and especially in XVIII century is issued sets of managements on and normative grammar, which authors aspire to order grammatic norms of language: one - on the basis of rational grammar, others - proceeding from the alive use of the forms of language. Colonians the expansion of England in XVII-XVIII centuries has caused distribution of English language outside Great Britain and has resulted in occurrence of some regional differences. It is possible to explain differences of American variant of English language from British to that first settler in northern America of the profit from London and his vicinities, and laster were birthes from northern Great Britain and Ireland. The distinction between American and British variants of English language most of all has an effect in lexicon and somewhat in phonetics; difference in grammar insignificant.
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